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Sue Surkes
Sue Surkes
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter.
The Leviathan natural gas platform off the shore of Israel. (Albatross)
January 27, 2020, 3:12 pm
State is failing to collect natural gas profits for public good, MK charges
Moshe Gafni tells Knesset Finance Committee that all bodies charged with creating sovereign wealth fund in line with 2014 law are ‘tainted’ by lack of responsibility
By Sue Surkes
Israel's 'answer to the Grand Canyon.' The 'secret river' by the Dead Sea 'discovered' by Kan TV, January 2020. (Kan TV screenshot)
January 26, 2020, 7:32 pm
The strange tale of a toxic effluent channel hailed as a great, ‘secret’ river
Following TV visit to Dead Sea gorge carved out by briny waste from Dead Sea factories, call is issued for works there to stop, site to be opened to public
By Sue Surkes
Egged's new electric buses at their charging station in Jerusalem during the launching ceremony, on September 3, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
January 26, 2020, 6:56 pm
City of Jerusalem and Environment Ministry launch low emissions zone
Scheme starts by banning big, old diesel-driven vehicles from city center; is set to expand to entire municipal area in July. Similar project in northern Haifa cut soot by 20%
By Sue Surkes
The women’s cooperative of the village of Mubuga which is set to benefit from productive uses of solar power as part of a social and economic development program. Dr. Hanna Klein (center), VP for Research and Project Development of Gigawatt Global is planning to switch the power to the village's flour mills from diesel to solar-powered electricity. (Courtesy)
January 26, 2020, 6:46 pm
Israel-linked solar firm to light up 87,000 homes and businesses in Burundi
Set on contracts for 10 renewable energy projects in Africa this year, Gigawatt Global follows up Rwanda mission with new 28-acre solar field in one of the world’s poorest nations
By Sue Surkes
Children in Africa benefit from safe drinking water thanks to Israeli technology brought to them via nonprofit Innovation Africa. (courtesy)
January 23, 2020, 3:29 pm
LISTEN: Israeli tech brings clean water and electricity to African villages
Innovation Africa, whose Israeli-made solar panels power schools, clinics and water pumps in 10 African countries, has changed the lives of 1.7 million people
By Sue Surkes
(Illustration Avi Katz)
January 21, 2020, 1:40 pm
Groundbreaking Israeli microbe research scoops up €4 million in grants
Ben Gurion U prof Itzik Mizrahi plans to engineer microbial communities to reduce climate-warming methane and develop more sustainable methods of creating energy, treating waste
By Sue Surkes
Calves on a live shipment from Australia to Eilat for fattening, prior to slaughter, December 2019. (Israel Against Live Shipments)
January 16, 2020, 11:05 pm
Calves survive Australian bushfires just to be shipped to Israel for slaughter
New video footage of cows who made it through the flames and were sent to Eilat draws fresh criticism of intense suffering endured during live shipping
By Sue Surkes and Omer Sharvit
Illustrative: Herbal extracts (LucaDAddezio; iStock by Getty Images)
January 15, 2020, 12:35 am
BDS backer upsets tranquility of Israel’s first English-speaking herb confab
Canadian activist’s Facebook campaign against event planned for February results in speakers’ withdrawal and request by American Herbalist Guild head to drop video endorsement
By Sue Surkes
A dump in Kafr Manda in northern Israel, whose owner was fined nearly $240,000 by the Environmental Protection Ministry for illegal burning of waste, January 14, 2020..(Environmental Protection Ministry)
January 14, 2020, 12:17 pm
Environment Ministry fines business NIS 825,300 for illegal burning of waste
Uptick in enforcement follows report about 28% rise in emissions of known or suspected carcinogenic pollutants as result of illegal refuse burning
By Sue Surkes
Promised Land, part of the Fallen Fruit project, on show at Tel Aviv's Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery. (Courtesy)
January 14, 2020, 7:52 am
Tel Aviv exhibit examines plants as complex, worthy beings
‘PLAN(e)T,’ which runs free of charge at the Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery, marries scientific research with art to spotlight human-flora connections
By Sue Surkes
Environmental Protection Minister Ze'ev Elkin arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on June 2, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
January 8, 2020, 6:35 pm
Environment minister slams green groups as ‘charlatans’ over gas rig fight
Stunning conference, Ze’ev Elkin devotes address to excoriating organizations for ‘deliberate distortion,’ especially those that campaigned against offshore extraction facility
By Sue Surkes
Screenshot from Australian TV's "60 Minutes" broadcast about live shipments, "Sheep, Ships and Videotape," shown April 8, 2018.
January 6, 2020, 5:13 pm
Record number of live lambs and calves imported to Israel for meat in 2019
Nearly 700,000 animals shipped from Australia and Europe for fattening and slaughter; Knesset bill to stop live transports halted by absence of functioning government
By Sue Surkes
An ibex chats up a Tristram’s grackle at the Ein Gedi nature reserve .(Shmuel Bar-Am)
December 19, 2019, 5:00 pm
In 50-year record, 20 new nature reserves, national parks designated in 2019
But in year’s end roundup report, Israel Nature and Parks Authority director says lack of functioning government leaves funding for 2020 unclear, harms ability to plan
By Sue Surkes
The invasive common myna (Acridotheres tristis). (Ehud Fast)
December 18, 2019, 12:47 am
3 non-native birds helping to spur significant decline in local species — study
Over past 15 years, white spectacled bulbul population down 45% in urban areas, house sparrows by 28%, as myna birds and parakeets take over
By Sue Surkes
Residents of the Western Galilee call for a new desalination plant to be located in an existing industrial zone in coastal Acre, rather than on agricultural land. (Stop the Western Galilee Desalination Plant Campaign, Facebook)
December 17, 2019, 2:08 am
Panel approves sixth desalination plant to sate Western Galilee
Local protesters fail to have planned facility moved within existing industrial zone in coastal Acre, rather than on agricultural land
By Sue Surkes
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