Eco Shabbat

“It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to neglect it”

(Pirkei Avot 2.16)
Let’s do this together.

The temperature is behaving oddly at the moment. Outside it is rather balmy and not really like the usual November gloominess. Inside we’re waiting for colder temperatures to turn on the heating. The climate crisis is being discussed at COP27 in Egypt, and though the fact that world leaders come together once a year to continually cooperate is a positive thing, many find it hard to be optimistic. Is it just Project ‘blah blah’ or will actual tangible change that has an impact, come out of these talks? 

It is easy to fall prey to a feeling of gloom and doom, to become numb and feel hopeless. “The world is in flames, consumed by evil. Is it possible that there is no one who cares?” asks Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in a meditation on evil in his masterwork, God in Search of Man. 

“Our responsibility, says Heschel, is to refuse to become numb to the world burning, and to commit to acting in the face of evil, even if we do not have the ultimate power to wipe out all evil: “Evil is not only a threat, it is also a challenge”, it’s a challenge to us to not despair, but to act.

In times of climate confusion or despair I find it useful to talk to someone who works in the field of international sustainability. Monica reminded me that there are many positive news stories amidst the negative news, Brazil being one example, where the election of a new president with a powerful environmental agenda gives much more hope for saving the Amazon forest.