Last week I travelled to Jerusalem (literally, where my mama came from) and took note of all the things the country is doing to conserve energy (as well as all the places it could do better). Some things are so logical–why don’t we do them here??
First, every apartment building stairwell has lights on a timer, so when you flip the switch when you walk in (unlike here where lights are on from sun down to sun up), if you forget to turn it off when you enter your apartment, they auto shut off after a bit. Genius.
Also, buildings are constructed with just a few types of stone that are native (I am pretty sure) to the region (Jerusalem stone, in particular). The stone structures and tile flooring keep apartments cool in the summer, limiting the need for air-conditioning at least in some ways.
Driving from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, my brother was telling me about all the trees I was staring at–apparently the country selected the style of tree strategically, as its roots soak up excess moisture in the swampy land. So when you plant a tree in Israel, that’s what you help fund.
On that same drive, though, we massed the massive land fills that they build up and cover with dirt. It occurred to me that the country would be an ideal place to standardize composting. The country is about as big as New Jersey and has a pretty serious agricultural arm, so the compost would be put to good use. In fact, it killed me when I got some fresh OJ from a stand and watched the guy toss orange halves into the trash without squeezing every last drop of juice possible from it…so wasteful!! If that went to a compost heap, I’d feel less bad…haha. There are private organizations working on this, as well as the state’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, but I think more could be done–in Israel and here in the U.S.
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