410 results for tag: Climate Change

I Can’t Convince You

As an environmental activist, human being, and as a Jew I have worked to mitigate the effects of climate change. I have planted gardens, taught classes, composted my own trash, as well as the trash of my neighbors, relatives, and friends. However, the more time I spend thinking about climate change and reading scientific articles pertaining to climate change, the more I realize that there is nothing we can do to stop it. Climate change is a reality. The Earth’s temperature is rising. Sea level is rising. Endangered species are disappearing. Habitat is being irrevocably lost. And cultures are fading. It is a sobering realization, but it is ...

Bill McKibben Calls for Civil Disobedience Campaign in Washington DC in August 2011

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow Bill McKibben and several other leaders of the USand world-wide movement to prevent climate disaster have called for a wave of nonviolent civil disobedience at the White House gates between August 20 and Labor Day. The action will focus on convincing President Obama to withhold permits for the so-called ‘Keystone XLPipeline’ from Canada’s tar sands to flow to Texas refineries, thence to add enormously to planet-scorching CO2. Below you will find McKibben’s letter. More than 1100 people have signed up already. I am intending (God willing & the creeks don’t rise, or ...

The Tar Sands, Hydro-fracking, and Climate Reality

After the failure of the climate negotiations in Copenhagen 18 months ago, it seemed to me that the environmental movement was taking a long pause, trying to figure out how to engage the American population in the greatest challenge of our time. It seems to me now that this pause has ended, with a flurry of new activity that I’ve seen recently encouraging action on energy and climate change. There are three campaigns that I’ve recently become familiar with, and I will mention them with an eye toward what they are fighting and the difference they hope to make. The first campaign is the Tar Sands Action, which ...

Interfaith Climate Change Forum in Jerusalem on July 25th

The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development Cordially Invites You To an Interfaith Climate Change Forum on the topic How Can Religions Address the Climate Crisis? with the Honorable Panelists: His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Haj Salah Zuheika, Deputy Minister of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Religious Affairs Rabbi David Rosen, AJC International Director of Interreligious Affairs All of Whom are Members of The Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land The American Colony Hotel One Louis Vincent Street, Jerusalem Monday, July 25th, 10:00 AM The ...

Playing Politics With The Environment

Following politics can be frustrating, to say the least. Whoever said that ignorance is bliss may have hit the nail on the head when it comes to ordinary citizens and their choice whether to take an interest in elections and the decisions that our elected leaders make in regards to policy. This is especially true when there is a leader who gains your respect because he/she bucks their party (either Democrat or Republican) and makes a decision based on both the information presented and on that elected officials set of values. It seems to be me, that more often than not, the environment is an area where politicians who have taken a stand ...

Moving Beyond the Global Warming Debate

Perhaps this is heretical talk for an environmental blog, but I have always been skeptical of Global Warming alarmists. From the start, I have felt this issue was a distraction from the more pressing environmental issues of our time. What does it matter if sea levels are going to rise decades from now, I thought, if there is already no healthy food to eat, no clean water to drink, few rainforests left in which to preserve rare & endangered species, and the air and land have all been poisoned with toxins and radiation. In other words, I have always felt that Global Warming diverted people’s attention from more immediate and ...

Top 5 ‘Religious’ Excuses for Not Believing in Climate Change Rebuked

A response to growing frustration with the ‘religious’ right and the naïve. Excuse #1: God told Noah that God would not destroy the world again, so it can’t happen. Response: There is a classic story about a man who hears on the radio that a flood is coming and will destroy his home. His response, “Nothing to worry about, G-d will save me.” A man comes door to door telling everyone to evacuate, “G-d will save me.” The flood levels rise and so people come by boat and helicopter to save the man, “G-d will save me.” He continually repeats. Finally the flood engulfs his home and ...

Powerless

On Wednesday night, I was sitting in my office, printing documents and chatting with my husband when the lights went out. The lights, the computer, the printer. Silence, darkness as we looked out the window into the snowy night. The documents, half-printed. The to-do list. Everything we had planned for the evening (and as it turned out, for the rest of the week) would have to wait. We began an entirely different type of conversation, which I’m sure was happening in homes all across our neighborhood. Where are the candles? Do we have batteries for the radio? How cold will the house get before the heat comes back on? Should I use my cell phone to ...

Think Israel, Act Local

Most of us know by now that our personal actions have global consequences. What and how much we drive, fly, eat, and shop, contributes to a litany of global environmental challenges, topped by climate change. The mantra, ‘Think global, act local’, was adopted in the 1980s as a rallying cry for personal responsibility in a global age. Environmental concerns to this point had primarily been local; however a new generation of global environmental challenges were forcing people to look beyond their home communities. Unfortunately, this new global vision came with its own challenges. While the statement’s sentiment is true, it ...

All this Pollution is Making me to Schvitz!!

All this Pollution is Making me to Schvitz!! by Noam Dolgin So everyone is talking about Climate Change, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gases, Shifting Climate but what does this all mean. What is really happening and why? What can we do to make a real difference? The Greenhouse Effect. If it wasn’t for the Greenhouse effect, the Earth’s average temperature would be 9 degrees Fahrenheit, way too cold to support life as we know it! This life giving layer traps heat that would otherwise be lost to the atmosphere and keeps it in our global system. Not only is the Earth’s greenhouse gas layer not a bad thing, but ...