(Source: Eric Kounce)
Creation is being replaced with destruction. As Jews, we are tasked with remembering, conserving, pursuing peace and justice. On this first night of Passover 5776, which is also Earth Day 47, we recount 10 of the plagues of fossil fuels, which are negatively affecting all countries and most species.
1. oil drilling and coal mining
2. fracking
3. gas guzzling
4. subsidizing fossil fuels and oil corporations
5. overuse of plastics
6. wasting energy
7. using a finite resource as if it’s infinite
8. not putting a price on carbon
9. not boldly transitioning to safe, clean, renewable energies
10. condemning our children and their children and future generations to a world of climate chaos
We can no longer be fossil fools for cheap energy with high eco-costs to satisfy greed and the idolatry of profit. We should no longer be enslaved by the pharaohs of environmental destruction and their doomsday cult.
Instead, we need to free ourselves and all others from the bondage of fossil fuel dependence, which contributes to global warming and its attendant air and water pollution, accelerating species extinction, melting glaciers, evaporating lakes, spreading disease, extreme weather events, climate refugees, and international insecurity. We need to escape the slavery of the carbon age, so we can eventually enter the promised land of sustainability. We must liberate our people – who are all people – from environmental bondage and become the free, healthy, and holy people we are meant to be.
To get involved with this issue, plug in to COEJL, The Shalom Center, 350.org, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club, and/or other environmental organizations.
Dan Brook, Ph.D. teaches sociology and political science in the San Francisco Bay Area, yet is always simultaneously in Eden, Exile, Egypt, Sinai, and the Promised Land.