Summer Reading

Two books that I read over the summer, and highly recommend:

Last Child in the Woods:  Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv

Changing Planet, Changing Health:  How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do about It, by Paul Epstein and Dan Ferber

I have run out of free reading time outside course assignments at this point, but I will try to share interesting course readings this year as well.  There have been some great ones already in the first four weeks - in Environmental Economics, Ethics, and Corporate Environmental Strategy. 

Lots to think about, and maybe even to build a career around....

Visiting Dubai

I am glad that I joined Dan to "see" Dubai for a few days back in March, but I wouldn't want to live there.  And I don't have any particular need to go back.  It impressed me as a screaming example of what is wrong with the world.

Shortly after my visit, I saw this article - UAE minister reveals that Dubai is amongst the top producers of waste in the world .  I noticed a lot of wasted water to create green grass around highways, A/C cranking with doors open, and what appeared to be a culture based entirely on consumerism.

Dubai is steel and pavement plopped down in the middle of a totally dry, arid desert.  The road noise makes the outdoors unpleasant (as does the heat). 

All the beaches are private (this made me appreciate the fact that the entire shoreline of Tel Aviv is designated public, so the hotels and rich can not prohibit the rest of us). 

There were a few remnants of the traditional culture that we saw, including building design with an open steeple that draws airflow into the building and acts like natural air conditioning.  We could learn from that.

We went up to the observation level of the Burj Khalifa (the building I am standing in front of).  From there I took the photo of the city from the sky.  The air quality was never clear while we were there.

The malls are bigger than the entire town that I spent my childhood in, LaConner.  We walked through to see the indoor ski area (see photo with Dan).  Otherwise it was too much, at least for me, as I do not enjoy shopping in general, and this was definitely shopping on crack.

Dubai is probably the most liberal Muslim place in the middle east.  But even here, practicing Muslim women are usually covered head to toe, sometimes including face masks, and accompanied by a man to go out of the home.  The reason for this, as I understand it, is that men can't control themselves, so women need to hide.  This sounds incredibly disrespectful to both genders.  It doesn't give any credit to either's ability to act as mature adults.  I want to have an open mind, but any culture where the rights of women are less than those of men feels too unjust for me to accept. 

As I said, it was interesting to see once.  I wouldn't have made a separate trip for it though.  There are MANY more interesting and meaningful places in the world.

 

You won't see this in Israel

Driving up I-5 through Mt. Vernon, toward Bellingham, WA yesterday, I saw this on this lane in front of me.  For my Israeli readers who may have never seen this before, it's a logging truck.  They are so common in my mind, from my 18 years in Washington, that I wouldn't have given this a single thought before.  But having had conversations in Tel Aviv about the complete lack of such an industry (understandably given the environment), it caught my attention this time. 

Being away from the natural resources and beauty of the Pacific Northwest has made me acutely aware of how rich this area is.  Sure, it has rained about 50% of the days I've been here so far, but it's that rain that brings the forests, the snow on the mountain tops, and all the blueberries I can eat!

What a forest should look like

This, to me, is a forest.  Not those dry Israeli deserts with only short pines growing and nothing more than dry dusty earth under foot.

It's January here in Washington State, so it's not as green as when spring comes, but it's still relatively green.  Ferns, moss, honeysuckle, salal, knick knicks, orchids, pipsa-something-or-others - all kinds of little brush grows along the forest ground.  The lakes and streams are running fresh water and a misty rain falls nearly every day. 

Sure, it's cold, and who are we kidding, I've entirely lost my tolerance for that.  I'm wearing 3 layers just to avoid frost-bite in the house.  But once you get the layers on and get out along the trail, the air is so fresh, the sounds of water and birds so pleasant (especially the little kinglets high pitched chirp), and the wild animal markings so interesting (bobcat scratches on trees, coyote poop on the trail), what's not to love?

After the Fire

 

During the week between Christmas and New Years, we decided to combine a few errands and take a day trip north to Haifa (about an hour drive up the coast).  This is the town that Dan lived in until he was 13 years old and moved to the States.  When he was young, his family and friends used to frequent the Carmel Mountains for picnics on weekends. 

Per a previous post, these mountains lit up in a record-breaking forest fire at the beginning of December, ushering in a very solemn start to Channukah.  It took international support to put it out.  But a bus load of prison guards got caught and died in the flames before they got there.  Our cousin even knew one of the young women who was on the bus.  Being in a small country, I have often found that someone we know has had a direct connection to events here like this.  That's obviously quite different than my experience with U.S. news which often feels remote. 

We drove out to the prison that sits among these hills (they call them mountains here, but compared to the Cascades in northwest U.S., well, there is no comparison).  As you can see from these pictures, the fire successfully devastated the trees.  Areas that were once picnic spots had only charred black spindles of branches left.  The facilities, once likely hidden nicely by the foliage now stuck out like a soar thumb on the hillside. 

The fire must have burned hot and moved fast, as you can see this pine cone got scorched, but still shows wood coloring on the inside. 

There has been talk in the news about the best strategy to renew the area.  Forest fires are of course a natural part of nature's process to destroy and renew itself periodically.  The question remains whether an area that has experienced such extremes (severe drout before the fire) needs a helping hand, or is better left to run it's course. 

Can't you pop into an Israeli Starbucks, if you really have to go NOW?

I haven't quite been able to figure out what's going on here in Israel, on the subject of peeing.  Yes, peeing.  Dan's first week here he had to chase off a man he caught peeing on the entrance to our driveway.  Since then, I have caught parents on more than three occasions directing their young children to drop trou in the planting strips along the sidewalks to both pee and poop!  (This post didn't seem appropriate to include a photo).  Walking down the sidewalk requires a keen eye for land mines of excrement, and I'm no longer certain that they are from the neighborhood dogs and cats. 

Yet, it is a common complaint by Israeli's all summer that they can't wait for the first rains to come and wash away the smell.  So WHY do they do it?  I suppose the answer is, the ones who don't like it are different from the ones who do it. 

Well, I'm not the only one who has noticed this behavior.  Check out this article on Greenprophet.com -
How Green Is A Quick Wee In Public? 

Forest fire in Haifa

On the news last night we learned that northern Israel is experiencing one of the great dangers of long dry spells - a forest fire.  International aid is coming in from all over, including Britain, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, France, Croatia, Russia, Spain, Romania and a NYC Fire Department plane. 

While it has rained here in Thailand (right) so much this season that they are having some of their worst flooding on record, Israel had one of their hottest, dryest summers ever, with negligible rain for the past six months.  Maybe we can bring the rain clouds home with us, and help out both countries in the process.

A night in the Thai jungle

From our base in Chaing Mai, we booked a two day visit to the Doi Pui Suthep National Park.  We started with a mountain biking trip which lasted several hours, and offered varying degrees of difficulty.  Knowing one's limits was important, to avoid the fate of a few of the riders who went over their handle bars.  Riding through tropical forest, rice paddies in valleys, and meeting the farmers who gave us a taste of sugar cane cut right on their property reminded me how important a connection with one's environment is.  Thai's definitely have this.  Even the young guy who was guiding our biking tour could tell us about plants growing along the trail that are commonly found in Thai cooking.  Although Israel is agriculturally more advanced, I am not sure that Israelis connect with the land in this way, but then again, the people in most developed countries do not.  In the U.S., our national parks are visited by foreigners more than Americans. 

After a late lunch, we were shuttled back to the office where the two of us, plus a traveler from Scotland, were driven up to the base of the Flight of the Gibbon for a homestay. 

We arrived around 6:30pm, after dark, and our host family, a very welcoming Thai couple speaking nearly no English, showed us our rooms, the bath/shower, and began cooking up a delicious meal for us.  Dinner included a minced pork dish, something we've been eating daily upon arrival, and enjoying thoroughly.  There are so many ways to prepare meats here - basil and chili, garlic and pepper, fried, minced, crispy, etc. - and so many sauces, the options are endless.  I admit, I have been taking advantage of the pork options on most menus, as it is a real treat coming from a non-pork-eating country.

As you can see in the picture to the right, the kitchen in their home was very simple.  They were using gas and electric to cook on, and they did have a small refrigerator.  But they didn't appear to store much - they eat fresh - ironic as our standard of living in the West is so much higher, yet our food consumption is arguably lower quality.  

After dinner, we were invited to a traditional thai massage.  They set up mats there in our little wooden house, and worked on our soar muscles for over an hour!

The next morning, we said goodbye to our host family, and waited patiently for our ride to begin our zip lining adventure for the day.  This is when we discovered that the three of us had been lost between the cracks of their planning for the day.  At first, I wondered whether this was classic non-western culture behavior, under which you have to be prepared for the reality that all times are approximate.  However, after some discussion, we realized that they were truly overbooked.  We watched as others were shuttled in and out of the experience with efficiency and expediency. 

Despite this bump in the day, it turned out to be a worthwhile experience, as the network of zip lines, cable bridges and rappelling ropes created a 3 hour circuit of fun with incredible views.  I felt like I was in Fangorn Forest in the Lord of the Rings. 

This visit peaked my curiousity about what environmental education Thai's receive in school, and what outcomes they have seen from it.  There are clearly businesses in Thailand promoting eco-friendly tourism, but these are targeted toward tourists.  A quick google search shows that academic interests have looked at efforts here, but I didn't see an overall strategy or state-led effort.  However, when I googled "environmental education" generally, the third listing that came up was ironically the "Israel Ministry of the Environment." 

Moving to a desert, attending the Deserts Conference, conversations with my dad, and a couple recent articles, have really got me thinking about the issue of our human connection to nature.  To read the articles:

Losing Our Connection to Nature: Is Sustainability at Risk?
Humans Losing Touch with Nature

Interaction with nature was an integral part of my childhood, and I can't imagine childhood without it.  Do you think this is important?  Why?  What should we do about it?

Bicycling in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv has many narrow streets that are difficult to navigate, regardless of whether you're in a car, on foot, or cycling.  But there are also beautiful tree-lined boulevards, and they have taken advantage of the middle strips for walking and biking paths, as you can see here.  I took this standing in the walking path, and you can see by the paint where the bicycles belong. 

Of course, many of these paths do not connect well.

And there are many sidewalks that don't have room for cyclists. But the crazy drivers endanger the cyclists on the streets, so the cyclists ride on sidewalks where they endanger the pedestrians.  And the pedestrians endanger the cats, and the cats endanger the rats, and so it goes. 

Dan has hooked up with a bike club here (thanks to a http://www.meetup.com/ group that I found online) that goes on night rides between 9pm-midnight, when the streets quiet down a little.  Living in a city requires a bit of creativity and persistence with shared resources.  Well, living anywhere does, if you take a systems thinking point of view.

Changes around us

Tel Aviv is a young city.  It celebrated it's 100 birthday last year.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to the largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings in the world, among other things. 

It has become the 17th most expensive city in the world.  We discovered this when we began our adventure with our apartment hunting visit last May.  The place we chose was built just last year, so our neighbors also recently went through move-in balagan. Our building is only about 35% Israeli, the other 65% are foreigners like ourselves, or mixed marriages, like the southwest unit on our level (6/5) which is occupied by a British man and Israeli woman, and their kids.   

We continue to see city lots all around us in varying stages of destruction and reconstruction.  The weekday morning orchestra of city noises often includes jack-hammers with the car horns.  So Saturdays are a real treat, as it is nearly silent for this "day of rest."  This week we passed the above pictured lot around the corner from our place on the walk up to Ulpan.  Tel Aviv is continuously changing, and rapidly.  What I don't yet know is whether the city is taking this opportunity to enforce greener building standards.  In general though, most Israeli's I've met say that Israel is "waking up" to sustainable planning, not just as an economic opportunity, but as a social and environmental responsibility and necessity as well.

Environmental Education Field Trip

On my last day at the Drylands, Deserts, and Desertification Conference, last Wednesday Nov 10th, I had the incredible opportunity to visit four sites just south of Be'er Sheva, where the Bedouin communities are exploring various types of environmental education and social empowerment. 

Our first stop was at the Segev Shalom Bedoiun School (see right).  Although you probably can't read it, the painting in blue expresses that this is an experimental school with experiential environmental education incorporated into everything that they do. It turns out we arrived on "Olive Picking Day," so the students were involved in activities tied to this (such as the olive tree collages in the second photo.)  At different points there were groups using the outdoor courtyards, as well as a full seating area for a class under the trees.  Another small group was making traditional coffee over a small open fire. 

We met with the Principal and learned the story of this place.  Twelve years ago, one of his teachers came to him and said, "I'd like to teach about the four seasons, but I do not have a lab."  His reply to her was, "You do not need one.  Take the students outside."  And so she did.  Upon her completion of her lesson, the Principal asked her how it went.  She told him about the success engaging the students directly in their environment, and said that she wanted to continue to incorporate this kind of learning into her curriculum.  So the students began spending part of their classroom time outside, and obvservations began to surface.  They noticed the large amounts of trash in their neighborhoods.  And they started asking questions of the traditional bedoins, such as, "why do you build your homes with goat hair instead of sheep? why do you build always with the door facing east?  why do you follow traditional says when you don't know what they mean?  And so the students began a discovery process, and what they learned they took back to those in their culture that had forgotten the reasons for tradition.  For instance, the bedoiun have a saying, "If you see a snake but don't catch it, don't worry, you can go to bed.  If you see a scorpion but don't catch it, do NOT go to bed that night."  Wondering why?  These kids discovered through their research that while snakes cover vast areas of land, scorpions are territorial, which means that if you didn't catch it, it's probably waiting under your pillow!

Because of their success developing new teaching methods, this school applied for experimental status 7 years ago.  However, a school can only maintain this status for 5 years, at which time they either need to revert to being a non-experimental school, or become a teaching/learning resource for other schools.  Two years ago they chose this path, and are spreading their experiential methods all around Be'er Sheva now.  Their intent is for the students to take home what they learn, teach their families, and develop a community consciousness of their connection to their environment. 

Our second stop was at a women's cooperative.  We met with the founder who started this project in 1996.  Before I explain what they do here, it is important to understand her story.  She was born to a family of nearly 10 children, as was her husband.  Bedoiun family tradition expects this, so much so that the Bedoiun population in Israel continues to double every 12 years!  Although we didn't learn what led to her unusual circumstance, she managed to meet and marry a man who wanted only 3 children.  She also wanted this.  She had two children, and when she got pregnant with her third, it turned out to be twins.  
She shared with us some of the traditional roles for women in Bedoiun society.  Women were responsible for building their homes, through careful construction via goat's hair fabrics.  Their embroidery work was their signature, used on their family and community's clothing, showing where they belonged and what their status was.  A large part of their day involved going to the community well, where women acted as the primary source of community communication, while men were out tending herds.  So as modernization came and the tribes became more stationary, most of the woman's crafting role disappeared.  They weren't building their new cement homes, clothes are machine made, and with running water, they lost their opportunity to connect with the community outside the home.

So this woman set out to create an enterprise that would fill some of these needs.  They produce the traditional embroidery of their culture, which can be done while home looking after their children, gives them a sense of community when they come in to exchange work, and an opportunity for educational meetings (like personal finance, health, etc) on these delivery days

Our third stop was at the solar powered village of Durigh'at.  Again, we met with the Principal of the school there.  His family leads this town of 80 families.  This town was a pet project of current President Shimon Peres, while he was Minister for the Development of the Negev, Galilee and Regional Economy.  It is one of many bedoiun villages that were not initially recognized by the Israeli government (usually due to disagreement over choice of location, from what I understand). 

So here's what happened in this village that ran on generators.  The government, who wouldn't hook them up to the utility lines, spent 1 million shekels (about $280,000) to outfit 20 homes with solar power.  Initially, the village was thrilled.  The idea was that then other families will see the benefit and purchase their own systems, for 48,000 shekels.  Five families have since done this.  But the rest are still using dirty old generators.  In the meantime, this project dropped on the governmental priority list.  The village is now in negotiations to get hooked up to the electric grid.  At this point, the Principal said if they don't do it, the village will ask for the supplies and do the work themselves.  Anyone who has spent time in the Peace Corps or knows someone who has, has heard stories like this. 

What was starkly absent to our visiting group of environmental education specialists, was the environmental education.  The Principal did not talk about any curriculum modifications surrounding this process, and there was a noticable increase in trash alongside the roads here, compared to the first school.  As we were hurried along for our next stop, I wondered if anyone had thought to get the Segev Shalom School together with this one here in Durigh'at.  The motivations and vision for the future here was at a much lower level of consciousness.  This Principal was proud of the handful of doctors and lawyers they had produced.  His focus is on bringing western prosperity to his community, with very little apparent thought about the ramifications of doing it without a systems approach. 

Our last stop was at a "green elementary school" in Arad.  Here we again met the Principal.  But his background was quite different.  He is an ecologist by training.  He came into his position about a year ago.  The current school was a combination of two previous schools, each with a focus.  One was the arts, the other was the environment, so now they work to incorporate both.  They work a lot with recycling concepts, using recycled materials from school or at home.  They built composters and plant gardens on campus.  The students were busy building outside classrooms with old tires and mud while we were there (see right). 

They also started a used clothing drive/store run by the kids.  One of the guides told of the response she got when she asked on a previous visit why the kids working in the store were sewing designs on the used clothes.  The boy's response, "sometimes it is uncomfortable for someone to see their classmate who donated the item they are wearing, so we change the clothes by sewing new details on them, making them new!"  Our final stop was in a classroom where a group was involved in a drama performance about recycling.  Before it started, the Principal opened the class discussion by introducing us, and letting our group ask questions.  One member asked, "what are you all doing?"  Half the little hands shot up in the air, butts nearly falling off seats, hoping to be called upon.  For the first time, I could understand the hebrew around me.  And the funniest part - one boy, who had been listening to all the English, and looked like one of the Ethiopian immigrants, answered back in English (the Israeli children don't learn English this young.) 

I left the group at this point, got a short ride to the bus stop, where I caught the bus to Be'er Sheva, about an hour.  Then I waited a half hour and caught a second bus from there to Tel Aviv, which took about another hour and a half.  It was an absolutely fabulous day! 

Drylands, Deserts, and Desertification Conference

On Sunday evening November 7th (my birthday), our bus load of participants drove down to the Sede Boquer campus of Ben Gurion University.  It was a 2 hour drive, punctuated by a stop in Be'er Sheva at a mall to buy dinner (not the best).

We arrived at about 8pm, well after dark.  After dropping eight participants at a hotel outside the campus which looked like a glorified motel complex (they used four locations for boarding the 600 participants from 65 countries), we arrived on campus at the field school housing (no better than the off campus options). 

We were greated by frantic 20-somethings, students and staff who were nearly as confused by what needed to happen as we were.  It took them about a half hour to track down all the room keys for the participants.  They could not answer basic questions about the campus, such as where/when breakfast was to occur the next morning, or whether there was internet access somewhere nearby (as there wasn't in the rooms).  Remember, these participants are experts in their fields from all over the world.  This was not their first conference, and I could tell they were more than a little frustrated by the lack of information and resources that enabled them to prepare for their speaking engagements in the following days. 

After about an hour and a half of trying to get participants settled, I was ushered onto the lap of one of the student coordinators in a tiny car full of oranges, pizzas, and more, with my suitcase in tow.  We drove to the one retail outlet in the area, a pizza joint, where we waited a half hour for them to bake 4 more pizzas.  Finally we drove to the student housing area where we met with the conference chairman.  He proceeded to provide the 20 or so student volunteers the structure for the upcoming day.  I asked about the possibility of getting a few basic resources for the participants, based on my observations earlier, including printed maps of the campus that they could use to get around.  I was brushed off in typical "don't bother me with the details" fashion, at which point I wondered if anyone was thinking about the details at all.

The student coordinator took me across the path to her apartment around 11pm (don't forget we had to be up at 6:30 to get the conference going the next day.)  Instead of finding the location where I was to stay, she insisted that I sleep at her place, in her bed (not with fresh sheets, mind you).  Although a very nice girl, she clearly hadn't the head for events management, appearing quite frantic, and insisting that she planned to stay up all night to everyone who would listen.  I gave up and tried to get some sleep in her bed, despite the chatter downstairs.  After 2 hours of restless sleep, I awoke to her coming in to bed herself, on our couch.  She said she found the key to my place, but at 2am I wasn't interested in searching for it in the dark.  Luckily though I was given another opportunity at 6am when her alarms started going off every 5 minutes for 20 straight minutes.  She was 5 feet from them, but didn't budge.  So I gave up, dressed, grabbed the key from the table, and went out to look for this illusive room. 

Rolling my little suitcase along behind me, I headed for the guard shack, hoping for help.  Unfortunately, they weren't even up at work yet.  While surveying my options in the intersection (north, east, south or west), I saw a guy a block down walking his dog.  I went up to him and tried my hebrew on for size, "eifo ha ___" and pointed to the sheet of paper with the info on it.  I was pleased to learn he knew exactly where to go, and he walked me there himself.  It turns out this room was in a small trailer, surrounded by other trailers, which I can only imagine became the cheapest, quickest way to house incoming research students on this tiny campus.  With my copy of a copy of a key that would sometimes take 5 minutes of attempts to unlock the door, I finally got in to discover a clean, never-before-used, mini apartment.  Perfect for a shower (and a nap later that day!)

The Conference opened with the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Luc Gnacadja.  I was excited for this section, hoping to learn a bit about the global strategies employed in this field.  My excitement ended in disappointment as his accent was so strong that he was hard to understand.  While there were translators for the participants listening with headphones, there weren't translators for the presenters, so the non-native English speaking presenters were really at a disadvantage trying to communicate their hypotheses and discoveries.

Despite the organizational challenges, there were some great presenters.  On Monday morning I attended the Public Health and Desertification session.  Professor Jonathan Patz of the Univ. of Wisconsin talked about the impact of the 3 degree Celcius increase in air temperative that the earth is currently undergoing in relation to public health.  Two examples that I had never considered really stuck with me.  Afterall, how could a slight temperature increase impact our health?  If anything, us northerners would be happy with a little less snow, right?  (Never mind the melting of the polar ice caps and rise in sea levels, but I digress).  Patz talked about the impact of 3 degrees on mosquitos.  Mosquitos are cold blooded, and thus take on the temperature of the air.  Any blood they suck will then also be air temperature.  When that blood carries malaria, it is now warmer which means it is less likely to remain dormant and quicker to spread.  A few degrees isn't a lot for a human, but it can be deadly via those pesky little mosquitos.  Second, with the temperature change we are seeing an increase in precipitation intensity (not volume).  This is leading to things like sewer overflows into places like Lake Michigan.  When tested, these waters have E. Coli and all kinds of little nasties, and guess what?  Our drinking water is being pulled right back out from these lakes.  Another very important point he made was that if you consider a more holistic view of the cost to convert to clean energy, it suddenly becomes a no-brainer.  Cities in the midwest U.S. showed a $4B healthcare cost savings by electing one day per week without driving (less polution, more exercise - kind of makes your head explode with the obvious simplicity of it).

In the Economic Development Strategies, Public Policy and Remote Sensing category, Alan Grainger from Leeds University talked about the World Forest Observatory, the first global monitoring system for the forest lands we have left.  Sounds crazy that we wouldn't have global monitoring systems by now (doesn't google monitor everything?) but it has been a real challenge create a publicly accessible data warehouse or wiki.  This one appears to be launching this year, however, and they hope it will lead to other global resources for gathering and monitoring data that spans the globe. 

In this same panel, I learned about two Israeli companies that have developed Concentrator Photovoltaics which significantly improve the efficiency of solar energy.  The companies are Zenith Solar and MST. 

During our Monday field trip, we visited a UNESCO world heritage site - the ancient Nabataean city of Avdat.  It was a major stop on the incense route from Asia for over 600 years B.C.  Continuing with the theme of the conference, we were shown their advanced agricultural techniques which allowed them security and prosperity with less than 8cm of rain per year, that hasn't existed in the area since.  While there, a military helicopter did several fly-bys and then hovered over us for a while (quite irritating when trying to listen to a speaker.)  This wasn't the last of the military operations overhead though.  There were planes rocketing overhead on a regular basis out there in the Negev.  Sadly, less than a week after the conference, a plane went down due to pilot error in practice, killing the 28 and 30 year old pilots.  It has been big news here.

The bottom picture here is the view from the field school in Sede Boqer.  I went out for a morning walk on Tuesday and ran into a family of mountain goats.  They were curious about me, but as long as I didn't get too close to the two young ones, the parents left me alone and continued along the edge of the cliff.   I didn't know what to expect in the "desert,"  but I was surprised by the large valleys.  I could never live in a place that dry, but it was definitely worth a visit!

Where there's a water shortage

We started putting together our new drip watering system tonight.  They are very popular here, for everything from patio gardens to city landscaping, to agricultural businesses.  Despite this efficient water delivery approach, Israel's major source of fresh "sweet" water, the Sea of Galilee, continues to see water levels drop, due to dryer summers and winters.  This winter is expected to be particularly dry.  We're having more stormy days here, but still no rain since the one hour downpour two weeks ago. 

Our little patio watering system consists of a separate line of hose off a splitter from the spout on the patio, which we then connected to smaller tubes that go into the pots.

Oh, and what can two weeks in the right climate do with green onion bulbs?  This!

First impression of sustainability in Israel

For those of you who know something about my career aspirations, you know that when I graduated 10 years ago from Wellesley, I wanted to find a way to apply business skills to a social or environmental purpose.  That course in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Sociology really got me interested.  But first I needed to develop some basic real life business skills, hence the strategy consulting and CPG marketing jobs from 2000-2005.  I continued to look for opportunities to make an impact, and found that the Brandeis MBA in the Heller School of Social Policy and Management lets students learn about both sides of the tax fence - for-profit and non-profit.  At Brandeis, in a social entrepreneurship course, I learned about the blurring lines of for-profit and non-profit, growing interest in social enterprise, and a new term for these ideas about the interconnectedness of how we work and live - the word was "sustainability."  From there, I got involved with Net Impact.   Not long after I had the opportunity to get my feet wet in it, by joining the American Heart Association and working on the New York City launch of their newest cause marketing campaign - called Start!, the purpose of which was to engage Americans in becoming more physically active through corporate wellness programs.  This gave me first hand experience working with major corporations in New York City and Detroit from 2005-2009, helping them develop CSR strategies. 

In the U.S., interest in sustainability continues to grow.  Forward-thinking companies over the past 5 years have started implementing new functions in their organizations and producing sustainability reports to supplement their annual financial reports.  This growing interest has naturally created criticism and skepticism as well. But sustainability is being talked about and acted on more, and that at least seems directionally correct.  The organization that appears to be shaping the global approach to sustainability is The Global Reporting Initiative, based in the Netherlands.  Europe tends to be on the cutting edge of transforming it's businesses to sustainable enterprises.  If you're really interested in trying to understand sustainability (the word gets thrown around a lot, and the meaning as well as terms like CSR are always in debate), get ahold of the book, "The Triple Bottom Line," by Andrew Savitz. 

When we decided to move to Israel, I was excited by the prospect of living closer to the epicenter of this movement, and working more directly in it.  Israel has the most start-ups per capita of any country in the world.  They're in the middle of a desert, so natural resources, especially fresh water, are severely limited.  And they are surrounded by unfriendly neighbors.  These factors would suggest a strong impetus for sustainable development, i.e. figuring out how to be self-sustaining for the long-term.

I have been reading a blog this past year, CSR-Reporting, the author of which is based here in Tel Aviv.  The visibility of content coming out of Israel got me excited.  I connected with Elaine Cohen over LinkedIn, and she kindly invited me to an event in early September, just before we left for the holidays.  Her consulting agency, BeyondBusiness, organized a speaking engagement with Maala, the Israeli CSR Association.  They brought in Jo Confino, journalist for the Guardian in the UK.  He is a really interesting guy, having decided to work toward implementing principles of sustainability within his own organization.  This is particularly complex due to the purpose of his work in news reporting, as it has forced the organization to face more directly the reality that a news organization is never really unbiased.  The interesting thing to me is that they are aknowledging that they are not just there to "report" the news, but in some way to shape it (i.e. by encouraging greater organizational transparency, raising awareness about what sustainability is, etc).  I think this is promising.  Afterall, there is no such thing as unbiased news.  A person wrote it, which means that person had to decide what to include, and what not to.  They decided what the story was.  By becoming more transparent about the assumptions included, readers have the opportunity to possibly get closer to some kind of "truth."  Although, as my high school physics teacher always told us, "everything is relative."

Anyway, I like his ideas, I like that he is trying to raise awareness about the simple idea that culturally we've lost sight of planning for our future (that's what sustainability really is, afterall).  And I like that he is in a position of power that allows his voice to reach a broad audience. 

Regarding the event, I was surprised by the size of the group in attendance.  There were only about 30 people there.  I expected more, again, due to my assumptions about Israeli engagement with sustainability-related issues (which I am now questioning).

As I get settled here, I hope to learn more about what the impetus is locally for engagement in sustainable thinking and planning, and what the roadblocks are.  And I hope to find a place where I can contribute to overcoming those roadblocks.