69 results for author: Owner of Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL)


Get Creation on the President’s Agenda with the Pope

President Obama and Pope Francis are meeting on March 27th. When they meet, we hope that the President raises the importance of caring for Creation. Please join us and our interfaith colleagues by signing onto this petition on the White House’s website encouraging that care for Creation be on the agenda. As the Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign declaration states, “enlightened stewardship is not only a religious and moral imperative; it is a strategy for security and survival.” “My administration will keep working with the [oil and gas] industry to sustain production and job growth while strengthening protection of our ...

Take Action to Reduce Carbon Pollution

Click here to take action! The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) are joining together to demonstrate support from the Jewish community for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new, strict standards for carbon pollution from new power plants. New, large natural gas-fired plant emissions would be limited to 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour and small natural gas-fired and coal-fired plants would be limited to 1,100 pounds. Conventional coal plants currently emit more than 1,800 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt. It is long overdue that ...

Coal: The Dirtiest Fuel

Summary: Benjamin Kahane, an engineer who designs photovoltaic solar energy systems for SunEdison, summarizes the environmental consequences of coal and its extraction. Depending on how much pressure and temperature to which it has been subject, coal is a sedimentary or metamorphic rock comprised mostly of carbon. Coal is a fossil fuel used primarily in the generation of electricity. To turn coal into electricity, the rock is pulverized then combusted in a furnace, the heat from which converts water into steam used to spin turbine blades to create electricity. There are many negative environmental impacts to using coal. ...

Are We Our Brothers’ (and Sisters’) Keepers?

Summary: Matthew Anderson, former director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE), discusses international adaptation to climate change as an important component of development work for the world's most vulnerable populations. An issue of emerging global concern is the increasing impact of climate change on the poorest developing countries. Rising sea levels could displace populations in low-lying nations such as in Nauru, the Maldives or Bangladesh. The disappearance of glaciers could deprive people of their water supply in Southeast Asia and some countries in South America. Ocean acidification and ...

Oil Slick: The Ugly Truth about Petroleum

Summary: Benjamin Kahane, an engineer who designs photovoltaic solar energy systems for SunEdison, discusses oil, its many uses in our society, and how we can transition away from it. Petroleum — or, plainly, oil — has many applications in the industrial age. Petroleum is used to make plastics, lubricants, wax, asphalt and many other industrial products, but it’s mostly used for fuel. Oil is usually black or dark brown before any refinement; however, it also can be found in the form of tar shale, as in Colorado and Utah, and tar sands, as in Alberta, Canada. Tar shale oil and tar sands oil are more energy intensive ...

Take action to reduce carbon pollution!

Click here to take action! The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) are joining together to demonstrate support from the Jewish community for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new, strict standards for carbon pollution from new power plants. New, large natural gas-fired plant emissions would be limited to 1,000 pounds of CO2 per megawatt-hour and small natural gas-fired and coal-fired plants would be limited to 1,100 pounds. Conventional coal plants currently emit more than 1,800 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt. It is long overdue that we ...

Holiday Programming on One Foot

Summary: Evonne Marzouk, founder and executive director of Canfei Nesharim, uses Hannukah as a key example of how to connect a Jewish holiday to environmentalism. The holiday of Hanukkah is another opportunity to reflect upon Jewish wisdom as it relates to our natural resources, energy in particular. Hanukkah revolves in large part around a miracle related to olive oil. In biblical and Talmudic times, olive oil — used for light, heat, fuel and food — was a very important renewable resource for energy. The limitations on this resource often posed problems in ancient times, just as modern limits on availability of energy resources ...

The Environmentally Friendly Conference

Summary: Having successfully hosted a sustainable conference, director of programs at Jewish Funders Network David Ezer offers tips on how to reduce the environmental impact of your next conference. Getting hundreds of Jewish leaders to the Jewish Funders Network Conference in Jerusalem was not only a logistical challenge — it was also an environmental one. From air travel to Styrofoam cups to reams upon reams of paper, a conference like this one had the potential for a large environmental impact. But some simple changes that I and my colleagues instituted while planning the conference went far toward offsetting the gathering’s ...

Rosh Chodesh: Less is More

Summary: Rabbi Jamie Korngold, founder, executive director, and senior rabbi of Adventure Rabbi, connects Rosh Chodesh, the celebration of the new moon, to conserving energy and reducing consumption. Sometimes I feel that the abundance in my life — the stuff on my shelves and in my closets, the never ending line of e-mails in my inbox, the plethora of events on my calendar — threatens to engulf me. Perhaps this is why Rosh Chodesh, the celebration of the new moon, receives my vote for the holiday most deserving of making a comeback in prominence. For two weeks of the month the moon waxes, becoming larger and larger until ...

Jewish Energy Guide: Engaging Teens in St. Louis

Summary: Gail Wechsler provides an overview of the successes of the Jewish Environmental Initiative (JEI), the environmental committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis. Israel isn't the only place where Jews can plant trees. Every year, members of the Jewish Environmental Initiative, a committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, plant trees here in St. Louis. Over the year, we have planted hundreds of trees, often partnering with groups from other faiths and engaging community members of all ages. In 2011, we joined with the First Baptist Church of Elmwood Park to plant trees in memory of ...

Jewish Energy Guide: The Energy Cost of Food

The Energy Cost of Food Summary: Founder and CEO of Smart Agriculture Analytics, Manuela Zoninsein, examines how our industrialized food system is not sustainable and lays out actions that would foster a healthier and more sustainable food system. Today, part of repairing the world means ensuring that we can reduce our individual consumption to sustainable levels, especially as the world gets more crowded. If people in developing countries such as China continue to respond to increased prosperity by eating more resource intensive foods, such as meat, then a worldwide population increase of just two billion people by 2050 may double the ...

Jewish Energy Guide-The Green School: Using Buildings as Teachers

The Green School: Using Buildings as Teachers By Cynthia Thomashow Summary: As education manager for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Cynthia Thomashow discusses how green school buildings can transform education while providing environmental and economic benefits. When I was a child in school, I never questioned the source of the building’s heat or light. I didn’t ask about where the food in the cafeteria came from. I didn’t care about how many materials were used in the classroom or what happened to them after they were no longer needed. Then, in 1972, my perspective shifted. ...

Jewish Energy Guide – Shabbat Noach: Global Climate-Healing Shabbat

Summary: Founder and executive director of Teva Ivri, Einat Kramer, illuminates lessons from Noah’s actions and the importance of connecting Shabbat Noach with the environmental crises of our generation. The Torah portion of Noah details a terrible ecological disaster — the flood that immerses the world in water and brings an end to all life — all because of humankind’s despicable behavior. Noah may have been the first environmental activist. He acted upon a divine commandment to keep every species of animal safe on his ark. The biblical story ends with an eternal covenant between God and humanity, in which we ...

Jewish Groups Praise New EPA Rules

Washington, DC – The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) today applauded the Environmental Protection Agency’s release on Friday of a revised standard limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. “Carbon dioxide emissions are the leading cause of climate change, which is one of the great moral challenges of our time. This proposal takes an important step towards addressing the effects that our electricity generation can have on the Earth and human health,” said JCPA President Rabbi Steve Gutow. These effect have been shown to have a ...

Jewish Energy Guide – Sukkot: Dwelling in the Midst of Nature’s Energy

Summary: Rabbi Howard Cohen, founder of Burning Bush Adventures, discusses the connections between Sukkot and nature. Biblical Judaism — that is, the way of life for the Israelites — was shaped and molded by their direct experience with the landscape around them. The physical geography, communities of plants and animals, soil condition and weather all left indelible impressions on their way of life, and our understanding of Judaism. For example, the native plant Salvia palaestina — the model for the menorah used in the Temple — is described exclusively in botanical terms in the book of Exodus (25:31-35). co...

Jewish Energy Guide – Yom Kippur: Mick Jagger, Energy, a Horse and the Jewish Question

Summary: Rabbi Shmuel Simenowitz, executive director of Project Y’aleh V’Yavo, focuses on Yom Kippur as a holiday of personal and environmental responsibility. We believe and pray that on Rosh Hashanah we are inscribed in the Book of Life, while on Yom Kippur the verdict is sealed and made final. Yet, contrary to popular belief and despite the somber tone, Yom Kippur is not a sad day. In the Talmud, Yom Kippur actually is discussed along with Tu B’Av — the Jewish holiday of love — as one of the happiest days of the year. On Tu B’Av, the single women would engage in an elaborate dance ritual to attract ...

Jewish Energy Guide – Rosh Hashanah: Wake Up and Take Action

Summary: Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Assembly, issues a wake-up call on climate change for Rosh Hashanah. Hayom harat olam — today the world is conceived. The midrash teaches us that on Rosh Hashanah the world was first created. And Rosh Hashanah is, in some ways, a giant birthday party — filled with pageantry, food and a gathering of friends and family. But in contrast to how birthdays and New Year’s Eve are celebrated in secular society, hayom harat olam signals a sense of serious reflection. Rosh Hashanah is, after all, when all of creation is called to judgment. It is the day ...

Jewish Energy Guide: Green Your Conference

Summary: Between travel, accommodations, and food, it is often challenging to green a conference. David Krantz, president and chairperson of the Green Zionist Alliance, provides tips on how to green your conference by making changes, both big and small, when planning the event. Ask people to bring their own bottles with them for the conference. Perhaps it’s time to revive the old Yemenite Jewish custom of traveling with your own water cup. If you absolutely need to use something only once, use something that’s compostable — something that will biodegrade, like paper or compostable plasticware made from plants such as corn ...

Jewish Energy Guide: Baltimore’s Green Federation

Summary: Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin describes how three efforts, launched independently, eventually coalesced into one green network for Baltimore’s Jewish community. The first project began when the local Jewish Federation, The Associated, assembled a cross-departmental committee to examine how to green its practices and operations. The green committee, made up of lay and professional leaders and headed by Rachel Siegal, an Associated vice president at the time, started by switching the building’s conventional bulbs to compact fluorescents and moved on to eliminate plastic water bottles. When it came time for The Associated to ...

Jewish Energy Guide – A Sea Change: Wave, Tidal and Hydroelectric Power

Summary: The ocean, according to Pulitzer Prize finalist Dr. Christopher Vaughan, is a relatively untapped resource, but advances are now being made in creating wave and tidal energy systems. The complex relationship between energy and water promises to be one of the most significant factors in global development going forward. Freshwater supplies are endangered in general, but the equation varies greatly by region and state of development. Most uses of water in energy production result in electricity generation, typically using hydraulic turbines in dammed rivers. Energy derived from water sources varies from an almost complete reliance on ...