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FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5350
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
RHMFIUU/HQ EPA WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 000324 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR OES/ENV AND NEA/IAI and NEA/RA 
USDA FOR FAS/OCBD/DRDAD AND FOREST SERVICE-SORIANO 
JUSTICE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND NAT RESOURCES-JWEBB 
EPA FOR INTERNATIONAL 
Amman for ESTH-Bhalla 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV TSPA ENRG KGHG IS
SUBJECT: ISRAEL ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE NOTES 
 
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Summary 
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1-4.(U) NASA at Space Sciences Conference 
¶5.  (U) Opposition Parties Target CO2 
6-7.(U) Israel's Cities Fight Global Warming 
¶8.  (U) Record Decline for the Dead Sea 
¶9.  (U) Kosher Electricity 
¶10. (U) Bagging the Sack 
 
NASA Addresses Space Science Conference 
--------------------------------------- 
¶1. (U) Two visiting NASA astronauts, the Mars Rover project director 
from the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, and the General of US Space 
Command were a hit with their hyper-active five-day schedule in 
Israel last week.  They headlined the Ilan Ramon Space Sciences 
Conference, where they lectured on Living and Experimenting in 
Space, Future Mars Exploration Programs, and Space Science and 
Education, and also addressed the Knesset Science and Technology 
Forum.  The group members also made presentations and took questions 
at four public schools, three universities, the IDF Air Force 
Academy, and Haifa Naval base.  The Israel Space Agency, the 
Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Education, and Embassy ESTH 
office all helped coordinate the visit. 
 
¶2. (U) The conference was held on the fifth anniversary of the Space 
Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) accident of 2003, in which Israeli 
astronaut Ilan Ramon perished along with five American astronauts. 
During the visit of the NASA team to Israel's parliament, Knesset 
member Benny Elon, chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, 
told the visiting delegation that Israel wanted to see another 
Israeli astronaut participate in the manned space flight program. 
Ramon was the only Israeli to ever fly in space, and Elon wants to 
see greater Israeli science contributions to and benefits from space 
technology. 
 
¶3. (U) President Peres, in his keynote at the Space Sciences 
conference, noted that Israel performs best when it engages fully in 
a challenge, as Israel's contributions to space science demonstrate. 
 Taking risks in the pursuit of knowledge is an Israeli strength, 
and he lauded all astronauts as supremely courageous in the risks 
they take for the advancement of knowledge.  Peres encouraged 
students today to live for discovery, not live for money.  He 
observed sagely, "It is the mind that fills the pocket, not the 
pocket that fills the mind." 
 
¶4. (U) Although science education was the theme of the visit, 
several lectures addressed the strategic importance of space.  For 
Israel, "the sky is not the limit" said Israel Air Force Commander 
Major General Elyezer Shkedy.  The communication and command role of 
space is critical, given present technology, and terrorism was now 
capable of reaching beyond the planet's atmosphere.  Physical 
security now depends on cyber-security and thus space security - 
where communication satellites are located, Shkedy noted.  Israel's 
security now depends in part on extending its circle of knowledge in 
space technology, which should be structured into the education 
system at all levels. 
 
Parliamentarians Target CO2 Emissions... 
--------------------------------------- 
¶5. (U) In light of Ministry of Environmental Protection projections 
that Israeli CO2 emission will grow by 63 percent by 2025 due to 
growing transportation and electricity needs, Knesset Labor party 
leader Ophir Pines-Paz presented legislation calling for a 25% cut 
in Israel's greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 over 2000 levels.  The 
Bill reportedly is supported by 70 Members of Knesset (a slim 
majority), who want to avoid the fines that developed countries are 
liable for under terms of the agreements reached at the Bali Climate 
Change negotiations in December.  Israel is expected to be granted 
status as a full OECD member soon, which imposes obligations to curb 
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  The GOI has not previously set 
itself GHG reduction targets. 
 
... As Do Israel's Cities 
------------------------- 
¶6. (U) Fifteen of Israel's biggest cities have an even more 
ambitious target: to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 
one-fifth by the year 2020.  The Forum of 15, as the association 
calls itself, announced on February 5 they will voluntarily reduce 
greenhouse gas emissions in their communities.  The target level is 
drawn from other urban activist efforts, such as the International 
Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) campaign, and 
Cities for Climate Protection (CCP).  Because most greenhouse gas 
emissions are generated in cities, city residents are the first to 
suffer from an impaired quality of life, including pollution-related 
 
TEL AVIV 00000324  002 OF 002 
 
 
diseases and environmental decay.  Some experts ascribe the 
increasing number of asthma cases among Israeli children to exposure 
to smog. 
 
¶7. (U) To achieve their goal, the Israeli cities will undertake five 
actions: (1) Conduct a baseline emissions inventory and forecast, 
based on energy consumption and waste generation; (2) Establish an 
emissions reduction target for 2020; (3) Develop an action plan of 
policies and measures that the local government can take to reduce 
GHGs, also incorporating public awareness and education efforts; (4) 
Implement policies and measures contained in their Local Action 
Plan, such as energy efficiency improvements in municipal buildings 
and water treatment facilities, streetlight retrofits, public 
transit improvements, renewable power applications, and methane 
recovery from landfill; and (5) Monitor and verify progress on the 
implementation of these measures. 
 
Record Decline for the Dead Sea 
------------------------------- 
¶8. (U) The Dead Sea, already the lowest point on Earth not covered 
by ocean, has gotten slightly lower.  Israeli hydrologists measured 
a 20 cm (8 inch) decline in the water level of the Dead Sea during 
January, the sharpest decline in years.  The water level has dropped 
up to 3 feet per year recently, and now stands at 420.94 meters 
below sea level, a drop of 20 meters (65 feet) in the past 30 years. 
 Numerous sinkholes have opened along the shoreline as a result, and 
tourist hotels once at the water's edge are now half a mile from the 
Sea.  Conservationists are calling for renewing the flow of water 
from the Jordan River to the Dead Sea. The billion-dollar proposal 
to pipe water from the Red Sea to refill the Dead Sea is the subject 
of a feasibility study funded by the World Bank, but the study is 
still in the bidding stage. 
 
Only in Israel: Kosher Electricity 
---------------------------------- 
¶9. (U) Communities of ultra-orthodox Jews have protested to the 
Israel Electric Company (IEC) that the electric current supplied to 
them forces them to break their religious injunctions against 
lighting a fire (in modern equivalent, creating a spark or turning a 
lightswitch on) and making other Jews work for them on Shabbat 
(Saturday).  They contend that electricity they receive necessitates 
starting and stopping generating sources, and employs Jewish workers 
on shifts through the weekly restday period.  IEC has responded with 
a plan to offer them "kosher electricity," from guaranteed sources 
of stored battery power transmitting energy which was generated 
prior to the Shabbat period.  Religious piety doesn't come cheap, 
however; the kosher electricity will be more expensive due to the 
investment in batteries and dedicated lines it requires, and will 
cost consumers more. 
 
Bagging the Sack 
---------------- 
¶10. (U) Two Knesset Members have introduced legislation to require 
store owners to charge 1 Israeli shekel (about 27 US cents) per 
plastic bag, in an effort to curb their widespread use.  An 
environmental hazard, plastic bags now account for a quarter of 
Israel's landfill volume, as Israel's 7 million consumers use over 5 
billion of them annually.  The Knesset bill intends to push citizens 
to bring re-usable bags with them to the store, and to recycle 
plastic bags to keep them from polluting streets, beaches and 
waters; the sacks take several hundred years to decompose, and have 
had damaging affects on Israel's wildlife, reefs and ecology. 
Israel's plastics industry, while acknowledging the need for 
recycling, claims up to 300 industry workers could lose their jobs, 
and that waste reduction anticipated is overstated.  Reportedly, 60 
percent of Israeli households re-use old shopping sacks for 
household trash collection, and they will turn to buying plastic 
garbage bags as an alternative, with the net saving of waste volume 
estimated at only 5 percent.  Israel's vocal environmental lobby 
backs the proposed measure, and stresses that educating children 
about it is the best way to change society's behaviour. 
 
MORENO