Researchers are trying to crack the code on how to replicate smell so they can make an algorithm to recreate them digitally. The smell of burnt pizza, the smell of New York in the summer, the scent of a woman. They are trying to do it at Intel and now scientists from Israel (we reported in 2012 when they were mapping the smell of white noise) are taking on the ideas of Alexander Graham Bell to map smells. 

Fragrances – promising mystery, intrigue and forbidden thrills – are blended by master perfumers, their recipes kept secret. But in a new study on the sense of smell, scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science have managed to strip much of the mystery from even complex blends of odorants, not by uncovering their secret ingredients, but by recording and mapping how they are perceived.

The scientists can now predict how any complex odor will smell from its molecular structure alone.  This study may not only revolutionize the closed world of perfumery, but eventually lead to the ability to digitize and reproduce smells on command.

The proposed framework for odors, created by neurobiologists, computer scientists, and a master-perfumer, and funded by a European initiative for Future Emerging Technologies (FET-OPEN), was published today in Nature.

“The challenge of plotting smells in an organized and logical manner was first proposed by Alexander Graham Bell over 100 years ago,” says Prof. Noam Sobel of the Institute’s Neurobiology Department.

Bell threw down the gauntlet: “We have very many different kinds of smells, all the way from the odor of violets and roses up to asafoetida. But until you can measure their likenesses and differences you can have no science of odor.”

How the nose knows

This challenge had remained unresolved until now.

This century-old challenge indeed highlighted the difficulty in fitting odors into a logical system: There are millions of odor receptors in our noses, consisting hundreds of different subtypes, each shaped to detect particular molecular features. Our brains potentially perceive millions of smells in which these single molecules are mixed and blended at varying intensities. Thus, mapping this information has been a challenge.

But Sobel and his colleagues, led by graduate student Aharon Ravia and Kobi Snitz, found there is an underlying order to odors. They reached this conclusion by adopting Bell’s concept – namely to describe not the smells themselves, but rather the relationships between smells as they are perceived.

In a series of experiments, the team presented volunteer participants with pairs of smells and asked them to rate these smells on how similar the two seemed to one another, ranking the pairs on a similarity scale ranging from “identical” to “extremely different.”

In the initial experiment, the team created 14 aromatic blends, each made of about 10 molecular components, and presented them two at a time to nearly 200 volunteers, so that by the end of the experiment each volunteer had evaluated 95 pairs.

To translate the resulting database of thousands of reported perceptual similarity ratings into a useful layout, the team refined a physicochemical measure they had previously developed. In this calculation, each odorant is represented by a single vector that combines 21 physical measures (polarity, molecular weight, etc.).

To compare two odorants, each represented by a vector, the angle between the vectors is taken to reflect the perceptual similarity between them. A pair of odorants with a low angle distance between them are predicted similar, those with high angle distance between them are predicted different.

To test this model, the team first applied it to data collected by others, primarily a large study in odor discrimination by Bushdid and colleagues from the lab of Prof. Leslie Vosshall at the Rockefeller Institute in New York.

The Weizmann team found that their model and measurements accurately predicted the Bushdid results: Odorants with low angle distance between them were hard to discriminate; odors with high angle distance between them were easy to discriminate. Encouraged by the model accurately predicting data collected by others, the team continued to test for themselves.

The team concocted new scents and invited a fresh group of volunteers to smell them, again using their method to predict how this set of participants would rate the pairs – at first 14 new blends and then, in the next experiment, 100 blends.

The model performed exceptionally well. In fact, the results were in the same ballpark as those for color perception – sensory information that is grounded in well-defined parameters. This was especially surprising considering each individual likely has a unique complement of smell receptor subtypes, which can vary by as much as 30% across individuals.

Because the “smell map,” or “metric” predicts the similarity of any two odorants, it can also be used to predict how an odorant will ultimately smell. For example, any novel odorant that is within 0.05 radians or less from banana will smell exactly like banana. As the novel odorant gains distance from banana, it will smell banana-ish, and beyond a certain distance, it will stop resembling banana.

Think color mapping but with smell

The team is now developing a web-based tool. This set of tools not only predicts how a novel odorant will smell, but can also synthesize odorants by design. For example, one can take any perfume with a known set of ingredients, and using the map and metric, generate a new perfume with no components in common with the original perfume, but with exactly the same smell. Such creations in color vision, namely non-overlapping spectral compositions that generate the same perceived color, are called color metamers, and here the team generated olfactory metamers.

The study’s findings are a significant step toward realizing a vision of Prof. David Harel of the Computer and Applied Mathematics Department, a co-author of the study: Enabling computers to digitize and reproduce smells.

Environmental remediation using odor tech

In addition, of course, to being able to add realistic flower or sea aromas to your vacation pictures on social media, giving computers the ability to interpret odors in the way that humans do could have an impact on environmental monitoring and the biomedical and food industries, to name a few. Still, master perfumer Christophe Laudamiel, who is also a co-author of the study, remarks that he is not concerned for his profession just yet.

Sobel concludes: “100 years ago, Alexander Graham Bell posed a challenge. We have now answered it: The distance between rose and violet is 0.202 radians (they are remotely similar), the distance between violet and asafoetida is 0.5 radians (they are very different), and the difference between rose and asafoetida is 0.565 radians (they are even more different). We have converted odor percepts into numbers, and this should indeed advance the science of odor.”

The post Computers now understand how to print smell appeared first on Green Prophet.

If the average monthly salary in your city was $400 but you could make $1200 from a page of fake news what would you choose? The city of Veles in the center of North Macedonia has recently gained fame as a key base for the fake news industry. An American student studying at Haifa University in Israel travelled to Macedonia to understand how the propaganda machine is built.

Veles is home to dozens of website operators that create and market fake news for ad dollars. Since 2015, many people in Veles saw that Americans were hungry for news about the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and saw this as a great opportunity to advance their business plans. 

They created a productive and convincing system for creating and spreading fake news. At first the webpage operators disseminated fake news against both candidates, but they soon realized that the pages attacking Trump received relatively few likes and shares, whereas those supporting Trump and attacking Clinton proved to be a gold mine. 

Researchers from Haifa University in Israel studied how the fake news machine became so powerful and influential:

As part of the study, led by Dr. Israel Waismel-Manor from the School of Political Science at the University of Haifa, research student Heather Hughes traveled to Veles to interview those involved in disseminating fake news.

She even joined a course where people learned how to make money through viral internet actions. “During classes, the students do not learn how to disseminate political fake news. The course provides them with tools that enable each of them to become a propaganda machine for any course, from promoting wonder cures to gossip websites and on to websites supporting or opposing any particular political candidate,” Dr. Waismel-Manor explained.

During the study, the Hughes held several interviews with local residents who had worked in the fake news industry, and with young local people who were familiar with the website businesses. Most of the interviewees refused to allow their comments to be recorded, and accordingly the study is based on the notes taken by the researcher during the interviews.

“After someone asked me during one interview to pay 5000 Euros or to have sex in return for continuing the interviews, I decided to leave the city immediately and ended by fieldwork earlier than planned,” reveals Hughes featured in the video below.

The interviews with the fake news disseminators show that they have no ethical problem with the way they behave and no regrets on the issue: “We can’t afford anything, and if the Americans can’t tell the different between real news and fake news, that’s their problem,” some of them said.

“It’s the Americans’ fault that they don’t understand anything. What does it matter if we make money because they can’t tell the difference?”

Hughes asked the fake news disseminators what they think about the fact that they are committing illegal acts? They all replied that their actions were legal, but some of them laughed nervously and were clearly uncomfortable with the question.

Many of the workers in the fake news industry are single young men. They did not become millionaires, but they earned around $1000 a month – three or more times the average wage in Veles. “People need money in order to make money. It’s a circle everyone wants to be part of, but they can’t begin without 500 Euros,” said one female interviewee who is saving money to sign up for a Facebook page building course.

One of the interviewees in the study was Mirko Ceselkoski, who ran the course in Veles on opening and publicizing Facebook pages. Ceselkoski has become a local sensation. He stands at the center of the fake news industry in town and over the years he has taught over one hundred local residents how to make money by promoting Facebook pages and tweets. As mentioned above, the researcher participated in the course and interviewed Ceselkoski:

“Fake news creates a bigger buzz on the various social networks than in the mainstream news. The key to success is building trust with the site’s visitors. You have to maintain the page over a long period with credible information, and after the trust has been built you can start to disseminate fake news. The proportion is 80% accurate content and 20% falsehoods. When the fake news is wrapped up among true stories, it enhances the credibility of the source publishing the story and makes the reader read something that they would otherwise categorize as untrue.”

“The page promoters in Veles and Ceselkoski’s students understood the mechanism that is needed in order to reach a very large number of people. They look for information or sensational details that have some grounding in reality, and then add details that are sometimes true and sometimes not. For example, as part of her election campaign, the American pubic was aware that Hillary Trump supports abortions while Donald Trump opposes them. The fake news disseminators created sensational headlines claiming that the Pope – who, of course, opposes abortions – was supporting Donald Trump’s candidacy for president of the United States. As a result, Trump supporters shared information that, as we explained, was untrue,” Dr. Waismel-Manor commented.

Dr. Waismel-Manor added that “the 2016 elections in the United States aroused a high level of interest and powerful emotions. People were thirsty to read anything, any post or tweet about the campaign. In addition, the young operators quickly learned that this thirst comes mainly from the right-hand side of the political spectrum, so they adjusted their false messages accordingly. It is difficult to gauge what impact this content had, but even if it only influenced a few tens of thousands of Americans, this could have tipped the scales in key states.”

When Ceselkoski was asked whether Russian operators planted information with his students, he replied that all the publications were produced locally in North Macedonia. According to the researchers, Ceselkoski did not want to be seen as a Russian pawn. But the fact that there is no proof of any involvement by the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) does not rule out the possibility that they were involved behind the scenes, without the knowledge of the young North Macedonians.

“Most of the local operators emphasized that they had only a single goal: to make money, and lots of it. Since we are drawing close to another election in the United States, we need to remember that while the North Macedonians are the winners in this story, democracy pays the price,” the researchers concluded.

Ask Pablo?

My penpal Pablo Solomon, environment designer and artist over in Texas, writes to me on fake news:

“I have written extensively on fake news, how to detect it, etc. Marvin Gay in his song “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” warns to “believe half of what you see and none of what you hear”. Fake news gets the most press because it is convenient for one side or the other to accuse their rivals of creating or disseminating fake news.

“However our world has become so polarized that fake news is just the tip of the iceberg. You name the topic or the issue or the political view or the moral debate or whatever–and you are bombarded with a constant stream of propaganda disguised as news, entertainment, science, Biblical Truth, sports, statistics, etc.

“However, if you really want to get a relatively clear understanding of any topic you can. You must have some basic understanding of whatever subject is being discussed, some basic knowledge of statistics and how it can be manipulated to prove/disprove anything, and just have a somewhat skeptical attitude.

“Fake news, bias, BS, exaggeration, lies, down playing, white washing, weaponized humor, the rants of sports figures and entertainers, far Left or far Right commentators, etc. really do not concern me. The real evil is in censorship, doxing, threats, Cancel Culture and violent reprisals.

“It was once only tyrannical governments that controlled what ideas we could exchange. Now it is Big Tech, Big Media and even our Universities that are preventing the open exchange of ideas. Give me Fake News over Censorship and Cancel Culture any day of the week.

“There is no issue so evil that it overrides our Freedom of Expression. Free People do not censor the rants or lies of others, instead they shine the Light of Truth. You may cheer the censorship of and attacks on someone or some idea you consider evil today. But once you accept the general idea of shutting up people with whom you disagree, you are creating more Darkness.”

The post Student exposes fake news propaganda machine in Macedonia appeared first on Green Prophet.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is leading a series of workshops focused on journalism, new media and management for media professionals working in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

The workshops are part of the European Union (EU)-funded Media Neighborhood Project, a three-year training program for journalists, editors and managers from broadcast, print and digital media. It aims to strengthen journalistic skills in the areas of media independence and online media; and improve the reporting of  EU social, economic and political policies within the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Caucasus. APPLY NOW>

Applicants must select one of three workshops available in each country:

1.  BBC News Reporting Course (Jordan:11-13 December 2012, and Palestine: 16-18 December 2012)

• Making stories relevant and engaging for the audience
• Understanding the EU and its relationship with its neighbours
• Journalistic ethics
• Effective news gathering
• Professional interviewing techniques

2. Multi-Platform Ethical Journalism (Jordan: 9-13 December 2012,  and Palestine: 9-13 December 2012)

• Basics of multi-platform journalism
• Creating professional content for online
• Techniques of mobile reporting
• Citizen journalism
• Building online communities, involving the audience

3.  Media Managers and Senior Editors on Professional and Financial Independence (Jordan: 2-6 December 2012, and Palestine: 2-6 December 2012)

• Business planning and strategic marketing
• Developing practical tools – mechanics of selling advertising preparing price lists, negotiation techniques
• Effective broadcast scheduling
• Foreign desk management
• EU and its policies towards your country and region

Worskhop dates are tentative, but what is confirmed is the 23 October 2012 deadline for applications.

Send a CV to media.neighbourhood@bbc.co.uk and include a cover letter that outlines your experience and suitability.  Be sure to specify the course you are applying for.

Training will be led by a consortium of international media organizations including senior journalists from the BBC and Agence France Presse (AFP).  Further details (in English and in Arabic) can be found on the individual FaceBook pages made for the Jordan and Palestine programs.

Details are also available in Arabic – Jordan and Palestine.

Get your application in and share with others who might be eligible.  This excellent opportunity to polish your media skills will make you a stronger communicator of environmental news pertinent to the Middle East.

Image of writer by Shutterstock

The post Grow Green Reporting Skills with BBC Training in Jordan and Palestine appeared first on Green Prophet.

The theory goes that Abu Dhabi financed the film, which was also produced by Focus Features and Participant Media, because if the fracking industry fails, western states will be forced to continue purchasing oil from OPEC (as if there was ever any risk that a single drop would go to waste.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHQt1NAkhIo[/youtube]

Abu Dhabi’s creative merit called into question

Because Abu Dhabi Media is chaired by his Excellency Mohamed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, who also reports to a member of the  Supreme Petroleum Council of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the film can’t possibly have creative merit.

Business Insider reports that the “movie was funded out of a $250 million “slate-based investment” formed in 2008 between Participant Media and Image Nation Abu Dhabi, in which both sides agreed to make 15-18 films using the capital from the investment fund. Participant Media, which is known for creating provocative and socially conscious films,” added via email that the investment covers all qualifying Participant narrative films regardless of genre or subject matter.”

Bear in mind that this same partnership produced “The Help,” a powerful critique of the relationships between African American maids and their  employers (owners?) during the 1960s US civil rights movement. If Abu Dhabi were completely controlling the puppet strings of Image Nation, they couldn’t possibly have sanctioned this film since it draws attention to similar, often unhealthy relationships between wealthy Emiratis and their foreign employees.

The dangers of tracking

In the Promised Land, Matt Damon is a salesman for a natural gas company who heads into a small American town hit hard by economic crisis. The locals are beguiled by offers of money for their land, which will be subjected to a controversial method of natural gas extraction called hydraulic tracking.

This method not only requires about 1-8 million gallons of water per job but also uses up to 600 chemicals in 40,000 gallons of fracking fluid injected 10,000 feet into the ground through a drilled pipeline. More discussion about the environmental and social dangers associated with fracking can be found at a thedangersoffracking.com.

That an Arab film production company is capable of such a strong social criticism seems to be the real issue here. Are westerners so ignorant of the talents in this part of the world that they must instantly draw sinister connections when something remarkable is produced here?

Not only that, but Abu Dhabi’s environmental record, despite the Emirate’s reliance on fossil fuels for its wealth, has taken much larger strides in environmental progress than the United States.

Recall that while President Obama refused to reinstall Jimmy Carter’s solar panels on the White House roof,  HH Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the same connection used to substantiate these dubious conspiracy theories, crowned his court with a rooftop array of photovoltaic panels.

Spotlight on the real bad guys

Could it possibly be that Abu Dhabi creatives actually mean to condemn an environmentally destructive method of fossil fuel extraction? Could it be that some states evolve with the times? That what defined our past need not define our future?

Instead of promulgating slippery stereotypes that Gulf countries are oil-mad demons who will stop at nothing to get every last cent out of their oil, rather let the spotlight cast by Promised Land shine on the real bad guys: the frackers.

Image credit: Screengrab from Promised Land Trailer

The post Abu Dhabi Behind Matt Damon Anti-Fracking Film appeared first on Green Prophet.

Yosef Abramowitz, from the Israel-based Arava Power Company, was chosen as a leading environmental figure by the CNN television network from among a global pool of candidates.  Over multiple broadcasts in July, Green Pioneers will air on CNN with a focus on six diverse individuals who are guiding significant environmental projects in their respective countries.  Other Green Pioneers include a princess from Oman, Princess Sayyida Tania Bint Shabib Al Said who is leading efforts to preserve Oman’s nature reserves and turtle populations.

“It is an honor to represent Israel as a Green Pioneer, said Abramowitz.  “The choice of an Israeli for a program focused on environmental issues is proof that world looks to us as an example for environmental technology and innovation. With the help of the government of Israel and its support for solar energy, we will continue to be a renewable light unto the nations.” 

Shortly after relocating to Israel from Newton, Massachusetts with his wife and five children in 2006, Abramowitz founded Arava Power Company at Kibbutz Ketura with partners Ed Hofland from Ketura and David Rosenblatt of New Jersey – years after Abramowitz spent nearly a year on the kibbutz as a young volunteer in 1983.

Arava Power is the solar energy leader in Israel’s $20 billion solar market.  The company is developing hundreds of megawatts of projects in Israel’s Negev desert.  In June 2011, Arava Power inaugurated Israel’s first solar field, Ketura Sun, at Kibbutz Ketura – the first and only such commercial solar field in Israel and the only medium-size field in the region.

In May of this year, Arava Power reached financial close on 8 medium-size solar projects totaling NIS 800 million.  Arava Power is also currently developing a large-size solar field, also at Ketura, which will produce 40 megawatts of power and supply one-third of the electricity needs for the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

Abramowitz also directs his energy at populations in need, both within Israel and internationally.  He is at the forefront of the campaign for solar energy for Israel’s minority Bedouin population.  Outside of Israel, Abramowitz is a central partner in an international forum led by former US President Bill Clinton to develop a solar energy industry in Haiti as part of the rehabilitation of the country’s energy infrastructure following the 2010 earthquake.  Abramowitz and his family recently volunteered in the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda, where he instructed youth about the potential of solar energy.

The Green Pioneers program will air tomorrow on CNN –  Friday, July 13 at 15:30; Saturday, July 14 at 13:00 and 20:30; Sunday, July 15 at 09:30 and 20:30; Monday, July 16 at 03:30 and 07:30; Tuesday, July 17 at 09:30 and 16.30; and Wednesday, July 18 at 04:30.

All times are GMT.

The post Israel’s Captain Sunshine a CNN Green Pioneer appeared first on Green Prophet.

True, a lot of environmentalists promote reading over television. A nice intimate dinner and good chats with friends over a night at the movies. And of course we know it’s the better way to let our kids play outside before we let them switch on the computer games and consoles.

But we can’t be superheros all the time. Sometimes we need that downtime, some time to be couch potatoes in front of the television. Kids too.

If you live in the United States you’ll find the best cable deals, with dozens of channels, or more, that will interest you –– even if you consider yourself a serious environmentalist.

Building one of the most environmentally-savvy green buildings in the United States, Comcast – the largest cable, phone and Internet provider in the United States, is setting the pace on how overlooked services like media, communications and entertainment can be greened.

It is setting an agenda for global companies to follow.

Whether you are into animal, nature or ecological shows at all, there are plenty of environment-related shows served by Comcast from PBS, Discovery, Nat Geo, Nat Geographic Wild, and channels like Animal Planet.

Animal Planet is one of our favorite shows as it captivates audiences with adventures from the wild kingdom, all the way to adventure with domestic animals like Kitty in the backyard. Meow.

Discovery is the best way to take a comfy seat into exploring your world; with programming that includes series on undisturbed habitats, to man’s place in the city and environment, to pure environmental programming. (Take note that Discovery bought the blog TreeHugger a few years ago, adding to its commitment to serve the environmental ethos.)

And National Geographic? No home is complete without access to this world-changing programming, showing the culture of people and our fascination with our natural and built environment from the arctic, to the tropics to the heartlands of Africa.

The post Greener TV With Comcast Cable? appeared first on Green Prophet.

We buy them at health food stores because the ceramic coated pans are supposedly safer than teflon, and good for the planet. A new investigative report by an Israeli consumer protection TV show called Kolbotek finds that ceramic cookware may damaging to your health, and could contain lead and cadmium, which cause a number of serious medical problems such as brain damage (especially in small children), and certain types of cancer. The problem is with the lack of regulation on the materials used to color the pots and pans, and these colors made with cadmium and lead, can leak into your food.

Color coated knives were also found to contain toxic metals

Various brands of ceramic cookware were tested by Kolbotek in an environmental testing laboratory Enviro Services Company (ESC), located next to Israel’s notorious hazardous wastes disposal site Ramat Hovav.

The tests found that certain ceramic cookware brands (not mentioned here due to reasons of sensitivity) contained amounts of toxic metals far above “accepted levels” (levels that do not constitute a danger to human health unless absorbed in large quantities).

Even some so called “green guard” brands using a coating called Neoflam were found to contain low levels of these metals, which might warrant then not to be used.

Kobotek also interviewed some prominent toxicologists to obtain their opinions on the dangers from using these products. One of these toxicologists is Professor Yoni Amitai a former Senior Physician at the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, and Director of  the Department of Mother, Child and Adolescent Health at the Ministry of Health. Amitai said that utensils containing high amounts of metals like lead and cadmium should not be used, especially for families with children.

While the nonstick coatings make these utensils very nice to use, the lab tests found that heating the utensils to very high temperatures, such as done when frying foods of a high fire, releases toxins from metals and other substances at a much faster rate.

The coated knives were found to release toxic substances when scratched or chipped.

A link to the entire Kolbotek program, aired on Israel’s Channel 2 TV of Monday, December 26, was posted here. But by March, 2020 it was no longer there.

The program did not say that all ceramic, non stick coated cookware is dangerous, but that some brands that contain high amounts of the mentioned metals should be avoided.

The general consensus from the program is for people to avoid using these ceramic coated utensils, even those considered as “safe”.

This is not the first time that consumers have been warned to avoid using utensils with nonstick coatings. Warnings against use of those with “teflon” non stick coatings have been issues for years, and also in the USA warnings against nonstick utensils have been issued.

Maybe the best idea it to stick to good quality stainless steel utensils; or even better, to use that old cast iron skillet and cooking pot or dutch oven, and use lots of “elbow grease” to clean them afterwards.

Consumer protection programs have made us more aware of products that may be dangerous to human health. Some of these products already mentioned on Green Prophet include a food substance known as meat glue (transglutaminase), an article giving  warnings of possible toxic contraceptives; and a brand of silicone breast implants, PIP, that have been recalled by the French government for fears of leaks that could cause cancer.

In short: buyer beware if you want to protect your health.

UPDATE article (Jan 2): Public Launches Class Action Suit Against Neoflam

More articles on dangerous products you should watch out for:
PIP Breast Implant Warnings Hit the Middle East
Is Conscious contraception site selling a bag of dirty tricks?
The Meat You Eat May Not be What You Think
Meat Glue (transglutaminase): the meat industry’s dirty secret

The post Ceramic Coated Cooking Pans May be Killing You With Color appeared first on Green Prophet.

British Muslims are breaking the terrorist stereotype in a new eco-awareness campaign. Trees4Life, a British grassroots organisation has branched out as far as Palestine and Indonesia, to facilitate positive solutions to environmental problems in the form of tree-planting programs.

In the faithful hopes of trying to make us aware of our environmental obligations, Trees4Life believes planting a tree is the first small step in being a green Muslim. “We are just trying to open the door in thinking ‘green’,” says founder Naweeda Ahmad.

Green Prophet writer Zaufishan Iqbal asked the Trees4Life team how British Muslims can help the Middle East and whether planting trees is really the way to go about it.

Green Prophet: Great to speak to you Naweeda. First up, tell us a bit about Trees4Life. When and where did the campaign begin? Who’s on the team?
“Trees4Life Campaign began in June 2010. There are two members on the team; Ruhul Tarafder and Naweeda Ahmad. We also have 5 trustees, Shahed Yunus (Chair), Lina Khan (Secretary), Robin Virgin, Naima Bouteldja and Rafia Meah. Each of us has a varied role in terms of promoting unusual fundraisers and organising campaigns.

The main aims of the organisation are to raise awareness in Britain of the ecological and environmental problems facing the planet, especially some of the most vulnerable populations of the less developed world.

Trees4Life Campaign is an innovative, global initiative to raise awareness of the ecological and environmental problems facing our planet. Our belief is simply that life cannot survive without trees because trees are in essence the lungs of the earth, they breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen, this is what sustains life.”

Green Prophet: How does faith as a Muslim fit into your environmental action?
“Ecology may seem like a western concept but really this is something that Islam promoted over 1400 yrs ago. Allah (Arabic, God) has made humans custodians of the earth; this has been entrusted to us by Allah and it’s important for us to look after it.

As Muslims, we have an obligation to preserve the planet, and what better way than planting a tree.”

Green Prophet: Is Islam therefore the inspiration behind Trees4Life
“At Trees4Life, we felt that Islam is not just about fulfilling the rituals of the faith – prayer, fasting in Ramadan – but to look beyond that and to be concerned about the world we live in.

We are therefore supposed to be concerned about our environment and to learn about how we can help our world in a positive way, this is part of our faith.

We wanted to engage in an act that would help us to help the environment and also encourage others to do the same. Planting a tree is one of the simplest acts anyone can do to help support the environment.”

Green Prophet: Where in the world have you planted trees so far, and where are you going next?
“Trees4Life Campaign is working to support tree planting programs in many parts of the developing world. Our first and current project is Trees4Life Indonesia whereby we aim to help our partners (IFEES and the Consortium) to re-plant trees in two of Java’s National Parks. Between 1985 and 2007, the island of Sumatra alone lost 12 million hectares of natural forest; a 48 percent loss over 22 years. Our humble aim is to plant 2,000 trees.

*Updates on the Trees4Life Facebook group page say over a half of this target was recently met. Great stuff.

We hope to initiate projects in other countries including Bangladesh, Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Costa Rica and Brazil. Developments are being made to launch these soon.”

Green Prophet: What response have you had about your campaigns from the Muslim and wider community?
“We have had a very positive response so far in a short space of time which is very pleasing. Earlier this year, we hit over 500 members on our Facebook group supporting the Banglatown road trip where through donations, we had the funds to plant just over 300 trees.

People from all over Great Britain have supported the project as well people who met the road trip team in the different countries they have driven through.”

Over the summer season, Trees4Life organised an open eco-poetry competition, allowing submitters to gift a tree planting, and a fantastic Fusion Rally environmental car trek across Europe saw the Muslim ‘Green Burqettes’ fundraise and promote Green Islam ideas.”

Green Prophet: Middle Eastern regions only constitute 4.7% of the world’s total carbon emissions, so it’s ironic that leaders fly across in planes just to tell us to switch off our kettles. How can planting trees help reduce our global carbon footprint?
“It is no myth that trees help to reduce carbon emissions. As they grow, they help in the fight against climate change. Trees remove carbon dioxide from the air, store carbon in the trees and soil, and then release oxygen into the atmosphere.

Research shows that global warming is threatening the world’s trees. If current rates of fossil fuel emissions continue, the rainforests are in danger of collapse. In turn, deforestation exacerbates global warming when dying trees release their stored carbon back into the atmosphere. This vicious cycle could lead to irreversible and dangerous climate changes that would affect all life on the planet.

Planting trees is a simple step that anyone can take that reduces carbon dioxide and makes a pro active stand against global warming. Our official website provides a carbon calculator which can be used to find out an individual’s carbon footprint and how many trees he/she needs to plant to offset this.”

Green Prophet: Faith is a driving force for many environmentalists. Do you believe Muslims have an additional role to play in keeping the earth ‘green’?
“Yes definitely. In fact, studying the biography of the Prophet Muhammad shows his actions would be considered in today’s world as that of a green and eco-friendly person.

We think many Muslims are unaware that this is their social and Islamic responsibility as part of our Islamic faith to be ‘green’.

Over 1400 years ago the Prophet taught us to not waste our energy and resources but to use these wisely. In a hadith (saying) emphasising the urgency of preservation, he was reported to have said ‘If an individual has an opportunity to plant a tree, even if he knows the Day of Judgement is imminent, let him plant the tree’. [Bukhari]

Green Prophet: Although we have reported on the lives and passing of green Muslims, positive reenforcement of the ‘Muslim environmentalist’ image is lacking in mainstream media. What do you think is holding back Muslims from doing more for the planet?
“There are many factors holding Muslims back from doing more for the planet. First and foremost would be a lack of education on environmental issues. When taking into consideration many countries with an overwhelming Muslim population are hugely underdeveloped, and there are high illiteracy rates, environmental concerns are often not seen as a high priority.

Many ordinary people throughout Asia and Africa struggle for basic necessities such as clean water, food, shelter, and free education. What is not highlighted is the correlation between having these basic necessities and preserving the environment.”

Green Prophet: If you could get Muslims to do one thing for the environment, what would it be?
“Stop wasting what Allah has given us. Use water wisely, think about our food, how much we consume and how much we actually waste. We need to re-educate ourselves on being grateful to Allah for the blessings He has given us.

If the simple act of planting a tree across the globe could be promoted amongst everyone then this single act would not only be a step in the right direction of preserving the planet but for Muslims it’s a small action for which the spiritual reward is far reaching.”

Green Prophet: As educators yourself, what work does Trees4Life do in Middle Eastern countries in protecting the environment?
“Our Trees4Life Campaign launched this year with the first project in Indonesia. The tree planting process involves identifying a nursery site, constructing the nursery, and preparing and maintaining seedlings. We train local people to look after the nurseries and thus, continue the tradition of tree preservation.

Trees4Life research the best nursery sites and maintain saplings in purpose-prepared eco-friendly land

The planting stage includes land preparation – clearing, green fertilization, preparing sites for planting of each tree – as well as establishing land control, shelters and signboards. The program in Indonesia, along with others, will plant “cash crops” and will facilitate community mobilization, education, planting and maintenance activities.

We hope to launch future projects across the world including the Middle East, with recruitment currently underway in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Brazil. We are currently exploring possibilities of developing olive tree programmes in Palestine.”

Green Prophet: What are some of the core green principles inspired by Islam?

“Islam is a way of life in which justice, fairness and compassion towards all of creation is paramount. Prophet Muhammad is the role model for humanity. Like Prophet Jesus and Prophet Moses, he had the Islamic environmental philosophy, simple living, moderation, and respect and concern for all creation.

Trees are a blessing from Allah; they provide us with shade, with fruits and more importantly they are the lungs of the earth, providing us with oxygen. They also provide us with a beautiful environment. Many different types of trees and flowers with herbal uses and beautiful shades of colour, are a reminder of Heaven, all of which make us reflect on creation.

Trees are mentioned in the Quran and hadith (Prophet Muhammad’s sayings) including the date palm tree, olive tree, fig and pomegranate. These fruits have many health benefits and undiscovered remedies so Islam teaches us to be grateful for these blessings.

Several hadith (prophetic sayings) refer to planting a seed or tree:

• ‘There is no-one amongst the believers who plants a tree or sows seeds, and then a bird, or a person or an animal eats from it, but it is regarded as a charitable gift for him.’
• ‘If any believer plants any plant and a human being or an animal eats of it, he will be rewarded as if he had given that much in charity.’ (Hadith recorded by Al-Bukhari and Muslim).”

Green Prophet: And finally, what changes do you hope to see in the Middle Eastern and Asian community in the next 25 years with regards to environmental awareness?

“It is very important for the countries mentioned and others to consider environmental awareness for the next 25 years and beyond.

One of the other benefits is that trees provide a powerful defence against floods and soil erosion, such as in Bangladesh and Pakistan, which climate scientists warn will suffer from increased risk of floods due to rising sea levels from climate change. The recent devastating floods in Pakistan fit into the long-term pattern of increased frequency of natural disasters and erratic weather symptomatic of global warming. Deforestation made Pakistan much more vulnerable to flooding.

Trees4Life Campaign thus aims to get to the root of the problem by encouraging people all over the world to plant trees. Extensive reforestation of the southern hemisphere would also significantly reduce the effects of global warming and help to restore the natural balance elsewhere. Trees are nature’s way of ‘locking in’ carbon, so planting more trees is one of the most powerful ways of combatting climate change and defending our environment.”

:: Trees4Life Campaign

More on Muslim eco-news:
Can Muslims Be Buried At Sea?
A Guide To Green Blogging For Muslims
30 Mosques in 30 States: USA’s Organic Muslims
Middle East Leaders To Launch Green Hajj Guide At House Of Lords
UN: Urban Trees Needed Everywhere

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The Dead Sea Works would have the public believe that it is saving – not destroying – the Dead Sea.

Greenwashing campaigns have become abundant in recent years as the green trend has been growing in popularity.  With greater environmental awareness among the public over the past decade or so, businesses attempt to attract positive attention by emphasizing (whether justifiably or not) their greener qualities.  Unfortunately, more often than not, these green claims are exaggerated or completely fictitious.  Such was the case this week when the Dead Sea Works, a company largely held responsible for the increase in Dead Sea salt accumulations and decreasing water levels, claimed that it was actually saving the natural wonder in a new media campaign.

The $1.5 million dollar campaign is the company’s first attempt to appeal directly to the public, since it has previously stuck to behind-the-scenes lobbying tactics.  It is believed to anticipate a demand by the State of Israel that the company pay for the project to dredge the salt from the Dead Sea.

Why take responsibility if you can somehow convince the public that your actions are good for the Dead Sea?

The animated, simple vocabulary campaign focused on happiness and joy – two things the Israeli public won’t be if the Dead Sea Works continues its work and eventually leads all the surrounding hotels to sink.

Dead Sea Works has transformed the southern part of the Dead Sea into an evaporation pond in order to exploit the lake’s minerals, which has caused the water levels in the northern section to dangerously drop.  Furthermore, the area around Ein Bokek – where several hotels are located – is threatening to rise and flood.

Hopefully the company’s new greenwashing campaign will not deter the State of Israel from requiring that Dead Sea Works be responsible for dredging the salt out of the evaporation pool, otherwise this will just rub Dead Sea salt in the wound of this increasingly disastrous environmental situation.

: Haaretz

Read more about the Dead Sea and its relationship with the Dead Sea Works::
Time Running Out for Saving Dead Sea Hotels
Sinking Hotel! Salt Imbalance in Mined Dead Sea Threatens Tourism Industry
Ahava is Good For the Skin, But What About the Dead Sea?

Image via: MaMaVe

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Perhaps in the west we still retain some false sense of culpability for the discovery of nuclear fission. Maybe the very name Fukushima has resonances with that of Hiroshima – invoking memories of horrors that for most of us are well before living memory. Something has to explain the irrational, overhyped, disinformation that has pervaded much of the western media since Japan’s cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami triggered the crisis in a clump of that nation’s nuclear reactors.

Disinformation exemplified by the headline used in the Green Prophet last week “Japan Nuclear Meltdown Will Seriously Affect World Environment”. The hysterical headlines abounded in the western press, and even that premier of news agencies, the BBC, included as part of its World Service news coverage the strained tones of a Japanese woman who had decided to leave Tokyo because of a (negligible) rise in radiation in that city, adding “the radiation levels should be zero”. What listener could fail to agree with that? Except that we are all exposed to natural radiation, with over 97 percent originating in the rocks of the earth or in outer space, nothing to do with the meddling of man. Levels of radiation are never zero.

The media was filled with myth and half truths, made more credible by the absurd decision of several world leaders to announce they were going to abandon their programs to develop nuclear reactors. Politicians doing what politicians do best – pandering to ignorance.

But rather than dissect these articles, separating fact from fiction phrase by phrase, let me present a different scenario:

Tainted spinach equals a CAT scan

Japan having suffered a massive earthquake and a cataclysmic tsunami was faced with a total failure of a cascade of security procedures in a group of nuclear reactors. But far from the result being a massive humanitarian disaster the reactors have been brought under control, about five lives have been lost and minimal levels of radioactivity have been released. (Please note that the levels recently reported in spinach and milk are extremely low. Experts in the US and Japan have both ruled out that these pose any threat to health, noting that the level of radioactivity found in the spinach would, if eaten for a year, equal the radiation received in a single CAT scan).

It should also be remembered that these are reactors built about 40 years ago and safety features have considerably improved since then. By any risk assessment relating to loss of life this has not been a catastrophe.

But reflect for a moment on the number killed each year in Japan from industrial accidents, over 1000 – none of them relating to nuclear power. In fact over three hundred are in the construction industry alone. These are typical figures which can be found in any industrial nation. It would be nonsense to decide to curtail construction based on these statistics.

For a truly terrifying story of suffering and loss consider the world’s worst industrial disaster: in 1984 at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal in India. It claimed more than 10 000 lives. There has of course been no outcry against the manufacture of chemicals. We believe, as indeed we should, that lessons are learned from accidents and that improvements in safety procedures can then be instituted.

Japan, and the rest of the world, should move towards decommissioning old reactors and updating safety procedures. Something the level-headed Japanese with their amazing commitment to survival will no doubt move towards.

Surely an example to us all.

Susan Goodman is a physics graduate of Oxford University. A science journalist and writer, she is committed to increasing scientific awareness among non-scientists. She now lives in Jerusalem and teaches academic reading and writing to science students at the Hebrew University and Jerusalem College of Engineering. She is also working towards a doctorate which examines different ways of promoting scientific awareness among young people.

Image via ssoosay

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