103 results for tag: Carbon Footprints
Israel’s natural gas infrastructure is impressive, but we must aim for a clean energy future!
On Sunday, June 12, I toured the Israel Natural Gas Lines Ltd. (Natgaz) power station outside of Ashkelon with the Committee on Citizen Affairs. Natgaz is a public company responsible for establishing and maintaining the national distribution system of natural gas - from the relatively new gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea to customers in Israel and abroad. As the Subcommittee learned at the plant, natural gas is improving the Israeli economy, strengthening Israeli energy independence, and nourishing regional peace through natural gas sales to nearby countries such as Egypt and Jordan.
I was impressed by the company’s professional ...
Alon Tal Zoom Event–One Year After Glasgow, Towards Sharm Al Sheikh: Environmental Report Card
Join us on Sunday, October 23 at 1 p.m. EDT / 10 a.m. PDT / 8 p.m. Israel-- "One Year After Glasgow, Towards Sharm Al Sheikh: Environmental Report Card”
Get more information, additional meeting topics, schedules and RSVP here: https://aytzim.org/rsvp
Please note: RSVPs accepted until two hours before the session start; links will be sent about an hour before the session start (please check your spam folders)
A Vegetarian New Year
by Susan Levine
~ The New Year, January 1 of the Gregorian calendar, is the same as Rosh Hashanah for me. I think about things I have done over my lifetime and the most important thing I’ve tried to do is to become a vegetarian.
But let me start at the beginning: Both my parents grew up in kosher homes and when they got married, they had a kosher home. But it wasn’t kosher enough for my father’s mother who would visit my parents but wouldn’t touch the food. My mom didn’t see the point of being kosher if her mother-in-law still wouldn’t eat in her home. Instead she went full treif (completely non-kosher). As a child I pretty ...
Can We Avert a Climate Catastrophe?
The most critical issue facing the world today is the possibility of a climate catastrophe that threatens the viability of human civilization. This article discusses the seriousness of the threats, why it is likely to become far more severe in the future, and what needs to be done to avert the looming catastrophe.
First, it is important to recognize the scientific consensus about climate change. Science academies worldwide, 97% of climate scientists, and virtually all the peer-reviewed papers on the issue in respected scientific journals agree that climate change is largely caused by human activities, and poses great threats ...
Earth Etude for Elul 29: At the Hoh~A Rainforest in the Pacific Northwest
by Thea Iberall
Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State
The Amazon Rainforest is the most biodiverse region on Earth and provides shelter to three million species of plants and animals. Billions of trees absorb tons of carbon dioxide every year and produce 20% of earth’s oxygen. It’s been called the Lungs of the Earth.
But I read something most disturbing. The Amazon rainforest is now emitting about a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year. From its role as a carbon sink, the lungs of the Earth have become a carbon source. Deforestation by fire of thousands of square miles a year is killing off trees. On ...
Earth Etude for Elul 21: Tikkun Olam and Climate Change
by Michael Garry
Tikkun olam, which in Hebrew means “repair of the world,” has always been a guiding principle of the Jewish people, one that we teach our children and try to practice in our everyday lives. In the modern era, tikkun olam means that Jews bear responsibility not only for their own moral, spiritual, and material welfare, but also for the welfare of society at large.
It is well known that the welfare of the planet is now threatened by an environmental crisis called climate change, caused by unchecked emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
While climate ...
Earth Etude for Elul 19: It’s All About the Soil
by Rabbi Robin Damsky
“It’s All About the Soil.” So reads the headline for a website discussing regenerative agriculture.
I’m torn between fear and possibility. Evidence of climate change worsens every place we breathe. I read several summaries of the most recent UN report on the climate crisis in which Antonio Guterres declares a “code red for humanity.”
Yikes.
I’ve always believed we have the power to heal our planet. I still do. But the window of opportunity is getting smaller and the actions we must take are more substantive.
There are a bunch of terrifying data in the news. Most of what we need to heal seems ...
Earth Etude for Elul 15: Counting to the Next Shmita Year
by David Krantz
Among our more under-appreciated traits, we Jews are counters. We count for a prayer quorum, we count the omer, we count the days of the months to know when our holidays are. We might know the days of the week by their names – Sunday, Monday — but in Hebrew they are Yom Rishon, the First Day, and Yom Sheni, the second day. And before borrowing their current names from the Babylonian calendar, the Jewish months were numbered. What we now know as Elul was once the Sixth Month, leading to the Seventh Month that we now call Tishrei.
Counting can (ideally) foster planning and patience. It is by counting that we know when to do ...
My podcast interview with Glen Merzer, author of the potentially transformative book, “Food Is Climate,” which argues that the only way to avert a climate catastrophe is through a societal shift to vegan diets.
https://youtu.be/H3Oge4tF46k
A Tisha B’Av Message: Will We Again Fail To Heed the Warnings?
Tisha B'Av (the 9th day of the month of Av) which we commemorate this year on July 17 - 18, reminds us that over 2,600 years ago Jews failed to heed the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah about the importance of changing their ways. That failure resulted in the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem, one of the many tragic things that occurred to Jews on that day, including the later destruction of the second Temple.
Today there are no prophets like Jeremiah to issue warnings, but we are receiving increasingly dire warnings from climate scientists that now it is not just Jerusalem, but the entire world, that is ...
3rd Jewish Climate Action Conference:
"Everything is Connected"
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen
The JCAN-MA for the 3rd Jewish Climate Action Conference: Everything is Connected occurred April 25, 2021. Over 550 people attended. The 40 sessions focused on carbon reduction, advocacy, spiritual resilience, soil and agriculture, raised up the voices of youth, and addressed environmental justice. The day-long event was geared toward action solutions and strengthening the national Jewish climate action network. Opportunities are still available for connecting with other climate activists in your geographic region or with similar interests.
AT THE CONFERENCE ATTENDEES:
Lea...
Rainbow Day is May 8-9 in 2021, the week following Shabbat Behar-Bechukotai!
Celebrate Rainbow Day and the Rainbow Covenant with all Life!
The first covenant in the Torah, when Noah leaves the ark, is a covenant with all creatures, and a covenant with the Earth itself, not just with humanity. There are so many ways you can teach about this covenant, the rainbow covenant, on the day it was established!
What is Rainbow Day?
On the 27th day of the second month, Noah, his family, and all the animals that were with them left the ark (Genesis 8). Exactly one lunar year and ten days before—one complete solar year—the flood began on the 17th of the second month, the day before Lag B’Omer. When Noah, the ...
Proper Nutrition Can Reduce the Severity of Coronavirus Infections
There are currently daily reports of record-breaking incidents of coronavirus worldwide. As the Coronavirus epidemic escalates, it is important to recognize a generally overlooked possibility of taking steps now to reduce the severity of symptoms, should one have the misfortune of getting the disease.
According to T. Colin Campbell, PhD, director of the China-Cornell-Oxford study, deemed the Grand Prix of epidemiology by the NY Times, shifting to a nutritious, well-balanced, plant-based diet can greatly reduce the effects of COVID-19.
Based on his extensive research, he stated, “antibody prevalence was highly correlated with ...
Get Used to Wearing Masks.
by Rabbi Dr. Eric Lankin
Get Used to Wearing Masks. (courtesy of the United Nations).
I am afraid that we will be wearing masks for a long time to come.
And it won’t be solely because of a viral pandemic. Soon it may be because of the air quality of our planet.
There is a clear scientific consensus on a human-driven warming of the earth, with carbon-based pollution released in the environment as the major contributor. As shown by data from NASA and NOAA, the last few decades have seen a sharp spike in global average temperature, and the increase of carbon-based pollutants caused by human activity is destroying our environment. According ...
L’Shanah Tova and a thank you to our Earth Etudes for Elul Contributors
Elul is the month before Rosh Hashanah, a time when we review our lives and think about how we will live the coming year. Many of these earth etudes actually connect our earth with the spirit of Judaism–Tikkun Olam, repairing the world.
We would like to thank Rabbi Katy Z. Allen for bringing together these awe-inspiring contributors, whose essays, poems and thoughts help us understand the meaning of our lives and how we can repair our world.
And our Earth Etudes can be helpful throughout the year. So you can read them here:
Earth Etude for Elul 1: Rabbi Katy Allen-- Of Happenstance and Wondering ...READ MORE
Earth Etude for Elul ...
Earth Etude for Elul 24 –If Not Here, Where
by Maggid David Arfa ~
For Reb Bob in honor of his ordination
Hillel says, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when? If not here, where?" Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14+
The High Ledges Audubon Sanctuary, Shelburne, MA
Ok, he didn’t say that last part. He didn’t have to. Back in the ancient world it was not so easy to get lost in the global view. Today it is different. The daily news causes international heartache on every page. We witness environmental degradation, rise of authoritarian nationalism, propaganda 2.0 and communities struggling in every corner of the ...
Earth Etude for Elul 9 — Elul: A Time to Start Shifting Our Imperiled Planet onto a Sustainable Path
by Richard H Schwartz
As the world spirals toward a climate catastrophe, the current Hebrew month of Elul again provides time for heightened introspection, a chance to do t’shuvah (repentance), to improve our lives and our involvements, before the “Days of Awe,” the days of judgment, the “High Holidays” of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
How should we respond to Elul today? How should we respond to the current reports of dire warnings and other environmental threats to humanity, including:
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organisation composed of climate experts from many countries, warned in an October 2018 ...
Earth Etude for Elul 5 — True Tikkun Olam
by Dr. Karen I. Shragg
~ Euphemisms have always hurt us. Jews have had their ears tuned in to anti-Semitic language for a long, long time and know when someone is trying to paint us in a negative picture while couching it in coded language.
But there is a new way that euphemisms are hurting the whole
planet and its future. Recently the forecast of species extinctions and climate
change have alarmed us and sent us running to our recycle bins, organic food
and if we have time, to our laptops to write letters to the editor about the
evils of using pesticides. We hear the euphemism, "Human Activity"
anytime we need to blame why species are strugg...
Strike for the Climate, Albany NY: Friday Sept. 20th, 11 am – 2 pm
The People of Albany United for Safe Energy (PAUSE) are joining with the students from local high schools and colleges to hold a march and rally. Our specific purpose is to call upon Governor Cuomo to enact aggressive measures that can lead the nation and the world in lowering our greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to a safe level. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that we have until 2030 to lower GHG by 45% from the 2010 level. Every report the IPCC puts out is cautiously moderate and needs to be replaced by more dire predictions in their next report. Therefore, we probably have less than 10 years to claw ...