EARTH DAY is celebrated on April 22, the first day of spring on the northern hemisphere, it is a UN initiative that since 1970 has been marked as a way to increase awareness of the environment and to find solutions to problems that face us all, like global warming, extreme weather, raising sea levels, intense rain and flash floods, decreasing biodiversity.
The theme for 2023 Earth Day is ‘Invest in our plant; get inspired, take action, be part of the green revolution’.
Green revolution; after rain in the early spring the kibbutz turns green; from here some mornings three white butterflies fly next to me, follow me walking for about 200 meters.
There are several parts to Earth Day, one is The Great Clean-up, which is what I have been doing for the past two years, removing as much plastic and waste as I can.
one morning’s harvest:
Another part of Earth Day is the Canopy project, the importance of planting more trees, every time we kill a tree, we should plant two in its place; that is a rule in ecology. The global warning will probably continue to give much warmer temperatures, here in the Negev we will get days with temperatures close to 50’C during the summer, that will become the rule not the exception; one way to reduce the temperatures is to plant a lot more trees around the kibbutz, because under trees the temperatures are 4-5 degrees lower than in the sun, and they improve biodiversity.
Every morning I pass the limanim I want to cry by how few shitot are left compared to last year.
notice how many trees we had here last year April 2022
I cry even more now after it was published a few months ago that trees communicate with each other; I cannot hear the trees crying, but I imaging they do cry and long for their friends who were killed.
April 2023 the number of shitot has been decimated
A few trees have been planted on the path leading up to the swimming pool, it is not enough and, in my eyes, they look quite poor; we need many more trees all over the kibbutz.
My mission ‘CLEAN FENCE”, I started without knowing about Earth Day and “The Great clean up”, but both is about removing waste and plastic littering our environment. My daily war against the never-ending huge amounts of plastic and other waste is now two years old.
this is not how to manage our waste; that is mis-management
I have removed mountains of plastic, one-time cups and plates, bottles, straws, spoons and all kinds of plastic, as well of paper carton, newspapers, old letters, boxes of cigarettes, all sorts of things that are not disposed of in the right way but allowed to drown us in garbage. I find that the way we as a kibbutz handle our waste is fundamentally wrong; we are an organized community, why do we allow the waste flying around? Why can we not take care of our environment in a civilized and prober way that we can be proud to pass on to our children and grandchildren? Yes, waste management is not cheap; but not handling it right, is more expensive.
When everything is clean, you do not notice, because that is how things is supposed to be; when plastic and other waste start to pile up around you, we all notice it in the beginning, but very few of us do anything about it, so after some time you start to ignore it, you do not see it, you get blind to it, you develop resistance to it (just like a bacteria exposed to antibiotics!). You think it is not my garbage, it is not my fault. Which is a pity, imagine if we all picked up garbage when we first saw something thrown on our lawn or among the flowers or in the bushes, or around the dining-room, it would be much cleaner and it will not get to the fence. I strongly believe that each of us can make a difference, if we want to; we just have to decide, we want to make our community a better place.
I estimate that in the last year I have walked the fence perhaps 200 days and filled about 350 bags of garbage. There was a small storm and the fence was filled up with plastic and cartons. It is not really heavy, but big volume and difficult for me to take on my walking. For the big things Gisella and Chavi have gathered it when asked I asked, thank you for that.
when the wind is a bit stronger than usual, the fence fills up with garbage (9/2/23); mismanagement of our waste.
cleaned again for now; it will get littered again, it is just a matter of time
Mostly as a joke My Dear gave me what my grandchildren consider a wand (like the magical wand Harry Potter uses to do wizard stuff), but it reminds me of how for many years I performed bronchoscopy to remove foreign bodies from the airways; my wand looks just like that tool, but to pass through the bronchoscope, it was 100 times smaller, finer and flexible, but the purpose is the same, to remove unwanted objects!
my wand or a tool for bronchoscopy - the purpose is to remove unwanted objects
With my wand it means that I do not have to bend down so much, but more importantly I can catch waste that flew over or under the fence to the other side and pick up waste that is stuck under the tile and bushes, so my arms will not be scratched and look as if I have been in a fight with cats.
a small victory, when I pull back waste that tried to escape
There was for me one very happy incident at the end of last summer, I had made a huge pile of garbage under the sport hall closer to the road, apparently it bothered someone with the power to have it removed.
they removed the big pile of garbage; I was joyful
I danced of joy when they removed the pile, but I cannot understand why they did not take everything?
before I started to pile up there was an ocean of waste and garbage;
it is heavy I cannot manage by myself
why did they not take all of it? Very stupid, mismanagement of garbage
Then they put up a fence, why? Well, you did not prevent me from arranging another pile. There is still a lot of waste there, too heavy for me to do it alone.
they put up a fence - WHY??
my current pile, I need help with the remains
It is a pity because there behind the sports hall could be a very nice place to prepare a meeting place, to come together similar to the one organized under the swimming pool near the King’s Chair.
People have asked me why I clean the fence; my answer is “why don’t you?”
I want to walk all the way around the kibbutz without drowning in waste, because walking or any other physical activity is good for you. That is a medical fact, exercise is extremely important for your general health, wellbeing, to prevent chronic conditions and live longer with better quality of life. So, if you do not do some exercise, start today!
I enjoy the walking; on days I do not walk I miss it; furthermore, I enjoy the contrast between the desert views and the green kibbutz. The last few weeks I have enjoyed very much the yellow flowers that make the start of the day so much happier and make the entrance to the kibbutz so much more welcoming.
Some morning I have three white butterflies walking along with me or following me on my walk, I imagine they want to tell me, that they are happy to have a clean environment to live in; I have not been able to catch them on a photo, but this green one, did allow me to take a photo; as did the bee-eaters.
darom in yellow, not red but happy
not the butterfly that flies with me, but it allowed me to take a photo
the bee- eater that did not fly away when I approached; also enjoying a clean environment
sometimes the clouds surprise me, do you see the dragon?
I thought it was a big white bag that had flown here; but it was a tent, somebody slept there in the night 22/12/22.
I have yet to walk a full round around the kibbutz without any garbage to pick up.
If I have learned something from my waste gathering:
Stop use one-time plastic cups, plates, knives, forks, spoons or straw.
To the workers in the factory that go outside to smoke near ‘Better Place’: why do you smoke? do you not know it is dangerous, causes all kinds of diseases; you should stop.
I refuse to pick it up the cigarette butts, but I do remove countless onetime-use- coffee cups and packs of cigarettes thrown in the bushes here.
You should be ashamed of yourselves, I call it a social crime to smoke, you inflict suffering on your family and friends, as well as on the environment (I have not been able to find out how much smoking contributes to global warming).
I am a retired grandmother and I want to make a difference; I believe that I do.
I hope in 50 years’ time my grandchildren will think back, saying at least our old grandmother tried to do something.
My wish for the coming year is that I have the strength to continue as I did this year.
My hope is that the kibbutz will start to consider waste management, the right way, not just leave every thing on the ground to take care of itself, it will not.
To end on an optimistic note, more optimistic than I feel about the global warming and environmental issues of the Negev, a red rose from my rose garden with an intoxication smell:
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