Jewish environmentalists

By Melvyn Kohn
January 4, 2009

Today environmental activism is a trend. Which means, every idiot is about it, no matter how wacky their stance. In the '50s we had global warming scares, and images of the Empire State Building under water. Then it was global cooling, with images of the same under glaciers.
Then warming came back. Only to be replaced by the more vague 'climate change' slogan. Sorry, but all this is hard to buy when real science rebuts it. Read Piers Corbyn, not George Moonbat. Look at the recent studies showing MORE ice on the poles, and a COLDER Greenland.
But this is all big business now. Just look at the people involved, hardly paupers. Tamsin Omond, granddaughter of Sir Richard Lees, for instance. She takes it upon herself to shut down aeroports, which only results in more traffic as flights are rescheduled and police have to make massive arrests, mainly of her and other rich kids.
This is not to bash true environmentalists, however, there are many who spend years in research and have something to say. But without the stunts and the deep pockets, they oft go unheard. Aimee Nathan, of Belsize Square Synagogue, for instance, has a very valid protest which she carries out without breaking the law of God or man - but where is all the press for her? A story in the JC was about it. Her protest is scientifically valid - we ought not to throw away millions of styrofoam cups every time we drink tea of coffee at a takeaway - or, in some cases, as a drink in - Pret a Manger uses throw away cups for everything, so there is room for major change. Nathan can lead the way today and we can have, in the future, a cleaner environment.
As a Jewess, she is actually following a long stading precedent, which may be actually the oldest record of expression of environmental concern - it goes back to Jeremiah and others in the Bible, who intoned that the earth was defiled under the occupants thereof. And of course, there is Zac Goldsmith, former publisher of the Ecologist and hemp activist.
But relating this back to anything Biblical, what can we say of the Holy Land today? Surely Jeremiah would not be happy. There is too much water use and the Israeli government does not develop energy - it uses lots of Arab oil, when it could be an energy exporting nation. The development of solar powered towers in the Negev is child's play, but adults are wasting time and the children face an uncertain future.
The Bible speaks of an 'inheritance polluted'. Surely it is time to heed the call. One rabbi I know pointed out that environmentalism is the first commandment - not the first of the then, or the first with promise, but the first first. As in Genesis. Adam and Eve were the first environmentalists, until they heard the voice of the serpent, and ever since we have been led to destroy our garden and turn it into a wasteland. But, hopefully, we will use more discernment and practice that first commandment - and not just some empty, trendy 'green' stunts.

Below are some links to blogs that are pro environment and pro Israel.


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