Thank you Lisa...

I'm still not sure what a "Ping" is, but I appreciate the link and the compliment.

Jet

creative vision and execution Jet

keep it up - it's a pleasure to see new headlines from you

troll

Chris, when you get a minute to spare, please explain what a "ping" is and why authors aren't told or e-mailed when we get one?

Thanks
Jet

Thank you Troll-I just hope it spurs someone to take action... and VERY soon.

Carus deus, quis have ego commissio?
Jet

There's no mention of this on the front page of the NY Times today.....what a tragedy.

Great article, Jet

Jet, without getting into the politics of the issues, I can tell you that environmental concerns are a lot lower on the list of most Middle Easterners than they are for Middle Westerners.

A more successful campaign of bombing Haifa with Katyshas would create an environmental disaster there, and that goes double or triple for the Gush Dan region, near where Tel Aviv is located.

The environment is already a mess here, a big mess. That is one of the real concerns involved in bringing a real peace to the region - developing a sustainable economy while cleaning up the mess.

For heaven's sake Ruvy!!!! Don't give them any ideas! Regardless of politics, this is a disaster that needs immediate attention, not to lessen what your going through by any means.

blessings
Jet

Jet, everything I'm saying has been public knowledge for a long time. If you want some ideas...

Ruvy, I'm trying to keep nations out of this, it's nature I'm concerned about. From space you look down and you can't see borders, and right now that area is ecologically devastated.

I'll write my opinions on the war elsewhere, and you know my heart is with you, of that you better not doubt.

It's the irepparable damage that's been done to the fragile sea ecoloby by that oil.

I DON'T CARE HOW IT HAPPENED OR WHO IS TO BLAME-I want something to be done about it NOW before it's too late...

Worry about blame and who said what and who did what later.

Blessings
Jet

Ruvy #8, do they have Katysha missiles capable of hitting the Gush Dam?

Uh Ruby-You okay? Just how big is the Gush Dam and how close to it are you?

Okay, obviously serious didn't work, what else can I write a satire about?

Gush Dan (not Dam) is about the size of Delaware or smaller and has a huge concentration of people and industries. It is toward the coast and I moved away from it, not towards it.

There are terrible pollution problems here. One out of ten Israelis is an astmatic. Asthma comes from allergic reactions to pollution of various kinds (including cigarette smoke), and from allergic reactions to cockroaches.

And HizbAllah (and Syria) has missiles capable of hitting Gush Dan.

Ruvy 14-Sorry about that, I'm reading with one eye tied behind my back. Glad you're still with us. Do their missiles have the range to reach you?

If HizbAllah can hit Tel Aviv, they can hit here. But that is unlikely, considering how many Arab villages are around me...

That wasn't my intent in moving here, but an unintented benefit I'll not turn down.

I've got to emphasize to you that folks here do not have the same environment concerns that Americans or Europeans might. This is the Middle East, not the Middle West.

hey jet why don't you pick up some trash on your street or something, and spare us the "turtles are dying a million miles away" sentiment.

Okay Ruvy, I was just concerned for your safety.
I do consider you a friend you know?

Nugget, I'm talking about the ecosystem of the eastern third of the Med Sea and the coastlines of Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus, not just a couple of stupid turtles.

Fishermen depend on that water for their livelihoods and the tourist industries is a big part of the economy in that part of the world.

What's your problem?

Look at the photo again Nugget, that's not just a couple cans of oil! We're talking barrels.

Jet, you are one of the very few to notice the environmental damage this war is causing. All wars cause environmental damage. I suspect that the damage caused here is purposeful, and even though it is not the intent of the commanders of the IDF, I see the Hand of G-d behind a lot of what is going on here.

It is not an issue of saving whales or turtles - there will have to be a HUGE envrionmental cleanup here in the not too distant future.

From the few comments I've gotten here Ruvy, I doubt many people care, but I'll keep pluggin' away.

Be safe my friend
Jet

The ABC Evening news finally got around to doing a story on this tonight! About time...

Why is it that the fewer comments I get on an article, the more it's copied word for word somewhere else?

What's the old saying about being loved everywhere but in your own homeland?

If folks are copying your work elsewhere, consider it a compliment, Jet. You have uncovered an angle that no one else was looking at - the eye of the artist, eh?

Also consider what Blog Critics concentrates on - American culture. News come in later, a far second.

Jet-

The number of comments on an article is no measure of worth. It's easy to write something that a lot of people can get argumentative about. It's a no-brainer. The deeper the article, the more well-written, the less people can target it and the more they have to think.

John

Thank you Ruvy and John. It's sort of on the line of a writer for "Newsweek", You know the magazine's selling millions of copies, but if no one leaves a letter to the editor about it, you wonder if anyone's really reading it, or skipping it over to get to the next article.

Alas the thoughts of a paranoid insecure writer...


Carus deus, quis have ego commissio?
Jet

I guess I'd rather have this than 1000 mindless "OOHHHHH ZAC IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTES!!!!"

I might point out that this is the most read and commented article in the Sci section. I hadn't heard about this at all until I stumbled across your article, Im going to go try and find more about it, great article! I would think you would get a lot more readers in the politics section...

Thanks PETI, I considered putting this in the political section, but it's an environmental issue and I was afraid the political blame game would sidetrack the issue of how urgent it is to get this problem cleaned up and NOW!

Have you noticed that when NBC news zooms in on the Med to do a close up on Lebanon and Israel that you can see how huge that oil slick is?

Considering that this story's been out of the mind't eye for a while I looked for an update and to my suprise, but not surprised, nothing has been done if the Swiss website ReliefWeb is indication.
As of aug 12...

An oil slick caused by damage to a power plant during an Israeli bombardment has now polluted over 150 km of the Lebanese coastline and has spread north into Syrian waters. The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) sent two experts to Syria on Aug. 8 to evaluate the consequences of the spill, but clean-up of what has been called the worst environmental disaster in Lebanon's history has so far proved difficult because of the conflict.

Jet, this came with no URL or nuthin' so I only know that this takes a more "Israeli" look at the environmental damage...

Environment: The ´Other´ Aftermath of War
16:05 Aug 20, '06 / 26 Av 5766
by Hana Levi Julian

In the aftermath of war, environmental damage to both Israel and Lebanon has started a new war - the struggle to preserve the ecology of both countries.


Environmentalists and other scientists are beginning to deal with the "other" aftermath of the war -- the effect on the land and sea and how that will affect those who live there.

Thousands of acres of Galilee forest were blackened and destroyed in Katyusha-ignited conflagrations, along with the animals and plants which so enriched the region. Israeli farmers, rangers, firefighters and nature lovers point out the raw bald spots on the landscape where thousands of acres of green forests once stood, in the wake of raging blazes sparked by the rocket attacks launched by the Hizbullah terrorists in southern Lebanon.

More than 600 fires decimated the landscape across the north. Forests will need to be replanted on the Naftali Mountains overlooking Kiryat Shmona, in Biriya near Tzfat and in Beit Keshet in the central Galilee, to the tune of several million shekels, according to JNF officials.

Environmental experts from the United Nations and European Union plan to visit the region in the near future to see what can be done to repair the damage. The Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority (INPPAA) will shortly begin to assess the damage as well.

Meanwhile, seabed contamination along the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon is affecting turtles, tuna and other marine life. Pure white sand on the coastal beaches is now toxic from an oil slick that resulted when Israel bombed a fuel installation south of Beirut.

The 10,000-ton oil spill damaged some 85 miles (140 kilometers) of shoreline along the Lebanese coastal waters and the life that flourished within, according to the Lebanese environmental organization "Green Line." The United Nations estimated that the coast of Syria was affected as well.

Lebanon will receive technical assistance from international maritime agencies and the United Nations to help clear away the oil spill, according to a report by the Associated Press. Senior officials from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the European Union met last week near Athens to discuss the disaster and agreed at the meeting to seek international funding to contain the slick, which they say could threaten Cyprus, Turkey and Greece. Experts said the operation could cost more than $65 million.

A high price has been exacted from both land and sea by the war. The precise total is as yet unknown, but it is clear that the destruction is long-lasting and in some cases, perhaps permanent - especially the loss of Israeli's trees.

"Natural woodlands require dozens of years to recover," noted INNPPA ecologist Didi Kaplan. The organization, in the past, has taken the "natural" approach, allowing the forests to heal themselves. "It is not just a matter of direct damage during the course of the fire. Tens of thousands of dunams of grassland were burned on the edges of the Golan Heights. I assume that the antelope that live in the area fled, but their source of food for the coming months has been damaged."

The threat of landslides in the coming winter will force the organization to intervene at least somewhat. Kaplan said, however, she expects the Golan Heights to recover after the winter rains.

WOW Ruvy, thanks for the input. I wonder when the rest of the world is going to catch up to BlogCritics?

Ruvy maybe we could colaborate on an article on your research. Thanks again...

Several recent photos of the long-term damage that this oil spill has caused to the Mediterranean can be found here
by clicking here