CHANGING DIET
CAN PROTECT ISRAEL
FROM CLIMATE CATASTROPHE
For Immediate Release:
January 25, 2009
Contact:
Richard H. Schwartz, President of the Jewish
Vegetarians of North America (JVNA)
President@JewishVeg.com
Phone: (718) 761-5876 [Cell 917-576-0344 )
Jewish Vegetarians of North America
(JVNA) issued the following statement today:
Last Monday, the most severe drought in
Israel's history -- caused or exacerbated by global warming -- prompted an
emergency halt to the pumping of water from the depleted Kinneret
(also known as the Sea of Galilee),
with water instead being pumped from Israel's underground aquifers,
which are also at dangerously low levels.
(JTA report is at the end of this release.) If
present trends continue, the Israeli Union for Environmental Defense (IUED)
projects that global warming will soon result in Israel facing major heat
waves, a reduction of rainfall of up to 30 percent, severe storms causing major
flooding, and a rising Mediterranean Sea which would inundate the coastal plain
where most Israelis live.
"These deeply worrying events should
be a wake-up call to the Jewish community that global warming poses an
existential threat to the state of Israel that rivals any other,"
stated Richard Schwartz, president of JVNA.
“Tikkun olam -- the healing and repair of the world, which includes
the prevention of global warming –must become a central issue of discussion and
action in Jewish institutions, from schools and synagogues to newspapers and
websites," added Schwartz. “Our Jewish tradition abounds with splendid
teachings on environmental conservation and sustainability. These must be
applied to the environmental crisis we face today.”
DIET IS KEY
Though not well publicized, there is a scientific
consensus that one of the most powerful ways humanity can fight global warming
is to shift to a more climate-friendly diet.
A landmark 2006 report by the United
Nations Food and Agricultural Organization estimated that globally livestock
production is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs, in CO2 equivalents) than the world's entire
transportation sector. The report, “Livestock's Long Shadow,” projects
that the world's current population of about 56 billion farmed animals will
double in 50 years if human population growth and dietary trends continue. The
resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions would largely negate reduction
goals for GHG emissions from transportation, electricity and other,
higher-profile sectors.
Expert recognition of
the importance of diet in preventing global warming20is growing. This fall, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which
shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2008, called on people in the
developed world to "give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and
decrease it from there." More recently, NASA climatologist James Hansen --
the world's most prominent scientific advocate of aggressive action against
global warming -- told an interviewer:
"... if you eat further down on the
food chain rather than animals, which have produced many greenhouse gases, and
used much energy in the process of growing that meat, you can actually make a
bigger contribution in that way than just about anything. So, that, in terms of
individual action, is perhaps the best thing you can do."
Since 1979, JVNA has raised awareness of
the environmental, health, humanitarian and other benefits of a global shift to
vegetarian, vegan or plant-based, diets, most recently in its feature-length docume ntary film: A SACRED DUTY:
APPLYING JEWISH VALUES TO HELP HEAL THE WORLD. It can be viewed at www.ASacredDuty.com.
"JVNA is eager to make its expertise
and resources available to all educators, rabbis, journalists, policymakers and
other conscientious and influential Jews so they may heighten awareness within
the Jewish community not only of the seriousness of global warming but of the
power of ethical dietary choices to prevent it," said Schwartz.
The issues are so critical that JVNA is
spearheading a campaign to turn Tu B’Shvat into a Jewish Earth Day and urging synagogues,
Jewish schools and other institutions to arrange environmental activities on
and around that day which occurs on February 8-9 this year.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE
VISIT JEWISHVEG.COM
########################
Supplementary Material on Global Warming Threats
The threats from global warming are really worldwide.
There are daily reports of severe droughts, storms, flooding and wildfires and
about meltings of polar icecaps and glaciers. All
this due to an average temperature increase of about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit in
the past 100 years, and global climate scientists are projecting an increase of
from 3 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 100 years, and this would result in
an20unprecedented catastrophe for humanity.
Some climate scientists are warning that
global warming could reach a tipping point and spin out of control in a few
years, with disastrous consequences, unless major changes soon occur
Al Gore pointed out that the United
States must free itself from fossil fuels
and switch to renewable energy sources by 2018. He stressed the urgency of the
change by stating: 'the survival of the United States of America as we know
it is at risk,' and that 'The future of human civilization is at stake.'
When we read daily reports of the effects
of global climate change, such as record heat waves, severe flooding, widespread
droughts, unprecedented numbers of wild fires, and the melt ing
of glaciers and polar icecaps; when some climate scientists are warning that
global climate change may spin out of control with disastrous consequences
unless major changes are soon made; when a recent report indicated that our
oceans may be virtually free of fish by 2050; when species of plants and
animals are disappearing at the fastest rate in history; when it is projected
that half of the world's people will live in areas chronically short of water
by 2050; it is essential that the Jewish community fulfill our mandate to be a
“light unto the nations” and lead efforts to address these critical issues.
=========================
JTA article: Israel
halts Sea of Galilee water pumping
January 22, 2009
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/01/22/1002430/israel-halts-sea-of-galilee-water-pumping
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel
has halted pumping water from the Sea of Galilee.
Pumping from Israel's main water source stopped
Monday when the water level reached about 16 inches from the "black
line," beyo nd which
pumping is strictly prohibited.
Water instead is being pumped from Israel's
underground aquifers, which are also at dangerously low levels.
Rainfall in Israel this year has been at about
half of its annual average. This month is on track to be the driest in the
history of such records, according to Ha'aretz.
Water sources that flow into the Sea of
Galilee, also called Lake
Kinneret , are also at their lowest level ever.
Israel is in the midst of its fifth consecutive year of
drought.
=========================
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, College
of Staten Island
Author of "Judaism and Vegetarianism," "Judaism and Global
Survival," and "Mathematics and Global Survival," and over 130
articles at www.JewishVeg.com/schwartz
President of Jewish Vegetarians
of North America (JVNA) www.JewishVeg.com
and
Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV) www.serv-online.org
Associate Producer of A SACRED
DUTY (asacredduty.com)
Director of Veg Climate Alliance (www.vegclimatealliance.org)
president@JewishVeg.com