To Till and to Tend

מחזור

Without vowels, the Hebrew word above can be read as “Machzor,” the prayer book used for the Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, or “Michzur,” the modern day word for Recycle.  The shared root means return, or cycle back.

Delving into the Hebrew more, we learn that another translation for our root word is “to repent.” 

These next days, as we cycle back to the start of a New Year, we seek to look inside ourselves, acknowledge that which we want to bring into the New Year and that which we hope to leave behind.  We repent; we pinpoint traits that can be improved; we examine our place in this world and how to make it a better place.  For many, we join our community at services and use the words of the Machzor to guide us through this challenge of renewal.

The High Holidays are an invaluable time to reflect, repent and renew.  It is important, as Jen suggested last week, to use this time of reflection to think about ways to make this upcoming year both sweet and sustainable.  We can Think now, Act later.

As this new year begins, let us be inspired by the words of the Machzor to be constantly aware of our opportunities to Michzur.  With our metals, glass and paper, with our clothes, toys and cell phones, with our words, emotions and giving, let us seek out the opportunities to recycle and renew the wonders of this world.

Shana tova – may this year be a year of renewal, awareness and meaningful action. 

    This Monday many of us will be surrounded by food, friends, and family to party like its 5769. Rosh Hashanah means there will be plenty of Shofar blowing, apples dipping, and families celebrating. Come Wednesday though, the thoughts and remains of Rosh Hashanah will be put away, and we will be focusing on the feasts and fasts of Yom Kippur. The days in between are a blur of High Holiday madness, but it is on these Days of Awe, Yamim Noraim, that we should take the time God has given us to acknowledge how we can make this next year as sustainable and sweet as the local honey we had on our organic apples. It is time to repent for our sins:

            During this period God is judging us so that that our name can be put in either the good book or the bad book. One way to get in the good book is to cast away your sins, Tashlikh, by throwing pieces of bread into a flowing body of water. Like many aspects of Jewish environmentalism, this is a long standing tradition that has evolved into a new way of interpreting religious teachings and the environment. As you throw sins into the water, think about how precious (and awesome) God’s creation of water is to humanity. What can you do this year, which will help to preserve the less than 1% of water that is for human consumption? What environmental sins have you committed in the past that you can be extra conscious of during these 10 days and everyday thereafter? Sinning is no longer only about harming others; it is about harming the beauty of Creation. As we envision God writing our names in a book, let us see a book made of 100% post consumer recycled paper and written on with soy ink.

 

May your new year be sweet and sustainable. !L’shanah tovah!

Last week, while world markets were tanking, I was attending a fascinating program, the GreenPowerConference on Carbon Markets.  The marketing of greenhouse gas offsets is a graphic way of atoning for our sins. Some in fact have likened it to buying indulgences, a Christian form of buying one’s way out of guilt.  But the regs around offset projects suggest otherwise – initiatives must pass a test of ADDITIONALITY, that the project, which generates clean energy and lowers fossil fuel emission, would not otherwise have been created.  From the carbon offset buyer point of view – it is important to continue to decrease one’s own emissions and not just buy offsets to feel better. 
The problem: the earth is overheating due to excessive carbon emissions caused by consuming fossil fuels. The solution, to reduce these carbon emissions, is global and massive, and while the US is late to the table, it is clear that even with footdragging politicians slowing the process, the United States business and environmental sectors, and even our state governments, are moving forward without them.  Steven Fine’s excellent presentation laid out the challenge elegantly for a non-techy person like me.

1. How do you design and plan systems and projects when the cost of energy is not knowable? Look at how unpredictable prices for different energy sources have been in the last year or two. Oil went up $25 a barrel today. Wind energy is now considered cost effective. Solar prices are expected to come down. We are all flying blind here.
2. The regulations and policies are not yet known. While it is assumed there will be a USA cap & trade system in place, the Western Climate Initiative states are initiating their own, a Northeast consortium of states are doing the same, RGGI, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, kicks into place on 1/1/09, and Kyoto itself expires in 2012.
3. The technologies to accomplish the goals continue to develop, but most are not in place yet, like sequestration of coal emissions. Their price is also a complete unknown. I can add 2 more items to Fine’s:
4. This marketed and traded commodity, tons of carbon, is invisible to begin with and
5. What is actually being “produced” is the opposite; that carbon ton is in reality Not Being Produced, so its existence is abstract.  We are buying and selling the non-creation of an invisible substance. Tricky! 

Please check out these links:  Hillel Flyer and My Adaptation to Unetaneh Tokef

We again approach the New Year and the holiest time in our Jewish calendar.  We are also one year closer to the year 2015 when scientists say we need to have curbed our carbon emissions substantially and limit our temperature increase to 2 degrees C.  Otherwise the implications, according to the Chairman of the IPCC, are “grave and disastrous.” 

I heard a famous rabbi in Jerusalem say: “We Jews know how to do tikkun olam.”  Do we?  We try and provide food and shelter to homeless people here in Seattle – but “olam” is the world.  What are we doing to curb global warming in our own lives and to engage others?  What are we doing to curb the climate crisis that will see hundreds of millions of “environmental refugees”  like we’ve never seen before.  I still see people in our community purchasing cars for fashion, flying as if fuel were cheap and benevolent, and eating beef unaware that the carbon footprint is greater than all transportation combined.  These are caring, progressive people.

Reb Nachman of Braslov said: “People often say ‘Seeing is believing.’  I say ‘believing is seeing.’”  I think this speaks perfectly to the crisis we face.  How many of us “see” the effects of global warming?  Sure, maybe the weather is different, but we’ve gone through changes before.  We realize hurricanes like Katrina are getting more and more extreme, but we understand there are other factors involved too.  So, unlike natural disasters of the past, we are left with “believing” the scientists, with their complex theories and projections.  And if we do believe them – and we should because there has never been such enormous consensus across a huge array of disciplines – then we can “see” what we need to do.

Occasionally we do “see” the impact of global warming.  I recently attended a house concert for PaBobo Jobarteh, an African musician from Gambia playing the Kora.  I was quite taken when this outstanding musician spoke about devoting his talents to purchasing mosquito nets for his people.  He commented how the changing climate was causing malarial mosquitoes to come year round, whereas before they would come only in summer.  The IPCC predicts tens to hundreds of millions of people at risk of increased water stress and increased spread of malaria in Africa. 

Maybe our community is waiting for our government to take action, and hopefully it will.  But one study at Vanderbilt University showed that one third of US emissions – or 8% of the world’s emissions – is from private individuals.  That’s more than any other country aside from the US and China!

What is the value of deeply personal work of teshuvah if it does not include tikkun olam?  This theme is explored in the Hillel Flyer. Every Yom Kippur we recite a profound poem – Unetaneh Tokef.  This poem is both powerful and problematic, as it portrays G-d as Judge and determining the fate of individuals.  The poem states that G-d does not desire these fates for the “deserved.”  To say that a horrible or untimely death is “deserved” is inconceivable to most of us.  Yet there is empowerment and hope in the knowledge that we can remove “evil” and “temper the harshness of the decree.”  In my adaptation,  teshuvah, tefilah, and tzedakah can “remove the evil of indifference and may lessen the severity of our common fate.” 

I am grateful for the Jewish efforts, like at COEJL, that do exist. I hope these linked fliers will provide some useful “tools” for the HH’days.  Consider sharing them with your rabbi and Social Action Committee. May the rabbi’s pronouncement that we Jews “know tikkun olam” ultimately ring true, and may we see the shift that we believe must happen.

L’Shannah tovah!

Barak Gale

COEJL Speaker; Member, Temple Beth Am and Eitz Or; Vice President, Washington Wilderness Coalition

This Saturday, Jews around the world will read Moses’ challenge in Deuteronomy: “I place before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. … Choose life that you and your descendants shall live.”  (Deut. 30:15-20) These words are both our Biblical mandate to respond to the climate crisis – and instructions for the nature of that response.

People will die because of climate change.  Last year, the IPCC predicted declining rainfall could reduce agricultural yields in parts of Africa by 50% by 2020.  One third of the world is already considered “water scarce” – and the World Resources Institute projects that this number will double by 2040.  Indeed, the crisis in Darfur can be largely attributed to conflicts over scarce water resources – resources made scarcer because of climate change.  As Jews, we must “choose life” to avert these dangers.

But how?

The answer is in the same remarks.  A commentary in a well-known translation of the text notes that “life” actually refers to “livelihood.”  Thus, Moses exhorts the Jewish people to find employment so that they can sustain life.  But what if that employment itself both saved life – by averting the climate crisis – and sustained life by providing a livelihood?  Green jobs do exactly that.  By training American workers to retrofit buildings to make them more energy efficient, expand out transit system, and support an emerging system of wind, solar and advanced biofuels, we can build a green economy and lift millions of Americans out of poverty.

Last month, the Center for American Progress (in partnership with the University of Massachusetts-Amherst) released a report entitled “Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy,” finding that the United States could create two million jobs in only two years by investing in a rapid green economic recovery program.  This green stimulus plan would create nearly four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry and 300,000 more jobs than a similar amount of spending directed toward household consumption. Last week, in testimony before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Bracken Hendricks of CAP testified that August unemployment was at a five-year high, new housing construction continues to slow, and housing values have plummeted by nearly a third from the same time last year.  Clearly, the time couldn’t be better for investment in green technology. 

More than 3,000 years ago, Moses implored the Jewish people to “choose life.”  Today, we must make the same request of our government: help the American people choose a green, sustainable livelihood – so that we and our descendants may live.

[This weekend – on the very day when Jews around the world read Moses' command to "choose life," 1Sky, Green for All, the We Campaign, and tens of thousands of Americans are mobilizing for Green Jobs Now. People of all backgrounds will organize Green Jobs Now events, with a special focus on low-income communities and communities of color.  Click here to find an event in your community and to download an organizers toolkit. For more information, contact Josh Lynch (josh@greenforall.org/ 510-663-6500 x314) or Adi Nochur (adi@1sky.org/ 301-270-4550 x22)].

This piece was written by Alan Elfanbaum, a longtime member of the Jewish Environmental Initiative, St. Louis.

Awaken, awaken to the sacred sounds of the Shofar, Oh Keepers of the Garden

It cries in mourning for the numberless creatures
of earth, sea and sky that are no more.
It cries for the great forests, meadows and
wetlands that are slowly dying.
It cries for the earth itself which has been
stripped and plundered beyond recognition
It cries for its Children who refuse to listen
as the sounds of life are slowly being stilled

Awaken, awaken, to the sacred sounds of the Shofar, Oh Keepers of the Garden

And ask forgiveness for what we have done.
For the sins that we have committed in spewing noxious
pollutants into the air that we breathe
that descend to the pristine lakes and forests beyond
that rise to the protective and nurturing layers far above.

And for the sins that we have committed in pouring poisonous
wastes into our clear streams and broad rivers
that flow into mighty seas and oceans beyond
that poison the deep waters where life first began.

For the sins that we have committed in burying the
earth under billions of tons of refuse and garbage
in destroying the living soil with herbicides and pesticides
in creating radioactive wastes that persist for millenniums.

And for the sins that we have committed in cutting down
the ancient forests, home to countless unnamed species
in culling the oceans empty of whales and dolphins
in hunting the earth barren of elephants and lions.

For the sins that we have committed in shackling
animals in fedid and overcrowded factory farms
in caging them for years in sterile laboratories
in displaying them in zoos for our amusement.

And for all of these, O God of forgiveness

Forgive us
Pardon us
Grant us atonement

Jen and Ilana chose to spend a majority of their summer vacations in the COEJL office learning the ins and outs of NGO life and developing invaluable material for the Jewish environmental community: Greening Synagogues Resource Guide (coming live soon) and Matanot Yerakot – a Green Gift Guide.  Further, they have each committed to share their insights from college campuses with monthly blogs throughout the academic year.  If you were to ask me, that was more than gift enough.

 

My formal task was to provide them with meaningful, interesting projects that would benefit them as they continue in their academic studies and, later, as they pursue gainful employment. My goal, though, was to deepen their connection with their own sense of Judaism, environmentalism and the wonders of both personal and communal action.

 

Now, before I continue, a side note: as long as I am in New York I have a minimal carbon footprint – I purchase wind-energy at home, walk or use public transportation and buy local produce.  But I have family in Israel and California, friends who are getting married across the globe and a curiosity for the natural and cultural world.  In short, I travel by plane frequently, making my annual carbon footprint larger than the average American!

 

Back to Jen and Ilana.  On the last day at the office, after we had said our sentimental good-byes, they walked back to my desk, adorned with sheepish grins. 

 

“We have a present for you,” they said.  Already, I was surprised and honored

 

“It hasn’t come yet, but we’d like to tell you what it is.”  Of course, I obliged to listen.

 

“We bought you carbon offsets to offset one of your flights to California.”  I am not one to be caught speechless, but I was.  I could not have asked for a better, more appropriate gift (even though I am planning on offsetting my emissions at the end of each calendar year, it is always better not to wait).  Yet, this gift went beyond the carbon dioxide that will be sequestered out of our atmosphere – this gift represented environmental maturity, global awareness and the Jewish imperative of making mundane acts holy. 

 

I have already used my gift, as I am writing this blog from California.  But their gift to us has just begun.  Beyond their summer projects, each, in their own way, is committed to improving the ways in which we, as individuals and communities, interact with our environment.  In the coming years, we’ll need all the help we can get. For all that, I want to say to Jen and Ilana, “Thank you.” 

It’s Elul, a good time to clean up items and relationships that are hanging.  Here’s an environmentally friendly ritual: empty your tsedakah boxes, donate the money, and get those coins circulating – not only is it good for your soul, it’s good for the environment, as highlighted in a column in my local paper. Recirculating coins (which equals REUSING) lowers the demand for new coins; naturally mining for the minerals used in coins degrades habitat  and consumes water and energy to keep the mint producing.  Old coins are remanufactured, basic recycling. 
Last time I used CoinStar at the local supermarket rather than hassling with the coins at a bank, I was pleasantly surprised to learn CoinStar is tsedakah-enabled.  You can cash out, of course, minus their commission for processing.  But alternatively you can donate on the spot to causes like UNICEF or World WildLife Fund – here’s their list.  I talked with CoinStar and learned that charities receive a discounted service charge rate of 7.5% (as opposed to the customer’s charge of  8.9%).  You choose your charity and CoinStar prints a receipt for you and forwards the money directly.  You are allowed the full amount as a tax-deduction.  The charity gets direct cash for only a small overhead cost, less than their normal fundraising expense.  If you like, you can mail the charity a copy of your CoinStar slip, which will generate an acknowledgement from them directly.  Then of course they will solicit you by direct mail, so watch out.
At my house, we donate our laundered money.  Literally – when my kids left money in their pockets, the rule was: it will be donated!

I just returned from an extraordinary visit to Central America.  I will long remember the region’s natural beauty, its cobblestone streets, and friendly inhabitants.  But I will also remember something that is much less idyllic – the litter.  In particular, I will remember three very striking moments on my trip.

The first occurred aboard a “chicken bus” in El Salvador.  I recoiled as a young woman threw an empty bag out the open window.  I watched as the toddler on her lap placed a near empty juice bottle to her lips.  She ran her tiny finger along the rim, trying to gather the last drops of her drink.  I waited in anticipation for two hours to see whether the child would toss the bottle out the window as her mother had done.  For two hours she clung to the bottle, periodically shaking it about to see if she could make more juice appear.  As we approached our destination, the girl’s mother grabbed the bottle – and tossed it into the street.  I thought briefly of the words of the Senegalese philosopher Baba Dioum: “In the end, we will save only what we love, we will love only what we understand, we will understand only what we are taught.”  And I longed for an opportunity to teach this young child about the beauty of her country.

Days later, I would remember this child as I walked alongside Candido Melgar, a humble and kind Honduran.  We hired him as a guide one afternoon to explore Celaque National Park.  Candido was the perfect guide: knowledgeable, patient – and $20 for the day.  Moments after we entered the park, Candido pulled a plastic bag from his pocket.  For hours, he walked along, highlighting the flora and fauna – and bending to pick up discarded water bottles and candy wrappers.  Seven hours later when we descended the mountain, three bags of trash were tied precariously to his small pack.  “I’ve noticed Americans do not litter,” Candido remarked.  “I wish we could teach Hondurans to do the same.”  Candido bemoaned the environmental ethic of his countrymen – and thought wistfully of a national park that could somehow be protected from the people it was meant to serve. 

The third memory was perhaps the most disheartening. My husband and I were hiking along the beach in Livingston, Guatemala. Ultimately, we would arrive at a series of cascading pools – the “Siete Altares.”  The destination was spectacular.  But the journey was startling: The beach was completely covered in litter.  I thought briefly of Candido and his commitment to cleaning the national park in his backyard.  Yet, the scattered debris in Parque Celaque was no match for the Guatemalan shoreline, which was covered with abandoned fishing nets, bottles, and toiletries.  I thought briefly of collecting some of the debris – but quickly realized it was no use.  In fact, occasional clusters of trashbags were decomposing in several spots along the shore – evidence of well-intentioned visitors before me who lacked either the energy or resources to see their efforts to completion.

So, where does that leave me?  Two weeks in Central America.  Three countries and three stories that will long linger in my memories.  In truth, litter is the least of the problems our world faces.  Certainly, a plastic bottle along the shoreline is less concerning than rising temperatures that will cause our oceans to destroy adjacent cities.  Yet, I don’t think we can tackle these bigger problems unless we address the litter. 

Any student of sociology has learned of the broken windows theory  — broken windows left unrepaired lead to more vandalism and crime; uncorrected, graffiti begets graffiti.  And unadressed, litter begets litter.  Conversely, if we clean our beloved places, we teach our children the importance of caring for the world around them.  If the shoreline is clean, perhaps people will demand laws to protect the fish and water that live there. 

So, by my new theory, Woodsy the Owl is a “gateway” public service announcement.  As Candido acknowledged, Americans have taken tremendous strides to address litter.  Is this a meaningless victory – or is the first step to addressing larger problems? And if I’m right, what can we do to teach those in developing countries to “give a hoot”?

 Since last you heard from me, I moved back to school and am once again immersed in the excitement and constant activity that characterizes life here at Columbia University. As a new member of environmental peer educators at Barnard (we call ourselves the EcoReps), I have been learning so much as to what goes into making a campus green. While our activities to promote sustainable living vary widely in approach (including guerilla art tactics, which I promise to devote a post to later), I feel compelled to discuss a specialized tour the Ecoreps were given by the director of Facilities at Barnard.

Going into the tour, I expected to specifically hear all about physical infrastructure. After all, we were going to see heating and cooling systems, pipes, machines and the like, to understand how much energy it actually takes to run my college. In actuality, the engineering aspect of Barnard’s carbon emissions was only part of the tour’s purpose. With every stop, whether on the roof of a building to see water being cooled for air conditioning or deep down in underground tunnels to check out the boilers, the director of Facilities, Julio, expressed his conviction that “you cannot build your way out of a problem.”

The problem in this case, is the monetary and physical restrictions to installing the newest and most energy efficient technologies that would reduce more of Barnard’s energy wastes. While Barnard is doing what it can with its budget and small perimeter that lies within 116^th and 120^th streets, such as using a “bio-digester” in its sole cafeteria to chop up food scraps (food that cannot be delivered to City Harvest) to decrease its surface area, it cannot accommodate important technologies like programmable thermostats. What must happen then, Julio explained, is that the students and faculty must step up and change their own behavior (like wearing sweaters so that the heat can be lowered all the time) that would then allow facilities to conserve energy with the infrastructure it has.

This is exactly why a group like the Ecoreps is necessary. I am here to work on the behavioral and inspirational aspect needed to reduce Barnard’s carbon footprint. Technology and infrastructure will help the world to waste less indeed, but we cannot build our way out of our problems! Everyone must act as everyday agents in this environmental movement, so that we can work with what we have as much as possible, yet still promote sustainable living.

The idea of a dual ethic reminds me of the Tower of Babel story we read in the Bible (Genesis 11).  By destroying the tower that humans were building to reach the divine, G-d teaches us that sometimes, striving for such perfection does not solely come from infrastructure-it comes from our intentions and varied modes of behavior. Just as we must be creative in our religious worship, we must also seek all sorts of ways to save our environment. Infrastructure can only be successful with our own unique and diverse deeds.