Israel and the Global Warming Outlook

Recently, as I was waiting in the airport to board a flight back to TLV, I picked up a fallen Newsweek, who’s lead article caught my attention.  The subject was Global Warming, but rather than discuss the negative impacts, it addressed the winners in a warming world (Certainly a non-conventional way of looking at things.  (I would’ve linked to that article, but just can’t seem to find it anymore.)

Some of the positives that I remember were a thriving wine industry in Canada, new sports to replace skiing, specifically surfing in the African sand dunes, as well as some hot new vacation spots in Siberia, etc.  Lovely.

However, there was a map that specifically caught my attention.  The map shows the world, and listed (with nice color coding), the likelihood that a country will be harmed by climate change.  Specifically, Israel was at a “low” likelihood, with most of our neighboring countries at a “medium” likelihood, and the others at a “high” likelihood.  You can play around with the Interactive Climate Map to get some sense of it.  (It’s actually quite difficult to see that Israel is a different color, since we’re such a small dot on the entire map….)

In any case, this didn’t make too much sense to me, given that the climate in Israel, is going to change just as much as in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, but the way that they were looking at it had much to do with a specific country’s planning, etc.  Another interesting comparison addresses how countries rank on their preparedness to adapt to climate change. Given that, Israel is supposed to be in good shape. Why am I not convinced??

 

 

 

Tags: Global+warming, Israel, Interactive+climate+map, newsweek

Comments

[David Meyers]

I share your skepticism given Israel's record of environmental stewardship of the holy land (reinforced by having jumped into the Kishon a few more times than I care to think about).

BUT in my view there are actually three good reasons to be optimistic and even excited.

1. Israel is already experienced in addressing many of the same problems that will intensify with global warming: lack of water, scarcity of energy resources, poor soil for farming, high population density etc. and it is not exposed to economic losses if the world succeeds in diversifying its energy sources from fossil fuels.

2. Israeli expertise and entrepreneurism will not only provide solutions domestically but provide great opportunities for new and existing companies that have as much potential as information technologies.

3. If/when the world reduces its dependency on fossil fuels, Israel's geopolitical situation will be improved as our oil-fueled enemies see their economic and political power reduced.

So, let's get going and make it happen!

[Tali Aben]

Thanks for your comments. Ed Mlavsky (Gemini's Founding Partner), has a great slide that shows that Israel has always been entreprenurial when it comes to water. The slide depicts the aquaduct at Caesaria... and not to mention the hot water solar heaters that have "decorated" rooftops since before I can remember. It's going to be interesting to take part in this rule-changing reality.