Volunteer!

In March we hosted new groups of the JNF Alternative Spring Break program. In this program American college students take the time of their spring holiday to volunteer all over the south. We have been hosting these groups during the past three years. The work that these amazing students have been doing in the garden is very meaningful and really makes a difference. Together we have been developing the garden a lot!

We of course worked in the garden itself, this time also in the newly opened part of our community garden. In addition we worked on the public area, located really close to the garden, that we wish to turn into a more pleasant area.

This time we, among other things, created a new raised bed for the children’s garden, new green house for summer saplings, a mud wall to beautify the field kitchen and of course mud layers for our various earth benches. The group played with mud, gain experience in carpentry, weed, hoed, planted and especially enjoyed with us two days in the chilly sun (and let’s not forget to pray for the rains of blessings).

If you’ve ever composted then you know what I’m talking about. There is magic to transforming the unwanted and orphaned fruits and vegetables in your fridge or from your plate, in to rich and fragrant earth. The process is redemptive. Trash in to treasure. To be sure, it is modern day alchemy as old as time itself. The internal process of renewal and transformation that the person composting undergoes is equally amazing. It may sound trite, but composting can change your life.

With all that in mind, and the fact that Israel is quickly running out of places to put its waste, Earth’s Promise and Green Course, with the help of the Green Campus Forum launched the dormitory compost program at the BGU student dorms last Wednesday. The goal is to engage the student population in questions of ecology and community, while reducing the harmful environmental effects of current waste management practices (transportation pollution, loss of open space to landfills, greenhouse gasses emitted from landfills, etc).

For a full visual recap of the event, check out the pictures on our Facebook Page.

In total, there are approximately 8700 Ethiopian Jews waiting to make Aliyah. Unfortunately though,  the process is taking an extraordinary amount of time. One reason for this is that most of the remaining Ethiopian Jews are considered to be Falash Murah. Ethiopian Jews who were forcibly converted to Christianity more than a century ago.

The good news is, the Israeli government (specifically Interior Minister Eli Yishai) has made it a priority to resolve the Ethiopian Aliyah issue within a year.  Promises have been made before, so I’m skeptical, but I’m glad to hear that the issue is still being discussed. You can read the full article here.

Tel Aviv is planning on adopting Paris’ highly successful bicycle rental system. The Tel Aviv municipality published a tender for operating a series of rental stations around the city, and the winner should be chosen in the next few weeks.

The Paris system has been in use for about a year with over 20,000 bikes and almost 1,500 rental stations, which are used by some 120,000 people daily. A number of other cities around the world – including Beijing, Chicago, Montreal, London and Sidney – are also interested in implementing similar projects.

Once a tender winner is chosen, the bicycle rentals could start within a few months. Sharon Keren, the head of the Tel Aviv Economic Development Authority, explained that the aim is to set up a station with rental bikes every few hundred meters, and at a low price.

Some 100-150 stations would lease bikes on a daily or yearly basis, Keren said. In addition to the rental fees, the operator will also receive a subsidy from the city, though no prices have been set yet.

In addition, the city plans to expand its network of bike paths over the next year.

Israeli company S.D.E. Energy, developer of an innovative technology for generating electricity from sea waves, has signed an agreement for selling sea wave power plants in China for an undisclosed sum.

Construction of the power plants will be financed by investors from Hong Kong and China. Two joint venture companies, formed in Hong Kong for the purpose of the agreement by S.D.E. and its investors, will build an initial model in Guangzhou province in southern China. Should the model prove to be successful, it will launch the establishment of sea wave power plants throughout China.

The S.D.E. process is subject to the approval of the government of China, which it intends to target as the sole customer for the electricity generated.

Electricity shortages in China are worsening every day and current energy sources are problematic: fossil fuels increase the country’s already intolerable levels of air and environmental pollution; nuclear power plants and hydroelectric stations are highly susceptible to earthquake damage; typhoons make building wind farms extremely difficult, and solar systems are costly.

With prices of crude oil rising fast, there is new interest in alternative sources of energy, and the idea of generating power from sea waves is becoming increasingly attractive, according to S.D.E.

The Tel Aviv company’s system produces renewable and clean energy from sea waves, which it claims have the potential to supply four times more energy per square meter than wind power. The system’s advantages are high efficiency, ability to modulate energy storage capabilities, and relatively low cost for construction and generation of electricity.

According to S.D.E., the cost of erecting a one megawatt wave power station starts at $650,000, compared with $900,000 for a similarly-sized natural gas station; $1.5 million for a coal-fired or wind-powered station; and $3 million for a solar power station.

US investors have taken note of S.D.E.’s advances, managing director Shmuel Ovadia told ISRAEL21c. “We’re currently in talks to raise $100 million from US investors, and we’re negotiating building a 30 MW sea wave power plant in San Francisco at a cost of $20 million.”

The first commercial, full-scale model of the system, capable of generating 40 electrical kilowatts (eKW) has been working successfully for a year and is located at the Jaffa Port in Tel Aviv-Yafo.