To Till and to Tend

You probably don’t read much about the Maldives- a small island nation in the Pacific with less than 500,000 inhabitants- unless, that is, you follow environmental news outlets like ClimateWire. Pacific island nations like the Maldives, along with (once) ice-covered landmasses like Greenland, have become the ‘canaries in the coal mine’ for global climate change. The Maldives will be one of the first places in the world drastically affected by climate change, as the entire nation lies just above sea level and its economy is driven largely by climate-sensitive activities like fishing and tourism. That’s why the nation’s government is developing a plan to evacuate the entire country to new homes if we don’t change our climate course in the very near future.

For the last decade, the United States has failed to take the lead in tackling climate change, despite the fact that we are the second-largest carbon emitter in the world (after China, though we still are #1 in per capita emissions by a long shot). While vulnerable developing nations have done the least to cause global climate change, they will be the first to suffer its effects, and have the fewest resources to adapt.

Still, the Maldives is ready to be part of the solution, recently announcing plans to become the first carbon neutral nation in the world. Countries from the Maldives to Mexico, and even China, are drafting plans to slash their carbon footprints, leaping ahead of the U.S. on this issue. As Americans of faith who believe in stewardship and sustainability, we have long understood that this is unacceptable.

Since we have failed on the mitigation side, developed nations must now take responsibility by funding adaptation programs to help people around the world change their lifestyles in response to the inevitable effects of climate change. In addition to being the right thing to do, funding adaptation is in our national interest; the UN IPCC predicts that the world may see as many as 150 million ‘climate refugees’ by 2050 if we don’t act now. This sort of mass migration would deeply destabilize the world economy and upset social dynamics in every nation around the globe. 

Unfortunately, the U.S. and other developed nations have as yet failed to live up to our minimal promises on international adaptation. We cannot wait to act, and we cannot hope to enact an international treaty without a strong American commitment to both mitigate our climate change impact and help the world adapt to its effects. And without an international treaty, even the best of U.S. efforts will do little to avoid the worst impacts of climate change- the time has come for us to step up our commitment and once more be the global leader in addressing this global problem. The Maldives, and the rest of the world, are waiting.

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 (or in some cases, Wednesday!). This, and all of Rachel’s entries, can also be found on the Religious Action Center blog.

As Congress and the Administration work furiously- and mostly behind the scenes- towards regulating greenhouse gas emissions, a variety of non-climate environmental issues came up in a very big and very public way this week. Congress debated public lands protections, clean water, and endangered species laws, with some big wins and one major disappointment for green advocates. Here’s the wrap-up…

 A package Public Lands bill, including over 150 provisions on land use, failed to pass on Wednesday, despite strong support in both the House and Senate. The bill would have codified protection for millions of acres of land and created new national parks, monuments, and historic sites. While disappointed at this setback, we will continue to push for public lands protections and smart development of water and renewable energy resources on these lands.

In better news, the Senate did pass a clean version of the Omnibus spending bill that will allow the government to stay in business for the rest of the year. While conversation over the $400 billion bill was heated and many were disappointed with the outcome, several promising environmental provisions arose from the debate:

On the way out of office last December, the Bush Interior Department passed a series of ‘midnight regulations’ that many advocates argue cut the bottom out from under the Endangered Species Act, the cornerstone of species and habitat protection for our country. Luckily, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has ordered a review of these regulations, and the Senate defeated attempts to reinstate the old regulations using the recent spending bill. We hope to move forward with a strong Endangered Species Act as a major tool for environmental protection.

A less noticed provision pushed by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) reinstates rules requiring disclosure of chemicals in industrial and commercial products under the Toxics Release Inventory program. Senator Lautenberg has long been a champion for environmental health, working towards ‘right-to-know’ rules for potentially harmful chemicals. While some companies complain about the cost of implementing the rule, Lautenberg and others contend that it is necessary to give people the information they need to mobilize and advocate for air and water quality in their own communities.

On Thursday the House passed the Water Quality Investment Act of 2009, the first major piece of water legislation this year. The bill flew through the House despite spending concerns but has not yet been introduced in the Senate. The Act aims to increase funding for clean water infrastructure programs, allowing states to better provide safe and potable water to all their citizens by covering a shortfall in state water funding.

…and that’s just this week! Keep checking back for more, and for opportunities to take action on the issues that matter most to you!

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.

Thousands of climate activists will take to the streets and the Hill this weekend for two watershed events that hopefully foreshadow a huge year in the fight against climate change.

On Friday, nearly ten thousand students from across the country will converge on Washington for PowerShift ’09, a training conference focused on advocating for progressive climate and energy legislation. Students will hear from leading environmental thinkers and activists will hit the Hill to demand that our leaders act now to protect our planet for future generations. Universities are America’s laboratories for ideas and ideals, and many of the schools sending students to PowerShift are already acting to reduce their own carbon footprints. In just one example, Middlebury College in Vermont recently “fired up” a $12 million dollar project to generate electricity and steam for heating, cooling, and cooking operations using a biomass generator run mostly on woodchips. The boiler is projected to cut campus carbon emissions by 40% AND save the college money, as wood chips cost much less than conventional fuel sources.

But it’s not just college students who are riled up; On Monday, many PowerShift participants will join thousands of others in what is being touted as the greatest act of environmental civil disobedience in U.S. history. Capitol Climate Actionwill open with a prayer vigil, followed by a rally to galvanize opposition to coal power. In an act of peaceful civil disobedience, many participants will block access to the coal-fired power plant that partly powers Congress, and symbolizes our national dependence on dirty fuels. The event is endorsed by hundreds of organizations and individuals from Greenpeace and Students for a Democratic Society to Religious Witness for the Earth.

We know our leaders are listening. In his speech to Congress last night, President Obama lifted up climate and energy as major priorities, issuing an historic mandate for a nationwide cap on carbon emissions, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has already indicated intentions to bring a climate bill to the floor this summer. However, President Obama also touted clean coal, a technology that is, at best, questionable in its positive implications for our climate.

As Bill McKibben (professor and founder of 350.org) explains, it will take every instrument in the activist toolbox to convince our leaders, and our fellow citizens, to act urgently to save our planet and the civilization that depends on its resources. And the need for action could not be more urgent, as it seems that new reports on the increasingly rapid melting of the Antarctic ice sheets, and ensuing rise in sea levels,are released weekly. As we put all our energy into this issue, let us do what we can in our individual lives and as citizens not to fight the power, but to shift it- to the renewable sources that will power the sustainable economy of the future.

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.

A slew of stories emerging from Washington and around the world are giving renewed hope to many environmentalists who have been fighting a steep uphill battle in recent years. A combination of bills in Congress, Presidential directives, and global actions indicate that the tide may finally be turning in the fight against climate change and other environmental disasters. First on the minds of most Americans, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (more commonly known as the ‘economic stimulus package’), includes billions of dollars for investment in renewable energy technologies to drive the green economy of the future. The most recent version of the recovery package includes funding for green jobs training programs, weatherization for low-income communities, and investment in ‘smart grid’ technology to encourage efficiency and conservation in homes, schools, and public buildings. The economic downturn presents a unique opportunity to make the long-term investment needed to clean up our nation’s economy and environment, and the latest version of the bill appears takes this charge seriously.

President Obama continued to lobby for the stimulus on Monday, pushing for clean energy provisions backed by strong environmental regulation as part of his strategy. To this end, the President recently issued two strong directives to his administrators at the Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency to update and strengthen standards on fuel economy and tailpipe emissions for automobiles. As American automakers face increasing unemployment and drastic drops in demand, building more efficient vehicles is the way to bring these corporations into the 21^st century and ensure the security of both American jobs and our environment. The directives demonstrate the Administration’s dedication to confronting climate and energy issues in a meaningful way.

Climate is not the only environmental issue receiving attention during the first 100 days. Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has ordered a halt to the implementation of any regulations put in place in the final days of the Bush Administration- so-called ‘midnight regulations’- which include changes to the Endangered Species Act that were strongly opposed by many in the environmental community. Maintaining the strength of the conservation and environmental protection laws that we already have in place is a critical piece of our environmental agenda, and reexamining changes to the ESA and other environmental laws is yet another political tool to reverse our course of environmental degradation.

President Obama has clearly declared that the U.S. is done ‘dragging its feet’ on climate and a whole host of other issues, but the action this week was not limited to Washington. A recent piece by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute discusses policies underway in China and other Asian nations to fight climate change by ending logging practices. Deforestation is a huge contributor to climate change, and the fact that developing nations are acting on this front, even absent leadership from the developed world, is beyond encouraging.

Despite this progress, the climate crisis is upon us and here to stay. Our greenhouse gas emissions are already causing droughts, floods, and dangerous damage to species habitats, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. With so many environmental challenges currently facing our planet, we are all responsible to follow the news and push for greater awareness and action (such as passing a green economic recovery package). While the new Administration brings new opportunities, it is up to all of us to begin to build a green, sustainable world.  

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.

This week, hundreds of world leaders gather in Poznan, Poland to discuss the ongoing global response to the imminent threat of climate change at the UN Climate Change Conference.  The meeting will set the stage for next year’s Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol will be drafted. Poznan presents yet another critical opportunity for the U.S. to step up to the plate on climate issues and make amends for our failure to take a meaningful role in past international negotiations. As a global superpower and the historic leader in CO2 emissions, we have responsibility to come to the table prepared to act.

The good news is that Senator Kerry (D-MA), incoming Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will lead the U.S. delegation to Poznan, joined by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and others. Kerry’s decision to make the trek to Poland is critical because the Foreign Relations Committee will be the first to pour over any international treaties that come out of Copenhagen. As Kerry and others outside the Committees that typically address environment issues (Energy and Commerce in the House, Environment and Public Works in the Senate) become active on climate and energy, the opportunity expands for robust debate in Washington, and U.S. leadership on this issue.

Less encouraging is the decision of the Obama transition team not to send anyone to Poland, despite repeated promises to make this a priority issue when the President-elect takes office in January. Disappointing to me, on a personal level, is the lack of Jewish presence at the Conference; while several Christian denominations and other faith groups sent representatives to monitor the negotiations and hold faith events on climate, there is no formal Jewish participation in the event. The Jewish voice on climate is steadily becoming louder and more articulate but we as a community, like our nation as a whole, are still far from leaders on this issue.

While no new treaties are expected to emerge by the time the conference closes next week, Poznan is a critical step along the path to global action to confront the climate crisis. Without serious U.S. engagement and leadership, the possibilities for a meaningful global response to climate change are severely limited. And without participating in these conferences, our Jewish voice on this issue will be dampened as well.  Politicians and faith leaders alike deserve praise for braving the cold and making the trip, and leaders who are not participating need to hear from their constituents (read: all of us!), urging them to keep climate change in the forefront.

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.

Hundreds of citizens gathered on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to demand that our next Congress and Administration make climate change a priority during their first 100 days in office. In an event organized by the 1Sky campaign and a host of other environmental groups, these activists came together to demand that President-elect Obama honor his campaign promises to confront the climate and energy crisis. Despite freezing temperatures (yes, I realize the irony of talking about the urgency of global warming on a cold winter day), they joined with one voice to declare that the United States MUST start tackling climate change in a meaningful way if we are to avoid disastrous environmental and economic repercussions. Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Bill McKibben, environmental activist and founder of 350.org, inspired the crowd with speeches on the importance of climate change.

The first goal of the rally was to ensure that the President-elect send representatives to the international conference on climate change in Poznan, Poland in December. The world community will come together at this conference to decide how to tackle climate change moving forward, and it is vital that the U.S. represent itself at this meeting to show the world that we are finally ready to meaningfully engage and confront the climate crisis. As the activists in Washington presented a symbolic plane ticket to Poznan, thousands across the country met with the staffs of over 200 Members of Congress to ensure that they will work with the new President to cut our carbon emissions.

We are at a critical moment on this issue, as scientists agree that we are nearing (if not past) a climate ‘tipping point,’ after which we may not be able to mitigate or adapt to the worst effects of global climate change. A grassroots movement around the country is sending this message loud and clear to our government, and the Jewish community needs to be a vocal member of this coalition. Our obligations to care for our Earth and to speak out for the most vulnerable among us mean that confronting climate change is a moral and religious obligation, and a central piece of our task of ‘tikkun olam.’

To take part in the effort, you can fill out the RAC action alert urging President-elect Obama to make climate change a priority in his first 100 days in office, and visit your local elected official to send the same message in person. Visit the 1sky campaign for more information and resources, and to join the movement to make sure that this urgent problem is addressed beyond this day of action.

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.

This weekend, as Jews around the world greeted each other in a Sukkah built to honor our relationship with our earth, the environmental community commemorated a different kind of annual event: the anniversary of the Clean Water Act, signed into law on October 18, 1972. Along with the Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Clean Water Act is considered a cornerstone of our national environmental policy. Under the Act, more than one billion pounds per year of toxic pollutants have been removed from our nation’s waters, moving us far along the path to make all rivers, lakes, and coastal waters in the United States ‘fishable and swimmable,’ the original goal of the Act.

This year however, debate over the Act reminds us that the fight for a healthy environment is never fully won, and that we must continually engage in the effort to preserve our natural resources for ourselves and our children. Progress on water issues is in danger following a series of federal court cases that restrict protection by narrowing the definition of waters that fall under the Act. In response to the 2006 Supreme Court decision on the definition of ‘navigable waters,’ 22 Senators and 177 House members are co-sponsoring the Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA). The CWRA ensures that the Clean Water Act can be effectively enforced to protect all of the nation’s waters from pollution. Since clean water is the backbone of the healthy ecosystems that provide barriers against natural disasters and climate change, a strong Clean Water Act is more important today than ever before.

Clean water is essential to us all, both as users of the public water supply and as Jews.  The history of the Jewish people- dating back to the Great Flood and the Exodus from Egypt and continuing with the modern struggles of Israeli society to adequately hydrate its people and its fields – is the history of our relationship with water.  The Baal Shem Tov, the Jewish mystic and scholar, explained, “If we were to walk in the woods and a spring appeared just when we became thirsty, we would call it a miracle. And if on a second walk, if we became thirsty at just that point again, and again the spring appeared, we would remark on the coincidence. But if that spring were there always, we would take it for granted and cease to notice it. Yet is that not more miraculous still?”  If we stop to appreciate the miracle of water, we realize that we must also act to ensure that we keep our water clean and safe for us and for generations to come.

Many experts fear that the next great resource wars will be fought over water, as millions around the globe still lack access to safe, drinkable water.  While we cannot fix this problem with national legislation alone, we can start facing it by fighting for clean water here at home, and raising awareness about water issues. As we celebrate the harvest festival of Sukkot, take action by supporting the Clean Water Restoration Act and speaking out on the importance of water issues in your community, in our country, and in our world.

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 Monday. This, and all of Rachel’s entries, can also be found on the Religious Action Center blog.

Homes and offices that run on the sun’s rays. Trucks and buses powered by used grease from the local McDonald’s. Cars that plug in like kitchen appliances to a cell phone provider-like network.  All of these ideas may sound as futuristic as the time traveling DeLorean but, in fact, all are possible with current technology. Innovators around the world are taking action to solve the climate change and energy crises one step at a time and, in the process, changing the way we live.

One especially exciting innovation is the next generation of plug-in hybrid automobiles. We have all grown accustomed to the Prius, but these new cars are different. The Chevy Volt, which is predicted to be “fully charged” by 2010, will run entirely on battery power for the first 40 miles, will plug into a conventional outlet to charge, and will get the equivalent of up to 150 miles per gallon in optimal conditions. Yes, 1-5-0. Forget the 35 miles per gallon CAFÉ standards that Congress passed last year. Forget the 50 miles per gallon range of current gas-electric hybrids. This is real progress.

The major obstacle for the truly electric car is infrastructure; without a network of stations to charge cars during long trips, hybrids must revert to gasoline power after traveling a certain distance. Not to worry. Shai Agassi, an entrepreneur from Israel, is currently touring the world to promote his BetterPlace project—an initiative to establish a global grid of plug-in stations that will allow hybrids and full electrics to completely replace the traditional automobile. Israelis have long understood the intersection between energy, security, and economics. Now, it seems Americans are beginning to see it too; the economic bailout passed last week includes $25 billion dollars in loans for Detroit to spur the next generation of cleaner, more efficient cars. Auto- and policy-makers hope this money will provide an impetus for real and rapid progress. As one Chrysler exec explained, “It’s a way for us to accelerate technology so you can get it in the hands of people faster and so they can afford it.”

In this country, one third of our carbon emissions come from transportation. It is unlikely that Americans will stop driving anytime soon, though we can and should drive less. However, the plug-in hybrid and other projects like it can take us on the path to a cleaner world and a more secure energy future without requiring revolutionary changes in the way we live. This is innovation at its best, and technology to keep an eye on as these new cars roll off the factory floor and onto our roadways.

As Al Gore and friends remind us, working together “WE” can solve climate change. And when I see innovations like the Volt, I believe it too.