Dear Earth, happy Hanukkah! — 8 days, 8 actions
Dear Earth, happy Hanukkah! — 8 days, 8 actions
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 12/7/2009
After lighting your menorah each evening, dedicate yourself to healing our climate:
Day 1 (this year, Shabbat). Automobile: If possible, choose today or one other day a week to not use your car at all. Other days, lessen driving. Shop on-line. Cluster errands. Carpool. Don’t idle engine beyond 20 seconds.
Day 2 (Saturday night & Sunday): International: That evening (or if it’s easier to organize, another evening this week), hold a public communal Menorah-lighting vigil with the message to the public, the media, and the President to carry to the Copenhagen conference on the climate crisis: Act now to deeply reduce fossil fuel use!
Day 3: National: Urge Senators to pass the Kerry-Boxer bill. For easy addressing and a model letter to send them (which you can modify), click here.
Day 4: Personal/Household: Call your electric-power utility to switch to wind-powered electricity. (For each home, 100% wind-power reduces CO2 emissions the same as not driving 20,000 miles in one year.)
Day 5: Synagogue, Hillel, JCC, Workplace. or College: Urge the leadership of this organization to arrange an energy audit and switch to wind-powered electricity for its buildings.
Day 6: Town/City: Urge town/city officials to require greening of buildings through ordinances and executive orders. Creating change is often easier on the local level!
Day 7: State: Urge state representatives to reduce subsidies for highways, increase them for mass transit.
Day 8 (which this year is again Shabbat). Automobile: try not to use your car at all. If you have to drive, carpool. Don’t idle engine beyond 20 seconds.
Make our planet’s Hanukkah a happy one!
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