This trip to Israel could not be going any better! Aside from the gorgeous weather, amazing people, and fantastic lectures, I am learning an immense amount about renewable energy. The past few days have been filled with lectures and field trips based around renewable energy and sustainable living. We visited the neighboring kibbutz, Lotan. Lotan is the most environmental place I have ever been to. First off, it recycles all of its trash, turning it into playgrounds, benches, etc... The kibbutz also has its own sewage treatment plant in the form of a wetland. All the waste water is treate [View Full Entry]

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How is it that one of the most "extreme" deserts in the world is able to also be the agricultural center of a country? With the Arava valley losing more than a meter of water a year to evaporation and gaining less than five centimeters of rain per year, it does not seem as if much should be able to grow. However, the other day, we visited the experimental orchards outside of the Kibbutz. The orchard grows mainly date palm trees, along with various other plants. The date trees each take atleast 200 cubic meters of water per day! The [View Full Entry]

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awesome pictures from Hai Bar! [View Full Entry]

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So, after fourteen hours of traveling from NY to London to Tel Aviv, I am finally on Kibbutz Ketura, and it is AMAZING. From my room I can see the mountains in Jordan (the border is only three miles away). The kibbutz has around 140 members, a pool surrounded by mountains, tennis courts, soccer field, an algae farm which produces algae that changes color based on its stress level, date palm tree fields, experimental orchards, horses, camels, cows, and sooo much other stuff. On the five hour drive yesterday from Tel Aviv to the kibbutz, we stopped at מכתש ר&# [View Full Entry]

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So today was gorgeous as always! In the morning we got a tour of the kibbutz and learned a lot about its history and also had an introduction to the course. During our afternoon siesta, we went out to the pool for a couple hours and swam/ layed out ( I am already starting to get tan!). In the evening, we went to Hai Bar Nature Reserve which is an amazing place. Hai Bar's goal is to bring animals that used to be native to the area but for reasons such as human interference have become nearly extinct and have them [View Full Entry]

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