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By Or Kashti and Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent, February 21, 2010
The Education Ministry’s chief scientist sparked a furor among environmental activists and scholars Saturday with remarks questioning the reliability of evolution and global warming theory. The comments from Dr. Gavriel Avital, the latest in a series of written and oral statements casting doubts on the fundamental tenets of modern science, led several environmentalists to call for his dismissal.
“If textbooks state explicitly that human beings’ origins are to be found with monkeys, I would want students to pursue and grapple with other opinions. There are many people who don’t believe the evolutionary account is correct,” Avital said yesterday.
“There are those for whom evolution is a religion and are unwilling to hear about anything else. Part of my responsibility, in light of my position with the Education Ministry, is to examine textbooks and curricula,” he said. “If they keep writing in textbooks that the Earth is growing warmer because of carbon dioxide emissions, I’ll insist that isn’t the case.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Climate Change, Education, Evolutionary Biology, Middle East, Monotheistic Religions, News Articles, Recent Posts on February 22, 2010 - ח' אדר תש"ע at 2:37 pm
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ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2010) — Using arrays of long, thin silicon wires embedded in a polymer substrate, a team of scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has created a new type of flexible solar cell that enhances the absorption of sunlight and efficiently converts its photons into electrons. The solar cell does all this using only a fraction of the expensive semiconductor materials required by conventional solar cells.
“These solar cells have, for the first time, surpassed the conventional light-trapping limit for absorbing materials,” says Harry Atwater, Howard Hughes Professor, professor of applied physics and materials science, and director of Caltech’s Resnick Institute, which focuses on sustainability research.
The light-trapping limit of a material refers to how much sunlight it is able to absorb. The silicon-wire arrays absorb up to 96 percent of incident sunlight at a single wavelength and 85 percent of total collectible sunlight. “We’ve surpassed previous optical microstructures developed to trap light,” he says.
Atwater and his colleagues — including Nathan Lewis, the George L. Argyros Professor and professor of chemistry at Caltech, and graduate student Michael Kelzenberg — assessed the performance of these arrays in a paper appearing in the February 14 advance online edition of the journal Nature Materials.
Atwater notes that the solar cells’ enhanced absorption is “useful absorption.”
“Many materials can absorb light quite well but not generate electricity — like, for instance, black paint,” he explains. “What’s most important in a solar cell is whether that absorption leads to the creation of charge carriers.”
The silicon wire arrays created by Atwater and his colleagues are able to convert between 90 and 100 percent of the photons they absorb into electrons — in technical terms, the wires have a near-perfect internal quantum efficiency. “High absorption plus good conversion makes for a high-quality solar cell,” says Atwater. “It’s an important advance.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Climate Change, Recent Posts, Science, Solar Energy on February 17, 2010 - ג' אדר תש"ע at 7:33 am
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Burj Dubai to open tomorrow
Press Trust of India / Dubai January 03, 2010
Amidst the crisis, Dubai is keeping its date to create history by opening the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, tomorrow, even as it is keeping the whole world guessing about the final height of the magnificent tower whose parent is fighting for survival.
Though the final height of the super-scrapper is not known, the 1-billion pound Burj Dubai is at least 2,683 ft from its base to the tip of its spire—-equivalent of three-and-a-half Canary Wharf towers or two Empire State Buildings stacked up.
Its final height is being kept a secret until tomorrow, but architects who have worked on the building have hinted it could break the 2,700-ft mark. The tower is more than 1,000 foot higher than its nearest inhabited rival, Taiwan’s 1,671-ft Taipei 101.
The Burj Dubai, which is not just the tallest building on the planet but also the world’s tallest man-made structure, surpassing even the 2,063-ft KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, America, will be opened by the the Emirate ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum tomorrow.
Meanwhile, online news site ArabianBusiness.Com said the “inauguration of the Burj Dubai, developed by Emaar Properties, (it parent Dubai World is fighting a USD59-billion debit crisi) will feature a spectacular display of sound, light, water and fireworks”.
A combination of 10,000 fireworks, light beams, choreographed water displays, and sound & music effects on Monday will describe the evolution of the world’s most iconic new building.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Climate Change, Islam, Middle East, Recent Posts, Science and Technology on January 3, 2010 - י"ז טבת תש"ע at 3:02 pm
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A Window That Washes Itself? New Nano-Material May Revolutionize Solar Panels and Batteries, Too
TAU’s nanosized “forest of peptides” can be used as the basis for self-cleaning windows and more efficient batteries.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2009) — A coating on windows or solar panels that repels grime and dirt? Expanded battery storage capacities for the next electric car? New Tel Aviv University research, just published in Nature Nanotechnology, details a breakthrough in assembling peptides at the nano-scale level that could make these futuristic visions come true in just a few years.
Operating in the range of 100 nanometers (roughly one-billionth of a meter) and even smaller, graduate student Lihi Adler-Abramovich and a team working under Prof. Ehud Gazit in TAU’s Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology have found a novel way to control the atoms and molecules of peptides so that they “grow” to resemble small forests of grass. These “peptide forests” repel dust and water — a perfect self-cleaning coating for windows or solar panels which, when dirty, become far less efficient.
“This is beautiful and protean research,” says Adler-Abramovich, a Ph.D. candidate. “It began as an attempt to find a new cure for Alzheimer’s disease. To our surprise, it also had implications for electric cars, solar energy and construction.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Climate Change, Middle East Report, Science and Technology, Solar Energy on December 5, 2009 - י"ח כסלו תש"ע at 7:34 pm
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Posted By Maurice Picow On December 6, 2009 In Cleantech, Science & Technology |
A Seambiotic algae farm grows biofuel
Seambiotic’s been teaming up with NASA [1] to to create a biofuel suitable for sending astronauts into space (?), and now this company is once again making news in a new venture with the China Goudian utility company [2] to grow micro algae for use as a biodiesel fuel to power electrical power stations all over China.
Founded in 2003, Seambiotic [3] develops and produces marine microalgae for the nutraceuticals [4] and biofuel industries by using flue gas from electric power plants.
Seambiotic’s success in utilizing an organic substance that is found in abundance in the world’s oceans and in fresh water sources as well, may one day solve much of the world’s energy needs as well as provide food products for the earth’s continuing increasing population. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Climate Change, Middle East, Recent Posts, Science and Technology, Solar Energy on December 5, 2009 - י"ח כסלו תש"ע at 7:11 pm
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A recipe to save the Western world from the tyranny of oil and fossil fuels: Substitute alternative liquid fuels for oil, build electric and flex-fuel vehicles, produce domestic renewable energy sources and implement energy efficiency – but examine health risks assiduously before doing so.
Those were the conclusions of a distinguished panel of experts who addressed a crowd in Jerusalem on Sunday night at the American Jewish Committee building as part of a larger US initiative – the Jewish Response to the Energy Challenge (J-REC), which held a simultaneous conference in San Francisco. The event also marked the launch of the AJC’s Access program.
Though the solution seems simple enough when summarized in a paragraph, each one of the panelists advocated a different No. 1 priority for Israel and the US during a discussion of the “Israel-US Partnership for Clean and Secure Energy Solutions.”
Still, all agreed that Israel and the Jewish people were uniquely situated to have tremendous influence on policy, as well as the technological discoveries and their implementation.
Dr. Isaac Berzin, the keynote speaker, insisted that the key to ending Iran-sponsored terror by Hamas and Hizbullah was to end the world’s reliance on oil. Berzin, founding director of the Institute for Renewable Energy Policy and an expert in the use of algae to produce fuel, explained that Iran used Chinese money from its oil sales to send Hamas and Hizbullah shiploads of arms. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Climate Change, Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts, Science, Solar Energy on November 11, 2009 - כ"ד חשון תש"ע at 12:07 pm
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Andrew Donoghue, BusinessGreen 11 Sep 2009
A Ford car plant which was recently shut down as part of cost savings by the car maker is being converted into a facility for renewable energy companies.
The facility in Wixom, Michigan, which at the height of production had about 5,000 workers, closed in 2007 with the loss of 1,000 jobs. The site will now be converted into a business park for a series of renewable energy companies, which the backers claim could generate about 4,000 jobs.
Ford said it has been working with energy storage system provider Xtreme Power and solar panel maker Clairvoyant Energy, who will be the first companies to take up residency in the 320-acre site and its 4.7 million square feet of plant space. The two renewable energy providers have invested about $725m (£635m) to redevelop the site, with work expected to begin early next year and clean tech manufacturing expected to get underway in 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Air & Water, Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Climate Change, Recent Posts, Science and Technology, Solar Energy on September 12, 2009 - כ"ג אלול תשס"ט at 11:19 am
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 Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN  |
| Farmers in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, where outdated irrigation systems causes water shortages despite the country’s above-average rainfall |
BEIRUT, 10 September 2009 (IRIN) – The politics of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, a rugged sliver of mountainside wedged between Lebanon, Israel and Syria, have long overshadowed what some Lebanese environmentalists call “the real issue” of the disputed area: its water resources.
Now activists are calling for hydro-diplomacy to take precedence over political manoeuvring as the most effective solution to one of the key stumbling blocks to Middle East peace.
Rising Temperatures Rising Tensions, a report published in June by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, considers water to be a major trigger for conflict in the Middle East, the world’s most water scarce region.
 There will not be enough water for our generation or the next. We will see social, economic, political and military conflicts – and in that order – within the next 20 years |
Lebanon and Syria say the Shebaa Farms, measuring just 22sqkm, is Lebanese territory, though the UN has ruled it part of the Syrian Golan Heights, which lie just to the east, across water-rich Mount Hermon.
Both the Golan and Shebaa were occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Israelis say disengagement from Shebaa can only come under a peace deal with Syria and withdrawal from the Golan.
However, Fadi Comair, director-general of Hydraulic and Electric Resources at the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water, argues there is more to Israel’s occupation of Shebaa than military-strategic concerns: “Israel’s occupation of the Shebaa Farms has to do with control of its water.”
Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that fought Israel to a bloody stalemate in 2006, has the liberation of Shebaa as one of its strategic objectives.
 Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN  |
| UN peacekeepers patrol the Blue Line, the boundary between Lebanon and Israel, near the water-rich Shebaa Farms |
Water scarcity
Meeting the water needs of their rapidly growing populations has long been an existential challenge for the governments of the arid Middle East. Climate change is making that challenge more urgent and acute.
Israel, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) all fall well below the internationally accepted threshold of 1,000 cubic metres of water per person per year (cmwpy). According to the IISD, Israel has natural renewable water resources of 265 cmwpy, Jordan 169, and OPT just 90. Only Lebanon and Syria have water surpluses, with Lebanon having a potential of 1,220 cmwpy and Syria 1,541.
Yet supply is dwindling rapidly. By 2025 water use in Israel is estimated to fall to 310 cmwpy, while the country’s own Environment Ministry has warned that water supply may fall by 60 percent of 2000 levels by 2100.
River Jordan
The IISD report goes even further, warning that the River Jordan, which is the key supplier of water to Israel, Jordan and OPT, could shrink as much as 80 percent by the end of the century.
Such drastic scarcity makes securing water supplies vital. The River Jordan rises in Mount Hermon, fed by tributaries in the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms, and flows into the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberius, before continuing south where it forms the boundary between Jordan, to the east, and the West Bank. After 320km it empties into the Dead Sea.
Major tributaries of the river include the Hasbani, which flows into Israel from Lebanon, and the Banias, which flows from Syria. The River Dan, which also supplies the River Jordan, is the only river originating in Israel.
 Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN |
| Women in the Shebaa Farms village of Kafr Shouba mourn the death of their son, a shepherd shot by Israeli soldiers in March 2006 after straying into the Blue Line area |
Water wars
The absence of hydro-diplomacy reflects conflict in the region. In 1965, Syria and Lebanon began the construction of channels to divert the Banias and Hasbani, preventing the rivers flowing into Israel. The Israelis attacked the diversion works, the first in a series of moves that led to a regional war two years later.
In 2002, when the Lebanese constructed a pipeline on the River Wazzani intended to supply households in southern Lebanon with water, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared the action a causus belli. In the July War of 2006, Israeli warplanes targeted southern Lebanon’s water network.
Bassam Jaber, a water expert at Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water, argues the Shebaa is critical to Israel’s water needs, “especially because fresh water is critical when all sources within Israel are salty. The flows from the area help to regulate the saltiness of Lake Tiberius”.
And it is not just the direct overland flow that the Shebaa provides Israel. According to the Lebanese Water Ministry’s Comair, 30-40 percent of the River Dan’s water flows into it through underground supplies originating in the Shebaa. “Israel is worried that if Lebanon gains control of the Shebaa, it can then control the flow to the Dan river,” said Comair.
Hydro-diplomacy
As one of only eight states to have ratified the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, Lebanon is calling on Israel to do the same.
“Israel is not a signatory to the relevant conventions on water, which is a big problem since they are at the centre of the issue of equitable use of water and reasonable sharing,” said Comair.
Israel has already shown that water can play a role in peacemaking. Its 1994 peace agreement with Jordan included a commitment to transfer 75 million cubic metres of water per year to Jordan in return for secure borders to the east.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water is now calling for a regional water basin authority for the River Jordan, which would include Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and OPT. “How can you reach any agreements on the equitable sharing of international watercourses if there is no cooperation?” asked Comair.
 Photo: Annasofie Flamand/IRIN |
| A view from southern Lebanon across the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, from where the Jordan River rises |
Water solutions for all?
Not all are convinced Israel’s occupation of Shebaa is primarily about securing water.
“Water is no doubt one aspect of the socio-political conflict, but it is not the main driver,” said Mutasem el-Fadel, director of the Water Resources Center at the American University of Beirut.
He points to several projects currently being studied that could solve Israel’s water needs, without requiring continued occupation of the Shebaa, such as the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal Project, the Mini-Peace pipeline from Turkey, wastewater reclamation plans and desalination projects.
“All combined they can be the water solution for all five countries in the area,” said el-Fadel.
But in the absence of hydro-diplomacy between Israel and Lebanon, the continued Israeli occupation of the Shebaa Farms will remain a key trigger to renewed conflict between the two countries.
“There will not be enough water for our generation or the next,” said Comair. “We will see social, economic, political and military conflicts – and in that order – within the next 20 years.”
hm/ed/cb Themes: (IRIN) Early Warning, (IRIN) Environment, (IRIN) Water & Sanitation [ENDS] Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86092
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Air & Water, Climate Change, Middle East Report, News Articles on September 11, 2009 - כ"ב אלול תשס"ט at 7:35 am
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By Crystal McMorris, Midland Daily News, August 6, 2009
If you think roof-top windmills, solar-powered cottages and robust manufacturing in Michigan are the stuff of fairy tales, you weren’t at Wednesday’s Alternative Energy Forum.
Leaders in several alternative energy fields updated about 100 people on the growing demand and emerging technologies for energy from wind, sun and the earth itself, and how the state is poised to benefit from public and private investment in "green energy."
The forum, sponsored by the Sierra Club and Citizens Exploring Clean Energy, was arranged by University of Michigan senior Shawn Kinkema and held at Essexville Garber High School.
"I believe Michigan has the tools to reinvent itself," said Kinkema, an environmental studies major from Essexville.
Cedric G. Currin has been involved in this reinvention since the first time "alternative" energy was a hot topic in the 1970s. His company, Currin Corp., of Midland, makes solar panels which are used, mainly, to power to rural areas beyond the grid in national parks, for example, and isolated areas of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Currin said the solar power industry has grown about 40 percent per year for the past three years or so.
"You can’t think of a greener way of getting power," Currin said, holding up one of his company’s solar panels, about the size of a record album. "It makes no noise. Nothing is moving. It is virtually free of any maintenance. And it lasts for a long, long time — 50 to 100 years."
Solar power has its problems, however, Currin noted, which explains why so few homes in Michigan rely on solar power as their sole or primary energy source. Panels produce DC current, while our homes are set up for AC current, requiring conversion. Power needs to be stored, too, since the sun’s not always shining.
And a solar system costing $20,000 to install will save only about $200 a year in electrical costs.
But a growing desire to be energy independent — as a nation and individuals — is fueling the growth in demand for alternative energy, Currin noted. Concern for the environment is another driver, he said. Under the current energy system, each Michigan household causes five tons of carbon dioxide to be emitted from coal power plants, he said.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Air & Water, Alternative Energy, Climate Change, Recent Posts, Solar Energy on August 6, 2009 - ט"ז אב תשס"ט at 11:41 pm
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Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Date: 03 Aug 2009
Full_Report (pdf* format – 580.4 Kbytes)
GLIDE DR-2009-000149-SYR
The International Federation’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) is a source of un-earmarked money created by the Federation in 1985 to ensure that immediate financial support is available for Red Cross and Red Crescent response to emergencies. The DREF is a vital part of the International Federation’s disaster response system and increases the ability of national societies to respond to disasters.
CHF 320,856 (USD 300,340 or EUR 212,435) has been allocated from the International Federation’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society (SARC) in delivering immediate assistance to some 40,000 beneficiaries (8,000 families). Unearmarked funds to repay DREF are encouraged.
Summary:
Syria is currently experiencing the dramatic effects of a drought that has been affecting the country since 2006. As a consequence of climate change, the severity of the ongoing drought has now reached a level which forces people to change their coping techniques or to leave the affected region. According to the government of Syria and United Nations assessment missions, some 1,3 million inhabitants of Eastern Syria have been affected by this disaster, out of which 803,000 have lost almost all of their livelihoods and face extreme hardship. One of the most visible effects of the drought is the large migration from the affected areas that has increased substantially over the past months. Figures for migration range from 40,000 to 60,000 families, with 36,000 of them being from the Hassakeh Governorate alone. SARC has mobilised its intervention teams and carried out assessment studies in the most affected regions. The assessment’s findings indicated that the villagers started to sell their belongings in order to buy food items. Data from the clinics of SARC indicate that children up to the age of three years are lacking proper nutrition and have a low level of protein and other nutritious agents necessary for proper growth. Many parents are withdrawing their children from elementary schools and are sending them to work to bring income to the families.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Air & Water, Climate Change, Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on August 3, 2009 - י"ג אב תשס"ט at 9:14 pm
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