Cleantech and the Battle Against Climate Change

When I received this email, I was wondering what is the connection between Tel Aviv University and the City of Beverly Hills?

I received an email from the office of Friends of Tel Aviv University inviting me to a symposium at Beverly Hills City Hall.  The topic was:

“Cleantech and the Battle Against Climate Change”.

The email stated: We have three amazing panelists, and a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist to moderate.  The symposium will be an in-depth exploration of the many challenges of climate change and the technologies and innovations being developed to tackle this planetary crisis.

A woman was welcoming me as I made my way to the hall and I asked her about this connection.  She told that the City of Beverly Hills has an agreement with the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles to cooperate on environmental and business issues.

Julian Gold, the mayor of Beverly Hills opened the meeting.

The moderator Julie Cart was an environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times. In 2009, Cart and colleague Bettina Boxall won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting.

Tel Aviv University was represented by Prof. Colin Price, head of TAU Porter School of Environmental Studies.  Colin lead a recent TAU study that suggests that weather patterns lead to flash floods may one day be tracked and anticipated by smart phones.

David Nahai was the CEO and Commission President of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, former Chairman of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control.  Today he is President of David Nahai Consulting Services.

Aaron Tartakovsky is the co-founder and CEO of Epic CleanTec, a green technology startup redefining urban sanitation by converting building waste water into clean water and high-quality soil.

The panelists each introduced themselves and talked about their contributions from the academic, government and private sector point of view.  They mentioned EJ:  Environmental Justice. They talked about the crumbling infrastructure of utilities and the best way to repair them.  Is it possible to decentralize entrenched utilities?  We need to build small scale individual power supplies rather than repairing the crumbling infrastructure. 

Solar energy:  solar panels can provide extra power that could flow back to a grid. Part of the solution would be: Energy storage

Nahai predicts that we will have wireless charging soon. 

In the Q&A there was a discussion about the private sector and government regulations.  Clearly the solution is in the correct balance of necessary regulations and incentives for the private sector.

Seth M. Siegel was in the audience and he noted: In California we first need: Waste water and storm water capturing. He wrote the book on the subject: Let there be Water!  Israel’s Solution for a Water Starved World.

I highly recommend this book.  It starts with a time-line of all the innovations in Israel ensuring that the water resources in the region will be plentiful for the growing population.  It goes on to detail the stories of Netafim- drip irrigation, and the large desalination plants.