130 results for tag: Clean Air/Water/Soil

We Must Also Give Thanks

It is very easy to get down when thinking about all environmental issues we face throughout the world. However, as Thanksgiving approaches, as most people, at some point or another I start to think about those things that maybe I take for granted. This week while walking I started to think about a class I am taking in law school on the Clean Water Act. Although we still continue to face severe issues related to water pollution, prior to 1972, industries and public water works did not have to attain a permit in order to discharge into waters of the United States. In 1990 major improvements were made to the Clean Air Act, which again, has some ...

Official Launch of Jews Against Hydrofracking: Learn how you can help combat this Environmental & Public Health crisis!

If one Jew sins, all of Israel feels it….This can be compared to the case of men on a ship, one of whom took a drill and began drilling beneath his own place. His fellow travelers to said to him:what are you doing?’ He replied: ‘What does that matter to you, I am drilling only under my own place?’ They continued: ‘We care because the water will come up and flood the ship for us all. Midrash: Vayikra (Leviticus) Rabbah- 4:6 First off, open http://www.facebook.com/jewsagainsthydrofracking in a new window and like us. Now read on: This teaching of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai seems ...

My arrest at theTar Sands Protest

This was one adventurous day. There was the earthquake. Where were you when it occurred? I was just outside the Park Police holding cell after being released from police custody. I joined in today, very unexpectedly, with about 60 others to be arrested for “failure to obey a lawful order”. We stood in three long lines in front of the White House singing and chanting our protest of the Tar Sands oil pipeline that would extend from northern Canada, down through the heartland of the West, and directly through Yellowstone National Park, to Texas. This will be a dirty, toxic pipeline. Just the extraction of the oil in Canada ...

“This is our nation’s Yom Kippur moment.” Testimony to State Department against Keystone XL Pipeline

Joelle Novey, Director Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light Friday October 7 Testimony to State Department Against Keystone XL Pipeline Through Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light, hundreds of congregations of all religious traditions work together on energy and climate issues. I am submitting into the record today hundreds of comment cards from local churches and synagogues where good folks have concluded that the Keystone XL Pipeline would do great harm, and that their religious traditions call them to speak out. These cards join thousands of online comments sent from religious folks around the country, ...

“Is this the pipeline that is desired of us?” Talk to Rally Against Keystone XL Pipeline

Joelle Novey, Director Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light Delivered to Sept 2 2011 Rally Against the Keystone XL Pipeline Behind the White House I speak this afternoon on behalf of hundreds of congregations in the DC area that are working to respond to climate change in their sacred communities. These congregations work together through an organization called Interfaith Power & Light. And I speak as one of dozens of religious people – priests and ministers and rabbis, Christians and Jews and Muslims and Unitarian Universalists and Buddhists – who put their faith into action over the past two ...

4 Jewish Summer Camps Sell “Fracking Rights” that Endanger Drinking Water, Food, Health, & Climate

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow (7/14/2011) The Forward, the leading national Jewish weekly, on July 14, 2009, reported that four Jewish summer camps in Pennsylvania have signed leases with gas exploration companies to allow “fracking” –- the hydro-fracturing method of pouring tons of highly chemicalized water to smash shale rocks into releasing natural gas. The four are Starlight’s Perlman Camp, which is owned and operated by B’nai B’rith; Camps Nesher and Shoshanim, which share a property in Lakewood and are owned and operated by the New Jersey Federation of YMHAand YWHA; and Camp Morasha, an independent camp in Lakewood. The Forward reports ...

Mayim

Last weekend I was about to board a plane when I decide to buy a magazine in an airport store. As I was glancing through the mountain of options, the cover of a magazine called Fast Company caught my eye. I don’t usually stray from my favorite two or three magazines (especially in the airport where they are so expensive), but the cover of Fast Company had a picture of Matt Damon on the cover that stated “Matt Damon And His Global War For Water.” I was intrigued because although I have heard people say often that the wars of the next century will be fought over water, I really know very little about this subject area. ...

Planet Jewish

According to Jewish teachings, human beings were placed upon the Earth with the responsibility “to till it and to tend it” (Genesis 2:15). One way way “to till and tend the Earth” is by composting. Composting, the practice of mixing decaying organic matter, such as leaves and food scraps, to create a nutrient rich fertilizer, has many benefits. Who wouldn’t want to save the planet one piece of trash at a time while producing a plant food that would make master gardeners proud. Read more at http://www.jewishinstlouis.org/blog.aspx?id=345.

The Smaller Stories

Please Read First: 1. Diabetes is a Time Bomb in the Arctic Research Shows Pollutants linked to Type 2 Diabetes http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/06667_diabetes_is_a_time_bomb/ 2. New Study Warns of Arctic Mercury Pollution: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5g1c7x73hsUhq24krg1-3ceMSkLVg 3. Environmental Illness in Kids Costs Billions: http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/EnvironmentalHealth/26306 So I know the above request seems like I am providing you a homework assignment, but these articles help give a bit of context to this post. The three articles above highlight a point that ...

Honey from the Rock: A Question

Better Place, the brain child of Israeli born Shai Agassi, is making an impact worldwide, and that is even before one car has hit the streets. Better Place is the first company of its kind to develop an economically viable model to propagate the mass the production and purchasing of electric vehicles based on a subscription service. The subscription service, described as being similar to a cell phone subscription, means that the battery belongs to Better Place and depending on the package, the consumer will have various choices of charging and battery replacement centers throughout the country. Better Place has companies operating in Israel, ...