Over the past week, the Pew Research Center published studies that indicated a decline among the public in their general concern about the environment. For example, "The survey found 57% saying there is "solid evidence that the average temperature on earth has been getting warmer over the past few decades." In April 2008, 71% said there was solid evidence of global warming, and in 2006 and 2007, 77% expressed this view."
As a follow-up, Pew published attempts at helping us understand how and why that is. Check out the link on this blog to see what they say.
Bottom line, it seems that many of us are distracted by more immediate financial concerns. But we still believe that important remediation and prevention actions need to be taken. 83% of the public are still saying that stricter laws and regulations are needed to protect the environment.
Which makes the religious community's voice all the more important. We must continue to make the case that the earth is in need of healing, and that we need to realign our economic, manufacturing and consumption patterns to match the natural carrying capacity of the earth's systems.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
buying fast update 3
from my co-conspirator:
September
I didn’t buy anything new in September – not even anything new/old from the Consignment shop. I turn inward during this time of year, reflecting more on my inner life than on external appearances. I push things around in my head, evaluate the past, discard that which is unhealthy and unhelpful and arrange and plan for an emotional and spiritual future. Coincidentally, while engaged in this Tishrei exercise, I also re arranged my closet. I packed away the summer shirts which had become too flimsy, in favor of the sturdier more substantial winter turtlenecks and wool jackets. Here too, I arranged and discarded. What surprised me most during this enterprise, was my feeling of gratitude – gratitude that I had the time and space to unpack, gratitude that I did not have to worry about warm clothing and a warm home. I am blessed with both. I spent September arranging what I needed in order to move forward. It was a good month.
NBC again: As for me, I fell off the wagon a bit.
I tend to have a "uniform" that I wear each year, each season. Often, they are the same from year to year. But the problem is that I wear the clothes to tatters. Literally, my shoes have a hole in the toe; my pants have a small tear in the fabric. Not in the seam, in the fabric from being over-worn. So, I will have to retire the shoes after the cool weather settles in, which it seems to be doing even as I write.
The pants I will try to repair. And I will need to return to my winter wardrobe. But I did the same thing with several pants last winter - just wore them out. So I went to get another pair of black pants in September. My wardrobe is simple. It helps me dress in the morning and the reliability and constancy of it helps me hold together a constant persona amid whatever turmoil or distraction I may be struggling with. (I have taught about the spiritual impact of clothes - our wardrobe, our choices in the morning, our costuming ourselves to gird ourselves for taking on the world each day. I hope to write more about that in the book about Home I have been working on. It should only finally flow!)
The problem was I could not find winter pants that worked. However, I did find two items - a pair of leggings and an oddly designed but amazingly warm, body-hugging knee-length sweater. Together, these make an irresistible outfit to wear around the house when we hope once again to keep the thermostat way down low. I have found that women's sweaters are mostly made for appearance, not functionality or warmth. So when I find one that actually is attractive (I do not like to lounge around in sweatpants and sweatshirt) and irresistibly warm, I am not averse to seeing if it fills a need in my wardrobe. This one did.
We will be fixing our house from water damage this fall - an upcoming necessary expenditure. I am not sure it fits within the rubric of a buying fast violation, but I will mention it in the appropriate upcoming monthly log (for it does help the economy and hurt my pocketbook). At the same time, we will be upgrading our insulation to make our home more fit. As long as we are at it, we determined to get a wood-burning stove - we live in the woods after all and are able to find sufficient fuel all around. I will report that too if that indeed comes to pass. But I mention it now for if the stove is sufficiently efficient and the insulation works well, I may not even need the sweater!!
We will see. That is it for my monthly consumption. More to come next month.
September
I didn’t buy anything new in September – not even anything new/old from the Consignment shop. I turn inward during this time of year, reflecting more on my inner life than on external appearances. I push things around in my head, evaluate the past, discard that which is unhealthy and unhelpful and arrange and plan for an emotional and spiritual future. Coincidentally, while engaged in this Tishrei exercise, I also re arranged my closet. I packed away the summer shirts which had become too flimsy, in favor of the sturdier more substantial winter turtlenecks and wool jackets. Here too, I arranged and discarded. What surprised me most during this enterprise, was my feeling of gratitude – gratitude that I had the time and space to unpack, gratitude that I did not have to worry about warm clothing and a warm home. I am blessed with both. I spent September arranging what I needed in order to move forward. It was a good month.
NBC again: As for me, I fell off the wagon a bit.
I tend to have a "uniform" that I wear each year, each season. Often, they are the same from year to year. But the problem is that I wear the clothes to tatters. Literally, my shoes have a hole in the toe; my pants have a small tear in the fabric. Not in the seam, in the fabric from being over-worn. So, I will have to retire the shoes after the cool weather settles in, which it seems to be doing even as I write.
The pants I will try to repair. And I will need to return to my winter wardrobe. But I did the same thing with several pants last winter - just wore them out. So I went to get another pair of black pants in September. My wardrobe is simple. It helps me dress in the morning and the reliability and constancy of it helps me hold together a constant persona amid whatever turmoil or distraction I may be struggling with. (I have taught about the spiritual impact of clothes - our wardrobe, our choices in the morning, our costuming ourselves to gird ourselves for taking on the world each day. I hope to write more about that in the book about Home I have been working on. It should only finally flow!)
The problem was I could not find winter pants that worked. However, I did find two items - a pair of leggings and an oddly designed but amazingly warm, body-hugging knee-length sweater. Together, these make an irresistible outfit to wear around the house when we hope once again to keep the thermostat way down low. I have found that women's sweaters are mostly made for appearance, not functionality or warmth. So when I find one that actually is attractive (I do not like to lounge around in sweatpants and sweatshirt) and irresistibly warm, I am not averse to seeing if it fills a need in my wardrobe. This one did.
We will be fixing our house from water damage this fall - an upcoming necessary expenditure. I am not sure it fits within the rubric of a buying fast violation, but I will mention it in the appropriate upcoming monthly log (for it does help the economy and hurt my pocketbook). At the same time, we will be upgrading our insulation to make our home more fit. As long as we are at it, we determined to get a wood-burning stove - we live in the woods after all and are able to find sufficient fuel all around. I will report that too if that indeed comes to pass. But I mention it now for if the stove is sufficiently efficient and the insulation works well, I may not even need the sweater!!
We will see. That is it for my monthly consumption. More to come next month.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
if nature had closets
Closets are indispensably useful things. They hide our stuff, holding it well out of sight. They keep the floors and surfaces clear and orderly, even if in their darkened depths they overflow with our unwanted clutter. They call no attention to themselves, do not demand to be tended to or cared for. They disappear into the walls, their doors becoming almost invisible unless we choose to adorn them. If not ill-treated, they generally do not leak their contents into the open air; they tell no tales; they protect our confidences. We can usually expect that when we put something away, it will stay there, inert, secure, static.
Not so with nature. There are no such closets in nature. There is no "there" there; no place we can safely stuff our unwanted detritus and walk away, secure that nature will hold our trash in confidence and safety. Carbon sequestration, burial of spent uranium, municipal landfills, all must be put in "closets" which have the potential to leak; which must be monitored, cared for and tended to, demanding funding just so we can be certain they won't misbehave.
Imagine, then, if we had to live in a house without closets, in the presence of all the stuff we had, new, aborning and used. Nowhere to escape our stuff. That, in a way, is how we live in the world.
Would that change the way we chose to live?
Not so with nature. There are no such closets in nature. There is no "there" there; no place we can safely stuff our unwanted detritus and walk away, secure that nature will hold our trash in confidence and safety. Carbon sequestration, burial of spent uranium, municipal landfills, all must be put in "closets" which have the potential to leak; which must be monitored, cared for and tended to, demanding funding just so we can be certain they won't misbehave.
Imagine, then, if we had to live in a house without closets, in the presence of all the stuff we had, new, aborning and used. Nowhere to escape our stuff. That, in a way, is how we live in the world.
Would that change the way we chose to live?
Friday, October 9, 2009
350.org
On the weekend of October 24 and 25, people the world over will be thinking "350". That is the number of carbon dioxide parts per million in the atmosphere at which contemporary life flourishes, at which humanity and our nourishing world thrive. The world is now hovering around 390 parts per million, and moving up, way out of kilter with the norm and threatening the stability of the climate and the natural cycles as we know them.
So on the last weekend of October, individuals, communities, schools, and congregations the world over will mark the significance of 350 ppm, with an array of programs, reminding us that we need to roll back the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the air, and to do that, we need to change the ways we do things.
That weekend also happens to be Parashat Noah, the Shabbat on which we read the story of Noah. What better serendipity of occurrences could there be? The biblical cautionary tale of the world's near-destruction is a fitting frame for us to mark the need to tend well to our common home. God promised never to destroy the world again through flood. Who would have thought that humans should have been made to sign that covenant as well?
Here in Baltimore several synagogues and community groups will be marking this event in their chosen ways (go to www.350.org to find the events near you).
In addition to these public events, we can reinforce this message of carbon reduction in our own ways, in our own homes, around our own tables. To be effective, the legacy and impact of this weekend must carry over into our daily behaviors, guiding our choices, mundane and sublime. Here are some ideas about how we can begin do that.
1) Gather together and read the story of Noah out loud (Genesis 6-8). While Noah is depicted as a lonely hero in the Torah, one midrash presents a different take:
“When Noah came out of the ark, he opened his eyes and saw the whole world completely destroyed. He began crying for the world and said, God, how could you have done this? ... God replied, Oh Noah. when I told you I would destroy the entire world, I lingered and delayed, so that you would speak on its behalf. But when you knew you would be safe in the ark, you were content. You thought of no one but yourself and your family. And now you complain? Then Noah knew that he had sinned.”
We now are like Noah before the flood. What can we personally do to avoid the tragedy of indifference?
2) At the end of the Noah story, God pledges to always care for the earth (Genesis 8:22): "So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease". Perhaps we can read this promise as follows: as long as humans allow a healthy earth to endure, God will roll out the pattern of the seasons, a predictable climate and an earth that annually provides for our needs.
Even as the Torah has God pledge, so should we. Craft your own pledge, and identify 2 or 3 specific commitments you too will undertake over this next year to protect this precious home of ours.
3) The number 350 equals the word: keren, or horn, or principal (as in stock or funds). If you have a shofar, a horn, blow it on Sunday and say a few words about your connection to the earth. Give to an organization that works to protect the earth, the principal stock that supports us all.
4) Learn one new environmental fact or go to one environmental website every day for the next 350 days.
5) Set an energy reduction goal for yourself or your household that you can achieve over the next 350 days. (Conserving water; driving less; line drying your clothes; unplugging your second refrigerator; adjusting your thermostats; turning lights out; etc.)
6) Volunteer 350 minutes over the course of the year at a community garden, environmental organization, or greening your own yard.
7) Check out the 350.org website for additional ideas and a sense of the scope of this world-wide, grass-roots program.
Thank you!
So on the last weekend of October, individuals, communities, schools, and congregations the world over will mark the significance of 350 ppm, with an array of programs, reminding us that we need to roll back the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the air, and to do that, we need to change the ways we do things.
That weekend also happens to be Parashat Noah, the Shabbat on which we read the story of Noah. What better serendipity of occurrences could there be? The biblical cautionary tale of the world's near-destruction is a fitting frame for us to mark the need to tend well to our common home. God promised never to destroy the world again through flood. Who would have thought that humans should have been made to sign that covenant as well?
Here in Baltimore several synagogues and community groups will be marking this event in their chosen ways (go to www.350.org to find the events near you).
In addition to these public events, we can reinforce this message of carbon reduction in our own ways, in our own homes, around our own tables. To be effective, the legacy and impact of this weekend must carry over into our daily behaviors, guiding our choices, mundane and sublime. Here are some ideas about how we can begin do that.
1) Gather together and read the story of Noah out loud (Genesis 6-8). While Noah is depicted as a lonely hero in the Torah, one midrash presents a different take:
“When Noah came out of the ark, he opened his eyes and saw the whole world completely destroyed. He began crying for the world and said, God, how could you have done this? ... God replied, Oh Noah. when I told you I would destroy the entire world, I lingered and delayed, so that you would speak on its behalf. But when you knew you would be safe in the ark, you were content. You thought of no one but yourself and your family. And now you complain? Then Noah knew that he had sinned.”
We now are like Noah before the flood. What can we personally do to avoid the tragedy of indifference?
2) At the end of the Noah story, God pledges to always care for the earth (Genesis 8:22): "So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease". Perhaps we can read this promise as follows: as long as humans allow a healthy earth to endure, God will roll out the pattern of the seasons, a predictable climate and an earth that annually provides for our needs.
Even as the Torah has God pledge, so should we. Craft your own pledge, and identify 2 or 3 specific commitments you too will undertake over this next year to protect this precious home of ours.
3) The number 350 equals the word: keren, or horn, or principal (as in stock or funds). If you have a shofar, a horn, blow it on Sunday and say a few words about your connection to the earth. Give to an organization that works to protect the earth, the principal stock that supports us all.
4) Learn one new environmental fact or go to one environmental website every day for the next 350 days.
5) Set an energy reduction goal for yourself or your household that you can achieve over the next 350 days. (Conserving water; driving less; line drying your clothes; unplugging your second refrigerator; adjusting your thermostats; turning lights out; etc.)
6) Volunteer 350 minutes over the course of the year at a community garden, environmental organization, or greening your own yard.
7) Check out the 350.org website for additional ideas and a sense of the scope of this world-wide, grass-roots program.
Thank you!
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