Photos: Solar Power in Israel

Did you know that the United States consumes 4.40 trillion kilowatt hours of electric energy per year? That is nearly a trillion more kwh than China. Did you also know that the average American hot shower consumes 4000 watts per day? That makes hot showers the highest power activity most Americans undertake in a day. (Thanks to the website Power SuperSite for this information.)

But what happens when you live in a country where water and fossilized energy are in short supply and your oil-rich neighbors are your sworn enemies? You reclaim water, become more energy efficient and look to the sun, wind and other renewable power sources to meet your energy needs.

Welcome to Israel, where solar water heaters are used in over 90% of homes. But rooftop solar water heaters didn't just happen because Israeli citizens suddenly decided to do the right thing. After the energy crisis of the 1970s, the Knesset in 1980 passed a law requiring the installation of solar water heaters in all new homes.

More from Wikipedia:

"As of the early 1990s, all new residential buildings were required by the government to install solar water-heating systems, and Israel's National Infrastructure Ministry estimates that solar panels for water-heating satisfy 4% of the country's total energy demand. Israel and Cyprus are the per-capita leaders in the use of solar hot water systems with over 90% of homes using them.

The Ministry of National Infrastructures estimates solar water heating saves Israel 2 million barrels of oil a year."

Here are photos of solar water heaters in Israel.

ISRAEL SOLAR WATER HEATERS

KIBBUTZ LAHAV

MITZPE RAMON

JERUSALEM

Photos: Occupy DC Turns into Tent City

This past summer I saw tent city protests all over Israel. These mostly young Israelis pitched tents to protest the high housing costs and lack of affordable housing in Israel. Voluntarily living in tents was a powerful symbolic demonstration. Well, the tent cities have come to our shores, at least in Washington, D.C. as part of the Occupy DC branch of the larger Occupy Wall Street movement. But these tents are for more practical purposes -- to protect the growing community of the hunkered-down demonstrators in McPherson Square from the rain and harsh elements as cool fall weather settles in and winter will bring the cold and snow to the nation's capital.

Here are recent photos.

Photos: Israel Tent City Protests

This Friday I passed by the growing Occupy D.C. demonstration encampment at McPherson Square in downtown Washington and was amazed to see that since last weekend the park has been transformed from a few sleeping bags into a tent city. It is amazing how similar it looks to the tent cities I saw across Israel this past summer.

The Israeli Summer has turned into the American Autumn and while some of the issues being addressed by the demonstrators might be different (unemployment in the United States versus the high cost of living in Israel), there is a strong thread running through these movements, and it has to do with government being accountable to the people and not corporations and the richest 1%. The demonstrators on the East Coast and Middle East want to ensure that, as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently stated in his Gettysburg Address, "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Click here for a link to photos I took last weekend of the Occupy D.C. demonstration (before the tents were pitched).

And here are photos I snapped this past summer of the demonstrations around Israel.

TEL AVIV

BEERSHEBA

MITZPE RAMON

JERUSALEM