Scientists in Haifa, Israel have developed a new path for understanding how cannabis-extracted CBD helps children with autism. They have found that preparations of CBD-rich cannabis products or extracts reduce anxiety and other autistic symptoms in children, according to data published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. Ayelet David and Eynat Gal led the study out of Haifa University.

Israeli scientists assessed the efficacy of CBD-dominant cannabis extracts in a cohort of 65 children (ages 5-12 years) with autism. Study participants consumed customized doses of cannabis extracts for six months.

Related: A look at cannabis and autism

“We observed significant differences in the autistic children’s overall anxiety and in some anxiety subtypes. Significant improvements were observed in RRBI [restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests], including the total score, and specifically in compulsive, ritualistic, and sameness behaviors,” reported the researchers who concluded that “Our study suggests positive implications for CBD-rich cannabis treatment in alleviating anxiety and RRBI symptoms in autistic children.

“We strongly recommend further double-blind, placebo-controlled studies using standardized assessments to validate these findings.”

The findings are consistent with other studies which find that cannabinoid (or CBD) treatment provides symptom improvements in children with autism. We have consulted with Dr. Alan Shackleford, a leading physician in medical cannabis in the United States and Israel, who has also said to us in personal communication that he believes some amount of THC is needed to see an effect.

Observational studies have also shown that the use of cannabis can provide benefits to adults with autism. In 2023, a randomized trial from Israel compared CBD-enriched extract (20:1 CBD:THC) and purified cannabinoids in the same ratio to placebo in a three-arm crossover design in 150 patients with autism aged 5 to 21 years.

The authors reported tolerability with improvements in disruptive behaviours and core autism symptoms.

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A new study has used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to prove for the first time that ship noise affects dolphins.

Maritime traffic has a very strong impact on the environment and public health in general and on the marine environment in particular, and is a factor that motivates the migration of species from one marine environment to another. Until now, it was not known whether dolphins were affected by ship noise; the evidence in this regard was mainly anecdotal and visual. The main difficulty is to systematically determine the behavior of dolphins encountering ship noise.

“Although it seems obvious, until now there was no empirical evidence that dolphins are affected by ship noise. Using AI, we were able to show that dolphins communicate in a unique way when ship noise is nearby. The influence of ship noise on communication between dolphins can cause them to move away from noise sources, which in some cases are their feeding grounds,” explains Prof. Roee Diamant and Dr. Aviad Scheinin, two of the authors of the study.

Read Also: How people and dolphins fish together

The current study, supported by the Data Science center at the University of Haifa, was conducted in collaboration between the Underwater Acoustic and Navigation Laboratory (ANL), headed by Prof. Diamant, and the Marine Apex predator laboratory, headed by Dr. Scheinin. The researchers combined acoustic studies of dolphin whistles (the form of communication used by the mammals) with AI software that searched for patterns in the cries.

As mentioned earlier, one of the main problems with studies of this type is observing the dolphins’ behavior, firstly when there is no ship noise and secondly when there is. This is the only way to determine whether the same dolphin behaves differently in each case.

For this purpose, the researchers chose a location close to the dolphin reef in Eilat, where Common bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) dolphins are regularly found. Recording devices placed at a depth of 50 meters continuously recorded the sounds of nearby dolphins and shipping noise.

Read Also: Greenpeace is not condemning violent missiles and attacks in the Red Sea

From all the recorded sounds, the researchers filtered out 12,000 dolphin whistles and were able to assign them to the dolphins that were at that location. The algorithm developed by the researchers identified around 60,000 dolphin whistles when a ship was nearby, and the same number of whistles where identified when no ships were present.

According to Prof. Diamant, not visual inspection of the signals nor direct feature extraction were able to distinguish between the two groups of whistles – with and without presence of a ship. Instead, this was analyzed by a deep learning algorithm.

This algorithm was trained over 20% of the whistle database and tested on the remaining whistles. The result was a 90% success rate in classifying between the two sets. In other words, the AI was able to recognize a certain pattern in the whistles of the dolphins exposed to shipping noise, well above the chance level. The researchers concluded from this result that a clear impact on the dolphins occurs when vessels were around.

“The problem with deep learning is that it’s a kind of a ‘black box’ and it’s hard to associate the classification result to a physical meaning within the signal. We still don’t know what unique pattern the AI system has recognized, but we know that it is related to the type of communication they make, and previous studies have already shown that changes in vocal behavior can be the result of stress and distress. In other words, dolphins communicate in a different way and change their vocal behavior when they encounter ship noise. In our upcoming studies, we will try to understand the nature of the effects,” the researchers conclude.

The research was conducted at the Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa was published in the Nature Group journal Scientific Reports

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Sonol, a company that operates regular petroleum-based fuel stations in Israel, has opened the country’s first hydrogen fuel station in the Haifa Bay. The world is seeing more and more hydrogen energy breakthroughs and countries nearby like Saudi Arabia are investing in hydrogen fuel.

Sonol is Israel’s third largest gas station chain. Israel’s Ministry of Energy identified a fuel port near Haifa as one of its economic development projects in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Sonol won this tender and worked with Germany’s H2 Mobility on this project. Sonol has also collaborated with Bazam petrochemical refining and the vehicle dealer Colmobile to bring hydrogen powered trucks to this port city.

The Hydrogen station is built close to northern Israel’s Kibbutz Yagur, six miles from the Bazan oil refineries at Haifa Bay. The same Sonol station offers regular fuel pumps and recharging stations for electric cars. It will soon start producing solar energy on the roof to be self-sufficient for its maintenance needs. 

The estimated $3.3 million hydrogen project is a partnership between Sonol, Bazan, a hydrogen manufacturer and and car importer Colmobil, which has supplied the first three hydrogen trucks.

The transportation sector is responsible for about 20% of Israel’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Advantages of hydrogen fuel

As transport fuel, hydrogen has several advantages compared to traditional fossil fuels and electric batteries. Its mass energy density is extremely high which is why it is used to power fuel cells in spacecraft. When it is burned, it produces only water vapor with virtually no harmful air pollution and no carbon dioxide. It can be produced from water using green energy sources or found in natural geological deposits. This makes it an excellent fuel to combat climate change.

Filling is faster than charging: The time required to fill fuel tanks for Hydrogen fuel cells is much shorter than the time required to charge batteries 

Hydrogen’s volume density is relatively low which means it needs a large fuel tank compared to gasoline or diesel fuel. This is why some of the earliest adoption of hydrogen as a transport fuel will be in large commercial vehicles such as the Hyundai Xcient trucks which will be fuelled at the Haifa port. This Hydrogen station will help Israel keep up with other nations in the adoption of this promising new fuel.

Hyundai enters the hydrogen market in the Middle East

Hyundai is bringing its hydrogen fuel cell truck Xcient to Israel, its first market in the Middle East. The aim is to form a hydrogen value chain in Israel. Hyundai’s plan align with Israel’s target to slash national greenhouse gas emissions by 27 per cent by 2030 and by 85 per cent by 2050, relative to 2015 emission levels.

“We are thrilled to support the Israel government’s strong commitment to building a sustainable future,” said Mark Freymueller, a VP at Hyundai. “Establishing the first hydrogen infrastructure in Israel in close collaboration with the country’s key players marks a significant milestone in our efforts to build a sustainable hydrogen value chain around the world.”

Haifa Bay is notoriously polluted. Israel energy and chemical infrastructure for industry operates in this area side-by-side with a growing residential city. We met recently with Ecoocean’s Andreas Weil, who founded Israel’s most influential marine protection NGO. He wonders why in most developed nations such ports are kept far from cities but in Israel they sit side-by-side. Development in more ecological areas is good but maybe it’s time to start moving fuel operations further away from city centers. 

Karin Kloosterman contributed to this report

Have an energy innovation to share with us? Email dreamcatchers@greenprophet.com

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An oil tanker from Greece called the Minerva Helen is suspected of dumping its bilge and catastrophic amounts of tar and oil into the Mediterranean Sea. A current ban from Mediterranean seafood and fish is in effect as the public and soldiers pictured above scrambles to clean up the tar. We reached out. The company denies any link.

Update March 2, 2021: The Israel Government sends a team to Greece and exonerates the Greek ship. They now accuse Iran of eco-terrorism. 

Give Israelis an emergency and you will see what kind of stuff they are made of. The recent crisis is a large oil spill which is currently washing mounds of goopy tar-like bitumen onto every inch of beach along Israel’s 170-mile coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. 

The bitumen also known as dilbit can have some suspected links to rare cancers, and is more dangerous than regular oil (read InsideClimateNews here) and is suspected to be from the bilge of an oil tanker passing through the Mediterranean Sea, about 31 miles off the coast of Israel. The source of the tanker is unknown, but those close to the heart of the matter suspect it was poor weather and just a tanker in trouble that caused the release. Local media are blaming a tanker called Minerva Helen, which flies under the flag of Greece. The name was revealed yesterday after a gag order lifted. We spoke with the company and they deny any link. 

The feeling on the ground in Israel is not who or which country is to blame, but what kind of system can we have in place for the future. Because as long as there are tankers and pipelines and us using oil, spills are bound to happen. One tanker off the coast of Yemen is a floating time bomb. 

The horrendous photos of dead turtles and a rotting baby whale with its  belly full of tar dead ashore an Israeli beach has impacted the public to spring into action –– some 10,000 people have turned up to help pull the beached globs of oil out of corals, rock faces and sand. This was orchestrated through an NGO called EcoOcean which already had a plan of action set up two years ago. The organization has not only helped citizens see how they can make an effort to clean up the problem, but it has set an example to the Israeli government on how to future proof against environmental disasters. 

Typically Israel’s Ministries act in response to demonstrations and lobbyists’ concerns du jour. They act when faced with a crisis but they don’t like anyone telling them what to do. 

So when Andreas Weil, a then new immigrant to Israel from Sweden wanted to change how Mediterranean marine education and health was managed by Israel, he didn’t whine or point fingers. He made a plan, raised money, built a research ship and an educational system, and started teaching the Israeli colleges, non-profits, government groups and society how to cooperate to protect the sea. That was 15 years ago, and the NGO is called EcoOcean. Among its flagship projects is the Blue Flag Program to clean Israeli beaches, in better times from cigarette butts, and municipal runoff. 

In worse times EcoOcean was ready, Weil tells Green Prophet. Two years ago he approached the Ministry of the Environment and asked if he could set up a coordinated beach cleanup system, for emergency purposes. At the time there was nothing in place. He said he would build a pilot. If EcoOcean could use some of their resources, then a system could be up and running well within 3 years, with volunteers trained and equipment set up. At that point he’d convince the government to find money and run it. 

EcoOcean raised almost $1 million USD and set up the emergency beach response plan which was mobilized right away: “This week more than 10,000 people were helping, some of them running around in dangerous amounts of tar,” says Weil. “We did all this to push the Environment Ministry to take responsibility for what it needs to do. I hope this accident will make it happen. There is no way they can retract now and say they don’t need a plan like this.”

Unlike other hopeful activists that try and change the Israeli attitude to a “green” one, Weil, as an outsider from Sweden, with a no-nonsense socialist mentality just wanted to “get the money for it and show the government how it can be done.”

“It’s definitely a Swedish thing,” he says. “I guess there is a reason why we are giving out the Nobel Peace Prize,” says Weil, who over the years of knowing him, I can also say it’s also an Andreas thing. He’s consistently persisted and built and encouraged others to be part of the dream of saving the sea, usually putting everyone else from the organization in the spotlight instead of himself. Organizations like the Cousteau Foundation have reached out to cooperate with him. 

“This is what I learned from living in Israel,” says Weil. “I saw how they were working. They were spending money on an agenda, demonstrating. And I thought, how can we do it differently? Israelis listen to common sense. They don’t want to hear you telling them to pick up plastic from the street.”

Weil’s foresight rang true. 

And from their homes the people came to clean up the sea. Organizing on parents’ Whatsapp groups, Facebook groups that promote parties: everyone was turning out to be part of the cleanup. 

Clumps of tar larger than footballs were rolling up onto shore and volunteers mobilized to move it from reefs and rocks into plastic bags for disposal. One of them was Ariel Mielnik, 32, a clinical psychologist from Jaffa. He found some like-minded people on a Whatsapp group, The Friends of Jaffa, to clean up beaches in the Tel Aviv area: “We arrived and the staff gave us all kinds of protective equipment and gave us a fast brief on what to do,” he tells Green Prophet. 

“We blasted electronic music throughout the beach, having a good time while cleaning up as much as we could and for as long as we had free time,” he says. “It was heartwarming to see so many volunteers. Runners would clap for us and shout ‘kol hakavod [good for you]’ which was nice.

“I imagined black pools of tar and tar stuck to everything. The good news, when we approached we couldn’t even see it. Now the very bad news is the tar has spread to small pieces of around 4 mm, which makes it super difficult to pick up bit by bit. Only us humans can do this as far as I know,  and the job feels impossible to complete.”

Fashion photographer and videographer Doron Barsky, also from Jaffa, headed further north and was shocked by the blobs of tar as far as the eye could see. He was at a beach in the northern part of the country called Nasholim, helping fill bags with tar and hardened oil rocks.

He shows the oil in his hands in the video below.  

A gag order kept the identity of the ship unknown, until Wednesday at 4 PM where it was released to the mainstream media that the suspect ship is the Minerva Helen, the same Greek ship involved in major oil spill near Copenhagen in 2008. The gag order was put in place so those running the oil tanker would not destroy evidence. 

The Minerva Helen left Port Said, Egypt on February 11 en route to Israel and denies any connection to the oil spill. It also denied its involvement in the Danish oil spill. 

The vessel (IMO: 9276561, MMSI 240147000) is a Crude Oil Tanker built in 2004, 17 years old. You can track the Minerva Helen online and environmentalists might consider meeting it as it reaches its next port Piraeus, Greece, on February 27. It is owned by Minerva Marine, from Athens, Greece. A statement from the company denies any connection to the spill. 

They announce to the media, “On the 15th of February 2021 the vessel sailed directly to Cartagena Spain. During the period that the vessel was drifting offshore Port Said awaiting her next employment, the vessel was not involved in any operation nor in any other activity that could be connected to an oil discharge at sea.

“The vessel is classed with the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). Minerva Helen is well maintained without any structural or other defects that could cause an oil pollution incident.

 “It should be noted that on the 22nd of February 2021 the vessel was inspected by the Spanish Port State Control Authorities in Cartagena and was determined to be without any deficiencies or observations, and confirmed that the vessel was in a satisfactory maintenance and operational condition without any defect.”

Jonathan Spencer, a crisis response manager representing the company tells Green Prophet: “There are no formal allegations regarding Minerva Helen, despite speculation having continued in some media outlets. For your reference, I have also attached an article published by one of the shipping industries leading data and intelligence companies which further demonstrates that Minerva Helen could not have been involved (The link to a PDF is here).”

Spencer adds, “Other vessels are clearly shown to be in the area in the Lloyds List piece (links to PDF)), and clearly such vessels will be of interest for any subsequent inquiries that continue. This of course remains a matter for the Israeli authorities.”  

____

Characteristically for Lebanon, also seeing its share of tar on the shores, blamed the dump on Israel; its Prime Minister Hassan Diab declaring “a ship of the Israeli enemy” was to blame for the oil spill that has reached Lebanon’s southern Mediterranean shores. His knee-jerk response to the spill was much different than Israel’s which called for a ban on visiting the beach, eating fish and which mobilized thousands to clean up the mess. 

Greenpeace Med responded to the lack of action of Diab’s government, still in shambles after the catastrophic explosion last year that ripped Beirut apart. And the whole political cabinet quit. Officially Diab quit as well but is serving as interim PM until a new election can bring about a capable leader for the troubled country. 

Greenpeace sent us this message to share about the lack of non-action by Lebanon’s leadership, hardly functioning in the good days: “We call for immediate action from the Ministry of Environment to assess the severity of this spill via an urgent survey and monitoring programme and to put in place a plan to minimize the impacts on the environment and public health.

“Based on the assessment results, the authorities should provide safety guidance to the Lebanese people especially with regards to fishing and swimming activities. This incident adds up to the long list of spills that have been threatening the rich marine biodiversity and impacting the populations of the Eastern Mediterranean region and is yet another facet of the destructive nature of our global systems’ addiction to fossil fuels.”

Future-proofing with this marine biologist who is taking inventory

We spoke with marine biologist Philip Nemoy, a post-doc researcher at the  Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research before the gag order was lifted and he said that he had not yet heard from what country the oil spill tanker originated before the gag order was lifted. He didn’t think pointing blame was the right response to a catastrophe. 

According to Nemoy there are tight regulations in place at sea and accidents are bound to happen as long as ships carry oil, and as long as oil rigs carry it in pipes undersea. And this all will continue as long as our hunger for oil persists. 

The amount of the oil spill on Israel’s shores does not equal the Exxon Valdez, the Gulf War oil spill, or the Deepwater Horizon he says, but it has made the public and government ask itself some important questions: Who is responsible for this kind of marine disaster when it strikes? 

“The threat is there and it is not going to disappear in the nearest future because we need oil transported from oil rigs in one way or another and these are prone to disaster despite all the measures and precautions taken. All those dealing with oil at sea have a lot of regulations. And they have a lot to do to avoid any spill,” Nemoy tells Green Prophet. 

“I think the last spill was due to a major storm and something went bad to the ship at sea during the storm and it can happen to any ship from any country. Sometimes nature is stronger than us. We need to ask ourselves what do we need to do when we see it happening? We need to cooperate when an oil spill happens. 

“The spill is a warning light for our society. That it is not only the government and not only the people and not only the NGOs. We are all connected together. What I can see is that the connection and the dialogue is lacking. It should be developed at good times and not in the time of troubles.”

He credited EcoOcean for the first response and noticed that the israeli society is deeply disconnected from its parts, yet he also acknowledges how “quickly we can become connected today. I see how things happened in the timeline of hours and days. Just in Haifa, hundreds had come together very quickly.”

Generally, Nemoy explains, the Middle East is a “balagan” or mess –- with a lot of hand waving and shouting. From the Former USSR, he saw this a bit during the cleanup but he also saw that even more could be done if more preparations were done in advance with deeper cooperation between the NGOs and Government groups, like there is in times of war. 

“This way we can inform people what we can do. The same way we’d inform people when there is a war or earthquake. There can be a list of simple things you can do to help, or what you can do so you won’t harm yourself. Some people who went to the oil spill might have harmed themselves if they inhaled the fumes or touched the tar.”

Nemoy worked for the Environment Ministry at one point and understood that most companies don’t want to pollute the environment: “They want to carry on their business. If they did pollute it was because they did not know or did not want to know. It does not take a huge amount of money to explain to people about the consequences if they do pollute.”

In the past Nemoy worked to understand how he could commercially cultivate sponges in aquaculture effluent of fish farms at sea. “Which was difficult.”

Currently he is building a nationwide database, crowdsourced, to quantify marine life with environmental and commercial usefulness. Had the database been already ready, he’d have been able to tell organizations like EcoOcean where to focus efforts. 

With his eyes wide open he has yet to hear of any cleanup efforts from nearby Gaza, Egypt or Lebanon to the North. “I’ve heard nothing. Nothing in Gaza. Nothing in Lebanon. Maybe it’s my bubble – I know nothing about what happens north of Rosh Hanikra and nothing from Ashkelon to the South. I would be more than happy to take a bus of 100 other volunteers and coordinate clean up efforts outside of Israel,” he says. If you’d like to cooperate with him reach out via email philip.nemoy@gmail.com.

National Geographic Explorer and Marine Geo-archaeologist Beverly Goodman, works on the bay at Haifa University. She tells Green Prophet: “It’s really disheartening: none of the plans made were applied- the NGOs and local districts were left to mostly left to handle it. Apparently the spill was recognized even before the storm and models were run predicting this outcome- yet no response until it hit the beaches,” she tells Green Prophet.

Authorities have since banned the sale of all Mediterranean seafood and fish which will put a strain on local fisherman, and locals who line up for fish before holidays and the Friday night meal. Ramadan is coming soon, in April, and no one knows when it might be possible to eat local fish again.

A matter of faith?

Eco-Rabbi Yonatan Neril, who has written an ecology-inspired Eco-Bible, has to admit that “we are deeply embedded in an oil-based lifestyle” and for that “we are both victims and perpetrators of oil spills. But at this time of empowered living, we can claim our power and actively steer our collective destiny away from the profit motives of politicians and companies,” he tells Green Prophet. 

Comparing the autopsy of the beached whale from last week, with its body full of oil, to our spiritual position at present, Neril provides an analogy, and a solution which is within reach of all of our nets: 

“Each of us is Jonah inside the whale, whose belly and lungs have had enough of petroleum. We do not need to wait until someone rescues us—or until we run out of fossil fuels—since God is both warning and empowering us now to take steps as individuals, communities, and nations to liberate ourselves of this addiction and live fossil free,” says Neril. 

“Faith leaders and communities can join together to promote a swift transition to renewable energy and toward reducing our use of energy,” he concludes. 

Read more about EcoOcean:

EcoOcean’s Director Andreas Weil Goes Swimming With the Whales in Tonga

EcoOcean Opening a New Marine Research and Education Center This Week

Environment Educator EcoOcean Shows NGOs How to Create Advertising: Campaign Save the Turtles

Red more about oil disasters:

Secret Oil Pipeline Between Israel and the UAE

Yemen’s ticking time bomb oil tanker held by rebels

Israel oil spill ruins desert and rivers

Lebanese tells Iraq to keep their stinky oil

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The earliest evidence found to date concerning the production of olives for eating, dating back some 6,600 years, has been found at the submerged chalcolithic site Hishulei Carmel, off the coast at Haifa, Israel. The world’s oldest olive trees were found nearby in Lebanon.

The discovery is described in a new study published in the prestigious journal Scientific Reports by researchers from the University of Haifa, the Technion, Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University, the Volcani Institute, and other research institutions in Israel and abroad. This discovery predates by around 4,000 years the oldest evidence of the production of olives for eating uncovered until now.

“This latest discovery completes the chain of use of olive trees, beginning with use of the wood for burning, through the production of oil some 7,000 years ago, and on to our finding, where the fruit was used for consumption,” explains Dr. Ehud Galili of the Zinman Institute of Archeology at the University of Haifa, who led the research.

What makes olives a fruit

Olives are, indeed, small fruits that grow on olive trees (Olea europaea). They belong to a group of fruit called drupes, or stone fruits, and olives are related to mangoes, cherries, peaches, almonds, and pistachios.

Olives are very high in vitamin E and other powerful antioxidants. Olives are a key component of the human diet, culinary culture, and economy of the Mediterranean region. Archeological findings and written testimony shows that olive oil was used extensively for consumption, lighting, worship, hygiene, and cosmetic purposes in ancient times. However, the date when olives began to be eaten has remained a mystery.

“Historical documents attribute the first consumption of eating olives in Europe to the middle of the first millennium BCE, and in Egypt to the classical period following the conquest of Alexander the Great, so that all the evidence until now centered on the middle of the first millennium BCE,” notes Dr. Liora Kolska Horwitz of the Hebrew University.

The current study was undertaken at the Hishulei Carmel site (named after a nearby factory), which is situated approximately 500 meters south of the southernmost beaches of Haifa. The site dates back to the Middle Chalcolithic period, some 6,600 years ago. Remnants from this period are now found from the shoreline and to a distance of 120 meters, and at a depth of up to four meters under the sea.

It is believed that in this period the sea level was around three to four meters lower than today, and the coast was some 200-300 meters west of its current location, so that the site was situated on the coast in its day. No remains of residential homes have been found at the site, but the excavations have uncovered round utensils with a diameter of 1.5 meters, made from collected stones.

According to the researchers, these utensils were used as wells or storage pits. During the underwater surveys, the researchers found two oval stone structures containing thousands of saturated olive pits, most of them complete and excellently preserved. In order to identify the use made of the olives, research was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team of archeologists and botanists from 11 research institutions in Israel and abroad.

“As soon as we found the olive pits, we could see that they were different to those used to produce olive oil. In debris from oil production, the pits are mostly crushed, whereas most of the ones were found were whole,” explains Dr. Dafna Langgut of Tel Aviv University. The researchers compared the findings to pits and utensils found by Dr. Galil several years ago at another underwater site – Kfar Samir, off the coast by Dado Beach. Kfar Samir is an older site, dating back 7,000 – 7,500 years, and situated some 1,800 meters from Hishulei Carmel.

The utensils found at Kfar Samir contained crushed olive pits, as well as olive peel, and were identified as debris from the production of olive oil. As noted, the pits found at the Hishulei Carmel site were mostly whole, and no peel or other evidence was found suggesting the production of oil. Moreover, in the remnants of the pits at Kfar Samir the researchers found grains of olive pollen, which is also found today in debris at olive presses. This pollen was not found in the utensils uncovered at the Hishulei Carmel site.

Another factor supporting the assertion that the utensils were intended for the production of olives for eating is the proximity of the sire to the sea. As noted, at the time the site was on the coastline. A coastal location does not permit the storage of olives, due to high humidity which leads to the rapid development of mold.

The researchers believe, it is not logical to suggest that the facilities were used for the storage of fresh olives. Conversely, the coastal location could have provided access to vital ingredients used in the pickling of olives, such as seawater and sea salt. As part of their study, the researchers undertook a controlled examination in a food laboratory at the Technion and managed to cure olives using seawater. “The pickling of olives in the utensils discovered could have taken place after the fruit was washed repeatedly in seawater in order to reduce the bitterness, and then soaked in seawater, possibly with the addition of sea salt,” suggests Prof. Ayala Fishman of the Technion.

“The lack of olive pollen grains in the utensils, which are usually found in olive debris, supports the hypothesis that the olives were washed repeatedly, as is customary to this day when pickling lives,” adds Prof. Mina Weinstein-Evron of the University of Haifa. Wild olives from Mt. Carmel, and possibly olives grown in ancient groves, probably provided the raw material for the production of olive oil and olives for eating,” comment botanists Dr. Simcha Lev-Yadon, Dr. Oz Barazani, and Dr. Arnon Dag.

“We did not find any residential buildings at the Hishulei Carmel site or at Kfar Samir, but we found pits, round utensils, stone grinding basins, sieves made of twigs – and now the olive production facilities. These sites may have served as ancient “industrial zones” for the settlements along the Carmel Coast in the Chalcolithic period, beginning to produce olive oil around 7,000 years ago and olives for eating 6,600 years ago,” concludes Dr. Galili.

The post Are olives a fruit? The history of olives and olive oil appeared first on Green Prophet.

“We don’t want to play Russian roulette with our children’s health,” said Shlomit Valensi, a Homeland Guards member who lives in Dor, a beachfront community adjoining a nature reserve about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Haifa. More than 250 cars headed to Tel Aviv for a demonstration outside a government compound, according to the grassroots Israeli Homeland Guards who organized the protest. Greenpeace Israel and at least three other Israeli environmentalist groups supported the event. An estimated 1,000 demonstrators wore masks, others carried signs linking gas production to cancer, demanding that the facility close.

The Mediterranean oil field was discovered 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of the port city Haifa in 2010. It is estimated to hold 535 billion cubic meters (18.9 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas, along with 34.1 million barrels of condensate. Its production facility was constructed 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) offshore. We are afraid to breathe the air,” said Rachel Toaff-Rosenstein, a veterinarian from Zichron Yaakov. “This is something that’s going to change the rest of our lives.”

Opponents assert that the production process will release pollutants as toxic as those released by coal, particularly in the current start-up stage. This was verified by Leviathan documents submitted to the Environment Ministry which indicate pollution may be in higher concentration during the initial phase when flaring can’t be used. The worst-case scenario is that during the two separate days of starting up four wells, the emission level will be similar to that expected in an entire year of normal operations.

Despite protester concerns, the ministry said in a statement released Tuesday, “The effect on the air quality in the coastal area will be negligible,” adding, “According to experts, there is no danger to the public”.

The Leviathan partnership asserts there will be only a few hours of methane emissions, at levels well below limits set by Israel’s Clean Air Act. Methane is a primary contributor to global warming.

“The only environmental impact this platform will have on the shore is a positive one when the natural gas we supply displaces coal in Hadera and Ashkelon and Israel’s citizens benefit from improved air quality and better health,” said Bini Zomer, Noble Energy’s vice president for regional affairs.

Despite government statements that production was safe, Environment Minister Zeev Elkin delayed the start of operations by a week, saying strict pollution-monitoring conditions hadn’t been met. Monitoring equipment was installed on the platform to alert any risk of high pollution, but the Homeland Guards say they need to see how scrupulously it will be used before halting opposition.

Israel seeks energy independence and cleaner domestic sources, twin aspirations that support environmental and economic benefits. The nation also aims to achieve a broader regional influence, transitioning from an energy importer to a net exporter, with recently announced contracts with neighboring Jordan and Egypt. It is anticipated that the European market may also be a viable partner. Is commerce subjugating exploration of renewable energy alternatives and protection of environmental rights?

The Israeli Homeland Guards back development of the country’s gas industry but want to ensure public health isn’t compromised. They cite world-renowned experts whose models show the platform’s proximity to shore is valid reason for concern.

Fossil fuel companies have long clashed with regulators over pollution. In 2015, Noble (a member of the Leviathan consortium) settled with the U.S. Environment Protection Agency, the Department of Justice and the state of Colorado over violations relating to emissions from its operations.

The former head of Israel’s National Cancer Registry said in an opinion commissioned by the movement that the start-up stage may expose the public to a dangerous amount of carcinogens, including benzene, a byproduct of gas production. 

Israel’s environment minister has promised to monitor air quality closely, promising to shut down the platform if there is “an increase in air pollution that is endangering the population.”

While natural gas is set to replace coal as the main fuel for power generation in Israel, it is still far from being a clean source of energy despite being less polluting than coal.

Cast your vote in our comment section: go gas – or – go green?

The post What are the Health Costs of Israeli Energy Security? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Israel’s largest energy project, headed by Noble Energy, started production on Tuesday. It is a natural gas well only 10 kilometers or 7 miles from shore, near the coast of Haifa. This is the first step in a multi-billion dollar natural gas export deal with countries like Egypt and Jordan that will start in the next weeks. 

Families with young children and pregnant women were looking for shelter in Tel Aviv for fear that exposure to the natural gas pollution might cause long term damage to their fetuses and children. Risks from release at sea are highlighted in this PDF developed by the EU. 

But due to Israel’s unusual security constraints –- or threats by Al Qaeda and the Hezbollah –– it had to build its gas rig much closer to shore than deemed environmentally safe by some country’s standards. The recommended distance is about 40 km or 30 miles. 

When the issue of safety was taken to court no one could refute in professional terms why it is unsafe so the judge let it go ahead despite coastal mayors concerns about cancer risks. This article links to a court ruling in Colorado where Noble Energy had to pay fines for polluting emissions. 

Texas-based Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek Drilling and Ratio Oil announced that operations had commenced this morning, and a significant amount of natural gas will be released to the sea. People in the city of Haifa are concerned and some have evacuated for fears over the damage from exposure. 

Polluting the Mediterranean?

Natural gas is a cleaner fuel but it is by no means renewable or environmentally sound. It burns cleaner but it produces greenhouses gases and pollution.

The gas off the Israeli coast began flowing from the offshore rig called Leviathan (means giant sea creature or whale in Hebrew) early this morning. The timing of when to start has been delayed time and time again but the operators needed to start the rig to meet their 2019 timeline. This is now the last day of the year.

This new operation now doubles the amount of Israeli-produced natural gas, according to Reuters.  Some $3.6 billion USD went into developing the Leviathan natural gas rig and operations and gas exports are soon to commence. 

“Israel is now an energy powerhouse, able to supply all its energy needs and gaining energy independence,” said Delek Drilling Chief Executive Officer Yossi Abu.

Guide to Israeli Solar Energy Companies

A subsea pipeline will transport the natural gas to Israel and to the consumers, also looking forward to paying less for electricity, currently generated by a mix of fossil fuels, coal and a small percentage of solar energy, about 2%. But paying less might just be a carrot dangling in the sky. Since Israel became more water independent with the installation of desalination plants the consumers in effect ended up paying more for water. 

The post The Mediterranean Sea natural gas purge starts amid protests in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.

A first-of-its-kind deep-sea research station placed 50km (31mi) from the Israeli shore called DeepLev which combines “deep” with the Israeli meaning for heart which is “lev”. Reaching a 1.5km depth (~1mi) it is set to shed new light on the eastern Mediterranean marine environment and the implications changes in this ecosystem hold for humans.

The marine environment makes up over 70% of our planet’s surface, it holds 97% of all water and is the cradle of life on earth. Still, the ecological, physical and chemical processes underlying marine ecosystems remain largely unknown. These processes provide significant benefits to humans and hold other implications for us; it is, therefore, necessary to gain a better understanding of them. First anchored in January 2017, scientists have placed, a first-of-its-kind deep-sea research station (named DeepLev) some three hours sailing distance from Haifa in northern Israel.

“This is a unique initiative in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea,” say Professors Ilana Berman-Frank and Yishai Weinstein of Bar Ilan University, who jointly lead the project with Professor Barak Herut and Dr. Timor Katz of the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research (IOLR). The project – a complex and resource-intensive one – was conceived and conducted in collaboration with colleagues at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and the Geological Survey of Israel. Its primary objective is to discover what is really happening in the deep open sea and the impact of human activity and global change have on this environment: “we do that using a station, anchored to a fixed location, which constantly monitors and tracks what is happening there” explains Professor Berman-Frank.

The team will be able not only to monitor the processes but also to understand their significance and the implications they have for human society: “understanding these processes is hugely important because it helps us realize how the entire system works,” she points. “An incident in one marine location can affect other parts of this environment. The eastern Mediterranean basin is a particularly sensitive environment that is subject to the effects of climate change and other human pressures – gas explorations, maritime transport, industrial and agricultural pollution, and desalination plants; data collection is essential for predicting possible ecosystem responses to these various pressures.”

The station’s instruments continuously and independently collect data allowing researchers to study biological activity processes, currents and wave patterns, and the flows of organic matter from the surface to the deep. The latter is especially important to understand how the marine environment copes with the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide level; it is professionally referred to as ‘the biological pump.’ The pump is powered by small marine plants – algae – that are critical in regulating carbon dioxide and ocean acidity.

Algae are a basic building block in the marine food web, grazed by other marine creatures, while dead algae sink to the sea bottom: “algae have a critical role as they transport excess CO₂ from the atmosphere to the sea bottom and assist in moderating global warming,” explains Professor Berman-Frank. “Our project was also conceived to understand the downward flows of carbon better and other particles from biological or other sources” adds Professor Weinstein. “Instruments called ‘sediment traps’ are placed along the cable, and they capture the particles; we can measure the flows and understand the dynamics of sedimentation along the water column gradient from the surface to the seabed.”

“An article by IOLR’s Dr. Tal Ozer published in April 2016 in the journal Global and Planetary Change summarizes 30 years of measurements in the Eastern Mediterranean and analyses the changes in sea temperature and salinity,” says Professor Barak Herut, IOLR’s Director General.

“It clearly demonstrates the evidence for sea warming and climate change. The Mediterranean Sea body is divided into several strata. The middle layer exhibits warming that is consistent with the IPCC’s (inter-government panel on climate change) predictions; the surface layer’s temperature, however, increases much more rapidly than the forecast.” This phenomenon, according to Herut, is very significant because it influences the occurrence of extreme weather events, the amounts of precipitation and, of course, the ecosystem itself. The new monitoring station will further assist in tracking these trends and predicting their possible ramifications.

Another important aspect that the research team would like to explore is the effect changes in the nearshore environment (circa 200 meters depth) have on the deep sea. Professor Herut explains that “nearshore waters contain higher levels of pollution due to runoff from extensive human uses. The monitoring station will assist in studying the interactions between the two environments.” preliminary data from the first six months already indicate that nearshore waters have greater influence during specific periods: “and the station will allow us to better measure these interactions and assess their future trends.”

The new Israeli station is one of several similar monitoring stations around the world – in the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, as well as one in the north-western part of the Mediterranean, run by a French organization. According to Professor Herut, “we aim to operate these stations for the long-term and to gain a deep understanding of what is happening in the marine environment.”

He emphasizes that insights gained in the marine stations go beyond the sea itself: “the understanding that the rising level of atmospheric CO₂ is becoming an acute threat to planetary systems is a result of long-term monitoring in a permanent station.” The Israeli station will also monitor CO₂ concentration level, thus tracking the process of ocean acidification which affects marine organisms that use calcium carbonate to build their skeleton and shells (for example plankton species, corals, snails or oysters). “The new station, and an additional station IOLR operates in a different location, are part of an international network to track ocean acidity levels (pH), and they will help us assess whether ocean acidification also occurs in our part of the world, and if so, at what rate.”

The station is essentially a massive cable, 1.5 kilometers long, with measurement instruments of different types attached at various depth levels. It is fixed to a designated location for a period of six months to collect the data, at which point the scientists take it out to extract the measurements and then drop it back again for another six months. “It may seem like a trivial task placing a few devices at 1500 meters depth,” says Professor Berman Frank “but it actually took a team of experts – led by Dr. Timor Katz and Ronen Alkalay, a doctoral student – three years to plan and carry out.

The location of the station is some 50 kilometers into the sea west of Haifa; we had to carefully think about how to steady the station, precisely in the same position we wanted it to be, accounting for the currents and storms that occur here, and protecting it from ship collisions or unintentional damage. All of this required detailed logistical considerations and plenty of resources.” One of these resources, Professor Herut reports, is the new government-sponsored ‘Bat Galim’ acquired by IOLR, which has been transformed into the most advanced research vessel in the Levant. Professor Berman-Frank enthusiastically recounts that “anchoring the new station took eight hours and a crew of 25 people.

We left early in the morning and completed the task only by sundown. It is a logistically complex endeavor.” Professor Herut adds, “Positioning such a station, or pulling it out, requires truly deep maritime knowledge and I am glad to say we have successfully accomplished it. The direct costs of each day at sea – excluding insurance, mooring, maintenance, equipment, or other overheard – exceeds 10,000 USD. The station’s equipment is also very expensive: 1500 meters of multiple instruments and floatation devices that have to withstand water pressure. With every extraction, the instruments’ batteries have to be replaced, and they also cost thousands of dollars. To extract data, the instruments have to be disassembled and then assembled again.

“Although it is logistically complex, at the end of the day, this investment will pay off because the station can provide data for many years and would support not only academic research but also other public and governmental objectives. This is not only a research platform; it stands to assist evidence-based decision making in different domains.”

One such domain is the economic activity in the Mediterranean. About half a billion people live around the Mediterranean Sea, and this entails increasing human pressure on the marine environment. “Even Israel’s short coastline is crowded with power plants, desalination plants that release chemical pollution, natural gas exploration and production sites and their infrastructure” Professor Berman Frank describes. “Industrial, urban and agricultural sewage is released to the sea. All of these affect the ecosystem and threaten human well-being. We now know that urban and agricultural sewage saturate the marine environment with nitrogen and phosphorous that lead to ‘algal bloom’, some of them are toxic, and this has led to cattle, pets, and even human deaths around the world.”

“With only 190 kilometers of coastline,” she concludes, “Israel has no marine or coastal backup in an extreme event or accident. We need to be cautious and vigilant in preventing an environmental disaster, and we also need to better understand the ecosystem, so that if something does happen, we would be prepared whether the cause is natural gas – or oil production in the future – or other sources of pollutions. The capacity to monitor and track changes in our deep marine environment is of tremendous importance.”

This story was created by *ZAVIT – Israel’s Science and Environment News Agency

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In 1895, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposed to build a space elevator that could reach from Earth into space; it never got off the ground, but in 1957 another Russian – Yuri Artsutanov – came up with a more plausible idea. It wasn’t built either, but now he has a chance to judge a team of Israeli students who are tackling the concept anew.

Related: Ride on Japan’s space elevator 

Artsutanov proposed to build the space elevator from a geostationary satellite base. His would have been anchored to Earth with a cable and a counterweight that would have kept the cable’s center of gravity in sync with the satellite base. A simulation video is created by a Japanese company, Obayashi, below.

The engineer never did see his idea come to fruition, but now, more than half a century later, Artsutanov has the opportunity to judge a team of students at Israeli’s Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa, where the 12th annual Technobrain competition is taking place.

Tasked with building a device that will stand at an 80 degree angle to the ground and climb to a height of 82 feet, the students are not permitted to use any kind of open flame or combustible energy.

Related: Polluting the final frontier with space junk

“The challenge requires contestants to also slide down from this height while lifting a “space elevator” carrying practical cargo from the other side of the pulley,” according to Israel 21C.

The pulley represents the Space Station’s location, while the mission course is said to emulate the space elevator’s movement.

Taking place on 18 June, 2014, the competition will see three father and son teams – all graduates of Technion – try their hand at perfecting a concept that first originated over a century ago.

We look forward to learning about Artsutanov’s response to the student designs. Hopefully they will make him proud. At the very least, $1,440 and $865 in prizes for the winning designs are up for grabs.

The post Students tackle ‘space elevator’ design challenge in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.

Israel’s local and national rail services have often been featured on Green Prophet ever since Jerusalem’s light rail service was completed in 2010, and another light rail line proposed for the coastal city of Tel Aviv .Its national rail service, which now runs from the northern coastal city of Nahariya to the Negev desert city of Dimona has now been given approval to continue its line further south to link up the commercial hub of Tel Aviv with the country’s southernmost city of Eilat. The new 330 km line, when completed, will “link up with the periphery in a way that has not been done up until now and create a very great interest on the part of Asia’s rising powers, China and India,” says Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

One important issue that is still to be decided on (and an important environmental one at that) is whether to continue to use petroleum based diesel fuel to power the train’s engines, or to convert them to run on electricity as was proposed by the management of Israel Railways and reported in Haaretz and other news media articles. Although using electricity would result in less air and noise pollution, an issue of great concern to the country’s  Ministry of Environmental Protection  is the amount of radiation caused by increased electrical current.  This increase could be much greater that that allowed by the ministry and by the various municipalities along which the rail line now runs, including the two major cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv.

According to a Haaretz article,  members of the Return the City to Haifa organization claimed two months ago that based on the survey, the expected radiation would exceed the level to which the Environmental Protection Ministry agreed in the permit it issued.

Haifa, through which the current Israel rail service runs daily, carrying both passengers and large amounts of freight, also has the distinction of having the country’s only subway service. Known as the Carmalit underground railroad, it has only 6 stations, is 1.8 km in length. It is known as one of the shortest subway systems in the world.

Although the Environment Protection Ministry originally approved a plan given them by the railways in which a “safety zone” of 12 meters would be required on either side of the tracks to insure public safety, regulations issued more recently by the ministry now claim that the radiation levels issued by the high speed trains would result in increased radiation levels that would exceed the maximum allowable radiation limit by more than half – from 10 milliGauss (units of radiation ) to 4 milliGauss as recommended by the country’s Health Ministry.

MilliGauss radiation, generated from electro-magnetic fields,  was originally innovated and worked on by Nikola Tesla, whose experiments with electro-magnetic fields and energy were said to have been “buried” by American “Big Oil” companies who feared that energy created by these methods would result in less petroleum being needed.

In a sharp objection to the Environment Protection Ministry’s increased radiation claims, the Israel Railways management, issued a statement that criticized the environment ministry as not being aware that many countries in the world are now switching over to electric trains which are less polluting than diesel oil.

The railways management further noted that the adoption of a more strict radiation threshold of only4 milliGauss  is “unparalleled anywhere in the entire world.” They also say that it has not been actually proven that any increased radiation would be damaging to the public.

Perhaps another  “rail” transportation idea is need, such as the proposed Tel Aviv Sky Tran transport project that will run on a pillow of air.

::Haaretz

More articles on Israel rail issues, including Tel Aviv’s Sky Tran project:

Proposed Tel Aviv Sky Tran Project is “Up in the Air”

Israel’s New Railway to Catalyze Increased Trade With China and India

New Israel Railway Approved Between Tel Aviv and Eilat

Tel Aviv Light Rail Train Chugs Away, Slowly

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