Israel was ranked #1 in the Middle East on Yale and Columbia’s 2008 Environmental Performance Index, a system which consists of variables that relate to environmental health and ecosystem vitality.
But in comparison to the rest of the world, we’re #49.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmOW0z__AMI&rel=1[/youtube]We’ve been a little skeptical about the electric car project proposed by Shai Agassi. Israel relies still on heavily-polluting coal power plants; and a great deal of infrastructure will need to be put in place for this scheme to work.
Not to mention the fact that Israelis barely recycle.
That’s quite a jump from throwing trash out of one’s car to zipping along the highway in an electric one. Non?
The Kishon River was once a notorious dumping ground for seven chemical plants, with the result that the entire ecosystem died and the river was even blamed for causing cancer in soldiers (though that has never been proven conclusively).
In recent years, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has initiated what they refer to as a “master plan” to clean up the Kishon River, starting with putting a firm grip on chemical plants that were dumping sewage into the river.
“Gie me a spark o’ natures fire, thats a’ the learning I desire:
Then, tho’ I drudge thro’ dub an’ mire at pleugh or cart,
my muse, tho’ hamely in attire, may touch my heart.”
Israel’s small but distinguished Scottish community may well be nursing hangovers and sore throats this week, after celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, which happily coincided with Shabbat, this past Friday, January 25th.
Burns, who was born in 1759 and died in 1796 (a mere 37 years later), has earned his mantle due to a wealth of poetry that encompasses romance, power and nascent nationalist politics, social justice, and a deep feeling for the natural world. He was born in the midst of a snowdrift in a tiny cottage in Ayrshire, South West Scotland, and although he achieved fame and some wealth for his writings in his lifetime (and a certain notoriety for his drinking and womanising), he never lost touch with his humble origins and the common touch.
Green Prophet took you on a whirlwind tour of a green kitchen party. Now we head to the bathroom. Some first steps in making the bathroom green and sustainably shiny, could start with natural cleaners on your tub, toilet and sink. You can buy them or make your own. We’ll talk in more detail about that later.
Give your drain a rinse once a month with baking soda and vinegar to keep your pipes unclogged; one of our readers recommends lemon juice on the faucets to pull away the stone.
The bathroom is where we see, smell and feel life. It is also one of the places where when we are scrubbing our bods, we consume an alarming amount of the world’s most precious resource, water.
An average shower uses about 30 gallons of water. That’s a lot of water going down the drain.
Delivering water to your home is an energy-depleting process. In some regions, half of all the electricity used by the city is spent pumping water to faucets. So not only are we wasting water when we are standing in the shower, we are also contributing to the burning of fossil fuels and global warming.
Reducing water use is the most important thing you can do to make your bathroom environmentally sound. Low-flush toilet tanks and water-saving showerheads are just some of the ways you can save water.
Over in the Middle East, Israeli facilities are equipped with the dual-flush toilets. The small button gets pressed for #1; the bigger one for #2. We hope you knew that already. More toilets like these are finding their ways into bathrooms in the United States in Canada along with the auto-flushing toilets which we hope you won’t choose.
Other simple actions can be taken to reduce your use of water. Simply turn the tap off when brushing the old teeth and when you are lathering in the shower.
The shorter the shower the better obviously, but thinking in the green direction doesn’t mean you need to forego taking that relaxing bath. Splishing and splashing with someone in the tub is not only a good way to share water, it is also a good way to get a back scrub!
Put a plug in the drain while you are taking that shower and throw in some delicates and underwear that you don’t want to machine wash. Stomping around on your clothes in the tub is a good and efficient way to get them clean.
We’ve relied on this washing method while traveling, and during our first year in Israel without a washing machine; it works well and also gives you a little bit of exercise.
Those on a path to becoming seriously green in the bathroom can adopt a grey water system which prevents used water (except from the toilet) from going down the drain.
It can be a complicated thing to do; and even more complicated if you live in a rental unit. At our home, we’ve diverted the pipe from the washing machine to go straight into the garden. We use a plant-based bio-degradable clothes detergent (Ecover). So far the grape vine seems happy.
If you have any green bathroom tips, please send them our way.
Natalie Portman has taken up design… big deal! Another hot actress designing clothes… This actually is a big deal. Sizzling its way through all the hottest fashion blogs is the actress’s Vegan footwear!
In previous posts we talked about a skirt that can save your life (Yael Mer’s evacuation skirt), a patch that can save your clothes. Here’s another Israeli going green…
Along with Te Casan, Natalie has created a line of shoes, which is now selling at Te Casan’s store on West Broadway. Te Casan, “’A Woman’s Path’,” the site explains, “is Gaelic and originates from the inspiration of a global name that represents no specific nation or language and refers to all women.”
Central Tel Aviv’s beach and tayelet.
Democracy is a messy system. Churchill was probably right when he said that democracy was the worst system of government, except for all of those other systems that have been tried from time to time. However, democratic decision-making is an art, and in most cases its practitioners are not very skilled artists. And Churchill never attended a meeting of the Tel Aviv Local Planning and Construction Committee, which met last week to discuss several building plans, among them a plan to expand Tel Aviv’s tayelet (boardwalk).
The discussion opened with Tel Aviv’s city planners presenting the plan they had developed for the central section of the city’s beach, between Gordon beach and the Dolfinarium. The plan calls for a number of planning changes along three kilometers of central Tel Aviv’s beachfront area, including building additional “services” for visitors and redesigning the tayelet in the area. Although the planning documents were vague with regard to the actual changes to be made to the tayelet, artists’ renderings of the new tayelet raised the blood pressure of many in the room.
Israel has a number of Eco-Tourism options. But we suppose, at the end of the day, it all depends on semantics, marketing and what one classifies as “ecological.” We are of the notion that an eco-trip could be as simple as a walk in the forest, basking in the sunshine at your local cafe, or a trip to the sea on your bike. Keepin’ it simple, and not traveling far, is very environmentally-friendly.
But if you must have that “Eco” seal of approval stamped on your next outing (and hey it makes good dinner conversation), try the website Ecotourism Israel.
We’ve covered a range of organic farm produce options here on Green Prophet (eating organic for cheap); and today we go one step further, by featuring four organic farms which offer guesthouse and overnight stay options, to boot.
The first is Bein Haruv Lezait Organic Farm and Guesthouse, located in the western Galilee, and tended by the hippie shakers at Moshav Clil. “Upon the hills, with a sea view, you will find a different place that believes in a peaceful and quiet atmosphere where you can sit back, enjoy the view and experience the “old farming way,” with our magnificent organic village,” they write.
Last we heard, there were no actual signs pointing to Clil, so best visit with an experienced traveler or a local.
::Bein Haruv Lezait (in Hebrew)
Bustan Peqiin Organic Farm and Guest House in the western Galilee area, offer their ecological and tourist farm holiday.
“After a short visit to Bustan Peqiin,” they write, ” after experiencing the silence, the isolation, the nature and simplicity, the things that we have forgotten about, the spirit of the Galil region and the holiness of Peqiin, each one of us finds their own meaning.”
Lotan Center for Creative Ecology- Farming Experience is a great place to stop if you are headed down to the Eilat region. Based in Kibbutz Lotan, their guesthouse is part of one of the more hard-core environment groups in Israel.
Theirs, they write, “is a multi ecological programs experience center, which provide for you the ability to enroll in various ecological aspects, from organic farming and nature reserves, to true recycled art programs and green building.”
If Lotan’s booked, and you are still lost in the Arava, try the Desert Days- Ecological House & Art Workshops. They write, “Weekends at Desert Days includes living in an earth hut, eating by the fire, walking in the desert (next to your house), building and creating with earth.
“We invite our gusts to come Thursday afternoon until Saturday afternoon, to a double hut which fits 2 families who want to be together.”
Sounds cozy.
If you’ve had an experience at an “ecological” farm in Israel, or anywhere, please share.
With the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shvat just a couple of days ago the festivities are set to continue into the weekend with food-related events on kibbutzim and elsewhere around Israel.
So while our thoughts remain on what we eat and where our food comes from, Green Prophet would like to recommend some seasonal reading material in the shape of Michael Pollan’s In Defence of Food which critiques Western diets and the modern obsession with nutrition:
“All of our uncertainties about nutrition e.g. what’s worse: fat or carbohydrates? should not obscure the plain fact that the chronic diseases that now kill most of us can be traced directly to the refined grains; the use of chemicals to raise plants and animals in huge monocultures; the superabundance of cheap calories of sugar and fat produced by modern agriculture; and the narrowing of biological diversity of the human diet to a tiny handful of staple crops.”
Pollan and his previous book, The Omnivore’s Dilemna, have been hugely influential in the emerging new Jewish food movement, at which organisations like our friends at Hazon are at the forefront.”
What struck me as I read this last section, is that Pollan’s approach feels remarkably Talmudic,” says Hazon’s Leah Koenig. “What else did the Rabbis do but seek to uncover existing universal truths and use them to shape a code of ethics and commandments for Jewish people to follow?
“We can only hope that Pollan will end up as Hillel, and Nutritionism as Shammai.
“After The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan became a rebbe for many foodie Jews (myself included). We now look to him as our source of reason as we attempt to nourish our bodies and, hopefully, our spirits.
This status is only heightened by In Defense of Food – and it feels like Pollan is more willing than he once was to accept this role.”Hazon.
Buy the book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=544518686784404916&hl=en[/googlevideo]A short public service announcement from our friends over at Zalul.Last year we wrote a story on Israel’s sewage problem “The Sludge Report” and the fact that it regularly flows into the sea. You’d have thunk by now, that a country as advanced as Israel (talking ’bout electric cars and mighty microbes) that we’d find a way so our doo-doo and pee-pee doesn’t flow straight into the sea.But you know, winter comes, as does the rain, no one believes it, storm sewers overflow, pipes burst and…
Last week, we set off in search of time out from hectic, sometime frazzled lives in the Holy City, Jerusalem. Some two hours later, we arrived at the gate of The Castle in Kerem Maharal, an 11th Century Crusader castle, nestling within a moshav of the same name, deep within the The Carmel Forest, between Haifa and Zichron Yaakov.
This spectacular squat and imposing pile is lovingly tended by artist Udi Stoler and his craftswoman partner Tsilla Martin, who have resurrected the castle from near rubble over 27 years of painstaking, and probably back-breaking, labour.
Ensconced in one of the 2 guest suites, with a fire alight in the pot-belly stove, cares dissolved. It could have been the complimentary local wine from the Amphorae Winery, or the clear air from being so high and having such far-reaching views across the forest. We slept deeply, secure against any type of invader within the foot-thick walls.
Udi displays his paintings liberally throughout the castle, and has also made most of the furniture, from local stone and wood, and made in the couple’s local factory. He has a great eye for detail; the use of earthy colours within mix with the greens, browns and blues without.
A wonderful optional breakfast of local specialities of fish and cheese complimented our stay, and set us up to discover the local beach. The Castle’s cat and dog are great assets to the environment too! The whole Castle is also available for rent, and could sleep many if willing to bed down on floors, or outside in the grounds.
This would be a wonderful venue for a group retreat, for meditation, discussion, hiking, or a large family event – maybe even a Green Prophet gathering ?
I recommend a stay at The Castle at Kerem Maharal to wholly recharge and reinvigorate.
We bumped into Neta’s blog “bobilina” by accident and have been so charmed by her unique hand-made creations, often done with the help of recycled materials and socks (like the creature pictured above).
When we lived in Tel Aviv there was always such a bounty of neat fabrics – both at the pedestrian mall on Nachalat Binyamin where they sell end of the line high-quality fabrics for cheap, but there was also a lot of great material to be found on the streets, especially in the textile district in Florentine.
Not only does Neta make cuddly and charismatic sock puppets, she also makes slippers and dolls from recycled fabric, as well as purses from elegant vintage velvet that she’s found at Shuk ha Peeshpasheem in Jaffa.
We’ll be featuring more of Neta’s creations over here in the near future. In the meantime, a little more about Neta: “I create different kinds of dolls. My background is in fashion design, and my knowledge of sewing and pattern making led me to concentrate mostly on loth dolls. I have patterns that I use as basics for creating new dolls,” she says.
“I developed those patterns from the making of crochet dolls, and foam models. My crochet dolls don’t have any pattern I design them while I am crocheting. Every doll get its own personality by unique details, like embroidery, textile design, fashion accessory etc.
At the moment I sell my dolls through stores in Tel Aviv, New Mexico and at the Internet site.
You can buy her stuff through Etsy, or go straight to her blog.
Although Israel has grown into a modern post-industrial economy, the country still has strong agrarian roots, most famously, the agricultural socialist community of the kibbutz. But earlier than that, the Bible proscribes things to do to mark the passing seasons. There are rights and rituals for nature in Judaism and it all started thousands of years ago.
So it’s no surprise that the relatively minor Jewish festival of Tu B’shvat, which starts tonight, has been growing in importance. In recent years Tu B’shvat, the New Year of the Trees, has taken on a more ecological significance and represents an opportunity to reflect on one of today’s key environmental questions – the impact of what we eat on our environment. (Read 5 reasons to be grateful for the trees).
Israeli arbor day
For religious Jews the New Year of the Trees is the time when you start counting the age of a tree. All trees share the same birthday. This is important to know when it is acceptable to eat the fruit of a fruit tree, as a Biblical command does not let you eat fruit from a tree grown in the land of Israel that is less than 3 years old. At the age of four year, fruit from four year fruit trees were tithed at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Some it went to poor people who didn’t have food.
In the 16th century, the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed and his disciples instituted a Tu BiShvat seder in which the fruits and trees of the Land of Israel were given symbolic meaning. The main idea was that eating ten specific fruits and drinking four cups of wine in a specific order while reciting the appropriate blessings would bring human beings, and the world, closer to spiritual perfection.
In a special essay, Professor Richard Schwartz, author of Judaism and Vegetarianism, reflects on how this festival encourages a more sustainable outlook to our food:
“While other Jewish holidays honor or commemorate events and people, Tu B’Shvat honors trees, fruits, and other aspects of nature,” he explains. “While people generally take the environment for granted, on Tu B’Shvat there is an emphasis on the proper stewardship of the environment.”
One of the special things about the fruit and vegetables in Israel is that they are almost entirely locally-grown. In such a tiny country, it’s rare for anything to travel more than 100 miles from farm to fork (apart from a few foreign commodities like coffee). That’s fantastic compared to my native UK where most food is imported and the proportion of home-grown food is falling each year.
While Israel’s self-sufficiency is an example to other countries – slashing pollution from transport and food storage – ‘food miles’ are not the end of the story. What about how the food is grown and the effects of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, or the health and welfare of farm animals and workers?
“While there has been increasing interest in Tu B’Shvat recently, this holiday that is so rich in symbolism and important messages for today is still not considered to any great extent by most Jews,” says Schwartz.
“Let us hope that this will soon change and that an increased emphasis on Tu B’Shvat and its important lessons will help revitalize Judaism and help shift our precious, but imperilled, planet to a sustainable path.”
Some activities around this time can be planting trees, fruit trees especially.
Throughout history when a great event happened people would reset their calendar. When a new king became ruler the year would start again with one. Similarly, that is why we are in the year 2008 Anno Domini, Latin for: in the year of our Lord, referring to the birth of Jesus. In the Jewish calendar, I mentioned in my previous post that there are four heads of the year. One of them is: “for the kings.”
What this means is that when a king came into power when they reached this head of the year, the first of the month of Nissan, it was considered that he had reigned for a year. When the next Nissan came around, his second year and so on.
It could only happen in 2008. During the year of Shmitta, which is every seven years, Jewish law dictates that we not work the land of Israel in any way.
The Jewish National Fund customarily organizes tree-planting activities that attract thousands of people in honor of Tu B’Shvat…but not during Shmitta.
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