Holy Land Goes Green - Someone Tell the Government!
by Jesse Fox, Tel Aviv, Israel on 12. 1.07
Reading power plant - part of Tel Aviv's contribution to global warming.
Environmental awareness has finally moved into the mainstream in the Holy Land. The State of Israel, hitherto not generally known for its leadership in sustainability, has apparently reached the green tipping point. Suddenly conferences about environmental issues are multiplying, green degree programs are opening up in universities, and even some politicians are starting to realize the importance of climate change. Ironically, though, the only one left unaffected by the new mania for everything green is Israel's Environmental Protection Minister.
While Israel has had a well-developed community of environmental NGO’s for years, with organizations advocating for everything from proper water management to socially-just land distribution, the activist sector of society has long known “the loneliness of the long distance runner,” as one former Environmental Protection Minister put it. These days, however, “everyone has become green,” as screenings of An Inconvenient Truth and discussions of global warming have become de rigueur.
Israel’s private sector, defined by its creativity and inventiveness, has also gotten into the act, with an abundance of new products and services in fields such as water conservation and desalination. Some Israeli entrepreneurs are planning to position the country on the forefront of green innovators.
The Environmental Protection Minister, however, quite possibly just doesn't get it. While over 180 countries will be participating in December's UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, as well as countless intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations from all over the globe (including six from Israel), the Israeli government will not be among the participants. Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra recently announced that he is canceling his participation in the conference, citing the high cost of providing security for his entourage in Indonesia. The honorable Minister said he would "rather use the money we save for important things." Go figure.
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Someone might want to mention to Jessie Fox, the author of the posted article, that security costs for Israeli pols in Indonesia would be fairly high – you might even say, business is booming in Bali.
Attendance at some NGO sponsored conference IS NOT worth dying for though. And attendance and words are not an indicator of real progress.
Since the 1950s, Israeli companies have been leaders in Solar (salt pond power generation comes to mind), sustainable, low water agriculture and a host of other positive developments – and long before Green or even Al Gore (forgive me your Alness) were popular words.
A better focus would be on what people and Nations, DO rather than say.
So, for the State of Israel – there is some of the DO part:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts%20About%20Israel/Science%20-%20Technology/Solar%20Energy%20in%20Israel
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/45123
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060214_533101.htm
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1185379029251&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The list could go on. Perhaps Mr Fox would benefit from a tad more research and a little less political bashing.
Don, I would like to point out that while Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs is doing great development work, the country's Ministry of Environmental Protection has gaping holes. Lack of funds is the main reason, I think.