By Dr. Orr Karassin

CANCUN (Dec. 1, 2010) — After the great hopes for the Climate Change Conference that took place in Copenhagen just one year ago, the annual Climate Change Conference in Cancun began in a rather lackluster atmosphere, with little expectation of arriving at a new international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and halting global warming.

The cautious and restrained attitude that accompanied the opening session of the conference was reflected in the opening speech of Christiana Figueres, the secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, who said that Cancun would not solve all the world's problems. At the same time, she expressed her hope that Cancun would bolster efforts and readiness to reach an agreement, if countries were ready for mutual concessions. In such a non-optimistic atmosphere, it should come as no surprise that a considerable amount of the discussions in Cancun will be devoted to adapting to climate change, rather than to prevention of emissions and reducing the global warming effect.

The Israeli delegation arrived at Cancun accompanied by a number of experts who will be presenting technologies for adapting to climate change. Yitzhak Moshe, deputy director of KKL-JNF's Southern Region, will present Israeli expertise in the field of desert afforestation and agriculture in semi-arid and arid regions. Moshe also be making a presentation at the Climate Village, which is where the various NGOs will be convening. Experts from the Volcani Center and the Ministry of Agriculture will present achievements in the fields of water conservation and grazing. And Israeli expertise in these fields will be showcased at a side event that will be part of conference discussions taking place today.

KKL-JNF is the only organization represented in the Israeli delegation that decided to erect a pavilion at the conference's exhibitions hall. As soon as Karine Bolton, KKL-JNF delegation coordinator, and the representatives of KKL-JNF Mexico, including CEO Motti Cohen, and three members of the board of directors — Osrat Vizner, Tessi Seet and Nancy Cohen — finished building the KKL-JNF pavilion, it was flooded by visitors who were interested in learning about Israel. Among the visitors were representatives of the Iraqi Ministry for Protection of the Environment, who were amazed to hear about KKL-JNF's extensive afforestation activities in Israel. They expressed their wish to initiate similar afforestation activities in Iraq.

Dr. Orr Karassin is a former Green Zionist Alliance representative to the board of directors of Jewish National Fund in Israel, and an advisory-board member of Aytzim: Ecological Judaism.

By Dr. Orr Karassin

CANCUN (Dec. 2, 2010) — Many of us here are experiencing a shared anxiety: We fear that the present conference, held only a year before the Kyoto Protocol is due to expire, will end as some have predicted – with absolutely nothing accomplished.

After little significant progress was made at last year’s Copenhagen Conference — where the participating countries made no comprehensive commitment to continued reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to prevent dangerous warming of over 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius above the annual average — this year's conference convened with a sense of urgency. The world, however, is still far from attaining the 2-degree ceiling determined by the Copenhagen Document, which attempted, in the absence of a consensus, to summarize the outcome of the Copenhagen Conference. Now the opening days of the Cancun Conference have strengthened fears that the longer we continue without a binding agreement, the further the world will be from reaching a goal that will stabilize the climate at a point tolerable to most nations.

The results of the delay in achieving worldwide cooperation already have begun to show themselves: Global warming is now evident throughout the world, and the harsh realities of climate change were especially apparent in the descriptions provided in the conference plenum by representatives of the developing world. Many of their delegates told a capacity audience of the serious effects of climate change on their own countries, and urged the moderator to push for negotiations and a fair solution agreed on by all parties.

We in Israel tend to think that we are the only people in the world suffering from a climate that appears to have gone mad, but this, of course, is an illusion. A Venezuelan representative recounted sadly how her country had suffered this year from floods of unprecedented severity, which drove hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Burundi delegates told of serious drought, as did many other representatives from Africa and South America. The climate changes these and other countries are experiencing make KKL-JNF's upcoming presentation on afforestation and agriculture in semi-arid and arid regions especially relevant, along with Israel's achievements in the fields of water conservation.

Some will seek to clothe the impending failure of the conference in fine words about progress in discussions of the resolution formulations, while others will claim that failure was a foregone conclusion. Part of the problem lies in the huge scientific and political complexity of the issue. The vast interests that will be affected by any international agreement to limit emissions present an equally great difficulty.

The complexity lies in the dozens of negotiations-related texts on the agenda. These cover a multitude of topics, including reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions and the obligations of the developed and developing countries when the Kyoto Protocol expires in a year’s time; accommodation to climate change; cooperation in technology sharing and improving the abilities of developing countries; the establishment of a fund to finance the various activities; and the establishment of a system for the supervision and transparent reporting of emissions. As many countries make agreement on one issue conditional upon agreement on another, a vastly complex web has been created, leaving little room for maneuvering. As the deliberations put more and more issues on the negotiating table, we seem to move further away from a solution than ever.

In the absence of an international policing body with powers of enforcement, the possibility of attaining cooperation by means of the required consensus now seems even more distant. As the United States — which, so far, has been quiet here in Cancun — is losing political ground to China, which has no interest in a strong agreement, the combination of the two countries' stances is deadly, as it allows the countries of the world to engage in a dangerous game of collective suicide.

Much depends on whether or not China will reconsider and be willing — as its chief negotiator has declared it to be — to adopt a low-carbon economy. The floods and droughts that have afflicted China this year may cause the sleeping giant to awake and rally other countries around the cause of abating climate change. Only time will tell whether we are living in an era of mass suicide or one of collective reanimation and recovery. But whichever way we go, our path will be led by China and the United States.

Dr. Orr Karassin is a former Green Zionist Alliance representative to the board of directors of Jewish National Fund in Israel, and an advisory-board member of Aytzim: Ecological Judaism.

By Dr. Orr Karassin

CANCUN (Dec. 5, 2010) — The dreadful news about the Carmel forest fire raging in Israel reached our delegation to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 16/MOP 6) just as we were attending forums and workshops on dealing with the increase of forest fires throughout the world.

The terrible news arriving from Israel only added to the dismal world statistics on the spreading of natural fires and their magnitude. Ziang Ziu of the U.S. Geological Survey said that there was an overall increase in the number of fires and the size of areas destroyed by fires from 2001 to 2010 as compared to 1990 to 2000. In the present decade, the annual average is 7 to 10 billion acres of open areas destroyed by fires, an almost incomprehensible statistic. In Russia alone, 15 million acres burned last summer in 2,500 natural fires. Along with the fires, there was an 18% increase in illness throughout the country due to the heat and severe air pollution caused by the fires. This data was added to even worse data from South America, which received little attention in the media, although four billion acres were burned in 2010 on that continent alone.

One of the main reasons for the increase in the extent of fires all over the world is climate change, which causes a combination of extreme heat conditions and extreme aridity. Another contributing factor is increasing urbanization, which brings cities closer to natural areas and increases the danger to human life by fire. A good example of this was the fire three years ago that raged close to Athens, where giant waves of fire reached the edges of the city.

In many countries, as in Russia, mass migration to cities is accompanied by the abandonment of agricultural lands and the accumulation of biomass (flammable matter) in areas that were once cultivated, which greatly increases the potential for fire in those areas along with the rate of its expansion.

Not only are fires worsened by climate change, they also contribute to climate change by emitting air pollutants such as methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. U.S. Forestry Service scientists are interested in using satellite data in order to evaluate the contribution of forest-fire emissions toward climate change and to compare the extent of harm caused by these emissions with those from industry.

Because fires are not divinely decreed, it is possible, by correct means of preemption and containment of fires, to prevent a great deal of fire damage.  Nevertheless, coping necessitates great resources. For example, half of the U.S. Forestry Service's budget is directed to preventing and combating fires. Other countries maintain fleets of helicopters in readiness for fires and invest great financial resources in prevention and containment.

A new way of relating to this old but growing threat is under discussion. A more sophisticated approach is developing in the world for dealing with fires: Satellites are being used to locate fires when they break out and for monitoring fires that have already started to spread. Satellites also are being used to assist in forecasting the spread of fires. Precise forecasts provide early warning for evacuation of inhabited areas and saving lives. For example, American representatives spent an hour with us, using the Envirocast Vision Collaboration Module to access satellite imagery and show us live satellite photographs of the Carmel fire. (In appreciation, we purchased trees to be planted in their names in Israel.)

“Models developed on the basis of satellite data allow for the evaluation of the direction and rate of the fire spreading in a relatively accurate way,” said Ziu.

The sole purpose of NASA's space satellite Modus is locating fires as they transpire, gaging and mapping the expanses that have burned, and evaluating the air pollution caused by the fire’s emissions. This helps in evaluating the danger to human life, the necessity for evacuation in order to prevent harmful smoke inhalation, and in monitoring greenhouse gases emitted by fires.

“Information on developments in fire prevention and fire fighting is vital for Israel in this era of climate change,” said David Brand, director of KKL-JNF Department of Forestry. “Global warming, which lengthens the dry seasons as well as drought and damage to trees and forests by disease, requires renewed consideration and evaluation for the future. We have a lot to learn from international experience, and we will reevaluate the means at our disposal and adopt suitable methods that are in use all over the world.”

Dr. Orr Karassin is a former Green Zionist Alliance representative to the board of directors of Jewish National Fund in Israel, and an advisory-board member of Aytzim: Ecological Judaism.

By Dr. Orr Karassin

CANCUN (Dec. 9, 2010) — As part of the events that took place at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 16/MOP 6) here, our delegation joined the Israeli government delegation to present a side event to share the various ways we have learned to adapt to life in an arid region. KKL-JNF initiated the side event together with the government of Israel in order to present and share the knowledge Israel has acquired on adapting to hot and arid climates. In moderating the event, I emphasized that the purpose was not to debate policy, as was the case at most of the conference discussions, but rather to present practical solutions in the fields of agriculture and afforestation in hot and arid regions.

In an era of climate change, more countries will have to learn how to farm and prevent damage to the environment in hot and arid conditions — they will face the challenges Israel has faced on the edge of the desert. And they can learn from the practical solutions that we implemented in Israel. 

Still, we need to better study the ramifications of climate change for our region, and the effects of our ways of dealing with it. The Carmel forest fire was a terrifying reminder of this necessity. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges the state of Israel and other countries have ever faced. I will make every effort to ensure that KKL-JNF's research department will devote itself to investigating the ramifications of climate change on Israel's forests and to the ways of protecting forests in an era of climate change and changes in annual rainfall.

The first lecture at the event was by Itzik Moshe, deputy director of KKL-JNF's Southern Region, who spoke about desert afforestation and agriculture in semi-arid and arid regions. Moshe presented the methods developed by KKL-JNF, including harvesting water runoff and planting species that can survive in harsh climatic conditions. He emphasized that Israel's unprecedented success in foresting areas with an average of 250 to 350 mm. of rainfall is based on ancient methods that were used by local inhabitants for hundreds of years.

"Actually, there is not too much that is new in our forestry methods.," said Moshe. "All we are doing is combining ancient knowledge with modern tools. The methods developed in Israel could instigate a revolution in semi-arid regions. KKL-JNF is eager to share its expertise with countries throughout the world." 

The next lecture was presented by Dr. Gabi Adin, director of the Cattle Raising Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. He described Israel's success in raising dairy cows that produce the highest average yield in the world — approximately 11,000 liters per year — far exceeding the European average of about 8,000 liters annually. There are, however, claims that raising cattle for dairy and meat are the cause of about 30 percent of increased greenhouse gases, due to energy outputs and the methane emissions of cows. According to Adin, aside from the economic advantage, the Israeli dairy cow also has an ecological advantage, since it emits less methane gas per liter of milk produced.

The concluding speaker was Dr. Alon Ben-Gal, an expert on irrigation from the Volcani Institute of Agricultural Research, who spoke on irrigation in arid regions where various crops are grown, including dates and olives. Ben-Gal emphasized the benefits of drip irrigation as a means of enabling people to make a livelihood in these regions, without which it the lands would be impossible to inhabit.

Ben-Gal also addressed the use of brackish water for irrigation, which caused salification in Australia, rendering the land unsuitable for farming. So far, Ben-Gal said, brackish water-using farmers in Israel's Arava Valley have been lucky, since the water penetrates the Arava soil, preventing salification.

"The answers and solutions that future research will provide," said Ben-Gal, "are critical for enabling Israel to continue farming the Negev desert, and to continue taking advantage of the local aquifer, which has copious amounts of brackish water."

Dr. Orr Karassin is a former Green Zionist Alliance representative to the board of directors of Jewish National Fund in Israel, and an advisory-board member of Aytzim: Ecological Judaism.