Page 779 – Green Prophet

Conceived after the New Orleans hurricane and flood, says Yael: “The skirt keeps its glamorous look when it’s deflated on the one hand, and on the other, it inflates into a kayak with the right amount of volume to carry a grown up woman.

She adds, “I wanted to raise the question of emergency and beauty and to explore whether they can meet each other.”Green Prophet says S.O.S.

If sea levels in the Middle East rise (that’s what the experts say will happen, after global warming sets in), we’ll be ordering a few of these skirts.

yael mer, global warming design dress, climate change evacuation skirt — *Yael Mer’s partner looks on at her design for a normal day, and the one of the right for days with floods.*

We wonder if Yael has a prototype for men, kids and pets in the works?Yael’s design is quirky, but totally thought-provoking, wouldn’t you say?

See also Yael’s Slipper Rocker, rock on!

::Yael Mer

Living High-Rise and Green

Lifestyle

James Murray-White

January 7, 2008

Two Architecture lecturers from the Technion Institute in Haifa have designed a high-rise sustainable energy apartment complex that includes greenhouses for all its residents, and are building it in Wuhan Province, China.

Tagit Klimor and David Knafo, who also run their own architectural practise Knafo Klimor, with offices in Tel Aviv and Haifa, believe in the importance of people growing their own food.

“This project, which we have named Agro Housing, constitutes a revolution in the existing social and urban order,” Knafo says.

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Shay Alkalay makes sticky stain coverups for stained clothes

Lifestyle

Karin Kloosterman

January 6, 2008

Shay Alkalay makes sticky stain coverups for stained clothes

Israeli designer Shay Alkalay is a man modeled after our own green heart. And with his cheeky invention, you will never have to say ‘out, out, damn spot,’ ever again.

Taking over your coffee spills (which might have otherwise ruined your best white shirt), is a little iron-on alien, known as a stickystain. A great way to keep your loved clothing item in circulation.

Shay says: “These are iron-on stickers that turn unsightly stains into attractive doodles. An alternative way to prolong the life of stained clothes. A postcard sized sheet that would be enough to rescue at least 4 different stains.”

Hear, hear! We can imagine that they are great for kids clothes, too.

Shay’s not selling his stickies at the moment, as it’s just a concept idea for design school but you can make your own or order them from Etsy.

See also Shay’s partner’s wacky invention, the Evacuation Skirt – perfect for inflating in times of need. Like when global warming kicks in perhaps? If that invention doesn’t float your boat, she’s also made the Slipper Rocker. Part slipper, part rocker.

yael mer inflatable dress — *Yael Mer’s Evacuation skirt transforms to a canoe when climate change sets in. For Tel Aviv that happened in the winter of 2019-2020. The city was flooded and people died.*

Environmental Activism… in a friendly way

Lifestyle

Jack Reichert

January 6, 2008

Environmental Activism… in a friendly way

With the panoramic view that I have from my window, I tend to find myself awed by the sunset. Often, I tell myself how incredibly artistically talented God is, the hues, the use of shadow, the definition… it’s beautiful. Oh how many times I wished that I could create such breathtaking scenes, on a daily basis. It is inspiring, and not only for me. Many artists I have spoken to, have told me that they have similarly, been inspired by God’s creative hand.

Now, with the hard work of Zev Labinger, and along with the help of Artists For Nature’s director and founder Yserand Browers, artists can give back. Labinger and Browers have arranged for seven, internationally renowned artists, to visit Israel for a week to help raise awareness about Lake Agmon in the Hula Valley.

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Plastic For Free

Lifestyle

claudia unterweger

January 5, 2008

When I moved to Israel I started to understand, that not everywhere in the world things are going the same way. I grew up in Germany, where the convenience of a quiet and more or less unworried life, enables politicians to talk and act in terms of environment. Water saving, recycling and other environmental issues were familiar to me and my friends. I never really thought about it, it was just part of my daily life.

Due to this background, my first shopping tour in the small super market around the corner of my apartment in Tel Aviv was a big surprise. The cashier took all my things and stuffed them in several plastic bags. Taking her job seriously, she used at least 5 bags for the few things, to be sure that none of my bags will rip. Finally I ended up with 5 bags (one carried only my organic eggs, which by the way were wrapped in Styrofoam) for which I didn’t even have to pay a single cent.

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Review of ‘Grizzly Man’

Business

James Murray-White

January 5, 2008

It wasn’t that long ago when wild beasts roamed the earth. Lions, tigers, woolly haired mammoths and even elephants traipsed over the changing ecology of the Middle East up to the start of the early 15th century. Lions remain as the roaring yet watchful emblem of Jerusalem.

Now humans are the wild beasts that dominate, and in many cases, destroy, other species and their habitats. Man’s dominion has brought us to this environmental predicament, and only within the past couple of hundred years.

It is this wider picture that is addressed in Werner Herzog’s stunning documentary ‘Grizzly Man’, out now on DVD (and available to rent from The Third Ear stores country-wide). Ostensibly exploring the erratic and tragic life of Timothy Treadwell, a maverick young American, who found his life’s passion in being with and studying wild bears in Alaska. This he did for 13 summers, until one ate him and his girlfriend.

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Pedal power

Transportation

Michael Green

January 5, 2008

Being such a small place, you’d think Israel would be a simple place to get around on less than four wheels. But, alas, this is not the case since it’s cities and roads continuously choked with traffic. So it’s reassuring to hear that more Israelis are swapping their polluting automobiles for the most eco-friendly, not to mention wallet-friendly, mode of transport – the bicycle. Well, at least this is the case in Tel Aviv, where the number of people jumping on their bikes each day has risen by 300 percent in the last decade, according to the Yisrael Bishvil Ofanayim (Israel Bicycle Association or IBA).”Today some 7 percent of trips taken in the city are done on bikes. Recently this two-wheeled public has received real encouragement thanks to the announcement by the Transportation Ministry of an investment of NIS 50 million in the establishment of a national bike-trail infrastructure,” reported Ha’aretz. What’s more, the IBA are also campaigning for secure bike parking at railway stations as well as storage on trains themselves.

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The Future’s Next Economic Wave… Water

Tech

Jack Reichert

January 3, 2008

Ironically, for a planet that over 70% of it’s surface is covered by water, water is becoming quite a commodity. While it may be true that the black gold of 20^th century is being phased out, the new liquid gold, it appears, is Blue Gold aka water. According to an article published in USA Today, “More than half of humanity will be living with water shortages, depleted fisheries and polluted coastlines within 50 years because of a worldwide water crisis.”

In attempt to stay ahead of the market the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has created a Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering – Water Resources and Environmental Engineering. This program “involves fields in which Israeli technology achieved a leading place world-wide” the university describes, “The water industry in Israel is one of the most advanced and complex systems in the world.”

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2007 Report: The Beach is Back!

Travel

Ilana Teitelbaum

January 3, 2008

Citizens and tourists rejoice: the Clean Coast Project of 2007 has ensured that we can hit those beaches in 2008. At least that’s according to the Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection, which reports that 80% of Israel’s beaches have been declared clean, with a mere 2% getting the dreaded rating of “dirty.”

This is is a massive jump from the start of the Clean Coast Project in 2005, when a whopping 27% of Israel’s beaches were declared clean.

Ronen Alkalay, coordinator of the Clean Coast Project in the Ministry of Environmental Protection says,”The integration of coastal cleanups by local authorities, assisted by a northeasterly wind, which cleaned the coasts and resulted in a calm sea emitting very little waste, along with the small number of visitors to the beaches, combined to bring about this favorable result – a clean coast.”

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Keep Your Ritual Baths Eco-Friendly (And Goldfish-free!)

Travel

Ilana Teitelbaum

January 3, 2008

Keep Your Ritual Baths Eco-Friendly (And Goldfish-free!)

In previous articles, we’ve illustrated that religious Jewish practices such as Shabbat and Shmitta have the potential to affect the environment in a positive way. This makes us happy, as we at Green Prophet like when Jewish customs dovetail with the ideals of sustainability that we want to promote.

We therefore regret to report that Mikvah, or ritual immersion, is currently motivating some people to have a negative impact on one of Israel’s most endangered species, the orange salamander.

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Creativity and Sustainability

Lifestyle

James Murray-White

January 3, 2008

For all of us green writers, here’s a creative & green challenge that came my way this week: a new US journal; Hawk and Handsaw – the Journal of Creativity & Sustainability, is starting up and invites writers and artists of all kinds to get creative on their sense of place.

My head is already overflowing with reflections and recollections of place and belonging- five years spent in the west of Ireland, ruminating amongst lush green landscape, and trying to motivate unruly teenagers in a small-town drama group; time in Scotland, with highly motivated environmentalists munching on veggie haggis; space and adventure across the world’s deserts; and life here in Jerusalem, the centre of the universe (according to the 14th century Mappa Mundi, on display in Hereford Cathedral).

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Big Green Gathering

Business

Michael Green

January 3, 2008

Better known as the centre for three world religions, Jerusalem is increasingly becoming the focus for environmental activities and innovation. The start of 2008 will see the city hosting the launch of the Forum on Judaism and the Environment, a new initiative to bring together professionals, organisations and activists working in the field of Jewish environmentalism in Israel and beyond.

The Forum is being launched by Ruach HaSviva, the Centre for Judaism and Environment at the Society of the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), at a half-day conference on Monday 28 January in central Jerusalem.

“The project is designed to create bridges between the educators and activists working in the growing field of Jewish Environmentalism,” says Leiba Chaya, director of the SPNI’s environmental education program. Participants will be able to take part in a number of workshops focusing on themes including communities, Jewish environmental education and eco-tourism.

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Religious Powers Help Cut that Carbon!

James Murray-White

January 2, 2008

In a recent interview with this writer, Professor Pinhas Alpert, head of Tel Aviv University’s department of Geophysics and Planetary sciences, stated that “winters here in Israel are becoming warmer, with much less precipitation annually, and these extreme temperatures, at the minimum and maximum ends of the scale, also show a greater fluctuation between them.”Thats the view of the local expert; now here’s some facts from the wider scale: According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), at the current rate of carbon emissions, global average temperatures will rise by 2% by 2050.Sea levels may increase by up to 95cm by the end of the century. This would result in 18% of the country of Bangladesh being submerged. Other scenarios are also available for countries in the Western world, including online graphics of New York and London becoming underwater cities.

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Alon Tal, environmental lawyer

Green Prophet

January 2, 2008

“Israelis are tremendously committed to the environment. We can move mountains if optimism motivates us.”

Alon Tal founded the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) in 1990 and has been working in public interest advocacy ever since. In 1996, he founded the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, an advanced academic center where Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian, and international students study together.

Alon was the Chairman of Life and Environment, Israel’s umbrella group for 80 environmental NGOs, between 1998-2004. He has taught environmental law at Tel Aviv University for 15 years and was recently appointed professor of environmental policy at Ben Gurion University in Israel and a visiting professor of Law at Otago University in New Zealand.

He has a small private practice where he offers pro bono representation for environmental NGOs.

If you want to read his book, and can’t find it in the library, or a local store see: Pollution in a Promised Land: An Environmental History of Israel

::Alon Tal

To Eat, or Not to Eat?

Design

Green Prophet

January 2, 2008

One of our earliest and most popular posts to date is on cheap organic food in Israel. It got us wondering, what is our reader’s take on the organic food movement?Take Our Poll

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