Last year, an Israeli bus cooperative launched a campaign to inform the public of its environmentally friendly policies by painting some buses green.
But in Israel’s hot desert climate, the green paint caused temperatures inside the buses to soar. Therefore, the vehicles needed more fuel to keep them properly air-conditioned.
The supposedly green campaign ended up wasting more fuel than when the buses were their original color, white.
That’s just one example of environmental awareness in the Jewish state: It is on the rise but still not where it should be, said Philip Warburg, executive director of Israel Union for Environmental Defense, known in Hebrew as Adam Teva Vadin.
Warburg, who made aliyah to Israel with his wife in 1994, was in the Bay Area recently to raise awareness about the Israeli environmental group. He came, admittedly, at a time when the environment is not exactly foremost on everyone’s minds.
While security concerns in Israel have always pushed other societal concerns to the back burner, Warburg made some dire predictions as to what could happen if Israel does not pay closer attention to some very real threats, environmentally speaking.
With 700 people per square mile, Israel is more densely populated than India, he said. And as its population continues to grow, more housing and the infrastructure to support it — including water, sewage and transportation systems — will be needed. And yet the country is already suffering from over-urbanization, he said.
One plan to alleviate the problem, which is being researched by a team of Dutch and Israelis, calls for building artificial islands off the Mediterranean coast. The islands would provide housing, as well as an airport and offshore power plant.
The IUED opposes the plan. “A series of marinas has already contributed to the rapid erosion of the beachfront,” Warburg said, adding that the artificial islands would contribute to further erosion.
The scarcity of water in the region is well known, but what is less known is the impact of pollution on existing water resources. More than half of the 240 drinking water wells tested in a recent survey were found to be polluted, he said. Also, water from the Sea of Galilee is often contaminated from sewage and pesticides from nearby farms.
While Israel’s Health Ministry adopted World Health Organization standards for its drinking water supply, it did nothing to implement them until IUED filed a petition with the Supreme Court.
That was one of the less controversial things IUED has done in its 10-year history. Warburg mentioned several incidents in which the organization hasn’t exactly endeared itself to the Israeli establishment.
In one example, a military site on the Tel Aviv border where weapons were produced was slated to be converted to either a commercial or residential site. “Carcinogenic compounds were found in the soil and drinking-water wells,” Warburg said. IUED filed a petition to clean up the area before its conversion.
In another case, IUED challenged the Jewish National Fund for its forestry practices. It accused the venerable institution of using the pesticide Simazine — an ingredient found in Agent Orange that is banned in other countries — and creating forests with only one species, not only threatening the natural biodiversity, but putting the forest at heightened risk for fires.
After filing a petition demanding that the tree-planting organization allow its files to be open to the public, IUED was labeled “a militant body composed of a marginal group of fanatics” by a JNF spokesperson, according to Warburg.
Air pollution is also a dire threat, he said. Buses and trucks rely heavily on diesel fuel, which is more energy-efficient than regular gasoline, but “is less environmentally friendly in that it can penetrate lungs and cause chronic and acute respiratory problems.”
Soot in the air from auto emissions remains a major problem in the cities. An estimated 300 deaths a year in Tel Aviv, mostly among the elderly population, are caused by the transportation sector alone, Warburg said.
But the news isn’t all bad.
Warburg said the IUED has fostered Arab-Jewish cooperation on many levels, because the same resources in the region must be shared. And on the whole, the Israeli public is waking up to change practices, albeit slowly.
For instance, cages can now be seen on city streets, collecting plastic bottles for recycling. “This is only a drop in the bucket,” Warburg said, but it indicates a growing awareness all the same.
In a recent study reporting which Knesset members were the most environmentally friendly, the IUED found that concern for the environment was not limited to one political party; rather, it spanned the whole spectrum. But “the public is ahead of officialdom,” Warburg said. “Citizens are beginning to realize we can’t afford to wait for peace.”
For information about IUED, go to www.iued.org.il