EcoPeace Middle East Environmental Peacemaking Newsletter

April 6, 2015April 7, 2015 / Ivory Free Ohio - IFOH / Leave a comment

Friends of Earth Middle East.

“Green Economy Initiatives” holds seminar on EcoTourism Business Development

EcoPeace’s “Green Economy Initiatives” (GEI) project held a 2-day cross border meeting this month with Israeli Professor
Dr. Uri Mayer Chissik – who leads an education program on food heritage and community involvement – and staff from our Sharhabil Bin Hassneh EcoPark (SHE) in Jordan. A partnership is being explored between the two, whereby Dr. Chissik would like to give training workshops to the SHE EcoPark staff on “food foraging”, an activity that can then be incorporated into the environmental education programs offered at the Park.

Also this month, the GEI project held the Final Seminar of the business consultant project phase at the Sharhabil bin Hassneh EcoPark in Jordan. This seminar concluded the first stage of developing the cross-border touristic itineraries between Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian Tour Operators and Tour Guides, choosing the best programs that…

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Climate and Air Pollution

April 5, 2015 / Ivory Free Ohio - IFOH / Leave a comment

Smog over Shanghai

Although the United States is one of largest contributors to global warming, it appears that we were late in the game for initiating changes towards energy efficiency. By 2015 however, there have made substantial gains in modernizing power plants, reducing dependency on foreign oil, fuel economy standards, and doubling wind, solar, and geothermal energy. (The White House, 2015) Surprisingly though it was Japan, Europe, and Germany, who put forth the initial effort in energy efficiency and now it is time for the U.S. to do the same. (Turk and Bensel, 2014) Continue reading →

Food and Agriculture

April 1, 2015April 2, 2015 / Ivory Free Ohio - IFOH / Leave a comment

Livestock made to stand in manure and urine all the days of its life until the day it dies. This is a Controlled Animal Farming Operation.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO). Unlike free range livestock, food is brought to these animals while they wait in manure and urine. Photo Credit: Save Our Rain

Increase in Food production and its Impact on the Environment and Food Safety:

In the United States, we are fortunate to have an abundant supply of food. However, this abundance is largely due to the advances in agricultural technology, which have in turn created numerous concerns surrounding our food sources. The first example of an increase of food production within the United States is the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) also known as Animal Feeding Operations (AFO) (EPA, 2015) where animals such as swine, chickens, and cows, are confined in small quarters for a short amount of time before being slaughtered for consumption. While the time it takes for the animal to grow to capacity has decreased due to hormone injections and the genetically modified organisms that are fed to them, the impact of CAFO’s across the U.S. on our environment is substantial.

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Age of Oil

March 27, 2015April 2, 2015 / Ivory Free Ohio - IFOH / Leave a comment

Mountain Topping: when miners use explosives to remove the tops of mountains to gain access to coal buried deep within.

Mountain Topping occurs when miners use explosives to remove the caps of mountains to gain access to coal buried deep within.

Coal and Natural Gas are two possible alternatives that could replace our dependence of oil in the near future, but both have severe environmental consequences. Coal is more abundant than oil and it is assumed to exist in nearly inexhaustible quantities. It can be used to produce electricity, sustain a cleaner environment than oil, and drive production for electric transportation.” (Turk and Bensel, 2014) Acidification however, is a fundamental drawback to dirty coal and its poisonous levels of CO2 on the environment are slowly choking our oceans and everything in it.

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