Boulder Jewish News Arts, Culture, Events, Lifestyles, Holidays, Synagogues, Education
As we make our way through this hot, smoky summer — witnessing record-breaking temperatures and the uncontrollable spread of fires in California and Oregon — the reality of climate change can no longer be ignored. Since the industrial revolution, human activities have polluted our atmosphere with 2.4 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide, an unfathomable amount of a greenhouse gas that’s proven to lead to extreme weather, food-supply shortages, increased wildfires, health problems, and so much more. Communities on the frontlines of poverty, racism, and pollution suffer these consequences most intensely. Our broken world is calling out for Tikkun Olam – for repair.
Because of society’s willful negligence, we have already caused global average temperatures to increase by 1.9ºF (1.07ºC). Heat emergencies, fires, smoke, droughts, floods, and road closures have become everyday events that are rapidly becoming normalized, leading so many of us to fear the state of the world that our children and our children’s children will inherit. Here, in Colorado, we acutely feel the impact of our slowly crumbling environment — just as our friends and families in Israel feel the impact, as huge wildfires burn in the Jerusalem hills.
We know what is causing the climate to change and extreme weather events to increase. And we know we desperately need a new path forward, along which we can power our lives with clean energy instead of fossil fuels. The upcoming budget reconciliation bill provides an opportunity for transformative investments in a clean energy economy and in climate justice. This is a key moment for the Jewish community to pressure Congress into taking strong actions to fight climate change.
Join us for a Jewish Climate Action Rally in Denver, CO, on August 29, 2021, at 10:30 a.m., at the Federal Building Plaza (1961 Stout St.). We will blow the shofar and urge our senators to take immediate action on climate change. If not us, who? If not now, when? Register at: https://d.aye.nu/denver-aug29.
Rabbi Deborah Ruth Bronstein
