Where I will live - The Big Picture

I will be spending my next two years in Israel. Why, you might ask, would I choose to fly halfway across the world, leaving family and friends behind, to pursue something that I could very well pursue right here in Canada? Aren’t there Universities here? Don’t they have ecology and environmental science programs? Don’t we have environmental problems to deal with in our own backyard? Yes, on all accounts.

But there’s just something about Israel.

When I was in the Israeli Consulate today getting my student visa stamped, there were a couple of maps that showed the shape of Israel super-imposed onto Canada. The entire nation barely covers the distance from Windsor to Orillia, and that’s its length! At its narrowest point, Israel is probably as wide as the traffic congestion bubble on the 401 created by Toronto. And yet, there it stands, the most vibrant, successful, complex, dysfunctional, beautiful, diverse, and controversial nation on earth, illogically constructed on a little sliver of land with little water, few natural resources, and hostile neighbors. I mean, the place would seem like a desert mirage if it wasn’t real. And yet it is just this illogical nature of Israel that draws me to it as a crucible of how the world might deal with the most important issues facing humanity at the moment.
Here is how Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes Israel’s water situation:

“Israel currently faces the most serious water crisis in its history. Several
years of insufficient rainfall and increased demands due to population growth
and expanding industry have led to a situation where drastic measures to reduce
water consumption are necessary.
“Israel has also ceded millions of cubic litres annually as a part of the peace agreements with Jordan and it is no secret that there is just not enough water in the long run, nor will there be unless other sources such as desalination operated by cheap, sustainable energy become available. For this reason, large budgets are devoted to the development of solar energy for desalination and recently an agreement was reached with the World Bank to fund an experimental power plant that derives its energy from ocean waves.
“In the private sector less attention is paid to water conservation and it is only when the level of the Sea of Galilee, Israel's largest surface water source, begins to drop below the danger point, and when people see this on their television sets, that anyone seems to be concerned. But vast efforts are underway to find agricultural and industrial uses for water that is too saline to be potable and many other, smaller projects are devoted to this.”

The water level of the sea of Galilee is dropping rapidly, the mighty Jordan River that originates there is often but a trickle, and thus the Dead Sea, which receives the river’s waters, is rapidly drying up. Not only that, but water is a very key political issue, as alluded to in the MFA’s statement. Jeff Halper, an Israeli peacenik and nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize often points out that the borders that Israel intends to draw for a final two-state solution have a lot to do with water infrastructure. So here we have a basic problem – Israel is currently drawing water at unsustainable rates, and that’s whilst serving the Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories some major environmental injustice (many Palestinians have seriously rationed access to water while neighboring Israeli settlers water their lawns and swim in their pools). Having largely integrated the West Bank into its own infrastructure due to the network of settlements erected since 1967, the feat of managing the region’s water resources in a cooperative and just manner is a staggering political, technological, and environmental challenge.
But it must be done, and done soon. If it can be done in Israel, it can be done anywhere. And if it can be done anywhere, it can be done in Israel.