This article contains a dash of biblical and recent history. It’s mostly about lessons learned during my recent volunteer trip to Israel,. I did agricultural work and saw more of the incredible farms and technologies that have turned stretches of the parched, drought-stricken Negev Desert into a land flowing with milk and honey ... and boasting bumper crops few would ever expect to come out of desert soils.
The article also takes a new look at adapting to climate change ... via desalination, water recycling, drip irrigation and other technologies that Israel has developed to make the miracle of life in a desert possible. Instead of wasting countless trillions of dollars on Quixotic quests to replace fossil fuels with (mostly Chinese) wind turbines, solar panels and batteries – we should focus our limited resources on employing our creative talents to devise still more techniques and technologies for living and farming in cold, wet, dry and changing climates, just as Israel and our ancestors have.
