Jewish & World News

An advertising agency has created what it's calling the world's first billboard that converts air into drinking water. The billboard—a collaboration between agency Mayo DraftFCB and Peru's University of Engineering and Technology—was placed in Peru's rain-starved desert capital, Lima.

Green cars are better for the environment, but the Department of Transportation is concerned that they are too quiet for the road. Hybrid and electric vehicles produce less sound than vehicles powered by an ordinary gas engine. Because of that, transportation officials say you may not hear them coming and that can have tragic results.

Two Jewish organizations have joined together to promote energy conservation in hopes of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the Jewish community. Launched for Tu B’shvat, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and Canfei Nesharim, an organization that focuses on sustainable living inspired by the Torah, have a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 14 percent by September 2014, the next sabbatical year in the Jewish calendar.

Researchers have updated HadCRUT - one of the main global temperate records, which dates back to 1850. One of the main changes is the inclusion of more data from the Arctic region, which has experienced one of the greatest levels of warming. The amendments do not change the long-term trend, but the data now lists 2010, rather than 1998, as the warmest year on record.

Corn planting using insecticide- coated seeds was linked to honeybee deaths, according to a study by researchers at Italy’s University of Padova. The scientists found honeybees flying over fields where the coated corn was being planted were intoxicated by particles containing neonicotinoid insecticides vented by pneumatic seed planters, they wrote in a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Beekeepers from China to the U.S. have experienced honeybee-colony deaths in recent years that may be linked to multiple factors, including insecticides, the United Nations’ environmental agency reported last year.

The city is looking to flush old toilets in favor of newer ones that use less water. The Department of Environmental Protection is offering a $125 rebate to anyone who installs a new, more efficient toilet. The DEP hopes replacing old toilets will cut the city's water usage by three percent, saving some 30 million gallons a day.

Press Release: The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) today announced that a diverse group of community leaders has joined its Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign by signing the "Jewish Environment and Energy Imperative" declaration. Rabbis from the Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Reform and Renewal movements and other communal leaders set the goal of significantly lowering greenhouse-gas emissions, advocating for energy independence and security, and reducing the Jewish community's energy consumption 14% by 2014. The official signing ceremony at Manhattan's 14th Street Y preceded Tu B'Shvat, the Jewish new year for trees. The declaration states: "The need to transform the world's energy economy while addressing global climate change is not only a religious and moral imperative, it is a strategy for security and survival." The full declaration is at: http://www.coejl.org/jecc/declaration/ .

Counter to what logic might suggest, warm summers actually trigger cold winters, according to a new study. The study, detailed in the Jan. 13 issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters, offers an explanation for the recent harsh winters in the Northern Hemisphere: Increasing temperatures and melting ice in the Arctic regions are creating more snowfall in the autumn months at lower latitudes, which, in turn, affects an atmospheric pattern that leads to colder winters.

More than half of all Americans believe that paper is forever, according to a poll of 1,142 registered voters conducted last month by Majority Opinion Research. The poll, commissioned by research firm Poll Position, found that 56% of Americans don't think the U.S. will ever be a fully paperless society.

Israel - More than 240,000 Israelis took part in International Clean-Up Day, led in Israel by the Jewish National Fund.  Participants picked up trash in woods, parks, and other natural spaces.

The General Services Administration is launching a new tool to measure the performance of green building projects funded by the Recovery Act. GSA received a total of $5.55 billion in Recovery Act funding, $4.5 billion of which must be used to convert its facilities to high-performance green buildings, which rely on technologies such as solar panels and energy-efficient lighting.

New York - It may be hard to believe, but New York’s dysfunctional state government has done one big thing right over the past three years. While neighboring Pennsylvania and other states have rushed pell-mell into the Northeast’s version of an energy boom — making some people richer and some environments poorer — and while concern has steadily risen about the evolving industrial practices used to extract gas from shale, New York and Gov. David A. Paterson have held back. Instead of jumping in, the state has written fairly tough regulations that are still being tweaked and has added extra protections for the most sensitive areas, particularly the upstate watershed that provides drinking water to nine million people in New York City and its suburbs and exurbs to the north.

Albany - New York state legislators passed a bill Friday creating a new electronics recycling program—against the wishes of business lobbies. Democrats included the program in a bill that also contained funding to reopen 55 state parks and historic sites in time for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Nearly 260 lives could be saved if boilers in big buildings burned cleaner oil, a new study says. "Switching to a less toxic fuel is relatively inexpensive compared to the serious health consequences of burning dirty oil," said Michael Livermore of New York University's Institute for Policy Integrity.

In an effort to get customers to reduce summer energy use, Consolidated Edison officials are offering rebates for customers who buy energy-efficient appliances and cooling systems.

New York - When a constituent came into Assemblyman Michael DenDekker’s office recently and suggested he propose a cigarette butt recycling program, Mr. DenDekker admits he “had a little chuckle.” Then a staffer, half joking, suggested a cigarette butt deposit, just as is done with bottles. But before completely dismissing the idea, Mr. DenDekker agreed “to see if there is a market on it.”

In recent years, Israel - the world's leader in water recycling - has advanced by leaps and bounds in desalination and recycling water. Israel recycles 70% of its waste water and sewage, and in distant second place is Spain, with a mere 12%.

New York - Tiny bug, big trouble. The feds are placing 9,800 traps across the state this month to catch a small but nasty beetle that could kick New York's ash. The emerald ash borer first surfaced in the state last June - wiping out 39 ash trees in upstate Cattaraugus County. It hasn't been seen in the state since, but the feds aren't taking any chances.

The explosion and sinking of an oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday has created a potentially serious environmental situation, though experts are not sure how bad it might be. That all depends on whether the oil from the rig's well spills and where it goes.

There’s a whole lotta shakin’ going on underground. Top Transit brass have overhauled the massive bureaucracy that runs the rails, and promised today to deliver cleaner stations and faster technology improvements as a result.