We human beings are remarkably creative. Judaism teaches that we are the apex of God’s creative process. In the creation story we are told that after humanity came into being God said to Adam and Eve,
Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it, rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky and all the living things that creep on earth. (Gen. 1:28)
We have taken this charge to master the world to the extreme. We change and manipulate our environment in a way that no other being can imagine. We have mapped the genetic code for life and are just witnessing a revolution in our ability to manipulate the building blocks of existence. Before long we will be able to create human life in an entirely new way. And regardless of our feelings about cloning from a moral perspective, we cannot help but be awed by the human capacity to create.
But too often, we have taken the ancient call to master the world as a license to abuse our environment. We seem incapable of comprehending that with our mastery of creation comes a responsibility to protect, to guard and to care for the world. It is a responsibility we have neglected time and time again.
Two thousand years ago the rabbis of the Midrash (on Ecclesiastes 7:13) taught that after God had created the world, God took Adam by the hand and led him about the Garden. “See how beautiful all my Creations are,” said God. “All has been created for your sake. So reflect on this, and take care not to foul or destroy my world. For if you do, there will be none to repair it after you. And what is worse, you will bring death even to righteous people in the future.”
The rabbi who wrote this Midrash wanted us to understand that some intrusions into the natural world have irreversible effects. Eventually, too much change can doom even the innocent generations that have not yet been conceived. Two thousand years ago our tradition warned that if we do not become responsible caretakers, we will destroy the very world we have been charged to protect.
And yet during our watch,
Forests are shrinking, fish stocks are declining, soil degradation and desertification are rising, and pollution and waste are being generated at a far greater rate than the earth can absorb. Even our fresh water supply -- perhaps our most precious commodity -- is being pushed beyond the limit.
The environmental damage we have done is far more extensive than most of us realize and its impact will be felt for generations. As family therapist Gregory Bateson wrote in 1972,
We are learning by bitter experience that the organism which destroys its environment destroys itself. (Steps to an Ecology of the Mind 1972, p.491)
Bateson was neither a prophet nor an ecologist, but thirty years ago he already understood that as the fate of the planet goes, so, too, goes the fate of humanity. If we do not care about protecting nature for nature’s sake, perhaps we should care out of our own selfish self-interest. Humanity’s fate is tied to the fate of the planet in which we live.
Years later, though, the pace with which we are assaulting our planet has not slowed.
A native American teaching states,
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth... we did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. (Chief Seattle)
Thus we should not be surprised that a recent study in the journal “Science” reported that more people are killed by pollution related illness than by traffic accidents. In fact, cutting greenhouse gases in just four major cities could save over sixty thousand lives over the next twenty years. (San Paolo, Brazil, Mexico City, Santiago Chile and New York City)
When it comes to safeguarding the environment it seems that, if anything, we are going backwards. We have become a nation that is more concerned with an affront to the nation’s flag than by an offense against its rivers. We are a nation more concerned with protecting the rights of a two-cell embryo than with guaranteeing that today’s children have clean air to breath and pure water to drink. We are a nation that wants to see the genetic map untouched, but offers no such guarantees for nature. In a word, our priorities as a nation could not be worse at this time. They are selfish. They are greedy. And they are shortsighted. And that is being generous.
Perhaps it is time for us to heed an old Cree Indian prophecy that teaches,
Only after the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.
It is easy to condemn the large corporations that cut forests, create oil spills and lobby against any environmental law that reduces their bottom line. And they deserve to be condemned. It is easy to attack politicians when they vote to support short-term political gains at the expense of long-term national and world health. And they deserve to be attacked. But it is much harder to face the fact-- the incontrovertible fact-- that so much of this unrectifiable damage to God’s world goes on because of all of us. We can point fingers, but ultimately, we are responsible for what is going on. Our lifestyle drives the engine that strips forests, punches holes in the atmosphere and moves hundreds of species toward extinction. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said,
Our age is one in which usefulness is thought to be the chief merit of nature; in which the attainment of power, the utilization of its resources is taken to be the chief purpose of man in God’s creation. [we have] indeed become… a tool-making animal, and the world is now a gigantic toolbox for the satisfaction of [our] needs. (God in Search of Man)
The problem is that the toolbox is already stretched beyond its limit.
Our insatiable lust for material comfort and acquisition is causing this environmental disaster. The numbers are shocking. Since 1950 we Americans have used more resources than everyone who ever lived before us.
And even though we Americans only comprise 5 percent of the world’s population, in 1996 we used nearly a third of the world’s resources and produced almost half of its hazardous waste, dumping the equivalent of one ton of hazardous material into the ground each and every year. And since most landfills were not built to keep toxins from seeping into groundwater, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, each and every land fill has the potential to eventually leach poisons into the ground!! (Jews Money and Social Responsibility, Bush and Denkro pg 20)
And that was in 1996. 15 years later things have gone from bad to worse.
Life on this planet is based upon a delicate balance of forces. We, through our profound intellect, our need to accumulate, and our desire for convenience, are throwing off the balance in every corner of the globe.
A generation ago the thought that some day the oceans might become vast, lifeless deserts was inconceivable. Today, through the dual pressures of over-fishing and pollution is seems entirely possible. As computerized fishing trawlers the size of a football field now drag nets wide enough to swallow up a dozen Boeing 747 airplanes, entire swatches of ocean are emptied of life. With this remarkable technology 130 tons of fish can be drawn from the ocean in a single sweep.
Our insatiable hunger is stripping the very life from this planet. Everything I have read in recent weeks has vividly illustrated that the warning of forty years ago in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is becoming a become reality. But this time, the culprit is not DDT and other pesticides. This time, the culprit is our modern way of life.
Easter Island, a small, desolate island in the middle of the South Pacific, is a warning to us all. As one approaches the island she is greeted by a forest of hundreds of sculpted men known as moai, each of the sculptures weighs tens of tons. Yet when Polynesian voyagers accidentally landed on the rugged coastline of the island some 1600 years ago, they were greeted by a forest of palm trees. Not a tree remains today. This once flourishing Eden is now a treeless, windswept desert of barren rock.
It is only recently that archeologists have truly pieced together the tragic history of the island. Around 400 CE Polynesian voyagers accidentally landed on the uninhabited island. Although it was only seven miles long, it offered them everything they needed. They settled there and thrived. Although there is no written record, from the oral history we do know that the ancient islanders feverishly expressed themselves in stone, carving hundreds of figures who stood guard along the rugged coastline. Legend says that the statues walked from their inland quarry to their beach front platforms through a spiritual power called “mana”, however, archaeologists have shown that these 100 ton statues were actually moved into place using leverage, muscle and rollers carved from trees, lots and lots of trees. The islanders developed a technology that helped them achieve their goals but each time they used the technology it consumed dozens of trees. They were so focused on perpetuating their culture that they stripped the island bare.
They did not realize the ecological impact of their actions. At least not until it as too late. Animals had perished, the topsoil had washed away and by the time the last of the palm trees was cut down, their fate had been sealed forever. By the time the first Europeans arrived in 1726, the island was a barren desolate rock in the middle of the ocean. Not one palm tree remains today.
(NOVA HYPERLINK "http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/
Our technology is far superior to that of the Easter Islanders. And our focus is on comfort and pleasure rather than carving stone figures. But the potential impact on the environment is similar, although for us it is taking place on a global scale. Rosh Hashanah is about renewal. This day is known as the birthday of the world, but after researching some of the environmental impact we have been having on our planet each birthday is looking more and more like a funeral.
We all stand guilty. We love our comforts. We think little of their long-term impact. But the consequences of our actions are catching up to us. I believe that if we can begin to raise awareness and make some small changes in what we do, we can make an impact. The changes will not be easy. And they will not be free. But our future, the future of all the generations to come, depends on it. Part of the problem is that we operate with the illusion; the fallacy that what we do is our choice and our choice alone. We have lost sight of the fact that we are all interdependent and what we do has a far-reaching impact that can linger for generations.
But what can we do? The first step is to turn to our religious tradition for we have inherited a tradition that teaches balance, a tradition that teaches commitment and a tradition that demands a greater respect for God’s creation than we are currently showing. Judaism demands that we look at the big picture, and understand fully, our responsibilities as caretakers of God’s world.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow suggests that role is central to the message of Judaism. He states,
I want to imagine a new version of the Jewish people- a new way of understanding and shaping ourselves. Imagine that we were to decide to see ourselves as having a mission, a purpose on the earth. A purpose to heal the earth- one that is not brand new but is described in the Torah as one of the greatest purposes of the Jewish people. (Torah of the Earth Vol.2 pg. 268)
In ways both direct and subtle, Judaism teaches that our task is to always be mindful of the ways in which our actions today will affect the world of tomorrow. What we do now will shape the world our children and children’s children will inherit. The balance and responsibility toward nature that we show today is a gift that will remain long after we have left this earth.
But, and this is really important, it does not help the planet or ourselves if we just merely feel guilty about it! It doesn’t help the planet or ourselves if we only give our concern lip service. We need to ACT -- to do something about it. And in this regard I have three suggestions.
First, we need to increase our appreciation of nature.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote,
As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. [Humankind] will not perish for want of information, but only for want of appreciation.
We are less likely to be apathetic about something we care deeply about. We are more likely to protect something that is close to our hearts.
In his book “A Walk In the Woods” Bill Bryson notes that in the mid-1960’s the wilderness path from Georgia to Maine known as the Appalachian Trail looked doomed to be buried under suburban sprawl of shopping malls and housing developments. Bryson writes:
Then, in a timely piece of fortuitousness, America got a secretary of the interior, Stewart Udall, who actually liked hiking. Under his direction, a National Trails System Act was passed in 1968. The law secured the future of the Trail by providing funds to purchase private lands to create a wilderness buffer around the entire trail. Today, less than 1 percent of the 2100 mile trail is on public roads and a huge area of wilderness is protected for the future. (Bryson pg. 112)
Those who spend time with nature often become its caretakers. Yet all too often the only contact many of us have with the natural world are beautifully manicured lawns, and heavily fertilized, golf courses that add to the destruction of natural habitats and the purity of groundwater. If we spend more time with nature, perhaps we will realize what we have to lose.
But appreciation alone won’t undo the harm we have caused. Therefore the next step is for us to recognize that small changes add up to big impact.
Every can we recycle is one less can that goes into a landfill.
Every degree we turn our air conditioner up or our heat down places less pollution into the air.
Every gallon of water we save in our home through a saving device on our showers and toilets leaves more safe drinking water for the future.
If every household in the United States replaced just 4 incandescent bulbs with compact florescent bulbs there would be no need for new energy generation. (coejl)
Every change we make does make a difference.
Finally, we can learn about the issue and speak up. An eastern teaching notes,
If you are thinking a year ahead, sow a seed. If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking a hundred years ahead, educate people. (Kuan Tsuroom)
Change happens when we increase our awareness of environmental issues and demand that our government start making responsible choices. We must become more aware of what is taking place, and demand that the future of the environment be moved to the top of the political agenda.
Our leaders DO respond to political pressure on these issues. In fact, in response to public pressure, Congress has recently been focusing more on energy conservation than on new drilling on public lands. (recent PEQ postcard) Our voices do get heard.
The Midrash teaches that one day an old man was planting a fig tree when a Roman general happened to pass by. He laughed at the old man and said, “You Jews are stupid. Don’t you realize it will take twenty years before that tree will grow enough to give fruit, and you will be long dead by then.”
The old man answered, “When I was a small child I could eat fruit because those who came before me had planted trees. Am I not obliged to do the same for the next generation? (Leviticus Rabbah 25.5)
The old man asked himself “Am I leaving this place better than I found it?” and his answer led him to act. Do our children and grandchildren deserve a world that is clean and healthy? Do they deserve to live in a planet that can sustain life and can surround them with beauty? That is the question before us. And as 50,000 barrels of oil spills into the Gulf of Mexico per day the question is more pressing than ever.
