To Till and to Tend

Birkat HaHammah is a once-every-28 years event where the Jewish community celebrates the return of the sun to its original place in the heavens at the precise time and day of its creation.  It is occurring April 8, 2009 – the morning of Erev Pesach.  COEJL has created a Birkat HaHammah resource that we hope you find useful – www.BlesstheSun.org.  It is also a wiki, which means you can contribute to it – please do (and you if you have trouble, contact me at Liore@coejl.org).  The information available is vast, so I wanted to point out some exceptional resources:

 - A local events listing, where you can post your community Birkat HaHammah event

 - A video meditation/song put to solar images that can be used for teaching or contemplation

 - Ways  to connect Pesach with Birkat HaHammah (this overlapping will not occur for hundreds of  years)

 - Ceremonial Materials – ranging from traditional to an energy/environment focus

        President Obama’s inaugural address last week touched on many themes.  One of the most noteworthy of these was the idea that the government could only be part of the response to our economic troubles; that citizens would have to participate in the hard work of national economic recovery.  After eight years in which we were blissfully encouraged to reject personal sacrifice—of paying for two wars with tax cuts, of responding to 9/11 with shopping sprees, of reacting to the end of the internet bubble with the creation and perpetuation of a vastly more destructive housing bubble, it was indeed refreshing to hear a politician actually asking something of the American people.  But what does this have to do with the environment?

Plenty, in my humble opinion.  Last year, when gas prices spiked to over $4.00/gallon, we began to see the emergence of a national consensus on the need to rethink the way we consume energy in the US.  People in mainstream America, and in Detroit, started talking seriously about creating more fuel-efficient cars and investing in research and development to cultivate new energy sources.  Though this sentiment was born out of the economic reality of high gas prices, economics were not the sole reason being expressed for why we ought to purchase hybrids or build more wind turbines.  Instead, everyday Americans spoke about greater conservation and alternative energy creations as ends in their own right.  There was a palpable momentum the likes of which I had never experienced; a momentum which, if maintained, led to the feeling that there was a legitimate possibility of enacting real change.

            The problem, though, is that gas prices have dropped precipitously since then, and people during a recession are inclined to vote with their pocketbooks rather than with their consciences.  If the market is left to its own devices (a proposition whose dangerousness has been laid bare over the past four months of economic disaster), people will not be willing to pay more for electric cars or energy-efficient home insulation but will instead continue to purchase cheaper gasoline-fueled cars and home heating oil.  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/opinion/28friedman.html  And if this continues to occur, the fledgling market for new technology cars and alternative energy investment generally will collapse.  We will be left vulnerable and exposed whenever the next energy shock occurs because we will have failed to develop the energy infrastructure needed to mitigate our reliance on foreign oil.  And we will continue to cause irreparable harm to our planet in the process.

            So what should we do?  I believe it goes back to President Obama’s inaugural address.  We need to be willing to act against our immediate self-interest to provide the incentive necessary to continue the alternative energy momentum and avoid slipping back into complacency.  There is one clear-cut way to do this—a gas tax.  Yes, I know, raising taxes is anathema in America during tough economic times.  But instituting a tax, along the lines articulated here http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/opinion/27sat1.html?scp=2&sq=gas%20tax&st=cse, will achieve what we all know is in our economic, environmental, and foreign policy long-term interests.  Though in the short-term raising gas prices will be hard on certain sectors of the economy, these sectors—like Big Tobacco before them—over time will find ways to compensate and should continue to thrive.  And we will finally stop vacillating in the economic wind about our commitment to a greener, safer, and more secure energy policy.

On April 8, 2009 the Jewish community will rejoice the Sun’s return to its original place in the heavens at the precise time and day of its creation. This event is commemorated every 28 years and this year the Sun will be completing its 205^th cycle. During Birkat HaHammah we raise our heads to the skies and give thanks for this wonderful gift, the eternal light that does not only mark out time, but also makes possible all life on earth.

To honor Birkat HaHammah, and mark the Sun’s significance and indispensability in our lives, we, along with JNF, Canfei Nesharim, Hazon and AvodaArts, are hosting an art competition to encourage contemporary artists to create artwork that captures the power of this moment.

Please spread the news!  For more information about Birkat HaHammah, check out the constantly updated www.BlesstheSun.org.

I love winter – cold days call for hot chocolate, roaring fires, cozy sweaters and snowball fights.  But the short days get to me. Sunlight, even when it’s 20 degrees, warms me, but leaving the office in the dark hurts. The rabbis must have shared some of this sentiment – I doubt it’s chance that our Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, falls during the darkest days of the year.

This year, the first night of Hanukkah actually falls on the darkest day of the year – the Winter Solstice.  Which is coincidence of course, because the Jewish calendar functions off the lunar cycle, right? True, except for a once-every-twenty-eight year holiday called Birkat HaHammah – Blessing of the Sun.  On this day, the Jewish community celebrates the tradition-based return of the sun to its original place in the heavens at the precise time and day of its creation.  Tradition states that this happens when the Vernal Equinox falls out on a Wednesday morning (for more detail, click here) – rabbinically speaking, the next time this happens is April 8, 2009. 

This year of 5769, it seems too marvelous that the solar occurrences of Winter Solstice and Vernal Equinox are celebrated on the Jewish calendar. In response, COEJL has created a 1^st night of Hanukkah ceremony that acknowledges the wonders and sustenance of the sun.

This year of 2008, it also seems impossible to celebrate the “birth of the sun” without acknowledging its full potential. At a time when we all understand the disastrous consequences of uninhibited fossil fuel consumption (e.g. global warming), along with the incredible fact that the Sun provides Earth with as much energy every hour as human civilization uses every year – Birkat HaHammah must be a time of energy awareness and action. To this effect, a coalition of Jewish groups has come together to make sure this happens.  To read more, go to www.blessthesun.org.

Happy Hanukkah!

p.s. for more Hanukkah tips check out the new Green Gift guide and our CFL Hanukkah campaign.   

“We’re gonna drill offshore!  We’re gonna drill here, and we’re gonna drill now!” 

 

These words, recently expressed by Senator McCain at a motorcycle rally in
South Dakota, represent a major component of Senator McCain’s response to rising gas prices.  Opinion polls show most Americans support an increase in offshore oil drilling.  Senator Obama, too, has recently softened his earlier resistance to offshore oil drilling, if necessary to enact Democratic-sponsored energy bills. And this past weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dropped her formerly vehement opposition to offshore drilling in order to get Congress to enact broad energy legislation. 

 

But hold on there prospectors—there is a minor detail that both candidates and the American public seem to be missing: expanding offshore drilling at the levels sought by McCain and Congressional Republicans will have zero short-term impact and negligible long-term impact on gas prices! If the 1981 federal ban on offshore drilling were to be immediately repealed, the Bush Administration’s own Energy Information Administration (EIA) has reported that it will take until 2017 before any oil whatsoever would be generated from new offshore oil leases, and maximum capacity from these new leases will not be realized until 2030.  And, even at maximum capacity, additional offshore drilling will net at best an additional 200,000 barrels of oil a day—in contrast to the world’s daily oil output of 85 million barrels.  Even those of us without advanced economics degrees can deduce that the total output from offshore drilling will have an infinitesimal impact on global oil prices.

 

So what we’ve got here is a case of “junk economics”, as Paul Krugman calls it or “snake oil salesmanship of the worst order,” in the words of John Kerry.

 

All this is juxtaposed by the clear environmental damage offshore drilling will cause, record profits for oil and gas corporations also receiving taxpayer subsidies, as well as the existing oil exploration licenses oil corporations have yet to act upon.  Politicians on both sides of the political aisle who are pushing for expanding offshore oil drilling as the solution to today’s high gas prices, therefore, ought to be ashamed of themselves for misleading the public in an effort to capitalize on a hot-button election-year issue.  And the American public, of whom 49% believe that increasing offshore drilling will immediately reduce the price at the pump, also ought to be embarrassed for allowing themselves to be misled.  In the cautionary words of the Book of Proverbs (1:22-28),

“How long, ye thoughtless, will ye love thoughtlessness?  And how long will scorners delight them in scorning, and fools hate knowledge?  Because I have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no one attended… I also, in your calamity, will laugh, I will mock when your dread cometh…Then will they call me, but I will not answer, they will seek me earnestly, but they shall not find me.” 

 

But this debate about offshore drilling is only the tip of the rapidly-melting iceberg.  The real problem is our continuing failure to formulate a comprehensive, effective energy policy that will reduce our energy costs and our dependence on foreign oil—laudable goals of the pro-drilling camp—but also do so in a way that addresses climate change and other environmental crises.  We need massive investment in wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources to increase their efficacy and reduce their costs.  And we need serious, national efforts to increase our energy efficiency and conservation.  What we don’t need are quixotic increases in offshore drilling.  It is high time we stopped acting like petroleum addicts looking for the next quick fix and started acting like informed, responsible citizens.

While COEJL’s mission is primarily North American, it’s exciting to note all the buzz and activity in Israel around sustainable, renewable energy.  Israel is positioning itself as a high-tech center for all things solar, water conserving, energy efficient, and post-petroleum.  As I like to say, Israel’s main natural resources are sun and engineer/entrepreneurs.
News about Shai Agassi’s electric car initiative has been heard ’round the world, most recently reported on by Thomas Friedman.  Micro-irrigation is an Israeli invention grown into an industry, exported around the world.  Indeed, with the run-up in food prices, microirrigation is one of the technologies referenced to improve developing countries’ food yields, and increasing food yields means increasing incomes for the world’s hardworking subsistence farmers and their families.  Microloans are extended for drip irrigation. 
One of the most interesting projects I’ve learned about is through the Arava Institute, known to many COEJL supporters through its relationship with Hazon.  The Arava is located at Kibbutz Ketura and trains young environmental professionals from many different countries – their education involves not only the technical aspects of ecology and planning, but coexistence, since many of them hail from countries with cold or non-existent relations with Israel.  I learned much about its marvelous work when I cheered my husband David on the 2007 Hazon/Arava bike ride in Israel.  Two Arava alumni, Illana Meallum and Mazen Zuabi, are working together on designing a biodigester which will create biofuel out of “biomass” which, in the case of Israeli Bedouin villages, equals raw sewage.  Because Bedouins live in unincorporated villages, they have no formal plumbing infrastructure – so this technology, replicable once it’s refined, will be a win-win: cleaning up sewage and creating a renewable source of fuel.
The list goes on and on, but the basic point is inspiring: Israel is indeed providing sustainably powered Light unto the Nations!

photo from Israelli.org

I heard Al Gore speak two weeks ago.  For someone in my position, this was a bit like seeing Britney Spears or Angelina Jolie.  Only I actually recognize Al Gore.  The presentation was truly inspiring.  In fact, I was moved to tears.  The former Vice President and Nobel Prize laureate challenged the United States to transition to 100 percent carbon-free electricity in 10 years.  And as I walked out of the auditorium, amid a mob of hundreds of other “climate fans,” I believed it could be done.

As Gore noted (and the Daily Kos confirms), we have the resources and the technology.  Gore related scientific reports confirming “enough solar energy falls on the surface of the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world’s energy needs for a full year.”  Sure, we’ll need to perfect transportation and storage – but the potential is there.  And with the right price on carbon, people will go the extra mile to work out the details.  In 1961 President John F. Kennedy challenged America to land a man on the moon within 10 years.  Eight years and two months later – on July 16, 1969 – the world listened as Apollo 11 lifted into the sky.  Thirty-eight years later (almost to the day), Al Gore established a goal of equal magnitude –  and I believe greater import.  For one could argue that the fate of the Earth rests on accepting his challenge.

And for at least ten minutes, I was confident that America would rise to the challenge.

But as the crowd dispersed along the streets of Washington, D.C., I felt my own confidence dispel.  Last December, Congress could not commit to providing 15% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.  How can that same Congress pass a law requiring 100% renewable electricity by 2018? As Hank Green of “EcoGeek” writes, this is a “football-sized” pill to swallow.  Will Congress actually prescribe such medicine for the American people?  And will the public actually take it? For although this prescription is in the long-term interests of our country, there will be many disenfranchised patients along the way.  As Green notes, the typical coal-fired power plant is designed to last 30-50 years.  Power companies will not dismantle a plant prematurely without compensation.  Sure, Gore acknowledged the need to “guarantee good jobs in the fresh air and sunshine” for all displaced coal miners, but that doesn’t account for the disenfranchised factory workers – and the vested interests – in maintaining those factories.

Gore invoked the Apollo mission as an example of American determination and ambition.  Yet, in many ways, landing a man on the moon was an easier goal.  For one, as Climate Progress notes, “the countries [sic] leadership could make landing people on the moon a goal is because there wasn’t a more powerful lobby to make sure that it didn’t happen.” And, as Cal Tech Chemistry Professor Nathan Lewis explains, “We already have electricity coming out of everybody’s wall socket,” whereas no one had ever been to the moon.  Converting the existing electricity system is not like NASA sending a man to the moon for the first time, “It’s like finding a new way to send a man to the moon when Southwest Airlines is already flying there every hour handing out peanuts.”

I want to believe that Gore’s vision is achievable.  After all, mankind has achieved the inconceivable in the past: Noah saved the world from destruction by constructing the ark.  What do you think? Can Gore’s vision take flight – or is it simply an impossible dream?

Click here for a link to a video and text of Gore’s speech.

Click here for more on Gore’s inspirational campaign.

How many of us have ever given thought to what our Shabbat candles are sourced from?  I’ve been working at increasingly my lifestyle sustainability for years and never thought to ask.  I work for an organization, GreenMicrofinance, which brings green energy to those at the Bottom of the Pyramid; without access to grid electricity, people rely on kerosene lamps and parraffin candles.  And yes, parraffin candles – examples of which are the old familiar Shabbat candles – are sourced from fossil fuel.  I just reasearched this and came up with a wonderful post at Canfei Nesharim’s site – they provide an Orthodox perspective on environmental responsibilty and have a very comprehensive post on just this question which you should definitely check out.
So what to do?  One simple, but expensive, solution is to switch to naturally sourced candles, soy or bees wax.  That way we can all keep on using our beautiful Shabbat candlesticks.
Another route would be to return to our ancient, pre-candles ritual of burning olive oil in shabbat lamps.  Pictured above is a modern version, which is quite lovely, designed by Israeli artist Nathanel Putnam.  Then there is the arts and crafts project approach.  My own personal experiment failed, so I put it out to all of you out there to share your more successful attempts.  I did find a totally neat web site which demonstrates how to recycle paper into oil wicks.  This would be a great project for educators to work on.  We really need to figure this out! Can you imagine how much fossil fuel is consumed by all the shabbat candles each Friday night?  Contributing to global warming is definitely at odds with welcoming Shabbat.
To all you problem solvers out there: the best solution would be a shabbat lamp shaped to fit INTO a shabbat candlestick, since those are the ceremonial objects we all own.  That way we don’t need to all go out and buy even more stuff.  Let us share our wisdom about this.  ASAP!