Israel’s worst-ever forest fire earlier this month confirms predictions on the impact of global warming in the Mediterranean basin, according to one of Israel’s leading climate experts. “The fire disaster in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa is a taste of the future,” Guy Pe’er, co-author of Israel’s National Report on Climate Change, said on Wednesday. […]

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Reservoir located off of Haifa coast said to contain 453 billion cubic meters of natural gas, making it decade’s largest gas discovery Tani Goldstein The Leviathan exploration prospect, which is located northwest of the coast of Haifa, contains 80% more natural gas than the Tamar reservoir, which was previously considered Israel’s largest drilling site, a […]

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By EHUD ZION WALDOKS 12/28/2010 02:42 Only Tel Aviv-Jaffa is ready to approve a plan to reduce pollution from transportation, the Knesset Health and Environment Committee was told Monday. The committee met to follow up on the implementation of Correction 84 to the Traffic Order. Correction 84 authorizes municipalities to draw up plans to reduce […]

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By EHUD ZION WALDOKS 12/27/2010 05:01 Solar installations will be allowed in the area around Beersheba, Gaza envelope, and Golan Heights in order to bring business to the periphery. The cabinet approved on Sunday the national master plan for photovoltaic (PV) solar installations of up to 750 dunams (75 hectares). National Master Plan 10D simplifies […]

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By EHUD ZION WALDOKS 12/27/2010 05:10 Erdan: Measures expected to reduce air pollution by 5 percentage points to 40% and generate $2 billion in savings as people’s health improves. Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan signed personal orders for the CEO of the Israel Electric Corporation on Sunday, requiring filtering technology installed in coal-fired power stations. […]

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Subscribers will have noticed an increase in the volume of postings. The volume of news and scholarship related to environment and climate in the Middle East has in fact increased. The increase has been gradual over time, but it is clearly noticeable when comparisons are made to 1997, when this project began, and even compared […]

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FoEME divided up its annual “Good Water Neighbors” regional conference this year, holding one for the Jordan River / Dead Sea communities entitled “One Basin – Conflicting Visions” in Amman Jordan, on November 2nd -3rd; and one for the Mt. and Coastal Aquifer communities, entitled “A Water Agreement Cannot Wait”, in Jerusalem, on Nov. 30th. […]

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Euro-Mediterranean Information System on the know-how in the Water Sector EMWIS is a program of the Union for the Mediterranean. For further information: www.emwis.net Contents issue N°85 for complete newsletter see (www.emwis.net/thematicdirs/eflash/flash85) ======================== HEADLINE 1- The 14th Annual EMWIS Steering Committee meeting, Florence (Italy), 03/12/2010 IN BRIEF 2- Med Joint Process: Water quality monitoring working […]

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April 28 – 29, 2011 in Berlin / Germany Climate change is a global phenomenon with comprehensive implications for the eco-, bioand for the anthroposphere. Globally, 20 % of the population will live in water stressed areas by 2080. In the MENA-Region a semi-arid and arid region already being under pressure from water scarcity, severe […]

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Expressions of interest are requested by 15 February, 2011; Papers July 2011 Papers are requested for a special issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture (JSRNC) on “Religion and Climate Change” and a possible book. Anthropogenic climate change is among the most significant and far-reaching social issues of our time. […]

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375,000 tons of waste and byproducts fester in Acre site By Arik Mirovsky The liquidator of United Steel Mills and its subsidiaries must lead a cleanup operation at a polluted site in Acre, where the company had a plant, the Haifa District Court has ordered. Over the years, 375,000 tons of dangerous substances had been […]

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The accumulating salt is a by-product of the process of collecting raw materials, and as such the Dead Sea Works should be responsible for dealing with it, paying what is necessary and preventing the flooding of the hotels. By Zafrir Rinat After contending with extensive fire damage in the Carmel and the collapse of numerous […]

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The legislative proposal will undergo its second and third readings into law in the Knesset plenum in a matter of days. By Zvi Zrahiya Importers and manufacturers will be directly responsible for recycling the packaging of all products they sell, under a bill approved by the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee yesterday. The legislative proposal will […]

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By Simona Sikimic BEIRUT: The recent UN climate meeting in Cancun may have raised hopes by promising to inject billions of dollars to help developing countries face global warming challenges but whether or not Lebanon will see an influx of cash remains to be seen, Environment Ministry representatives said Monday. “The mechanism [for receiving funding] […]

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By George Soros The official communiqué from the Cancún climate-change conference cannot disguise the fact that there will be no successor to the Kyoto Protocol when it expires at the end of 2012. Japan, among others, has withdrawn its support for efforts simply to extend the Kyoto treaty. This sounds like bad news, because it […]

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Pilot underway, but full solution to cost 400 million euros. By Amiram Cohen A new joint Italian-Israeli-Palestinian initiative to solve the sewage problem in the Palestinian Authority was launched this week. The two million residents of the PA produce about 150 million cubic meters of raw sewage a year, but only 22.5 million cubic meters, […]

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Breakthrough in Palestinian waste-water treatment By TOVAH LAZAROFF 12/17/2010 05:34 Multi-national team of water experts lay cornerstone for plant near Jericho; project to be pilot for larger program. A group of water experts from Israel, Italy and the Palestinian territories laid a cornerstone for a waste-water treatment plant Wednesday in a Palestinian village near Jericho […]

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The story of how Palestinians and Israelis in one West Bank village are working together to preserve water supplies. Filmmaker: Joshka Wessels The battle over access to clean water sources is ongoing across the West Bank, with illegal Israeli settlements frequently blocking access and polluting Palestinian farmers’ irrigation. JOIN THE DEBATE Send us your views […]

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By EHUD ZION WALDOKS 12/20/2010 04:08 Price of water for agriculture, industry, hospitals and any other non-residential sector will rise in January. The Water Authority Council decided late last week not to raise water prices again for households, as it had planned to do next month. Given the lack of rain and the uncertainty of […]

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By Hana Namrouqa AMMAN – Two hundred kilometres of pipes for the Disi Water Conveyance Project have been delivered to the Kingdom, with the project set to be completed by its 2013 deadline, a government source said on Thursday. With the most recent shipment of pipes from Turkey, which arrived earlier this month, an additional […]

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