Reflecting On Climate Justice and Jewish Action Gathering

On November 20th, Jeff Levy-Lyons and I co-facilitated a virtual gathering on the topic:  “What We Mean When We Talk About Climate Justice: Preparing for Jewish Climate Action.” Our aim was to connect Jewish teachings and values to the issue of climate justice, and to inspire Jews living in New York State  to take  bold communal action, specifically to embrace the work needed now to fully fund the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (the CLCPA).

In talking about climate justice, we started with the idea that climate change impacts different people differently and that these differences are not simply happenstance. Rather, historical and societal oppressions are at play that place some communities in greater danger. These communities are hit first and worst by climate change and lack the resources needed to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis.

 Luz Velez, a woman who had come to my attention through my research on this issue, lives in one of these communities. Luz suffers from severe respiratory illness as a direct result of environmental factors such as pollution unfairly foisted on her black and Latinx neighborhood in Buffalo. For Luz, the poor housing stock in her community translates into black mold and an uninsulated home which exacerbate her health issues. To further illustrate the impact of climate injustice I also shared stories about the disparate effects of extreme heat, storms and flooding on communities within New York.

As Jews, we have many points of reference from our tradition and our teachings that can help us  understand the oppression that individuals like Luz face and to gather the strength to fight injustice. At our meeting, I shared two stories from the Torah which have great meaning for me–the first concerns our bondage in Egypt and subsequent redemption.  Our liturgy and our holidays consistently point to the Exodus story in which individuals, such as Moses, who overcomes his feelings of inadequacy to stand up and speak up for an oppressed people, and Shiphrah and Puah, the two midwives who, despite their fear, defy Pharaoh's edict to kill Hebrew boys at birth and save the lives of Moses and other male infants. I believe that Moses, Shiphrah and Puah can serve as role models for us as we find our voices and dare to challenge a system that extracts resources from Mother Earth with utter disregard for the harm it causes to the planet and its inhabitants, especially those impacted by climate injustice. 

We are also commanded in the Torah to love those who have been “othered” because we too were “othered” when we were slaves in Egypt. This story, then, not only points us inward, it also points us outward.  We must love those who are “othered,” we must take note of them and hold them as precious human beings, and we must stand with them and fight alongside them as we fought for ourselves when we were oppressed. 

The second story I shared at our meeting takes place when we stood  at Mount Sinai and entered  into a covenant with God and with each other.  If the Exodus story is a story of liberation from– from slavery, from oppression, from greed, from de-humanization and from being “othered,” the story of standing at Har Sinai is the story of moving towards– towards covenant, towards commitment, towards partnership, towards relationship, towards balance and reciprocity, towards justice. At  Sinai, we accepted a radically new way of doing things–despite our fear of the unknown, we moved forward.

As we travel forward in time, from slavery in Egypt and standing at Mount Sinai thousands of years ago to New York State today let’s take our collective memory, experience and understanding as Jews to inspire us to follow in the footsteps of our ancestors to find our voices and to choose bold action, despite our fear and uncertainty. We are fortunate to live in a state whose residents fought hard and ultimately prevailed in pushing our representatives to pass landmark climate legislation in 2019, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, also known as the CLCPA. 

The name of this legislation reflects central Jewish values that are needed at this time.  Regarding, “leadership,” the world is in dire need of bold leadership to tackle the climate crisis, and, as Moses, Shiphrah and Puah demonstrated,  each of us, no matter how small we may feel standing up to the most powerful industry the world has ever known, can each find our voice from deep within and stand up as leaders in this fight for our planet. As for “community protection,” the term reminds us of the Jewish value of loving those who have been “othered” and ensuring that they and their needs are centered as we move forward in building a world that is sustainable and just for all.

The task this year is to fully fund the CLCPA so that we can rapidly bring down emissions,  build out renewables, and invest in communities, especially low income communities and communities of color, that have been hit hardest by the climate crisis.  The campaign that was launched a couple of weeks ago by NY Renews, the Climate Jobs and Justice Package, champions a number of bills designed to fund each  component of the CLCPA by raising capital and empowering state agencies to build renewables and shut down fossil fuel infrastructure. Those who join this campaign will be making calls to and meeting with  elected officials, showing up at rallies across the state, and participating in social media days of action in order to get these bills passed. Let’s show up to these actions as Jews, with a strong sense of who we are, where we come from and what kind of a world we want to build.

As we prepare to celebrate Chanukah and light candles next week, let us re-commit to finding more ways to bring light, hope and possibility into the darkness and transform our world.

- By Rachel Landsberg

COP27 Comes to a Close

The COP is Almost Over,
But the Final Outcomes Are Still Unclear

I am writing about COP27, the major international climate conference in Egypt, on the afternoon of Friday, November 18, 2022. As its name suggests, it’s the 27th in a series of conferences—held every year except for 2020, during the early phases of the pandemic; these are run by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), bringing together all the nations of the world to reach agreements on how to address climate change. 

Though the conference is scheduled to end today, it will surely run past its deadline, as previous COPs have. And, like other COPs, many actors take firm stands, both from sincere concerns and goals and from the wish to stake out positions so they give as little ground as possible. Countries issue statements, directly or obliquely, and many other civil society organizations are present, even if they do not directly negotiate. The UNFCCC publishes some draft documents, and many participants write on blogs and Twitter, so it’s possible to get some sense of where things are headed. Here are some point:

1. The 1.5°C warming limit is much debated. We’ve already had 1.2°C of warming, and would need to make utterly heroic efforts to stay within 1.5°C. Moreover, the Paris Agreement never set it up as a form limit; instead, it spoke, in characteristic diplomatic ambiguity, of limiting global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. So there has been much attention at the COP to whether there will be recognition that the world will likely pass 1.4°C by some point in the 2030s. Nonetheless, it’s important to keep up ambition, so many speak of “keeping 1.5°C alive.” Feelings are very strong on this issue. 

2. Finance. The poor countries that suffer the worst impacts, but have contributed little to emissions, need money to shift to renewable energy and to adapt to climate (and to the item in point 3). Will the wealthy countries provide the funds? There are many debates about the total amount that should be spent, about the form in which funds should be allocated (grants vs. loans, for example), about the specific institutions and funds that should transfer them, and about the governance of those institutions and funds. Not easy. 

3. Loss and damage. This has been emerging as the third pillar of climate action, along with mitigation and adaptation. This is, in essence, climate reparations—payments for harms that can’t be undone. It was proposed in the late 1990s by small island states, and an earlier COP, in 2013, created an “Implementation Mechanism” to address it, though wealthy countries have blocked requirements to pay for this area. But things are changing, and it seems likely there will be progress here. 

4. Participation. With the positive elections in Brazil and the US, Lula and Biden came to the conference and gave encouragement. Brazil joined with Congo and Indonesia as the three major tropical forest nations (in South America, Africa, and Asia) to sharply reduce deforestation, for example. And the US Inflation Reduction Act was welcomed. But the leaders from China, India, and Russia did not attend. A serious gap since they are delaying reducing emissions, and their commitments are crucial. They have played a role in previous COPs, which spoke of “phasing down” coal rather than “phasing out” coal. They are taking some steps towards decarbonization, but these are smaller than what is needed. However, civil society groups are stronger each year. At least—something very important—the US and China are talking again. 

5. Details. COP-watching is a sport of its own. To give only one example: one of my friends and colleagues is negotiating on agreements on adaptation. An early draft spoke of “transboundary risk”. If climate change increases drought risk in the US Southwest, reducing flow in the Colorado River, and creating the need for adaptation in that region, that risk spreads across the boundary to Mexico, which is part of the Colorado River watershed and used to receive more water from it. But that entire category of risk—think of the Rhine, the Nile, the Ganges, the Mekong, the Amazon—is now not mentioned in the key adaptation text. Or perhaps it will be brought back in at the last minute. It remains to be seen.

6. All eyes on 2023. This COP, though important, is a prelude to the much more significant COP next year. This will be the “First Global Stocktake,” reviewing how much—or how little—the world has succeeded in meeting its powerful pledges in the Paris Agreement. A major assessment on energy, land use and emissions, on adaptation, on finance—with justice, and loss and damage included as well. So much of what is happening in this COP is setting up the parameters for COP28 and the global mins.

I went back on Twitter to follow Simon Evans (he’s the one I most rely on) and saw that John Kerry, the key US negotiator, just tested positive for Covid. And the key loss and damage text got watered down again, with vaguer wording about who will pay what, and pushing the start date for a key fund to 2024, after the mins. But he also is showing that African voices are stronger (and this is an African COP, taking place in Egypt) so it will be harder for developed countries to deny the claims from that continent. 

It’s close to sunset. Shabbat shalom. We will know more in the coming days.

Passover Lessons

The Lingering Lessons of Passover

Passover ended about two weeks ago and on the Jewish calendar we’re now counting the Omer and moving toward Shavuot and revelation. Still, we can be forgiven if we can still almost taste the matza on our tongues and hear the songs and our story in our ears. In fact, keeping the story of our journey from enslavement to redemption present with us all year long can offer us much needed guidance and strength as we struggle to find a way to address our climate crisis.

The word mitzrayim has two meanings. It’s the Hebrew name for ancient Egypt and it also means a narrow place; a place of constriction. As such, the word is used to help us see our ancestors’ liberation from enslavement in Egypt as moving from a place of constriction (which enslavement certainly is) and into a place of spaciousness (which freedom certainly ought to be). 

Psalm 118 captures this beautifully. The Psalmist writes, “From a narrow place, I called out to God; God answered me from the expanse”.

Without much imaginative thinking or poetic license, we can see how we are now in another kind of mitzrayim; a place of constriction. We’re experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis closing in on us as we hear the ticking of the clock telling us that we have limited time to prevent the worst impacts from being visited on future generations. It’s almost more than our psyches can hold and many people either run away from this overwhelming reality or fall into a pit of despair. 

So, how should the Jewish community be responding to this existential bind and what can our Passover story teach us that can inform our response? We’re told that we should hear the story as if each of us was personally brought out of Egypt. Why? I think the main reason is that if we can feel our way through the story, it can sensitize our hearts to the suffering of others, “…because we were slaves in Egypt”. It’s a spiritual technique to help us feel rachmanus (compassion). That’s a Jewish value. So, the first thing to come to grips with is that we are not allowed to turn away; we cannot be bystanders to something that is causing suffering, even if we’re overwhelmed at the magnitude of it. 

But there is another way to feel our way into the story and juice more wisdom that we can apply to our current circumstance. Let me recast the roles from the Passover story onto our current mitzrayim to see if it provides hints of a way through this narrow passage to redemption.

First, we need to identify Pharaoh. In our current story, Pharaoh has three heads: the fossil fuel industry that continues to put profit over people; the politicians held in the sway of those extractive industries through huge donations to their reelection campaigns; and the large financial institutions that continue to fund the harm. These three heads constitute the hardened heart of Pharaoh. It also should be mentioned that we are all complicit in propping up Pharaoh through the ways we live our lives and invest our money. But for now, let’s simply revisit the famous quote from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, “Some are guilty, but all are responsible”.

Speaking of responsibility, who is our Moses? Sadly, there is no single modern-day figure who can represent all of us, so… it falls to all of us to be Moses. I believe that the Jewish community is well cast in the role of Moses. When Moses kills the Egyptian slave master, he’s showing his hyper-sensitivity to injustice. I believe that’s our superpower; our sense of felt responsibility. We don’t act based on calculations. We feel something is wrong or unjust, we feel it in our kishkes, and that feeling, like Moses, moves us from a posture of, “Someone ought to do something about this” to “I need to do something about this”. 

But I’m guessing that this casting might seem daunting. You might be thinking, “Me? Moses? Are you kidding? Who am I to speak truth to power?” Well, isn’t that exactly how Moses felt standing in front of the burning bush? When the voice from the bush drafts Moses to go back to Egypt and demand that Pharaoh let the people go, Moses begins his evasive maneuvers. In one of the most famous lines in the entire story, Moses tells the voice, “I’m not a person of words”. And the voice from the bush responds with a remarkable phrase, “I’ll be with your mouth”. Even then Moses isn’t yet able to let go of his fear and grab ahold of his faith and he continues to try to wiggle out of the assignment. The voice then tells him that his brother, Aaron, will be with him, helping him, supporting him. This exchange tells us we don't need to be brave souls or master communicators to play the role of Moses. But perhaps we do need an Aaron. 

So, who is Aaron in our current story? Jewish Climate Action Network exists to support the Jewish community in taking climate action. It’s right there in our name. Moses needed someone at his side, helping him find the words, offering encouragement and counsel. In much the same way, JCAN provides education on the issues, easy to use tools for taking action, and help identifying the unique gifts of each person that can be deployed to speed up the work. So, that’s Aaron. 

Having the familiar cast members of this ancient drama recast into our current mitzrayim can clarify our situation and our place in it. We know who we need to stand up to; we know that we’re the ones we’ve been waiting for; and we know where to reach for resources to guide and support us. 

Let’s move forward with strength, and in community, and may God be with our mouths.

Finding Climate Hope in the Month of Nisan

Fighting for a healthy climate is tiring work. The stakes are unimaginably high, and progress is distressingly slow. Can we avert a bleak planetary future? Is “winning” against the climate crisis even possible?

On Pesach, we can answer  this question: Yes, it is. To find hope, consider this teaching of the Meor Einayim, the 18th century Hasidic Rebbe of Chernobyl – yes, that Chernobyl, in Ukraine: The Meor Einayim asks why, on the spiritual plane, Israelites deserved to be redeemed. After all, they were totally absorbed into Egyptian society and practiced idol worship. And even if they deserved it, who’s to say they would go along with God’s plan?

His answer: “In Egypt, Israel performed the entire Passover Seder that night in the form in which we do, and they told the story of the Exodus [before it even happened], for they believed that they would certainly leave Egypt...Through this act of chesed [loving-kindness] that they brought forth, Israel was redeemed. And through Nisan in the future we shall be again redeemed…”

Something strange certainly happened on the night of 15th Nisan in Egypt. The Torah says that the Jews ate the Korban Pesach [the Passover sacrifice], their first act of independence, and,  in the understanding of the Meor Einayim, they performed the very Seder we perform… before the Exodus even happened!

I believe the Meor Einayim is imparting a powerful lesson about redemption. Even if they did not literally recite the contents of the Maxwell House Haggadah, on a metaphorical level Israel must have told the story of the Exodus. Until that night, the depressing inevitability of slavery was fixed within them. A world without slavery was unimaginable. To be redeemed, they first had to dream of a different reality, to tell each other a revolutionary narrative new to world history: the strong shall not prevail, might does not make right, G-d cares for the downtrodden. Only by imagining, in some detail, how they might be redeemed, could they finally open their doors the following morning and journey towards the wilderness and redemption.

As we sit around the seder table, Egypt sits within us and around us. Climate change, that symptom of human ignorance, avarice, and short-sightedness, continues. War rages, viruses invade our bodies, and authoritarianism gnaws at our body politic. Yet redemption awaits. Disaster is not inevitable.

But to journey towards our redemption, we must first imagine it. For one week of the year, Pesach invites us to forget about our cynicism, our worry; set aside the gloom of inevitability that obscures our hopes for our lives and for the world. And dream big: what will a redeemed society look like? How will a healthy, functioning planet operate? And what is the surprising, hope-affirming story that will soon bring it about? Tell the story. Articulate the hope. Prepare for redemption.

By Rabbi Hody Nemes
JCAN NYC Steering Committee Member

Feel free to share the above teaching at your seder. And consider these wonderful resources to bring climate concerns to your seder table.

Climate Resources For Your Seder:

1. Four Questions about Climate Change: An addition to the Four Questions – reminding us of the questions we refuse to ask and the actions we refuse to take to address climate change, from JCAN (of Massachusetts).

2. A New Ecological Haggadah: Get inspired with help from Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, author of The Promise of the Land, a haggadah in conversation with nature. View highlights from last year’s Passover Earth Seder, starring Rabbi Bernstein and many talented participants, or order a copy of The Promise of the Land.

3. Earth Justice Seder: Print or view this free Haggadah focused on environmental justice, courtesy of the Religious Action Center, COEJL, and GreenFaith.

Freedom from industrial farming: Consider limiting or eliminating meat, a major contributor to climate change, from your Pesach this year.

Juliana v. U.S.

Juliana v. U.S. is a case brought by 21 young people, ranging in age from 11 to late teens, who are pursuing a suit against the federal government for the breach of their constitutional rights to live in a sustainable climate. They seek to make explicit the legal obligation of the USA government to change course on their energy policies now. The US govt. must stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, presumably to be replaced by a clean energy infrastructure across our land. What a brilliant tactic to sue the US govt.! We all know that you have to pursue every avenue in our work-legal, political, legislative, personal, boycotts-and I applaud their efforts. When Cinematters at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan announced a screening of the movie about their case-Youth v. Govt.-I signed up immediately. I expected the movie to be compelling and even moving. Did I imagine that I would end up sobbing? Nope.

The young people were so committed, well informed and articulate about the many ways in which their lives were already being impacted by climate (hurricanes, drought, fires) and so determined, I wept. The lawyers working on their behalf were so fierce yet kind, and so determined, I wept. These are the people who call upon us to join them in their fierceness and determination-to keep on working together with them to save this planet.

I cried again while watching the numerous times their case kept getting delayed in the courts, hoped along with them when a judge ruled in their favor (to proceed with a trial which has yet to happen) and fumed watching them be deposed by DOJ lawyers who tried to intimidate them. The youth were NOT intimidated. They fought back, but at the same time they still managed to be kids who enjoyed mucking around, singing together and enjoying their time as a group. How could it be that it took these marvelous kids to stand up against this insanity?

The lawyers working on their behalf were also inspiring. A great scene in the film depicted the lawyers, after preparing for a crucial hearing in a hotel room conference table, get up, sing and dance, finding the energy together to face yet another courtroom, another judge, or three, knowing that the future of the 21 plaintiffs and the rest of their generation and ours, is at stake.

Where are they right now in this case that has yet to go to trial after 6 years? I received an email this week from the organization Our Children’s Trust that is continuing to work on this case:

“Juliana v. U.S., the landmark constitutional climate lawsuit brought in federal court by 21 youth against the U.S. government, are poised for significant results in the year ahead. Juliana v. U.S. continues to pursue their efforts to finally have their evidence heard in open court. For more than 6 years, these 21 youth have tenaciously and resiliently met every obfuscating effort of the prior administration, and now the current administration also, to prevent the facts of the U.S. government’s acceleration of the climate crisis from seeing the light of day at trial. We anticipate a ruling from the U.S. District Court in Juliana any day and are optimistic that the ruling will soon allow the children to present their constitutional evidence in open court at trial in federal court.”

To stay tuned and support their efforts, go to: https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org

I already have.

Ace Leveen,

JCAN NYC Co-Director

I Knew Nothing About Public Power

One year ago I knew nothing about public power, not even what the term “public power” meant. I first heard about public power from a former colleague of mine at Sane Energy Project, where I’ve served as a volunteer advisor for the past eight years. I soon learned that New York State has the largest public power utility in the country—the New York Power Authority (NYPA)—which generates 25% of the state’s power and provides some of the lowest cost electricity in the nation. Even better, 80% of the electricity NYPA generates is carbon-free.

Then governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt accompanies original NYPA Trustees on a visit to a potential hydroelectric site on the St. Lawrence River in 1931.

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), adopted in 2019, requires that New York’s electricity sector become greenhouse-gas-emission free by 2040. Now, in the midst of the planetary crisis we find ourselves in, in a moment when speed is everything, I have no faith that for-profit utility companies (like Con Ed and National Grid) are going to move to renewable energy as quickly as the crisis demands. I was happy to learn that the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), which would expand NYPA’s capacity to provide 100% renewable energy to its customers, is moving forward in Albany. The law would also require NYPA to phase out existing non-renewable generation as quickly as possible and to hire current utility and fossil fuel workers for renewable energy jobs.

On January 13, I joined a spirited action in midtown Manhattan demanding that Governor Hochul include funding for the BPRA in her executive budget. I was thrilled to see hundreds of people gathered on the steps of the New York Public Library to hear passionate speeches by elected officials and activists calling on the governor to act now. From the library, we marched east to her office on Third Avenue. I knew that at least one of my colleagues at Sane Energy Project was going to risk arrest by engaging in civil disobedience, and I wanted to be there to support her. In the end ten people, including two of my Sane Energy colleagues and two assembly members, were arrested for blocking traffic.

Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes, who represents Red Hook, Sunset Park, and northern Bay Ridge, is placed under arrest at the January 13, 2022 action.

On January 18, Governor Hochul shared her executive budget with New Yorkers. I’m disappointed she did not recognize the urgency of the moment and include the Build Public Renewables Act in it. We need this law to be enacted now. In the coming months, Sane Energy Project and other organizations will be pushing state lawmakers to include it in the budget that eventually goes to the governor for her signature. I hope you’ll join us.

Elliot Figman

JCAN NYC Member

Climate Crisis Gets Personal for Climate Activist/JCAN NYC Member

Testimony in favor of Intro 2317
November 17, 2021
Rabbi Hody Nemes
Jewish Climate Action Network NY

I’m Rabbi Hody Nemes, a co-founder and co-leader of Jewish Climate Action Network NYC, a group of New York Jews of many backgrounds, ages, and opinions who agree on one thing: we must act on climate change now. We stand upon the teachings, laws, and prophetic voices of Jewish tradition.

I’m here today because of my wife. On the night of September 1st, I thought she was going to die.

My wife is a pediatric emergency room doctor. Hurricane Ida was raging that night. But sick kids at the hospital needed her, so she went out into the storm.

She called me soon after leaving our house, frightened. She was on the Major Deegan and floodwaters were rising around her. Her car stalled twice. The waters kept rising, and rising. She called 911 and 311, but no one answered. For two hours, we wondered if she would survive. At home with our young children, I prayed. When EMTs finally rescued her, I cried. The car was lost, but my wife was saved.

She was lucky. Tragically, over fifty people died that night, in a storm that was certainly turbocharged by climate change.

I’ve studied climate change for years, but this was the first time it threatened my family directly. I finally understood that climate change can come for any one of us. We may not be the “stranger, the orphan, or the widow” right now, but we might be tomorrow.

That’s why we, like our partners in #GasFreeNYC, ask you to pass Intro 2317 this session. And to strengthen it, by (a) making it take effect in one year, not two, and (b) amending its text to ensure it more clearly covers gut renovations.

I’m not only afraid of drowning in storms, I’m afraid of suffocation. As an ER doctor, my wife has seen countless children threatened by asthma, particularly children from the South Bronx. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute’s estimate, more than 1,000 New Yorkers are killed annually by building pollution in this city.

That’s 1,000 New Yorkers too many.

Jewish tradition is obsessed with saving lives, from the very first chapters of Genesis onwards. In the words of our theologian Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, “The Torah’s central value — expressed in ritual and ethics — is to increase life and the quality of life in every act that we do.”

I ask you today - remember the people who died in Ida, remember the thousand choking to death on our air pollution, remember my wife terrified for her life.

Pass this bill.

Line 3

Stop Line 3 for a Just and Sustainable World

Hundreds of people participating in our interfaith delegation stood together looking for three stars in the sky so that we could begin Havdalah.  We were standing on the shores of one of Minnesota’s ten thousand lakes, where we were assembled to support Anishinaabe activists opposing the construction of the Line 3 pipeline.  The opening words of Havdalah spoke to my feelings in that moment: HInei el yeshuati. God is here with me.  I will not be afraid. I will draw water in joy from the springs of hope.

A young Jewish activist had reached out to ask me to go to the Treaty People’s Gathering at the beginning of June. Local indigenous leaders, who have been fighting Line 3 for 7 years, had asked for people to come to help them bring national attention to the struggle. Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, Greenfaith, and Dayenu, among others, answered the call to organize a delegation of people of faith. Although I had never participated in this kind of action before, when I realized that I could go, I felt compelled to say yes.

Line 3, currently under construction, is designed to carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to Superior Wisconsin.  While Enbridge, the company behind the pipeline, calls this a replacement pipeline, in fact it will have twice the capacity of the old one, carry more dangerous and more polluting oil, and open a new corridor for half its route, endangering untouched land and water.  

The morning after the moving Havdalah, my group arrived at the campsite where we would receive orientation and training. Despite temperatures in the mid-90’s, spirits were high as over one thousand people from all over the country convened. Following prayers, music, and training in direct action, we practiced our roles for the coming day of action. 

I was most moved by the stories of Anishinaabe leaders who described their people’s struggles to overcome so many acts of oppression, including the legacy of the Indian boarding schools. I learned that Line 3 is planned to cross 43 wild rice lakes. An oil spill would be a severe violation of the Anishinaabe people’s treaty rights to gather wild rice, which is a sacred food that is central to their culture.

While I did my best to stay in the shade and drink water, the extreme heat took its toll. I spent most of the night in the emergency room of the local hospital recovering from heat exhaustion. My experience drove home the point that if built, Line 3 will dramatically worsen climate change.  In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, expanding Line 3 is equivalent to adding 50 new coal-fired power plants. If Line 3 is completed we can only expect more heat waves in Minnesota.

I had to miss the prayer service and march the next morning. While I tried to stay cool, hundreds of people engaged in direct action to stop work at several sites along the route of the pipeline. Brave activists spent a frightening night chained to construction equipment to the accompaniment of thunder and lightning. The next day they were hauled off to local jails by police forces whose expenses are being paid by the pipeline company.

The members of my group agreed that we could not leave the region without stopping to visit the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Astoundingly, the source of the mighty river is a tiny spring that feeds Itasca Lake, which is very close to the route of Line 3. As I immersed in the lake, I felt moved to say the shehechiyanu prayer. I felt blessed to have had the opportunity to participate in this holy gathering and to play a small part in the movement to put our world on a more just and sustainable path.

Dr. Mirele Goldsmith

Co-Founder of Jewish Earth Alliance, Co-Founder of JCAN NYC

NYC Mayoral Candidates: Climate Platforms

The next NYC Mayoral election is a critical moment for climate policy, with the primary scheduled for June 12-22, 2021. Featured below are highlights about the candidates’ climate platforms with links to their websites. For additional information, check out the Climate Works for All Voter Education Guide.

Eric Adams
In order for NYC government to lead by example on climate, Adams plans to retrofit government buildings to be more energy efficient and use solar panels on city buildings. For the public, he plans to bring back NYC’s composting program. He emphasizes an expansion of green jobs, internships in the green jobs space for high school students, and building a new school focused solely on green technologies and training in this field. He also promises to purchase an electric bus fleet. Eric Adams’ transportation plan is grouped with his climate plan. He focuses on equity of access for those who currently don’t have good commuting options or are not within distance of public transit. He has laid out a number of ways in which he hopes to make New York City more walkable, bikeable, and accessible, including improvements to public transit. Adams’ plan does not currently include any commitments to reduce CO2 emissions by a specific amount within a period of time. Learn more about Eric Adams’ climate plan here.

Shaun Donovan
Donovan starts his plan with a commitment to a more sustainable, equitable, and just New York, prioritizing communities most impacted by climate change that have also been hardest hit by the pandemic. His plan aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, protect New Yorkers from climate threats like flooding, severe storms, and heat waves, and shifting to a green economy. He stresses the urgency of climate change, and commits to embedding climate change into all decisions made by the city. Donovan led the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force for his hometown, and promises to use this experience to effectively take action on climate and collaborate across local, state, and federal government. Like the Biden administration federally, Donovan would issue an all-of-government Environmental Justice Executive Order and conduct an audit of city policies through a climate and equity lens. He would also look to close Rikers Island and turn it into a wastewater treatment facility and part of the green solution. Donovan’s climate plan is broken into 8 sections: 1. Centering environmental justice; 2. Alleviating public health disparities; 3. Establishing permanent and equitable public spaces; 4. Building a green economy for everyone; 5. Taking real steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; 6. Empowering and preparing the next generation; 7. Strengthening climate resilience and disaster response; 8. Achieving zero waste. In each of these 8 areas, Donovan commits to a number of policies and programs. Learn more here.

Kathryn Garcia
Garcia’s background as a Sanitation Commissioner and working for the Department of Environmental Protection means she has had many opportunities to face climate issues in the past. She banned styrofoam and implemented the nation’s largest composting program, among other things.

Climate action is a top issue for Garcia. In her Climate plan, Garcia emphasizes a commitment to move New York City to a fully renewable energy economy with a five-borough strategy. She also acknowledges the importance of social justice to climate action. Garcia would convert Rikers Island to a renewable energy zone, reserved for harvesting renewable energy, composting, and other sustainable projects. She plans to help expand electric vehicle use, including with infrastructure to triple the availability of public car chargers. She would create green spaces, plant trees, and reduce asphalt with a focus on fighting asthma. Her other areas of climate focus are:

• "Housing and Climate"

• "Transportation and Climate"

• "Education and Climate"

• Making The Long Term Commitments We Need To Get To Zero Waste

• Implementing Neighborhood-Based Resilience strategies to Storms, Flooding, and Heatwaves

• Following Through on Implementing Key Environmental Justice Policies

Garcia focuses on both new programs and better utilization of existing programs, and measuring policy impacts. Environmental Justice is touched on briefly at the beginning and end of her plan.  Learn more about Kathryn Garcia's climate plan here.

Scott Stringer
Stringer has a strong history of action on climate throughout his political career, including most recently as the City Comptroller. He pushed NYC to pursue the first and largest divestment of any pension system in the nation, has fought against fracking and pipelines, advocated for green jobs, and fought for federal resiliency funding.

Stringer has a 6-point plan on climate:

1. Launch a “Fossil Free NYC” movement to meet our climate commitments faster

2. Create green jobs and a greener economy to accelerate our economic recovery and build a more sustainable future

3. Champion environmental justice to ensure that all New Yorkers benefit from a healthier future

4. Promote greener, energy-efficient buildings to tackle our biggest carbon source

5. Support active streets and green spaces to improve air quality and physical health

6. Enhance resiliency programs to protect New York against extreme heat, sea rise, and storms

Scott Stringer includes in his plans meeting the goals of the CLCPA, a law JCAN helped to pass. He focuses on shifting to solar, electric, batteries, and offshore wind. On climate justice, he commits to championing the Green New Deal and working to improve air quality. Like many candidates, he has a vision for a renewable Rikers. A highly detailed version of his plan can be found here.

Maya Wiley
Maya Wiley has a community and partnership-focused approach to climate change. She looks to both create new programs and build upon existing programs from government, nonprofits, and businesses to include a greater emphasis on climate. As a Civil Rights lawyer she also comes to climate with concern about frontline communities and the way that climate exacerbates racial and economic inequities. Wiley frames the need for solutions to climate change as an opportunity to reimagine NYC. She commits to programs and policies in line with the Green New Deal. Maya Wiley lays out 4 sections to her plan:

1. Invest in climate infrastructure development and resiliency planning processes that improve quality of life

2. Develop equitable adaptation measures for both social and built infrastructure, with a focus on environmental justice communities

3. Pursue ambitious mitigation targets in our building, transportation, and waste sectors, including by matching or surpassing the State mandate for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040

4. Partner with environmental justice communities, organizations, and other community-based organizations, such as mutual aid groups, throughout our work

Her plan includes launching a citywide Green Future Force that will focus on green jobs in partnership with existing workforce development and training programs. Like many candidates, Wiley refers to plans for a renewable Rikers. Wiley’s detailed climate plan can be found here.

Andrew Yang
Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang does not include his climate policies among the 8 out of 62 that he highlights as part of his vision on the policies page of his website. Of the candidates we have covered, he is the only candidate who did not attend the Climate, Jobs, and Justice Mayoral Candidate Forum co-sponsored by JCAN. Yang commits to going beyond the local requirement to reduce citywide emissions to 40% below the 2005 baseline by 2030, instead looking to match the Biden Administration’s commitment to a 50% reduction by 2030. He lays out 5 sections to his climate plan:

1. Shift to an 80% clean energy grid by deploying solar, expanding battery storage, siting, permitting and building transmission, and supporting offshore wind production

2. Reduce building energy emissions and emissions from other sources like vehicle tailpipes and waste

3. Protect vulnerable neighborhoods from a changing climate

4. Put social and racial justice at the center of the City’s climate work and make sure all New Yorkers have the skills to participate in the green economy

5. Educate the next generation on climate change

Read Yang’s detailed proposal here.

Brit Hazon & JCAN NYC

“We underestimate the power of contribution - of acting within our own sphere of influence to tackle the piece of the problem that is right in front of us.”  

— Abigail Dillon in “All We Can Save”

There is so much going on in the world of climate work. So much opportunity and so much anxiety. It’s hard to hold it all, to know where to turn, and to know where to focus our time and energy. 

One of the central reasons JCAN NYC exists is to offer pathways to action. Managing fears about the future is always easier through action and our actions are consequential. Sometimes activists are called upon to speak truth to power; some people even feel compelled to put themselves in harm’s way to prevent a greater harm from being done. The work is endless and limitless. But sometimes there’s a piece of the problem that is right in front of us

We can’t vote everyday; we can’t march or organize a rally or make a legislative visit everyday; but we eat multiple times a day and can make choices about what we put on our tables and what we put in our mouths. We make choices about how we shop - what we purchase and what we choose not to purchase -  and we make choices about how we deal with our food waste and other items in our throwaway world. We can choose how to power our homes, either by using whatever source ConEd sends our way or by sourcing renewable energy. We choose how to travel and how much to travel. These things are right in front of us. 

When we take these actions, which are in and of themselves statistically insignificant, and when we do them in community with others, and when we then tell even more people about these small changes, our actions create ripples that begin to change culture. This is where Brit Hazon becomes a valuable tool in our work. 

Here is how Hazon describes this program: “Brit Hazon is a framework by which you can make a personal commitment to manifest a shared vision of a more sustainable and equitable world.” Hard not to like that. I particularly love the words, “manifest a shared vision”. When we do this all together, each in our own way, we are being the change we want to see in the world. When we demand change from our elected officials, we do so knowing we are walking our own talk. We are strengthened with a greater moral authority and JCAN NYC is made more cohesive. 

Back in the 1980’s we became aware of the unintended harm fishing practices were causing to dolphins and other sea creatures. Out of that awareness came a tuna boycott that changed those harmful practices and changed the fishing industry. It didn’t change everything, but it changed a lot and it taught many of us about the power of individual activism, joined with the synchronous action of many, many others. I was part of that boycott. At the time I was dating a woman who skeptically asked me, “Do you really think you can make a difference all by yourself? Isn’t your individual action meaningless?” Well, she was wrong, and history bore that out. And I believe we’ll find that people who today examine and alter the ways they live on this Earth indeed matter greatly in the creation of a sustainable future.  

Brit Hazon can make examining how we operate in the world a personal, yet communal practice. We get to show our love and care for God’s creation countless times each day and our activism infuses our daily life and our spiritual lives. We receive the blessing of an enhanced sense of alignment with the holy. 

So, I want to invite you to go to the Brit Hazon page, Brit Hazon - Commitment to Change , on the Hazon website. Sign up and browse through the six commitment areas where you can choose a commitment that feels like a stretch, but a doable stretch. I like the metaphor of yoga, where the goal is to stretch, and feel it as a stretch, but not to the point of harm. Anything and everything we do to change our culture of mindless consumption and convenience over conscience, will set us on a path to changing our world. Help manifest a shared vision of that world. Let’s each of us do it, and let’s do it together. 

Jeff Levy-Lyons 

JCAN NYC Steering Committee Member

Keeping Hope Alive

We are in a moment - a time when it’s hard to feel that the earth below our feet is solid ground – a moment so intense, so portentous, so big, that it’s hard to find the right frame for it or the right words to use to describe it. Precarious might be the word that best describes my feelings these days. 

So many people I talk to are filled with fear, even dread, almost afraid to look at the news and at the same time unable to look away from it. The words I hear are “grief”, “despair”, “bereft”, just “sad”. 

We also find ourselves in the middle of Sukkot. A rabbinical student I know described it as, “a holiday where we are especially aware of human vulnerability in the face of our changing climate and our dependence on regular rainfall, the changing of the seasons, and healthy soil.” 

Finally, we’ve also just followed the Jewish calendar through Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. In other years, many of us leave these holidays with greater resolve to do better by the people in our lives and by the divine power that animates our lives. For many of us in the climate movement, we come away from the high holidays resolved to work more diligently on behalf of all life and our sacred mother, the Earth. 

How do we hold all these feelings? What can we do to express them? How, particularly, do we keep the wolf of despair from our door? How do we keep hope alive? 

My own antidote for despair is action, keeping my mind, my heart, and my body engaged in trying to fix the causes of despair. This is how I keep the flame of hope alive. 

Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian sociologist famous for his quote that the medium is the message, less-famously also said, “There are no passengers on spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” If there was ever an all-hands-on-deck moment, it’s this one. The good news… yes, there is good news, is that there are so many ways to work to confront the causes of our despair. Our small but mighty JCAN NYC offers multiple pathways for taking meaningful action in our city and in our state. Let me share one way you can take action right now; action that can literally help shape the future.  

My mantra for the past year has been “Election work is climate work”. While I won’t go so far as to say that HaShem heard me (though I wouldn’t rule it out either) a new, national, Jewish climate group called Dayenu: A Jewich Call to Climate Action appeared on the scene and kicked off Chutzpah 2020, a text banking (Tuesdays) and phone banking (Thursdays) campaign to invite the Jewish community to help elect politicians who see that we’re heading into the abyss of climate chaos and who are committed to take bold action on the day they are sworn into office. 

I want to encourage you to join me in this work. Yes, phone banking is uncomfortable for a lot of people, but it makes a difference when you help a person (or a hundred people) work through a voting plan, particularly in the face of all the efforts to discredit and sow doubt about this election's voting process. I also want to say that in this moment, please consider stretching outside your comfort zone – we need more people who will step into discomfort. This moment asks that of us all. If you’re intimidated by phone banking (and, again, please give it a shot), then sign up for text banking. I’m partnering with Dayenu to train new Chutzpah 2020 volunteers on the process of texting and calling and will make sure you are well trained and well supported. Sign up to volunteer for an event.

Yes, this is a moment unlike any other. Everything is on the line – the future is in fact on the line. Let’s all take meaningful action, stretch ourselves, push ourselves to do just a little bit more, and do it in community with people who are also trying to keep hope alive. Individually we are a drop, together we’re an ocean.

Jeff Levy-Lyons 

JCAN NYC Steering Committee Member

Expanding Our Circle of Concern

This past April, when NYC was the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, JCAN-NYC joined (virtually) the global environmental movement to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. It was a bit hard to feel celebratory, but also a good time for the Jewish community to reflect on what environmentalists have been doing for the past 50 years and to help us reimagine our place in that work.

Of course, we happen to be living through a preview of the kinds of impacts that we’ve been warned will become more of the new normal if we fail to mitigate the worst effects of a warming planet. At the same time, we draw strength remembering all those who have celebrated 50 Earth Days with meaningful action. Those efforts haven’t been nearly enough, nor have they included sufficient numbers from the Jewish community, but they call to us to rededicate ourselves to this work.

I want to lift up the work of addressing environmental injustice, or climate justice as it’s more frequently called. Long before this virus came to our shores and hit our most vulnerable communities hardest, brown, black, and Hispanic communities had long been breathing bad air, living closest to polluting sites, and struggling to stay cool in heat islands. This is environmental injustice and the impacts are very real and paint an ominous picture of what lies ahead if the climate crisis unfolds unchecked.

These vulnerable communities need to be at the center of environmental work. As Jewish climate activists, who are predominantly white and likely privileged, this understanding will lead us to expand our circle of concern to these neighboring communities and build stronger alliances with them. We need to work on behalf of all humanity.

But I want to invite us to expand our circle of concern even wider. The celebration is called Earth Day, not People Day. It asks us to include all life and the planet itself in our work. As Jews, it asks us to be Shomrei adamah (guardians of the Earth), to remember and restore our reverence for the planet; to see it as a living dynamic being, having value far beyond what it can provide us; and to give it love and care for its own sake.

When we drain a wetland to build a strip mall, we are desecrating the planet and damaging its vital organs. When we cut down a forest, we are attacking the very tissues of our sacred home. These ecosystems support millions of species that are now dying out in staggering numbers. And, of course, when we extract and burn oil and gas, we are changing the delicate balance of our climate that makes life possible on Earth. However, when we see ourselves as being in some way deployed by the divine to do climate justice, we include and even center the Earth within our circle of concern. Science gives us the facts, but we need faith to be clear of purpose. We must marry the sacred and the secular, and that is the call to the Jewish people in this time of COVID-19 and climate change.

We now stand on the shoulders of those who have honored 50 Earth Days with the hard work of changing how we live on this planet. It’s our turn now. Rather than fighting against the world we don’t want, let’s create a vision of the world we do want, where all the creatures of the Earth, and the Earth itself, are held in our hearts with love, and we live in community with all life. Love and reverence can be the renewable energy, the regenerative power that will show us the way out of our current plight and create a real inheritance for all who come after us.

Jeff Levy-Lyons

Climate activist and member of Jewish Climate Action Network NYC Steering Committee