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Large turnout for 4th Annual Pratt Environmental Media Awards ceremony:
 Presenters Einat Fishbain (TV and print journalist and Heschel Environmental Fellow) and David Gilboa (Channel 1 news presenter) present award to Chiko Menashe (Channel 10 news reporter)
The ceremony took place at the Tel-Aviv Cinemateque to an audience of over two hundred. Each year the Pratt Foundation and the Heschel Center award prizes for journalists' coverage of environmental issues in four categories: electronic, print, local and independent/community media. The awards have become a prestigious and strong incentive for increased quality and quantity of media coverage of environmental issues, as reflected both by the high amount and standard of entries and by the recipients in their acceptance speeches. Nevertheless, a few commented that although significant advances have been made in Israeli media treatment of environmental issues, there is still a long way to go till they receive the weight they deserve. This is reflected also in the results of the Pratt Environmental Attitudes Survey, presented at the ceremony (see item below). After the formal ceremony, the documentary film Black Gold was shown, detailing the dire social and environmental injustices caused by the massive worldwide coffee industry. 
 Israelis want more done about environmental issues, according to results from the Pratt Environmental Attitudes Survey. The annual survey is another joint initiative of the Heschel Center and the Pratt Foundation, conducted for the second time this year by the Rotem Institute among a representative sample of over 800 Israelis from the Jewish and Arab sectors. In the lead-up to the elections, questions were added which dealt with the public's political attitudes and knowledge with reference to the environment. A vast majority (86% of the Jews and 66.5% of the Arabs) reported that they care a lot, or quite a lot, about the environment. However, 89% of the Jews surveyed believe that the government is not doing enough to deal with the environmental crisis and 70% of Jews, 63% of Arabs, think that the Environment Ministry's budget should be increased. 87% of the Jews surveyed would like environmental education to become a compulsory subject at school and 64% think the issue does not receive adequate media coverage. Despite all this, we still have a lot of work to do: only 3% (sixth place) thought that the environment should be the government's chief focus this year. Some consolation can be taken in that the most popular answer to this question was "closing the socio-economic gaps" (33%).  Graph showing level of care for the environment in the Jewish sector according to age:
1 - not at all, 5 - absolutely. The blue line shows the overall average Green Schools Network - Successful regional conference for Kids' Environmental Leadership groups. 80 children from four elementary schools in the Sharon region took part in the conference, which focused on the issue of open spaces in the area. The program included field tours, a lecture and film, as well as a collective activity for the society and environment. The event was an exciting climax to the first stage of each leadership group's environmental activity, providing an exciting social and education encounter. The energy from the conference, and the kids' realization that they are part of a broader effort, will stimulate and motivate the next stages of their activity. Read more about the Green Schools Network 
 Plant seeds to support the Green Schools Network
It's Our Planet - Israel's environmental education journal to enter cyberspace for Pesach. This Pesach will see the publication of the first electronic edition of the journal, aimed at educators throughout Israel. It's Our Planet is an initiative of the Heschel Center's Green Schools Network and the printed version, now in its 6th year, has become a crucial resource for all professionals working in environmental education. Four electronic editions will be published each year to be read by over 2,000 recipients, in addition to the two annual printed ones. The current journal deals with "green mapping," a tool which enhances the connection to the local environment and the urge for activism.  The Heschel Center launches "The Activism Triangle" to link social and environmental organizations in Tel-Aviv As a follow-up to its successful Maof seminar linking representatives from social and environmental NGOs, the Heschel Center organized an event to connect the large number of social-change organizations working within close walking distance in downtown Tel Aviv. At the event, the center presented its new publication "Consuming the World" (see item below) with a panel of the book's contributors from a number of different NGOs in the "Activism Triangle." It is hoped that the excitement created by the pilot event will develop into ongoing cooperation between the organizations. The Heschel Center created a map of the Triangle which is now distributed by all the organizations.  Map of the Activism Triangle - click to see the full size version (Hebrew) Consuming the World released - the latest in the Heschel Center's series of Worldwatch publications This year's publication concentrates on one issue which contributes to a large amount of the world's social and environmental degradation - consumerism. The first part of the book is a translation of the Worldwatch Institute's English publication titled: State of the World: Focus on the Consumer Society. The remaining chapters are studies written by Israeli researchers about the impact of consumer culture in Israel. The issues dealt with include: waste, transportation, water, open spaces and shopping-mall culture and the book offers alternatives and potential to solutions to many of the problems raised.  Cover of Consuming the World Women and Environmental Leadership - local sustainability empowerment course for Arab Women in the Galilee  A group of highly-motivated women from villages, towns and cities throughout the north of Israel took part in the course, facilitated by Nisreen Masawi, a Heschel Environmental Fellow (Year 7). They developed advanced thinking on sustainability and the issues affecting their communities, as well as their personal visions of how to alter the situation. The participants developed two project proposals – one for a program of widespread education for environmental awareness in the Arab sector, and the other for establishing community gardens in Arb towns. They established work-groups which will continue to advance the projects. The nine-meeting course was run by the Heschel Center as part of its Local Sustainability project, in cooperation with: Citizens for the Environment in the Galilee; Woman to Woman; and the Towns Association for Environmental Quality- Agan Beit Natufa.
Plant seeds to empower local sustainability.
Sustainable urban planning course for professionals at Tel-Aviv University  The course is among the activities of the national Local Sustainability Support Center, supported by the EU's Life program. |
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