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Jewish Coalition Opposes Bush's Approach on Climate

JEWISH COALITION OPPOSES BUSH’S APPROACH ON CLIMATE, CALLS HIS ACTIONS “GROSSLY INADEQUATE”

NEW YORK, June 11, 2001 – Responding to President Bush’s announcement this morning on global climate change, the national chair of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) issued a statement opposing his approach, saying “The President is not providing leadership at home, and he isn’t providing leadership abroad– he is instead delaying domestic action and obstructing international solutions to global warming.”

 A broad diversity of Jewish and Christian leaders and organizations concerned about energy policy and climate change have become vocal in recent weeks. On May 18, 41 senior religious leaders issued “Let There Be Light”: Energy Conservation and God’s Creation – An Open Letter to the President, the Congress, and the American People.

“Humankind has a fundamental choice of priorities for its future,” wrote the senior leaders representing all streams of Judaism, as well as Protestant, Orthodox, and historic Black communions. “[W]e have a moral obligation to choose the safest, cleanest and most sustainable sources of energy to protect and preserve God's creation.”

 As national religious leaders call the nation to reflect on the morality of energy policy, congregations and other religious institutions around the country are getting involved in the issue. Interfaith coalitions in 20 states are mobilizing churches and synagogues to respond to the challenge of climate change. These interfaith efforts are being led by the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life – a collaboration of 29 national Jewish organizations across the spectrum of Jewish life and 13 regional affiliates – and the National Council of Churches, embracing 39 Protestant, Orthodox, and historic Black communions.

“President Bush’s approach to this urgent and historic challenge is grossly inadequate,” said Sharon Bloome, national chair of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life. “The President has not committed the US to the dramatic reductions in domestic emissions that are both necessary and possible. Instead, he is focusing attention on the need for more research and making US action contingent upon the actions of developing nations…. We must not wait to take action, and we must not rely on a voluntary solution.”

 The full text of the statement follows.

STATEMENT OF SHARON BLOOME
National Chair, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life

In the last few months, the Jewish community has been dismayed by President Bush’s actions with respect to global warming – abandoning a pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and withdrawing the US from the Kyoto Protocol. Today, the President told us that he accepts the findings of the scientific community on climate change. Yet, he is still avoiding the mandatory emissions reductions believed to be necessary to address the problem.

President Bush’s approach to this urgent and historic challenge is grossly inadequate. The President has not committed the US to the dramatic reductions in domestic emissions that are both necessary and possible. Instead, he is focusing attention on the need for more research and making US action contingent upon the actions of developing nations – who per capita emissions are a fraction of those of us in the US. Though President Bush is now proclaiming that his energy plan will accomplish emissions reductions through conservation and energy efficiency, the President’s plan calls for increasing the use of coal, which would dramatically increase US greenhouse gas emissions. The President is not providing leadership at home, and he isn’t providing leadership abroad – he is instead delaying domestic action and obstructing international solutions to global warming.

Suffering the consequences of global warming is not the voluntary choice of people around the world or future generations. Yet, an unsuccessful approach to climate change may well condemn our grandchildren to suffer the effects of accelerating climate change and cause serious harm to the poor around the world and the health and well-being of all life on Earth. We must not wait to take action, and we must not rely on a voluntary solution.

The Jewish community’s concern about climate change is rooted in our religious values and teachings. The Torah instructs us “to till and to tend” the garden in which we live, to protect and preserve God's creation. We are instructed to “choose life,” so that we and our descendants may live, protecting future generations through our actions in the present. Pursuing justice – for all, everywhere around the world, and particularly the most vulnerable - is at the very core of our tradition.

Today, global climate change threatens the health and well-being of the poor and vulnerable around the world. It threatens the prospects of future generations. And it threatens the environment. We therefore have an obligation to address this issue quickly and effectively. And because citizens in the US are so disproportionately responsible for global warming –less than 5% of the world’s population yet produce almost a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions – we, the United States, have a unique responsibility to the global community to commit to substantially reducing our greenhouse gas emissions as part of a binding international treaty.  We can choose the safest, cleanest and most sustainable sources of energy, we can curb our waste of energy, and we can, eventually, wean our economy of its dependence upon fossil fuels.

On behalf of the organized American Jewish community, I urge President Bush to reconsider his approach to global climate change and energy policy so that we as a nation can fulfill our global responsibility.

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