Happy Tu B'Shevat!

Today is Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish "New Year for Trees". We started celebrating it last week with the blog 'Ima on (and off) the bima', and today we'll write a little bit more on this great holiday. The trees holiday.

Tu B'Shevat is a transliteration of 'the fifteenth of Shevat', the Hebrew date specified as the new year for trees. It is the date used to calculate the age of trees for tithing/taxing. Fruit from trees may not be eaten during the first three years of its life according to the Thora. The fourth year's fruit was to be tithed to the Temple (for god), and after that, anyone can eat its fruit.

The fifteenth of the Hebrew month Shevat was the cutoff date for determining when the fruit of the tree was to be tithed. If the tree was planted prior to Tu B'Shevat, it would be considered to have aged one year. If it was planted afterward, it would become one year old at the following year's Tu B'Shevat. Thus, 'Tu' (the alpha-numeric for the number 15) denotes that the holiday is on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Shevat.

Tu B'Shevat gradually gained religious significance, with a Kabalistic fruit-eating ceremony (like the Passover Seder) being introduced during the 1600s.

Customs associated with Tu B'Shevat include planting trees and eating dried fruits and nuts, especially figs, dates, raisins, and almonds. Over the years Tu B’Shevat has taken on the theme of planting trees in Israel, but because this is a shmita year (the seventh year of the agricultural cycle during which time the Torah prohibits Jews from planting the land), there won't be any plantings celebrations this year in Israel.

For more information on Tu B'Shevat please check these websites:

http://www.shalomctr.org/taxonomy/term/118

http://www.torah.org/learning/yomtov/tubshvat/

I love Tu B'Shevat very much. It's one of my favorite holidays and as a kid in Israel I planted trees every year to celebrate Tu B'Shevat. Today I'm happy to be part of Eco-Libris, where with your support, every day is a Tu B'Shevat.

Happy Tu B'Shevat,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Monday's green book: Big Green Purse

Today we have a great new book on our Monday's green book series targeted especially for green women:

Big Green Purse - Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World

Author: Diane McEachern

Diane MacEachern is a bestselling environmental writer, sought-after public speaker, and founder of www.biggreenpurse.com. She has advised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, World Bank, World Wildlife Fund, and many other agencies and nonprofit organizations focused on protecting the planet. The author of the bestselling Save Our Planet: 750 Everyday Ways You Can Help Clean Up the Earth, she lives in the Washington, D.C., suburbs in the energy-efficient home that she helped design and build more than twenty years ago.

Publisher: Avery Publishing Group / Penguin Group

Published in: March 2008

What it is about: Diane MacEachern argues in Big Green Purse that the best way to fight the industries that pollute the planet, thereby changing the marketplace forever, is to mobilize the most powerful consumer force in the world-women.

This book is a call-to-action for women to use their power as buyers (women spend 85 percent of every dollar in the marketplace) to make a difference. MacEachern's message is simple but revolutionary: if women harness the "power of their purse" and intentionally shift their spending money to commodities that have the greatest environmental benefit, they can create a cleaner, greener world.

In the book, McEachern targets 25 commodities where women's dollars can have the greatest impact, including food, clothing, cars, computers, coffee, cleansers, furniture and flooring.

Why you should get it:

1. We forget too much how much power we hold in our hands as consumers and how much good we can do with it. This book is a perfect guide for using this power in a green and wise way.

2. The book demonstrates the important concept of small steps can make a big difference.

3. You can find in the 'Big Green Purse' recommendations (both 'thumbs up' and 'thumbs down') on hundreds of green options.

What others say on the book:
"Big Green Purse explains, in layman's terms, concepts like nanotechnology, lists names of companies women can trust and walks buyers through difficult choices in everything from food to lawn care to clothing" (Plenty Magazine)

This book will be published on March, but you can already preorder it. You are also welcome to check Diane's website - The Big Green Purse, which offers eco-lifestyle tips and shopping suggestions, as well as opportunities to join One in a Million, a campaign to encourage one million women to shift $1,000 of their household budgets to eco-friendly products and services.

Enjoy the book, and if you're looking for the full list of green books reviewed and presented on our blog, check out our green books page.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Norway presents: green vision and inspiring goals

Today I would like to praise Norway. Not only that it announced last week on a bold target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030, but it also becomes one of the biggest supporters of forests' protection.

The Norwegian government announced last Thursday on a new target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030, 20 years earlier than previously planned.

How will Norway get there? well, according to their plans, up to two-thirds of the emissions cuts will be made domestically and the other third will be offset by investing around 3 billion crowns ($553.1 million) per year to combat deforestation in developing countries (carbon credits).

I wrote here before about Norway's support of protecting forests as a tool to fight global warming. Norway announced its willingness to contribute about $500 million a year to projects aimed at protecting forests in developing countries at the U.N. climate conference last month In Bali. In this conference, as ENN reminds us, it was agreed to launch pilot projects to grant poor countries credits for slowing deforestation under a new long-term climate pact beyond 2012.

Now Norway is reinforcing its commitment - according to ENN, Norway's prime minister on Friday, a day after Norway set the new goal that "protecting forests and burying greenhouse gases are key ways of slowing world climate change."

So, I think Norway deserves kudos for three reasons:

1. Becoming carbon neutral by 2030 is a bold move and it's great to see a country that has the guts to do it and become a role model to all the other countries, especially the developed ones.

2. It's important that most of the CO2 reductions are based on cutting the total emissions by two-thirds domestically and only one third is based on carbon credits. This is a good balance that shows a real commitment to take steps and change what needs to be changed (although it's still very vague how these cuts will be made).

3. I'm happy to see that the carbon credits will be focused on protecting forests in developing countries. Deforestation accounts for about 20 percent of total greenhouse gases, and I think that protection of forests can definitely become an efficient and valuable tool in the fight against global warming. And not tom mention all the other environmental and social benefits that these forests have. It's good that these forests has a powerful reach ally such as Norway - they need it!

I hope to see many countries follow Norway. It's not only their future. It's our future.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

In Global Warming and War - a new green book on the shelves

We are always happy to hear from our readers and especially when it's about a green book they just published!

So without further ado, I would like to present you with the new book of Dr. John Slade 'In Global Warming and War', the second novel in the ADIRONDACK GREEN trilogy.

So what this is about? here's the author's description:

In 'In Global Warming and War', the second novel in the ADIRONDACK GREEN trilogy, the people of a small American town respond to the dying of their forest, and to the death of one of their sons in Iraq.

The 32 high school seniors boldly examine the threat to their Adirondack Park, and to the Earth itself. In addition, they meet 32 wounded veterans, back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, during an extraordinary week of adaptive skiing on Bobcat Mountain. The reader meets these veterans face to face as they rise to the challenge of skiing without legs, of skiing blind.

The peoples of the world have a choice. We can either work together, on a global scale, to replace oil and coal with clean sources of energy, or we can continue to fight our wars for oil. Even if we win the oil wars, we may well poison our Earth to the point that Mother Nature becomes Uncle Briar Patch.

A program of international cooperation -which includes the universities of the world--will create many more jobs and stable, growing economies than plunder and war could ever create. Students around the globe are ready to rise to the challenge. Every wind turbine will bring us a step closer to a lasting peace.

The first novel in the trilogy is ADIRONDACK GREEN, which was published on Earth Day 2006, and focuses on a small town that puts up a wind turbine, and loses a son in the war in Iraq.

About the author: John Slade has been a high school and university English teacher in America, on the island of St. Croix in the Caribbean, in Norway, and in Russia. He believes deeply in the present global generation of well educated and highly motivated students. Their Renaissance has already begun in countries around the world.

Thank you Dr. Slade for sharing with us the news on your new green book! 'In Global Warming and War', which was published this month, sounds as an interesting book, combining a green message and a good story. If you're interested, please take a look at the novels at www.woodgateintl.com, where you can also purchase them.

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

DailyLit - books in small portions for busy people

Springwise is always the right place to read on new trends and interesting websites. Last week I read there about a new solution for busy people who also love reading - DailyLit.

The goal of DailyLit, which was created last May, is to provide busy people books in small portions every day or so by email. The creators of DailyLit explain on the website what's the logic behind it: "We created DailyLit because we spent hours each day on email but could not find the time to read a book. Now the books come to us by email. Problem solved."

The process is very simple - you select a book, provide an email address, schedule at what time you want the emails sent to you (e.g. every weekday at 8:00 AM) and that's it. DailyLit will email you a small chunk of the book (about 5 minutes of reading) on the chosen schedule. DailyLit can be read any place that a reader receives emails, including on a PDA, Blackberry, Trio, etc.

If at the end of your daily chunk, you feel an uncontrolled desire to continue reading, there's no problem at all - DailyLit will send you the next installment right away.

It is also a free service for over 400 classic public domain titles, which are offered by DailyLit at no cost. Other titles will cost you between $5 to $10 (Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin will cost you for example$4.95).

I like the creative concept and the fact that DailyLit tries to find new ways to integrate books back into the lives of busy people, who may have difficulties to find the time to read. This way, it becomes a part of your daily routine, like drinking coffee in the morning or taking the dog out for a walk. And of course, it's a very green concept, as no paper is being involved in the process!

I decided to try it by myself and so I registered and picked a book I loved when I was a kid and I want to read again - "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome. Tomorrow, at 6:40PM (my time for some rest..), I'll get the first installment and I'm really looking forward to reading it! You're welcome to check it as well.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Tu B'shevat green celebration at 'Ima and (off the) Bima' blog

Tu B'shevat is still ahead of us (it's on Jan 22), but Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, a rabbi at a congregation on the North Shore of Chicago, is already celebrating it on her blog Ima and (off the) Bima.

Tu B'shevat, as Rabbi Phyllis explains on her other website 'Thoughts from Rabbi Phyllis' , is the Jewish holiday celebrating the "new year (or birthday) of the trees." The name comes from the calendar date on which it falls: Tu is the Hebrew equivalent of 15 and Shevat is the Hebrew month in which we are in right now.

In modern times, it is celebrated as a Jewish "Earth Day" - celebrating trees, planting trees, and reflecting on environmental and ecological issues.

When I was a kid in Israel, we used to plant trees every year on Tu B'shevat and it became one of my favorite holidays (well, there's also the tradition of eating dried fruits like figs, dates, raisins, carob, and almonds that helped in making it a beloved holiday..).

Therefore I was happy to hear from Rabbi Phyllis about her green celebration and to participate in it. Eco-Libris sponsored a prize of 10 trees/stickers and in order to win them you had to comment on Rabbi Phyllis blog or on any of her Tu B'Shevat posts. You just had to say something nice about trees or the earth. And for an extra entry, you could post in your blog or tell a friend about this giveaway and Eco-Libris and link back to her blog.

Well, the giveaway ended yesterday and the winner was announced today: Melody A. - the HipMomma.

Thank you Rabbi Phyllis for giving Eco-Libris the opportunity to celebrate Tu B'shevat with your readers!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

World's largest publisher of children's books goes green

While we were concentrating last week on green mooching, Scholastic, the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, announced new steps it intends to take to go green.

I learned about the announcement from Greenbiz.com and went to check the source itself. Scholastic reported in a news release on its new green policy that is meant to "further strengthening its sustainable paper procurement practices".

Scholastic's policy is based on a five-year goal to increase its publication paper purchase of FSC-certified paper to 30% and its use of recycled paper to 25%, of which 75% will be post-consumer waste.

Scholastic worked together with the Rainforest Alliance, the Green Press Initiative and other environmental organizations to set these goals, which Scholastic says are "industry-leading goals".
Are they?

I wasn't sure so I sat down and made a comparison with two other green initiatives of big publishers (Random House and Simon & Schuster) and the Book Industry Treatise initiated by the Green Press Initiative. I checked out the two most important parts in these initiatives - usage of recycled paper and FSC paper. I also checked to what year they set their goals.

And here are the results:

As you can see from the table above, although Scholastic is the last one to set up green goals, it set up very bold goals in comparison with the others. None of the other three match Scholastic when it comes to the usage of FSC paper, and it lags only in 5% behind the treatise and Random House with regards to the usage of recycled paper.

Still, I must say that if they would have gone for a goal of 30% recycled paper content on 2012, it would be much easier to agree that their goals are industry leading ones. You have to remember that recycled paper is a better alternative to virgin paper than FSC paper and therefore more important as a goal.

One more point I would like to emphasize is that unlike the treatise and S&S, there's no commitment of Scholastic to stop using paper that may contain fiber from endangered and old-growth forest areas.

All in all, I think this is a very important step and I believe that the way Scholastic has done in the last couple of years represents the whole book industry.

Although it used recycled paper for many of its books in the past, Scholastic drew fire from some environmental groups in 2005 when it published Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the Harry Potter series. Greenpeace, in particular, complained Scholastic wasn’t using enough recycled paper and urged consumers to boycott Scholastic and to purchase the novel from Raincoast Books, the Canadian publisher, which printed the Canadian edition of the book on recycled paper.

In 2007, things changed and Scholastic worked together with the Rainforest Alliance to green up the final part of Harry Potter: every 784-page copy of Harry's final adventure contained at least 30% recycled fiber. On top of that, almost two-thirds of the 15,100 tones of paper used were certified sustainable (FSC). There were also 100,000 copies of the "deluxe edition" which were only made from recycled paper, with the factory powered from renewable sources.

And now Scholastic is taking one more important step forward and set a policy for all of its operations. This is definitely the way we think all publishers should go and of course we hope to see bolder goals in the future that will make reading truly sustainable.

Oh, and I almost forgot this part, which is also very important: "Along with the new policy announcement, Scholastic today launched its new, interactive “green” website for kids called Scholastic ACT GREEN! at www.scholastic.com/actgreen." The site is designed to educate kids about climate change and sustainability and inspire them to take action to preserve the planet. Way to go!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!