It’s easy for us to think of modern humans as the sole destroyers of all things living, but ancient humans also competed with other predators, using traps. This includes nomadic people from what is now Israel’s Negev Desert. A 5,000 year-old leopard trap, made from piles of stone, was just identified in Israel.

Researchers with the Geological Survey of Israel discovered no fewer than 50 leopard traps scattered throughout the desert. In just about each case, they were positioned near areas where sheep and goat were kept.

Once ancient nomadic people began to herd sheep and goat, they developed ingenious methods to curtail leopard and other predators, such as foxes, wolves, hyenas, and caracal, from snapping up their carefully-tended livestock.

Most surprisingly, the same kind of traps were used for thousands of years, suggesting that the design was passed on through the generations.

“The most exciting thing is the antiquity of these carnivore traps, which is totally unexpected,” geochronologist Naomi Porat told Live Science.

The leopard trap as seen from behind

A 1,600-year-old trap was unearthed besides the “nearly identical” 5,000 year old trap, which means predators have been a topic of conversation among desert dwellers in southern Israel for thousands of years.

“They look like a pile of stones, like a cairn, and you need a good eye and also some digging around to realize what it is,” Porat told Live Science.

A piece of meat on a piece of rope that is attached to a slab door lures the carnivore, which is then unable to escape the box trap.

This discovery was published in the September issue of the journal Antiquity based in the UK.

Today there are no more leopards left to hunt in the Negev desert. The last was seen one decade ago, and they are almost extinct in neighboring Jordan as well.

:: Live Science

Image of leopard on rocks, Shutterstock

The post 5,000-Year-Old Leopard Trap Discovered in Israel’s Negev Desert appeared first on Green Prophet.

Once no more than a ramshackle caravan, a pitstop between the developed north and the country’s dry southern expanse, Pundak Neot Semadar has since evolved into a charming all-organic restaurant that also sells jam, soap, dates and other goods produced at the nearby kibbutz. 

Respected for its commitment to community and ecology, Neot Semadar is particularly famous for its spectacular earth architecture.

When it was first established in 1989, the kibbutz was accused of cultish behavior because a self-proclaimed “guru” used to live there. However, among the women who run the restaurant, Yosef Safra is remembered more fondly as a “charismatic man” than any kind of spiritual leader.

The post Pundak Neot Semadar – An Improbable Organic Oasis in the Arava Desert appeared first on Green Prophet.

Following a spate of violence against African migrants living in southern Tel Aviv, the Defense Ministry has dispatched dozens of bulldozers to Ketziot near the Egyptian/Israeli border to clear land for a detention center. Called Ir Amim, which means City of Nations in Hebrew, the desert asylum center will initially contain enough recycled shipping containers to house 3,000 African migrants.

Eventually the Ketziot center will be expanded to accommodate an additional 8,000 people. The Defense Ministry also announced that it will erect up to 25,000 tents for migrants in five detention centers that will be run by the prison service. The idea is to keep African migrants out of Israeli cities and create a deterrent to any future asylum-seekers. But the Negev Regional Council and local residents are deeply opposed to the plan.

Sanctuary in tents

Although Israel has begrudgingly provided sanctuary to African migrants who face political instability and violence in their home countries, a Jerusalem court recently ruled that Israeli can deport Southern Sudanese nationals despite the ongoing trouble in the newly-formed country. But Sudanese only represent a small minority of African migrants living in Israel.

For the rest, including thousands of Eritrean nationals and other future asylum-seekers, shipping and containers and tents in the Negev will be home. The first phase of the Ketziot center is expected to be completed by the end of this year, although people may start moving in as early as November, and the tent cities will follow soon thereafter.

But locals are not impressed.

“Setting up a tent city simply looks bad. You take people from south Tel Aviv, stick them in tents in the middle of the desert, and now [I’m supposed] to look after them,” said Ramat Negev Regional Council head Shmuel Rifman.

Solarize the centers

No sewage treatment facilities exist yet and energy in the region is already intermittent and scarce. Locals worry that these new compounds will usurp their own resources. Proving sufficient water to the new desert dwellers will also be an issue.

Palestinian politics aside, Israel is a small country, so there isn’t a lot of extra space to house the 2,000 migrants that enter the country each month. Although there is a risk that these centers could become unhealthy, unruly camps, there is also an opportunity to make use of the desert’s resources to mitigate that potential.

Instead of tapping into the national grid for power, the Defense Ministry should install solar panels to provide energy, which might placate local residents. And rather than build chemical waste treatment plants, hundreds of carefully-placed compost toilets would process human waste far more efficiently. It would only be necessary to replace the bins once a month.

Asylum-seekers who show leadership qualities can be tasked with monitoring the panels and toilets to ensure that they function properly, which in turn would help to promote internal rather than enforced order. Even though Israel wants to discourage further “infiltrators,” the public will be more supportive of this initiative if it is run humanely and without diverting a pile of resources financed by their tax contributions.

:: Haaretz

Image credit: Haiti refugee by Arindambanerjee, Shutterstock

More on Tent Cities and Shipping Containers:

How Israel’s Tent Cities Influenced Occupy Wall Street

Tent City Dismantled in Tel Aviv – Now What?

Street Art Meets Castro Fashion in Recycled Shipping Containers

The post Tent Cities to House Thousands of African Migrants in Israel’s Negev Desert appeared first on Green Prophet.

If you have ever walked down the street in a city full of high rises and felt a sudden blast of cold air, or witnessed a swirling mass of dried leaves, chances are you experienced an artificial microclimate created by the surrounding buildings. It turns out that when planning sustainable cities, it is crucial to consider the spaces between each building, since they impact one another in very interesting ways. This according to Evyatar Erell, a professor of architecture at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Professor Erell’s experience with applying climatology to city-planning hearkens back to 1986, when he joined the team to develop the first Israeli settlement that deliberately designed its own microclimate.

Situated in the fierce Negev desert, where temperatures reach both high and low extremes, the Neve Zin settlement was designed to keep homes cool during summers and warm during winters. And it was necessary to ensure that no houses shadowed another, thereby compromising that home’s ability to make passive use of the sun’s warmth.

South-facing windows allowed the low winter sun to penetrate, while the summer sun was blocked out with blinds. High vine-covered concrete walls kept pedestrians shaded, and windy roads kept car speed, and therefore dust, to a minimum. It is this kind of planning, according to Erell, that is required in urban environments.

Tall buildings on narrow streets create their own microclimate by blocking out the sun, and creating wind vortices. This not only generates blasts of either hot or cold air, but also traps pollutants since there isn’t enough airflow to carry them off the street and into the atmosphere. It’s likely that the air quality around the towering Burj Dubai is not so great.

But shorter buildings on wide streets can facilitate better airflow and transport city pollutants. And energy efficiency is likely to be better if towering buildings aren’t blocking other buildings’ ability to harness the sun’s energy.

According to Physics Central, Erell is the lead author of a new book, “Urban Microclimate: Designing the Spaces Between Buildings”, that shows how to apply climatology to create greener, more livable cities. He believes that modeling is the key to greener cities.

Recently Singapore decided to renovate Clarke Quay, a warehouse district. By applying mathematical modeling and climatology to their planning, the developers were able to properly size and space every new construction to ensure the optimum microclimate. The result is a comfortable environment, despite lack of air conditioning. A little bit of mathematics can go a long way.

:: Physics Central

More on Green Building in the Middle East:

Foster & Partners Finish Gorgeous Green Building in Morocco

Bring Moshe Safdie’s Green Building to the Middle East

Emirates Green Building Council: You Don’t Have to be Rich To Build Green

image via Joi

The post How Math Can Make Greener Cities appeared first on Green Prophet.

As we push to exploit the Negev desert’s ubiquitous solar energy, we inevitably have to deal with evacuating said energy. Typically that involves unsightly transmission infrastructure: towers, lines, transformers, and more. Israel Electric Corporation had intended to build transmission lines over the top of the iconic Ramon Crater (which is a Makhtesh, not the site of a meteor crash) but The National Parks Authority protested that idea. The Jerusalem Post reports that after a long campaign, IEC and NPA, with leadership from the Ministry of National Infrastructure, have found an alternative solution.

The National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau announced on Tuesday that instead of running lines overhead, IEC will be required to bury the lines. This will ensure that the crater is virtually-free of visual pollution.

Given that the site deep in the Negev attracts scores of foreign and national visitors each year, not to mention its less tangible aesthetic and geological value, it was important to the NPA to encourage IEC to consider their options.

IEC was very concerned to maintain the integrity of the crater and at one point considered routing the lines around it.

NPA Deputy Southern Region Head Gilad Gabai told the paper:

During the discussions over burying the power line, we were able to come to agreement on many issues with IEC officials, who expressed great willingness to put forth solutions to minimize the damage to the crater. A decision was needed by the minister and we congratulate him on making it. I am convinced that by combining the professionalism of the NPA and the IEC, we will be able to advance the project and keep the human impact on nature as muted as possible.

In the past, the crater was raked up by a series of quarries. Thanks to a collaborative effort between the NPA and the Fund to Rehabilitate Quarries, most of those that formerly lined Route 40 are no longer visible. This latest decision will ensure that visitors can continue to enjoy a site only marginally impacted by humans.

:: Jerusalem Post

More on the Negev and solar energy:

Arava Power Signs Solar Deal With Negev Bedouins

BrightSource Launches Solar Plant In The Negev

Sunday Solar To Build On Damaged Negev Land

image via goldberg

The post Israel Ministry Rules Against Unsightly Transmission Lines For Ramon Crater appeared first on Green Prophet.

I  visited Avdat this August on one of the hottest days of the year when temperatures soared well above 40 degrees. Then, atop the ruins of the ancient settlement astride the Spice Route in the Negev Highlands it was difficult to understand how a community – at its peak 12,000 people – could sustain itself on the desert mount.

Visiting the site  again in early November as part of the recent Drylands, Deserts and Desertification conference sponsored by Ben-Gurion University’s Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, the key to how Nabatean, Roman and Byzantine societies survived under the spartan conditions at this UNESCO World Heritage Site became apparent: the application of indigenous knowledge, ancient wisdom that, enabled settlers to cultivate crops and herd small flocks using ingenious technologies adapted to harsh conditions.

Insight into how three civilizations maintained a community in the middle of the desert was offered by veteran desert guide Arthur du Mosch and by Blaustein Institutes professors Pedro Berliner and Hendrik Bruins.

Prof. Bruins (pictured below), a member of the Institute’s Man in the Desert department has uncovered archeological evidence — bones found at a meter depth — that when carbon dated indicates that the desert agriculture was practiced at Avdat even before the Nabateans arrived in the area.

His research suggest that rudimentary farming was undertaken as early as seven thousand years ago, in the late Neolithic period and that local pastoralists engaged in run-off agriculture including the use of fertilizers much earlier than previous believed.

Rainfall under 100 milliliters per year

The early Negev agriculturalists had created terraces to capture the runoff of the rare rains falling in this area -less than 100 milliliters annually – in quantities sufficient to create crop yields with enough surplus to be stored. Storage of water was achieved in cisterns that ancient stoneworkers had cut into boulders. They also created silos out of stone that were used to keep grains, grapes and other crops.

The Nabateans, nomads who originated in the Arabian peninsula first settled at Avdat in the first century before the Common Era. The Nabateans dedicated the settlement in honor of their king-diety, Obodas who then reigned at the heart of the Nabatean civilization at Petra, in today’s Jordan.

The Nabateans were guides and traders with ties to commercial outposts in India, Africa and throughout Arabia where they dealt in perfumes and spices. According to guide du Mosch they traversed the desert in camel trains consisting of 400-800 camels per caravan with each animal carrying a fortune in spices 25-30 kilometers per day on journeys lasting between 40 to 60 days. Their routes passed through Damascus, proceeded to Mecca, onward to Petra, then to Avdat and onto Gaza where their wares were shipped to markets in Europe.

Knowledge of desert conditions

What enabled the Nabateans to prosper in the stark arid conditions was their knowledge of topography, water sources and the biology of their main technology, the camels. So well calibrated was their knowledge of conditions and resource use that they were able to cultivate grains, grapes, chickpeas, olives, lemon and pistachios and even produce wines coveted across the Mediterranean.

Hadrian, the Roman emperor consolidated Avdat into the empire in 106 CE and it became a military outpost attached to a reduced settlement; its Nabatean origins were eclipsed. The Roman influence on the architecture on the mount is found even in its ruins where arches, courtyards, altars and pillars once stood. Wine culture peaked at that time. An earthquake heavily damaged Avdat in the fourth century but the settlement was revived by the Byzantines in the sixth century. Remainders of the Christianization of the site is evidence by several churches consecrated in the area where Roman pagan rituals were carried out on alters in porticos on the mountain peak.

An intimate knowledge of place

In its urban functions the residents practiced strict hygiene in all  public places and violation of sanitation laws resulted in fines and even expulsion. Water in cisterns and jugs was guarded against infestation and plazas, alleyways, roofs were scrupulously maintained.

The skillful husbandry of scarce resources was a major reason that settlement could endure at Avdat. What is striking is that a high level of self-sufficiency existed under grueling arid conditions in an area where buildings were destroyed several times by earthquakes.

Prof. Berliner, the Blaustein Institute’s current director  stressed the ingenuity of the various settlers who inhabited Avdat. Their knowledge of the local hydrology, morphology, vegetation and soil physics was particularly astute. The central Negev receives its rainfall  in heavy, sudden downpours known as convective rains. Most of this quantity is immediately evaporated by the desert heat. The intensity of the rain is such that the local soil is compositionally unable to absorb the quantity that falls, which results in runoff.  The limited amount of rain that is held by the soil is contained by a thin crust that holds enough water to sustain certain vegetation. The rest, the runoff, must be “harvested” and held in terraces cut into the sides and on the floors of the neighboring wadis.

The past has keys to the future

What Prof. Berliner communicated to the crowd of desert and drylands specialists from around the world who participated at the BGU conference was that the Avdat agriculturalists had figured out how much water the soils could hold and realized that if they captured the surplus runoff in terraces and small dams on the desert floor and slopes, they could cultivate crops, feed herds of small animals and live comfortably in stone desert dwellings.

At a time when identifying sustainable practices will be needed to deal with dwindling and degraded resources stocks, Prof. Berliner’s message that “the past has keys to the future,” bears ample retelling.

Photos by the author Dr. Yosef Gotlieb

The post Indigenous Knowledge and Ancient Farmers at Avdat appeared first on Green Prophet.

Every so often we are put in the unfortunate position of having to weigh our environmental concerns against socio-political issues. A while ago, we wrote about Palestinian architect Omar Yousef whose philosophy and style are based on necessity borne out of injustice. And frequently, innocent bystanders suffer most from war, such as these innovators who eventually lost their creative designs as a result of  oppressive decisions from their leaders.

This recent story from the Jerusalem Post similarly creates conflict for us; we at Green Prophet are the ultimate tree-lovers: trees are carbon sinks, they provide shade, nutrition, and spiritual sustenance. It’s hard to quantify the many benefits of trees. As such, the loss of thousands of Mesquite, Acacia, and Eucalyptus trees in Israel’s Negev Desert is a serious blow for everyone. But it is also an interesting tool of protest for the Bedouins who are suspected of killing them.

1948

Before 1948, the Bedouins were the only inhabitants of the unfriendly Negev desert and agriculture in the region did not come easily. However, once the State of Israel was created, several waves of settlers moved there. While most of the Negev towns remain among the country’s poorest, this is not true of Omer, Lehavim, or Meitar.

Many of the country’s top executives and researchees, as well as seniors of both the civil and military sector of societies live in these three towns, according to the non for profit Adva Center. Combined, they are among the top ten in terms of the country’s average salary.

The Bedouin, who are viewed as the weaker element of society, fall on the opposite end of the earning spectrum. To date, many of their villages are considered “unrecognized” and therefore the State refuses to provide basic infrastructural services, and as recently as this past Ramadan, the Al-Arakib village was razed even though many of its inhabitants were observing their holy month.

With this backdrop in mind it is hard to criticize the Bedouin, if indeed they are the perpetrators of this unfortunate activity, for cutting down trees on land they perceive to be their own. Nor does the Mayor of Oren attempt to disguise his hostility toward the Bedouin.

The hostile Badash

“I’d hate to be the ones who did this when I get my hands on them,” Badash told The Jerusalem Post in a phone interview. “For those who don’t realize it, there is a war going on in the desert.”

“Over the last few years the JNF has planted more than 4,000 dunam (990 acres) of new trees in the area. We refuse to give them up. For every tree that is cut down, we will plant 10 more. We will protect the forests from any further harm. We will put in surveillance equipment. We will put sentinels in the forest. This is an existential war and we refuse to surrender!” Badash said.

For this same issue, Bedouin protests have turned violent: last year, according to JP, one  worker was injured and 20 arrests made.

However, this pales in comparison to the 150,000 or so Bedouin in the desert who are increasingly marginalized by the State’s plan to develop the Negev. According to Adva, the Negev 2015 development plan fails to address the issue of land or “unrecognized” localities, rather favoring an influx of a “stronger” population.

Protest

Given their general poverty, it is therefore unsurprising that the Bedouin have resorted to chopping down trees that the JNF has planted. It is a form of protest such that we’ve never really seen before. We’ve seen treehugging and rallies and strikes. We’ve seen occupations, critical mass, and even top-free, but we don’t often hear of tree-cutting.

A political protest is designed to draw attention to what the public consider a matter of extreme importance: we protest against our leaders who fail to adequately mitigate climate change, and we protest war.  According to JP, not long before this incident in the Negev, activists put up posters on the JNF building in Tel Aviv in order to protest what they perceive as unfair treatment towards Arabs and Bedouins.

However, it is devastating that our natural commodities must suffer as a result of inequitable political policies.

“According to Dani Gigi, JNF’s regional director for the Negev and the Arava, the damage done to the forest was severe by any measure,” JP wrote.

“Putting up a security system in the forest is unrealistic. Fortification is not the answer. The solution has to come from education and law enforcement. It is important to note that the battle here is not with the JNF. We are just here as contractors fulfilling the government’s policies,” Gigi said.

If Mayor Badash and the JNF are genuinely concerned about these trees, they would do well to give the Bedouin a fair chance at expressing their complaints; education works both ways.

:: Jerusalem Post

More travel and nature news from the Middle East:

Climbing God’s Mountain in Sinai

Lebanon’s Five Biggest Environmental Headaches

Daridere Resort and Camping Area a New Turkish Eco Tourist Spot

Image via andyhaye

The post Are Bedouins Cutting Down Trees As A Form of Political Protest? appeared first on Green Prophet.

In their recent newsletter, Bloomberg reports that the German solar power plant developer Solar Millennium AG has withdrawn its joint bid for a 240 MW solar thermal project with the Israeli firm Minerva Holdings in Israel’s Negev desert. Valued at $1 billion, the Ashelim project is expected to provide approximately  2% of Israel’s electricity needs, but Solar Millennium is not the first company to drop out. 

“I can confirm that we have canceled our partnership with Minrav,” a spokesperson for Solar Millennium AG told Bloomberg. Without giving specific reasons for the withdrawal, the spokesperson added that Solar Millennium has no plans to withdraw from construction but is now in negotiations with potential new partners whose names he did not disclose.

A history of dropouts

In May 2010 Clal Industries dropped its joint bid with Spain’s Abengoa Bioenergy SA “in part because of the commercial risks from the tender’s terms, and in view of the conditions in global capital markets,” according to the Israeli business daily Globes.

In addition to the Clal Abengoa bid a joint bid by BrightSource–Veolia was also withdrawn from the tender competition.

The tender process that started in September 2008 has been plagued with changes to the teams that have been running it as well as the structure of the tender.

New tender structure

Israel’s Ministry of National Infrastructure decided to restructure the tender so that it now includes two 100 MW solar thermal installations; the initial tender called for one bid per installation. The Ministry plans to announce the winner in September 2010 and production is supposed to start soon after.

Shlomo Wald, a Tender Commission representative of Israel’s Ministry of National Infrastructure, told Bloomberg that once the two Ashelim plants have been awarded “at the beginning of 2011 we will announce winners for a 15- to 30-megawatt PV project in the same location.”

Clearing military tract

Wald also blamed the Israeli Defense Ministry for holding up the tender process over concerns that the area needed to be clear of any potential military leftovers. While the Negev Desert looks barren and uninhabited on a map, large parts of it are under the control of the Israeli army.

Headquartered in Germany with shares sales in 2009 at $265, Solar Millennium is a world leader in the field of solar thermal power plants, and is behind the development of the first European parabolic trough power plant that started operations in southern Spain in 2006; the plant is currently the largest of its kind in the world.

:: image courtesy of Joost. J Bakker Ijmuiden

Read more about the Negev:

Immersion Arabic Course in First Solar Bedouin Village in Israel

Israel’s Bedouin Want Their Rightful Share of the Sun

Arava Power Company Signs Solar Deals with Negev Bedouins

The post Germany’s Solar Millennium AG Pulls out of Israel Bid appeared first on Green Prophet.

Israeli solar energy innovator Sunday Energy has been chosen to construct a solar energy panel array in a section of the country’s Negev desert region, according to an article in Globes financial news.

The 5 mw installation will be constructed together with Moshav Yad Natan in a 120 dunam (42.5 acre) area where the land as been designated as “damaged” or non-usable due to either extensive agricultural use or from erosion. Cost of the project is estimated to be around $26.3 million and will include photovoltaic (PV) solar panel arrays, engineering facilities and water reservoirs to supply the water needed to supply steam for the turbines that will generate the electricity.

Sunday has been mentioned several times by Green Prophet, including the company’s involvement in projects such as its innovative solar energy idea to “boost power output on water” as well as its teaming up with another Israeli clean tech company, Ormat Industries, to construct solar energy projects valued at more than $195 million, which will include solar energy systems with a capacity of as much as 37 mw.

These projects, along with the news one noted by Globes, clearly indicate a bright future for this company as an innovator and supplier of PV solar energy systems.

The use of non arable land for these types of projects is a good idea as it enables such land to be put to good use and frees arable land for agriculture use. A similar project by Sunday has also been slated at another Negev settlement, Kibbutz Zeelim, which will also entail a 5 mw solar panel array at a similar cost. A considerable portion of Israel’s Negev desert region is considered as non-arable; and solar energy projects such as these may eventually be able to supply a sizable portion of the country’s electricity needs.

This need for “going solar” was asked recently by the UN Environment Program to Israel to use  more solar energy for domestic use rather than merely exporting the technology abroad. It makes sense that solar energy power plants produced by companies like Sunday will be in use more and more in a country that has little natural resources other than this very common one – the sun.

:: Globes

More on Sunday Energy and Israeli solar energy:
The U.N. Asks Israel to Use More Solar Power
Sunday Energy Helping to Produce Israel’s First Solar Powered Wine
Ormat and Sunday Solar Power Up in $195 Million Deal

The post Sunday Solar to Build Large Solar Array on "Damaged" Negev Land appeared first on Green Prophet.

For many tourists to the Israeli Negev desert, a visit to the Bedouins includes a commercialized camel ride and perhaps an afternoon spent in a tent near Mitzpeh Ramon.

But as the Jerusalem Post writes, the Desert Sites tourist company is offering a revolutionary immersion Arabic course in the last week of July in the Bedouin township of Darajat (also spelled Dirgat), known as Israel’s first solar village.

Israel has 160,000 Bedouin Arab citizens. Between 50-60 percent  of them live in recognized communities and the other are strewn about the landscape in unrecognized villages in tin-roofed shantytowns. Darajat is a recognized village with a population of approximately 800.

Most residents have solar water heaters and electric systems, the school is powered by wind and sun, and students learn hands-on about alternative energy by reading the power meters in their classrooms. The village also boasts a solar mosque, below.

Students in the Arabic course will live with host families in Darajat for five days, during which they will chat in Arabic while learning about Bedouin weaving, baking bread in communal ovens, and watching traditional music performances.

Last year, Haaretz profiled Desert Sights and its founder Tomer Cahane, who started the company in 2000.

“We realized we wanted to bring the Bedouin and the Israelis closer, and to break down a number of stereotypes,” he told Haaretz.

“When I conduct a tour of Rahat, the participants say they would not have gone there alone. The image of the Bedouin has been terrible in recent years, and we must overcome anxieties and prejudices.”

The program costs NIS 1,850 and runs from July 26-30. For more information, check out the Web site.

(All photos by Daniella Cheslow)

More on Bedouins in Israel:

1. Bedouin and “Bustan” Green The Desert With Tree Planting Event 
2. Water & the Bedouin: Sharing the Resources 
3. Support Bedouin treeplanting and Green education with a Tel Aviv shakedown!

The post Immersion Arabic Course in First Solar Bedouin Village in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.