For the next week, your friends’ profile pictures might look a little different on Facebook. A little greener. Don’t worry, they’re not sick – they’re just concerned. They’ve joined Greenpeace’s campaign to get Facebook to use 100% renewable energy and you should too. Starting tomorrow, Facebook protesters will be changing their profiles to icons such […]
(Photo Credit: Jim Davidson) Jewish leaders were among 50 religious leaders who prayed and visited Capitol Hill together during the week of February 22 to tell US legislators that action on climate change is urgently needed. Religious faith and concern for the environment should really go hand in hand. If you believe in God and […]
Though their lofty ideals of higher education are admirable, universities are often nevertheless subject to frequent budget cuts and funding shortages. This can force university administrations to take drastic measures and reduce important educational resources… or, in the case of Haifa University, it can lead the administration to save money by going green. During the […]
Concerts are a good way to bring environmentalism to the streets and the general public. Over the past few years, we’ve seen this tactic used to promote the green cause a few times in the Middle East, like the used-falafel-oil-powered Earth Day concerts in Tel Aviv and the “Don’t Panic, It’s Organic” concert. The practice […]
Last night, Israel’s NGO delegation to the Copenhagen climate talks kicked off a week of activism with a very special Channukah candle-lighting. Delegates gathered in City Hall Square of the city to publicly light the Channukah menorah, but with a climate-flavored twist. Instead of singing the traditional words to age-old Channukah songs, the activists changed […]
No red carpets for us environment-lovers, stupid! The typical Hollywood movie premiere is a scenario that we’re all pretty familiar with: celebrities pull up to the red carpet in large, gas-guzzling cars (what would happen if Brad Pitt and George Clooney carpooled in a Smart Car for a change?), pose for the photographers, and then […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5kg1oOq9tY[/youtube] We’ve already written about how Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) has joined forces with 350.org, an international campaign that hopes to inspire the world to create a sense of urgency among world leaders for changing policies that would effect climate change. They have been organizing a climate change protest to take place […]
The first thing visitors to the Bedouin town of Rahat notice is the litter. Household garbage lies strewn at the sides of treeless streets. When the wind picks up, plastic bags, newspapers and sacks billow across the surrounding desert wasteland. Discarded construction materials mar the landscape. “First you have to understand why they throw litter […]
After a green Rosh Hashanah and a low carbon emission Yom Kippur, the next on the Jewish holiday marathon is Sukkot. Which can also be celebrated in an environmentally conscious way. We’ve already written about the annual Green Sukkah conference being held again this year at Kibbutz Ein Shemer, but if an all day conference […]
The links between religion and environmental concern/activism are no news to Green Prophet. We’ve covered them in our Eco Rabbi series, discussion of the environment and the Qu’ran, and in stories about multi-faith perspectives on the environment. But it was news to discover an Eco-Activist Beit Midrash (EABM) in Jerusalem’s Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo, which, in […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNqEkIjLxdc[/youtube] Around two weeks ago, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation decided not to support a bill that would encourage bike riding as transportation. The bill would have mandated the inclusion of bike trails in urban plans, allow bikes to be taken on intercity public transportation (like trains and buses), and pave the way for […]
If the combination of the words “vegan” and “bar” doesn’t make sense to you, you’re not alone. Because beer is made of hops, malt, and yeast, right? No animals harmed or used in the production of any of those. But The Rogatka (or “Slingshot”), a new “vegan” bar that opened up last week, defines itself […]
פתיח צומת דרכים Atar Friedman, a young Israel based ecologist, has launched a special TV documentary series to make people more aware of ecology in her country and how it relates to the human factor. The first year’s series, divided into three parts, involves Friedman and two others, Omer Pomerantz and Maoz Yaacov, going on […]
Earlier this year, we saw members of the Lebanese group IndyACT trek out into the snowy wilderness to protect Lebanon’s snow from catastrophic climate change. This week IndyACT members, along with their friends in the Association for Forest Development and Conservation (AFDC) were back in action, putting the heat (so to speak) on decision-makers to […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ylk1zXMSTs[/youtube] We couldn’t miss this one for the world: last night about 20 professional cyclists put the pedal to the metal and powered the Balkan Beat Box free concert at Rabin Square. Thousands of people (and dogs) of all ages took part in seeing the show. The show to celebrate Earth Day couldn’t run on […]