Sue Surkes

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter.

President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal (to his right) pose with members of the President's Climate Forum, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on May 17, 2022. Dov Khenin is third from right, while Zohar Berman is second from the left. (Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO)

May 18, 2022, 11:11 am

President’s Climate Forum developing ‘sparks of ideas’ to present at COP27

Body launched before COP26 in Glasgow last year comprises 180 leaders from across society; Herzog says ‘cooperation is key’

By Sue Surkes

A brush fire west of Jerusalem, August 15, 2021. (Ariel Kedem/Israel Nature and Parks Authority)

May 18, 2022, 4:29 am

Fire chief says Jerusalem-area towns fiddling as surrounding woods set to burn again

As the nation girds for fire season, communities in the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council threatened by a large blaze last year are being accused of ignoring advice to avoid a repeat

By Sue Surkes

Unusual corals like this one have been discovered in the deep sea area of the Palmachim Disturbance 30 kilometers off the Tel Aviv coast. (Haifa University Department of Marine Biology)

May 17, 2022, 11:54 pm

Dazzling undersea array found off Tel Aviv to be protected as marine reserve

Addition of Palmachim Disturbance will double size of Israel’s offshore nature reserves, conserving rare corals, squid, sharks, methane springs and other unique flora and fauna

By Sue Surkes

Artists' impression of cable cars crossing Jerusalem's Hinnom Valley from a promotional video. (YouTube screenshot)

May 15, 2022, 6:49 pm

High Court rejects petitions against plan to build cable car to Jerusalem’s Old City

Judge says court only intervenes when planning process is flawed; as legal opposition route closes, opponents of plan vow to launch public campaign

By Sue Surkes

Runners take part in a marathon in Israel's coastal city of Tel Aviv on February 25, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

May 12, 2022, 3:06 am

Israel to take part in world’s longest non-stop relay to highlight climate change

‘Running out of Time’ participants can register for 10km slots along 7,200 km route, from Glasgow, Scotland to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where UN COP27 climate confab will be held

By Sue Surkes

An invasive ring-necked parakeet in Israel. (Doron Hoffman, Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel)

May 11, 2022, 8:05 pm

89% of Israel’s ecosystems have declined in biodiversity, state comptroller says

Report, which says state has no strategic action plan for dealing with decline, coincides with battle between green organizations, environment minister over biodiversity bill

By Sue Surkes

Ukrainian students at a Tel Aviv University fundraiser for Ukraine held on May 1 to 2, 2022. (Tel Aviv University)

May 10, 2022, 2:23 pm

Ukrainian students, academics fleeing war begin studies at Israeli universities

Teenage boys from Ukraine’s world championship math team among groups largely of women, whose husbands and families are still in war-torn country

By Sue Surkes

Extinct species of cave bear excavated in Devil's Cave, near Pottenstein, Germany. (Ra'ike, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)

May 10, 2022, 12:34 pm

Big brains helped large mammals survive extinction, study shows

Behavioral flexibility, thanks to large brain-to-body ratio, gave species evolutionary advantage in face of climate change and human hunters

By Sue Surkes

The first Israeli fishpond to undergo rewilding by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, and to be tested as a basis for carbon credits by Terrra, Kfar Ruppin, March 27, 2022. (Shai Ben Aharon)

May 10, 2022, 4:22 am

Drain the swamp? Israeli startup sees green bonanza in rewilding wetlands instead

‘Israel’s first nature-based carbon trading project’ sees Terrra working with ecology group to rehab fishponds, sell pollution credits and create vital stops for migrating birds

By Sue Surkes

Drone bee orchid, Ophrys holosericea, seen near to the Rakit parking lot in the Carmel mountains, May 7, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel).

May 8, 2022, 6:26 pm

If it looks like a bee and smells like a bee, it may be a flower

In extraordinary example of evolution, bee orchids trick male bees into ‘mating’ with them, to help disperse pollen

By Sue Surkes

Illustrative. Heatwave. (iStock by Getty Images)

May 8, 2022, 6:20 pm

Israel advances its first Climate Bill in bid to hit emission goals

Draft law, met with lukewarm response from green groups, is a compromise between Environment Ministry, which wanted tougher targets, and Finance Ministry, which wanted none

By Sue Surkes

High Hopes Lab's carbon capturing balloon. (Courtesy, High Hopes Lab)

May 3, 2022, 12:24 pm

Israeli balloon tipped as world’s 1st affordable, scalable method for carbon capture

High Hopes Lab, in central Israel, which captures frozen carbon 9 miles above Earth, aims to catch 1,000 metric tons per balloon per day, for less than $50 a ton

By Sue Surkes

Turban buttercup. (Alastair Rae, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)

April 28, 2022, 3:21 pm

Spring wildflowers late this year, thanks to historic cold spells in early 2022

Ecologist Avi Shmida says weather conditions led to some profuse blooming, though early bloomers and those in the desert were subpar; climate analyst: Coldest March since 1953

By Sue Surkes

Steven Donziger, in 2018. (video screenshot)

April 27, 2022, 11:53 am

Free after 993 days of detention, US lawyer vows to continue fighting Chevron

Steven Donziger says it’s time to force the oil giant to pay a court-ordered $9.5 billion for rainforest oil pollution. Chevron: The judgement was ‘fraudulent’

By Sue Surkes

The Zin stream in southern Israel at sunset, on June 23, 2017. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

April 26, 2022, 4:47 pm

State-owned pipeline fined NIS 1.6 million over 2011 spills in Zin stream

Several former senior officials at Europe Asia Pipeline Company also hit with fines over pair of incidents that badly polluted seasonal river in southern Israel

By TOI staff and Sue Surkes