Arks, Blogs and Global Warming

May 28, 2008

Ever since I can remember, I have been aware of the natural world. Some of my earliest memories are of times spent outdoors – I have one particularly vivid memory of standing on a boardwalk in a wetland with my father when I couldn’t have been more than 5 years old, looking at Skunk Cabbage, a large leafy wetland plant that smells much like it’s namesake when one of the leaves is torn. When I first began to write for publication, my focus was on the outdoors and environmental issues, and as the child of two dedicated recyclers, environmental issues are never far from my mind.

So I am pleased to see that the world is finally taking some notice of the many destructive practices we have been engaging in that threaten not only our way of life, but the long-term health of the planet as a whole. Of course I am also concerned that this means we are now approaching some kind of tipping point, one from which we desperately need to pull ourselves back. The evidence of our short-sighted methods of development and environmental exploitation are readily apparent: air pollution, receding polar ice, the extinction of species, urban sprawl.

The picture is not entirely bleak though, there are, after all, many people who are working on solutions to these problems.  One such organization is the website Green Prophet, an Israeli environmental blog whose writers are concerned with addressing pressing ecological issues facing the Middle East and the world. It’s a great site that covers everything from emerging “green” technologies to the contest to determine Israel’s national bird, to Israeli-Palestinian cooperation on environmental matters.  We recently posted an interview with Karin Kloosterman, editor and co-founder of Green Prophet on the New Vilna Review site.

I would guess that most, if not all, pre-industrial societies had a much closer, and therefore, respectful tradition of interacting with the natural environment. And many societies and religious traditions still maintain this attitude, but it does seem that as we in the west (and now those in the east) have rapidly modernized, environmental concerns become an after-thought, or are even perceived as a hindrance to progress.

From a Jewish perspective, there are many aspects of our own tradition that remind us of our responsibilities to the planet – from the biblical to the modern, we are constantly enjoined to respect the earth and care for it. In the early days of modern Zionism the Jewish people reconnected directly with the land of Israel through agriculture and reforestation (a trend that sadly seemed to wane as Israel experienced rapid modernization) and I for one, have some hope that ecological concerns may provide some common ground for future peace negotiations and normalization of relations between Israel and its neighbors. In the Torah, we are reminded too, that all human beings have a deep responsibility to all life on earth.

As is true with all Jewish texts (from my perspective, anyway) there are a multitude of potential ideas and possibilities contained within the Torah, and in Parsha Noah, I read, among other things, the notion that people are responsible for more than just their own personal well-being, or even the well-being of their fellow man or woman. Rather, this portion seems to say to me that people have a deep obligation to protect and preserve all of creation. I say this because it occurs to me that as far as this narrative is concerned, God could have easily told Noah to build an ark to protect himself and his family from the flood, and once all of the wicked people had been wiped out, God could have just as easily recreated new animals to replace those killed by the floodwaters, but this does not happen. Instead, God tells Noah that he needs to go around and collect various animals and provide them with decent accommodations in the ark; he is effectively charged with being their protector and guardian until such time that the world has become habitable again.

To me, this is a valuable idea worth remembering, that we should not be concerned about saving the world only for ourselves, but for the overall health and viability of the myriad ecosystems and other living things with which we share this planet.