Going Green—A Phenomenon for Our People

By Juliana Ross
Simmons College

The goal of "Project Better Place" is to create a world free from oil in order to bring the economy and the environment back into balance with each other to heal the planet. This company, founded in 2007 by Shai Agassi, has identified five innovations to obtain its goal: an electric car, battery technology, battery exchange sites, charge spots and renewable energy. The technology will include an electric car infrastructure that will be able to end Israel’s (and many other countries who are signing onto the project) dependence on foreign oil while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions.

During the fuel shortage of the 1950s, Israel began harnessing solar energy in order to heat water. Since the 1980s, the Israeli Knesset, or cabinet, passed a law mandating the use of solar heaters for new residential buildings. The use of solar panels and heaters has not only saved Israeli citizens millions of shekels, but has also reduced their use of oil.

Since its founding, Ecocinema has been screening 15 to 20 films per year in order to raise awareness of environmental issues facing Israel and the world through artistic and cultural means. At the 2007 film festival, there was a contest sponsored by Tel Aviv University's Porter School of Environmental Studies for college students to produce the best film. The goal of Ecocinema and Israel's Environment Ministry of Environmental Protection is to promote cinema as a powerful education tool for environment protection.

Above are just a few examples of how Israeli innovators, politicians, artists, and scientists are using their skill and knowledge to create a "greener" society and world. But, why is Israel so involved in the "green" phenomenon? What in Judaism teaches us to create a better world? Nature and society mix in a reaction to create the Earth in which we live: the weather, the culture, the politics, and the inventions. We are one variable of the equation that yields Earth, the place where we experience joys, sadness, success and otherwise. This means that our actions affect the equilibrium of the planet and of society in positive and negative ways. In Judaism, we are taught that it is a mitzvah (obligation) to take care of humankind; it therefore must be a mitzvah to take care of the environment in which we live – and we are commanded to nurture and protect the earth as wel. Luckily, humankind is a variable that sustains the Earth and affords us the opportunity to change our behaviors and assume new values to change the future. Humanity’s wasteful and disrespectful actions are having serious effects on our climate that can be seen in the suffering of those affected by recent hurricanes, tornados, droughts and tsunamis.

I believe on an individual level we can make changes in our everyday lives to heal mother Earth. We must remember that Earth is the place where we continue to survive and thrive; it is not a renewable resource. While it is likely the Earth will persist despite the daily damage, the human race cannot survive as global warming continues, the oceans rise with the melting ice caps, and desertification spreads as the imbalance in temperature persists. Drastic climate change cannot support life, both animal and vegetation. We take our comfortable lives for granted and make excuses for the unseasonably warm weather in November and strong storms covering the globe.

The pollution and destruction from carbon emissions can be stopped and reversed, as seen in the ambitions of "Project Better Place." The Torah teaches that God makes us responsible for control of the land and its creatures and also to cultivate and protect the land as well. If I learned one lesson in Hebrew school, it is that to save a life is to save the whole world. Now I am seeing that the reverse is also true: to save the world, is to save a life— all humankind. There are so many ways to create a healthier world, as we have seen in the inventions by Israeli scientists, and the use of solar heaters that dot most rooftops in Israel. Technology and Torah are two important concepts which teach us the value of protecting and enriching the Earth. The preoccupation of Israeli environmentalists and inventors to go "green" is inspired by protecting what is most dear, humankind. This is the message that Judaism teaches, we should all take a lesson and step up to the challenge.

Juliana Ross is a junior at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts studying nutrition and Spanish.  This year she is serving as the
president of Simmons Hillel and the Grinspoon Intern and cannot wait to go to back to Israel over winter break!

[Posted 12/27/08]