To Till and to Tend

Reboot, a New York-based nonprofit network of Jewish professionals, recently launched the 2011 Sabbath Manifesto project, which presented a challenge to commit to a National Day of Unplugging during the first weekend of March. As part of the challenge, people around the world slowed down their normally hectic routines to take advantage of the manifesto’s ten core principles. For one day, participants were encouraged to avoid technology and connect with loved ones—a concept we in the Jewish community are very familiar with. It might be hard to imagine the average American abiding by the ancient laws of The Sabbath, but the National Day of Unplugging gave participants a taste of tradition.

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        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.

Today’s news from the Middle East is dominated by the fighting in Gaza. Even during trying times, and perhaps especially at times like these, it is worth reminding ourselves that our homeland stands for so much more than the security of the Jewish people. Friends who have visited Israel in recent weeks report that life continues as normal, and that Israeli society thrives as always, despite the constant threat of violence. On no front is this more evident than the advances made by Israel on environment and energy issues.

Renewable energy, innovation in agriculture and manufacturing, greening the desert- this is Israel’s environmental path- and it teaches critical lessons to the rest of the world.

Project Better Place, the brainchild of Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi, is moving forward with its efforts to install a global network of plug-in stations for electric cars. Better Place has recently announced plans to expand work to Australia and Hawaii, building on existing projects in Israel and Denmark. Agassi’s vision of an oil-free world is inspired in part by Israel’s quest for energy security. Despite impressive advances in automotive technology in the U.S., we are nowhere near Israel and Western Europe on fuel efficiency or electric/hybrid innovation. In this regard, Israel is a model for the kind of nation we aspire to be: one powered by renewable and stable fuel sources.

Environmental challenges and innovations are not entirely separate from conflict in the Middle East, but rather serve as a potential pathway to peace. The Kibbutz Lotan community in the Arava Valley of Southern Israel is a center of learning and environmental activism, and a model of sustainable and equitable community building dedicated to the task of Tikkun Olam. Members of the Kibbutz work towards an environmentally sustainable community, and use environmental challenges to promote conflict resolution and building bridges among communities. Students at Lotan participate in the Common Path program, twinning with youth in a Muslim-Arab Israeli community near Nazareth, and college students participate in the Peace, Justice and the Environment Semester in the Negev with American and Arab students.

In the coming months, Jews in Israel and around the world will commemorate Tu B’shvat, Passover, and Birkat HaHammah, a unique Blessing of the Sun that occurs only once every 28 years. As we engage in the ritual celebrations of these holidays we remember the value that Judaism places on our natural world by celebrating trees, commemorating the start of spring, and giving thanks for the sun and the power it provides. Israel is truly a ‘light unto the nations’ in this regard, planting trees through the Jewish National Fund and leading the world in solar power innovation. As Jews of the Diaspora, we look towards our homeland for inspiration in so many ways, including how to build a truly sustainable society.

We can and should be proud of Israel for so many reasons, regardless of where we stand on the situation in Gaza. Whether motivated by energy security concerns, a desire to protect our local environment, or the fight against global climate change, we can all learn lessons and take inspiration from Israel.

Rachel is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant working on environment and energy issues at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, DC. She will be a regular guest blogger on To Till and To Tend this year, posting entries every other Thursday. This, and all of Rachel’s entries, can also be found on the Religious Action Center blog.

 

As President-elect Obama prepares to take office next week, a lot of attention is being focused on his proposal for a huge economic stimulus package designed to shock the economy back into gear.  I admire Paul Krugman as much as the next person, but there are a couple of elements of this that concern me.  First, The New York Times reported on Saturday that the new administration’s focus on economic recovery will likely cause it to delay addressing the many other challenges that Obama addressed in the campaign – especially (for this site) the restriction of carbon emissions that cause climate change. 

 

I don’t think I need to tell the readers of this blog that global climate change is not a boutique issue that can be dealt with if and when the “real” problems have been solved.  This is an emergency – just as much as the economic crisis, perhaps even more so given the neglect or worse the issue has been dealt with over the past eight years. 

 

Obama has promised that some of the stimulus package will be used as a “down payment” on projects focused on energy independence.  I haven’t seen any details on this, which makes me think that there really haven’t been too many, which leads me to my second concern:  the focus in the stimulus package on “shovel ready” projects.  According to news reports 
 

a large portion would go toward infrastructure — highways, bridges, railways — which would make this the largest such plan since the U.S. Interstate highway system was created under President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s.

The
Minneapolis bridge collapse made it abundantly clear that there are major improvements in infrastructure needed in this country.  But even more than that, we need to move away from the whole highway-and-car paradigm that has caused so many of our current problems, and toward an increase in mass transit options, the development of more locally based economies and in general giving people more ways of doing more things without cars.  In addition, of course, to developing ways to meet our energy needs without the burning of coal. 

Given how the stimulus package is being framed as an emergency solution to the economic crisis (and we all know that Congress responds to nothing like it does to an “emergency”), and given how quickly most of these old-tech approaches can be implemented, I wouldn’t be surprised if applying stimulus money to developing new technologies will be pushed even further down the list of priorities.  And that would be a mistake – a lost opportunity to use the means of addressing our economic emergency to begin to address our climate emergency. 

Every dollar spent on fixing the highway system or other old-school tactics is a dollar not spent on the development of alternative approaches that, though harder to understand now, have much more potential for addressing our myriad needs – economic and environmental – in the long run. 

 

Dozens of residents in the area surrounding the Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee celebrated the holidays away from home last week, after they received a giant lump of coal in their stockings on the days before Christmas. Literally. A mass of sludge called coal fly ash, a by-product of coal-fired electricity production, covered at least 15 houses with over one billion gallons of water and sludge containing dangerous levels of lead, chromium, nickel and arsenic. Though government authorities are downplaying the health risks of the spill, many are concerned about the similar piles of waste found near hundreds of coal plants- and hundreds of homes, schools, and business- around the nation.

The disaster in Tennessee is yet another reminder of the reality that there is no such thing as ‘clean coal,’ despite the coal industry’s clever attempts to convince us that their product is clean and friendly. Ironically, fly ash results in part from emissions restrictions laws; rather than cleaning up their act in response to court rulings limiting the pollutants they can release into the atmosphere, coal-fired power producers decided to force their pollutants into the earth. Clearly, this is not a sustainable solution.

The ‘spill’ in Tennessee was not the only action on the fossil fuel front this holiday season. On the same day as the fly ash mess, the EPA released new statistics showing that nearly 50 cities in 25 states failed to meet federal standards for fine-particle pollution this year. 15 new geographic areas were added since the list of ‘nonattainment areas’ was last published in 2004. While some cities and regions have had success in cleaning their air, over 100 million Americans still breathe dangerously dirty air as a result of the diesel-burning trucks, fossil fuel plants and wood-burning stoves that power our country with anachronistic technology.

The year-end news wasn’t all bad. In an encouraging turn of events, a D.C. district court recently ruled to continue the enforcement of the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which limits pollutants from coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act. The rule is an attempt to decrease nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions, which increase smog pollution and endanger public health. With recent court rulings on carbon dioxide emissions, there is a good chance that the next Administration and Congress will take meaningful action to clean up our coal industry.

These stories, read together, paint a clear picture; Rather than try to ‘green’ one of our oldest and grayest energy sources, our nation and our political and entrepreneurial leaders must focus on transitioning to truly clean, green sources like solar, wind, and geothermal energy. While regulations like the Clean Air Interstate Rule may be a small step in a positive direction, we will never achieve a sustainable society when we get the majority of our national electricity supply from coal. Here’s to hoping that by next holiday season we will have begun to truly Repower, Refuel, and Rebuild America.

Rachel is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant working on environment and energy issues at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, DC. She will be a regular guest blogger on To Till and To Tend this year, posting entries every other Thursday. This, and all of Rachel’s entries, can also be found on the Religious Action Center blog.