As was written here candidly, from the moment the current government was formed we have accepted with resignation the shifting of public attention away from environmental issues. Nevertheless, in various media outlets there is still room for articles on environmental matters, and we are committed to addressing publications on the subject. In recent days we have been exposed to publications of the report of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). While browsing the publications on the websites, I was very surprised to see a picture of the Minister for Environmental Protection, Idit Silman, לצד the head of the Environment Directorate, Jo Tyndhall. The extreme shortage of doctors and other matters mentioned in the report are extremely important, but they are not within the scope of מן השדה and therefore will not be mentioned here.

The joint photograph in itself is not surprising, but something in the smiling facial expressions, combined with the gentle and optimistic wording of the articles, aroused my suspicion: it seemed to me comparable to a kosher supervisor giving an Employee of the Month award to a shift manager at a low cattle breeding farm. In this case, we may agree that even if that person performed their work in the best possible way and is deserving of recognition, a photograph documenting the awarding of the certificate would not be received calmly. I thought that if I were an official in the Environment Directorate, and had to meet with a minister in a government operating in such a destructive way - all the recent governments have been like that (the report was written in Dec' 2022) - it is highly unlikely that the meeting would receive positive coverage. I assumed it would be interesting to examine what led to the head of the Environment Directorate's smile, but since I cannot do that, all that remains is to review some of the information sources on which the report is based, listen to her lecture, examine the data she presented, and see whether, in the end, I too will smile calmly.

On the OECDOECD website, documents are available on which the organization bases its opinion. I have the honor of inviting everyone who covered this visit positively to check the data (registration to the site is required). If there is no time to invest in that, then at the very least it is worth listening to the head of the directorate's words:
After she praises the country for having undertaken commitments in the field, she makes clear that in practice she is acting in the opposite direction to her declarations. There is no reason to smile, and I allow myself to assume that if the head of the directorate were aware of the decisions made in the government since the beginning of the year and the manner in which they were made (for example), her words would be sharper.

In the matters we follow, not only does the country fail in dealing with environmental threats and damage, it is also the cause of them. The treatment of snakes mentioned here many times illustrates this in miniature: the state not only refrains from action or uses incorrect methods, but it is the cause of the harm. Similarly, other areas are also handled in this way. While developed countries invest enormous resources in reducing waste and household consumption culture, the Ministry of Finance is seeking to fill the country's valleys with waste and disposable items. At a time when many places around the world recognize the harms of the meat industry, in 2023 a new record was set in Israel in terms of the number of animals imported for slaughter.

A new record!
This is not a slight deviation from the path; it is a deranged gallop in the opposite direction. 
To end on a positive note, we note that on several news sites (screenshots attached) reports appeared that were faithful to reality. . In addition, the report is published once every decade, so we can breathe a sigh of relief: apparently this is the last time we will have to refer to coverage of an event of this kind.