Here is a video recap of Israel’s recent WATEC (water technologies), conference. We were there this past November, and collected tons of notes and brochures on clean technology and innovation you’ll be hearing about in the near future.See also the story on Israel21c.::WATEC
Eco Rabbi: Man, the Tree of the Field
“There are four heads of the year… on the fifteenth of Shvat for the trees…” Mishna, Tractate Rosh Hashana, 1:1
As our home revolves around the Sun, the Jewish calendar is circular as well. How does one year have four beginnings? A circle does not have any beginning, nor does it have an end. Wherever you decide to begin counting cycles of a revolving wheel, that is the point you look for when looking to count the next cycle.
Trees are reborn at this time of year.
Checklight: Mighty Microbes Glow to Keep Water Safe
It reminds us a bit of the canary in a coal mine story – throw a living creature into a dangerous situation, and if it lives, forge ahead.If it dies, oh well. Rethink strategy.An Israeli company Checklight has put this concept into practice, using the luminscent bacteria found in the sea, like on the beaches of Costa Rica, to ensure that drinking water stays safe.We’ve yet to hear about animal rights activists lobbying over the rights of bacteria, so it’s probably pretty safe to say, that Checklight’s technology is a novel solution (although it’s being done already in the sewage treatment business, they say.)What they’ve done is culled a variety of “glowing” bacteria from the sea, and when placed in a special substrate with a sample of drinking water, they glow strongly if the water is polluted.
How to build an Earthship
Micheal Reynolds is a true visionary of a sustainable way forward for humanity, housed in buildings that use throwaway materials and don’t need external power or sewage systems. ‘Food, Energy, and Sewage’ is his mantra, and getting them or getting rid of them without reliance on the National Grid system is his pre-occupation.
Thankfully, Reynolds, the ‘Garbage Warrior’ has been brought to the screen in an illuminating film of this title by Oliver Hodge. I’m just back from it, and fired up. I urge everyone to see this film, whether you are motivated to build a home in Israel’s Negev Desert out of plastic bottles and/or old tires (a classic Earthship), or just want to see someone act on their gut feeling and fly out to the Andaman Islands in the wake of the Tsunami, with his crew of 7 equally passionate builders, and built houses for the devastated Islanders.
In response to Hurricane Katrina, which flattened New Orleans and much of the land around it, Reynolds and crew leapt into action and built houses out of raw materials for victims there too. Reynolds is a true hero who talks the talk and delivers the goods.
The film has lots of humour: Reynolds is a self-confessed hippy, who, according to his wife, attracts “crackpots” (who seem to be a fiercely loyal and talented bunch). His long gray hair and lolloping gait, warm and open face and ‘Easy Rider’ attitude, endear him to the viewer quickly, and his passion for the earth and humanity shine through from the opening credits.
Watch the Garbage Warrior Trailer here:
His own reference to Noah, shunned for building a boat in a dry desert, seem to have many resonances to his own life – experimenting with solar gain and thermal mass in many hit or miss houses and communities scattered through thousands of acres of land deep in the New Mexico desert.
There is a low trough in the film, which Reynolds plunges right into, in his attempt to get a law passed in the New Mexico/Taos State legislature, allowing such experimental and sustainable buildings to be made. Endless shots of him roaming through the State Council Building looking for support from the Council members (many of whom are shown to be either filibusters or just plain sleeping on the job), just is a waste of this hero’s time, and shows the sad, slow passage of the body politic.
Director Hodge cleverly navigates through this, his camera glued to Reynolds, yet discreetly supporting him all the way.
Let’s use the vision and raw talent of this man to be inspired and carve out a real, sustainable future, turning our trash into walls and roofs to house us all. With effort, we can. Some diagrams below for getting started.
Further info, including film trailer, Garbage Warrior.
Prophet of the Week: Poet Laureate Robert Hass
I recently had the opportunity to interview poet laureate and known environmental activist Robert Hass (full interview is here).Hass was in Israel for the “Poetic Natures” conference in Tel Aviv last week, and while he was here he explored some of Israel’s unique environmental features.Among many topics, Hass spoke about the environmental parallels between Israel and California, as well as Israel’s unique responsibility as a flyaway for nearly a billion birds a year. (Hass expressed an interest in seeing the Hula Valley, home to diverse species of birds.)
“I worry that the environmental movement is always in a defensive position. It’s always arguing against development, or a dam, or economic development someplace, and so then the developers say ‘We’ll be reasonable and take half.’ Ten years later, they take another half.”
Eco Rabbi: The Green of Blessings
In Judaism it is traditional to make blessings. In fact sometimes it can feel, for the initiated, that one makes blessings for everything! It can be inconvenient, however, I believe that what lies behind, is the true nature of what it means to be green.
Rock On, With Slipper Rocker
From the same gal that brought us the inflatable kayak skirt (the Evacuation Skirt), which is great for flash floods when global warming sets in, comes the 2-in-1 slipper rocker chair.
This is our first season in Jerusalem and can we tell you – it is freeezing here.
We think if we had one of these rockers we’d be able to turn our little space heater down (save energy), warm our toes, and get some much-needed exercise at the same time.
Another pic over the fold.
Buying Fair Trade from the Hands of Local Craftswomen
Israel offers such an incredible potpourri of cultures. They all seem to melt together through Rachel Oren’s Ethnicware.There you can find one-of-a-kind cushions handcrafted by Bukarians, Ethiopian embroidery, a Bedouin bag… so many treasures and delights.We love the driftwood bowl, but imagine that it’s been imported from India.No matter, Green Prophet thinks it’s a good thing to support local craftswomen, wherever they live.
On the site Tchotskes, where we first saw this link, they say buying locally is a mitzva. Can’t argue with that.Here are some words and rationale for Ethnicware, from Ms. Oren herself: Ethnicware Limited was created with a view to offering and selling to overseas markets a wide range of home furnishings, hand-crafted in Israel by the diverse ethnic groups and religious factions living together in this country.
Be Vewy Vewy Quiet… I’m Hunting Smokas
The beginning of this year opened up a new hunting season, hunting smokers! According to Haaretz smokers beware! They’re out to get you! “It seems that no law has ever been enforced in Israel with such speed and efficiency. An army of municipal inspectors invaded cafes and bars, as did dozens of activists and volunteers acting independently, filing suits in court against smokers.”
Tel Aviv Billboards Up Again? That Didn’t Take Very Long…
Barely two weeks after advertisers were forced to cover up billboards along Tel Aviv’s Ayalon highway, as a prelude to taking them down altogether, the powers that be have decided to allow the billboards after all. After the signs were ruled illegal by no less than the High Court of Justice, Israel’s wise lawmakers, led by Labor MK Yoram Marciano, have formulated a bill to legalize advertising billboards along Tel Aviv’s major traffic artery.
Why the sudden alacrity of the part of the Knesset? After all, the Ayalon billboards are opposed by the Ministries of Justice, Interior and Environment and the Traffic Police, and have proven offensive to numerous segments of Israeli society, as well as distracting to already stressed-out drivers.
Electric Car Grid Project On its Way?
By now, many people have heard of the electric car grid project that Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi is launching with $200 million capital. Agassi plans to build a grid of charging stations in all parts of the country that would provide a free power charge to electric car batteries. The idea is to provide an incentive for people to buy eco-friendly cars.
The only thing standing in Agassi’s way has been lack of funds for the project…but now the project might be full speed ahead, as car manufacturers Renault Nissan are expected to invest in the enterprise.
Scaaary Air Pollution Video of Haifa
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qkZCLg9TbM&rel=1[/youtube]Well it’s not that scary, and a bit naive, but it does beg the question: what’s really happening in Haifa? Israeli guys that we know say that the best looking girls in Israel are from Haifa.Could it be an interesting mutation from all the pollution?Nature’s little joke?
Mulch, rot, and reinvigorate: composting
I love composting. It is pure satisfaction for anyone remotely interested in growing things, and watching how things can grow, sprout, shoot up, and also decay, die and rot.
When you turn the soil, and see the half-eaten tomato, or ear of corn, or artichoke leaves from a recent dinner, and know that they are slowly decomposing and will be used to aid new plant growth, well … to this gardener, that’s an earthly heaven.
In later posts, I will go into the science of composting a bit more, and discuss the necessity of nitrogen and stuff (I had better go away and do my research first), but here, gentle green reader, allow me to wax lyrical some more about the benefit of worms, tiny mitochondria, bacteria of all types, the humble woodlouse, and the glory of recycling urea.
I haven’t yet had the fortune to become a parent, but if all that nurturing and feeding is half as much fun as tending a warm, burbling and hungry heap, then maybe I’m half qualified.
Today, I started digging out the pile of maturated compost and distributing it to borders and flowerbeds and potted trees and plants, that need and appreciate this healthy winter adrenaline shot.
While doing this, I hoped to discover and report here that the bio-degradable drinks bottle, made by Belu, bought in London last August and cut up into little pieces and scattered into this very heap the same month; by now was no more, and that its bio-ness had worked.
But alas, the pieces remain, and will be reburied in the next heap which I’m starting tomorrow. Also, I’m going to be advocating community composting through these posts, here in Jerusalem, and in Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheva, Haifa, Holon and Pisgat Ze’ev.
Lets get all our lettuces, cabbages (who else gets sometimes 2 a week in their vegetable box? See our story: Eating Organic at Reasonable Prices), peelings and all manner of stuff all mulchin’ down together.
And if that isn’t happening, let’s ride those personal wormeries!
If you live in an apartment, consider making an indoor compost:
Can Only The Rich Save Our Planet?
Finance Minister Ronni Bar-On has presented, today, the proposals of the committee on green taxation to the government.
The proposal suggests a sliding-scale taxation model based upon how good the car is for the environment. A car will be given “green points” from 1-100 based upon how bad, or good, the car is for the environment. Based upon its “green points” the car will be taxed as little as 10% and can be taxed as much as 60%.
Let it Rain In Israel
It’s a yearly ritual in Israel: we worry about rain. We worry when we don’t have rain in the winter, when it is supposed to fall; and we worry when we get rain if it’s the wrong time for the crops. This is not a new phenomenon: the Jewish religion is richly interwoven with customs regarding prayer for rain, and lack of rain is directly linked with divine retribution.
Recently, there have been dire predictions regarding rainfall in Israel; that because of global warming, we are seeing less and less rain. Noam Halfon of Haifa University has conducted a study of rainfall in Israel over the past 60 years, with surprising results.