This week, our Green Prophet in Focus series gets up close and personal with resident Prophet Michael Green.
Once a music journalist (he stands true to vinyl) and environmental activist in Bristol, UK, Michael has since brought his green wisdom to Israel. In addition to his position here as Prophet-in-residence, Michael is a journalist for various [...]

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In this week’s green book review, guest reviewer Rabbi Julian Sinclair unpicks the recent ‘Breakthrough’ by US writers Ted Nordhaus & Michael Shellenberger.
Last month Al Gore gave a rousing speech on climate change, throwing down an audacious challenge to the American people. By 2020, Gore declared, let American by powered [...]

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It’s a drawback to being popular: Litter has become a big problem on the coast of the freshwater Kinneret lake (the Sea of Galilee).
To take charge of the problem, Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Israel Police force and the Kinneret Authority inaugurated a new environmental policing unit to clean up the coast.

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How many shades of green can a Jaffa orange be? Israeli fruit and vegetable grower and supplier Mehadrin (owned by Hadarim, a property and building group, and a succession of other parent companies) is working with British supermarket chain Tesco in a bid to mark all its Jaffa oranges with the Carbon Trust label, a [...]

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Literally, postal.  It was quite a pleasant surprise when we found out that in 1975 Israel came out with stamps encouraging civillians to protect their environment.  Not only was the message beautiful, but the stamps were pretty darn good looking too.
Designed by Israeli artist and sculptor Eliezer Weishoff (whose monuments and other creations are an [...]

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You’d think that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the Persian Gulf would have nothing to do with alternative energy initiatives, right?  Since they have close to a quarter of the global petroleum reserves literally underfoot, you might assume that they’d try to prevent the development of alternatives, or at least not be [...]

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Last week we talked with Jesse Fox, urban planning expert and Treehugger veteran.
This week’s Prophet in Focus is James Murray-White, a composting environmentalist with the eye of a filmmaker and the soul of a poet. 
James grew up in a green village outside Cambridge, UK, and has donned the roles of both actor and anthropologist in [...]

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A new solution addresses the problem of water loss and promises farmers “more crop per drop”
A part of the global food crisis is the inefficiency of current irrigation methods. More irrigated water evaporates than reaches the roots of crops, amounting to an enormous waste of water and energy.
Tel Aviv University researchers, however, are investigating a [...]

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When I was growing up whenever we would go to a park or on a camping trip, my parents would instill in me the importance of leaving the area where we had just been cleaner than how we had found it.
This is probably one of the most influential ideas from my parents that has traveled [...]

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“The trees are weeping
in the Land of Israel…
There is no compassion
For the land’s raiment –
Its seven species…
And on these parcels of land
Concessions will be granted
To Burger king
And Kentucky Fried Chicken.”
From The Trees are Weeping by Aharon Shabtai
We’ve seen how poetry and the environment can intersect, as in the work of poet laureate Robert Hass. ‘Earth [...]

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