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Nov. 9, 2007
Influence of climate change
NGOs are trying to make Israelis more environmentally friendly.
EVA COHEN
Al Gore's 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, is often cited as being a wake-up call for people to, once and for all, take care of the environment, but Israeli experts on climate change say there's still a long way to go.
"Before Al Gore's movie was released, awareness in the country was sketchy, vague," said Dan Rabinowitz, professor of sociology and anthropology and director of the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel-Aviv University. "Israel was expressing security issues and could hardly afford to give time and attention to secondary issues like climate change. After the film, there was a flurry of information, research and media on the topic and it became more of an important issue in Israel."
Rabinowitz is also chairman of the board for Chaim Ve Sviva (Life and Environment), an Israeli environmental umbrella nongovernmental organization, with more than 100 affiliated groups. He is involved with presenting environmental issues to the government and he said the urgency is understood.
"The Likud leadership especially, under Bibi [Binyamin Netanyahu], is very concerned," said Rabinowitz. "All through the spectrum, the government's interest in the problem of global warming is rising."
Rabinowitz said there recently has been co-operation and co-ordination on the green front. For instance, Israel is sending several representatives to the G8 environmental summit in Bali this December. Five or six environmental organizations will be going and Chaim Ve Sviva, along with other groups, is pushing for the government to send prominent members of the Knesset.
Another active Israeli environmental group is Adam Teva va Din. They have recently come out with a campaign called Act Cool, which promotes being environmentally active in everyday life. Being aware of climate change issues and acting on it are two very different things, believes Tamar Ganot, a lawyer involved with the Act Cool campaign.
"The country now knows what we're talking about with environmental issues, but there hasn't been the change of lifestyle yet," said Ganot. "There has been a lot of greener talk, but very little action. That concerns us. We don't want to see the talk replacing the action."
Ganot agreed with Rabinowitz that the summit in Bali is important for Israel. She said Israel must send high-level government representatives.
"Israel needs to join the modern world and Bali will be a very big step for us," she said. "Israel almost enjoys, in a cynical tone, being classified as a third world country under the Kyoto Accord. The country needs to act now and be a part of the global solution."
On a national level, the Knesset has just passed a Clean Air Act bill through the first reading. The government is currently operating on air-quality laws passed in the 1960s. In many cases, even where there is legislation regarding air quality, the government exempts itself. Ganot said that this is highly unacceptable.
"The government should be first in line to adopt green ideas," she said. "Instead, we have had to fight them in court, and the court has agreed with them.... They may talk green, but the talk is still very far away from any action."
Israel is a small country and only accounts for a very small percentage of the world's waste and greenhouse gasses, but Rabinowitz said this is no reason for Israel to let the wave from Gore's movie roll by.
"Israel is a sunny country and has seen the effects of global warming, with changes in the rainy season," he said. "With Israel's technology prowess, there is a sense that the country has the capability of being a large contributing factor toward solutions."
As a professor, Rabinowitz often lectures on the issue of climate change. Across the country, at universities and colleges, there are 26 student-run branches of Green Course, a grassroots organization that began 10 years ago, in 199,7 and has about 5,000 registered members.
Nadav Gordon, head of Sviva at the University of Haifa, said the group is very active and participates in national projects, but, at a local level, there haven't been any sustainable changes.
"There is no environmental policy for the university," said Gordon. "There aren't any rules or regulations, so that is our goal for this year – to create one."
This year, a green council was created on campus and students, lecturers and administration hope to work together on Sviva's framework to implement changes.
Last year, Sviva, as a collective, held several campaigns, including a successful one to halt a building project in Jerusalem. The government was set to build a new neighborhood – where there already stands a national park.
"There was no consideration toward economic city planning," said Gordon. "They were about to destroy a forest and, luckily, we were able to stop them."
Sviva is always looking for more members, but they specifically hope to get more international students at the university involved.
"International students are probably much more aware than Israeli students," said Gordon. "We really hope to get them involved so they can share their knowledge and help our cause."
Eva Cohen is a journalism student at Carleton University in Ottawa.
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