Our fate rests with the sea:

With every breath

We breathe air from the sea.

Yet, Listen to the sea:

It cries from overfishing — greed and gluttony.

It cries from pollution — avarice and wastefulness.

It cries from heat — carbon consumption and apathy.

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Ushavtem mayim b'sason — draw water in joy — is a classic song danced to by millions of Jews at celebrations worldwide. When we sing and dance about water, we are praying that Israel will have enough for the coming year. Currently, demand for water is high, and Israel's fresh-water resources are quickly drying up. Israeli society is working hard to solve the region's water shortages before they become a crisis. Developments are being made to conserve water in agriculture, industry and home. There are initiatives to reduce water consumption, reuse semi-dirty grey water, and rethink techniques to produce or collect water. They fuse cutting-edge technology with ancient agricultural practices.

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Book review by Dr. Alon Tal.

Of the five controversies that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators left to be considered in the final status talks, the one revolving around water is, presumably, the most readily resolved. While the right of return and the status of Jerusalem are not given to speedy resolution, the water issue can be resolved by technological fixes, pragmatism, ever-improving science and better management — all of which would lead to reasonable compromises and progress on the water issue. Most Israelis and supporters of Israel agree that the present hydrological conditions faced by the Palestinians are untenable and unsustainable. It is unfortunate, therefore, that Mark Zeitoun has chosen to write an extensively researched tome that is really a polemic that does little to break the present deadlock or help the Palestinian cause he so eloquently advocates. The theoretical basis on which Power and Water in the Middle East rests is too rigid to capture the complex and dynamic regional reality that drives water allocations and policy, and the book often lapses into outdated facts and adversarial rhetoric.

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BEER SHEVA (May 22, 2009) — For almost a year now, the Israeli public has been the target of a highly effective public relations campaign by the country's Water Authority. Stark images of desiccated humans cracking like hardened desert soil, along with the more comely admonitions for abbreviated showers from supermodel Bar Refaeli, reinforce existing perceptions that Israel's chronic water scarcity is getting worse.

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"Human beings believe, in their arrogance, that if they continue developing the world on the basis of an ever-expanding science and technology, they will eventually achieve an environment that will afford everyone unlimited gratification of the senses and a life of untrammeled ease and pleasure. There can be no greater error than this." — Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler.

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NAGOYA, Japan — Jerusalem faces unique challenges and opportunities. Conservation of our natural and built heritage is a solemn commitment, but we must also assess and implement the potential for urban revitalization. We need to expand our mass-transit system (the first of its kind in Israel), encourage active transport (biking and walking) and focus on development of the city's strengths, such as cultural and religious tourism, while not neglecting to address its weaknesses, in order to provide comprehensive solutions for solid waste and sewage in a transboundary area of geopolitical conflict.

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Nuclear energy isn’t quite a fossil fuel, since unlike coal, natural gas and petroleum, nuclear is not powered by fuel that developed over millennia from pressurized dead organisms — but nuclear isn’t renewable, either, since it uses a finite non-renewable fuel source. Nuclear power also presents many environmental problems, such as how to handle its radioactive waste product, and, in extreme circumstances, is disastrous, such as in Chernobyl, Ukraine, and recently in Japan.

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Human beings depend on a sufficient supply of high quality fresh water for their survival. Because of this essential dependence, Jewish sources equate water with life. By recognizing our dependence on water, and ultimately our dependence on God, we can strengthen our appreciation and protection of our precious natural resources, and our relationship with the Creator of the world.

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BEIT DAGAN, Israel (Dec. 7, 2012) — By 2050, agricultural yields will have to increase by 50 to 70 percent in the developed world and 100 percent in the developing world to meet the food needs of the 9.3 billion people on the planet, according to Prof. Ada Rafaeli, associate director of Israel's Agricultural Research Organization, the research arm of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The organization is marking its 90th anniversary this week with a conference on the coming world food crisis.

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There are two major types of solar power technologies: photovoltaic and solar thermal.

Photovoltaic solar power utilizes the photoelectric effect. A semiconductor material absorbs light and the photons in the light beam are routed through the semiconductor and harnessed in the form of direct-current electricity. The semiconductor cells are electrically tied together in what is commonly called a solar module. These modules can be used to power a direct-current source, such as a battery bank or a water pump, or more commonly the power can be converted into alternating-current power to be used in a home or fed into the electric grid.

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NEW YORK (Sept. 16, 2011) — Hydraulic fracturing and in-situ retorting for oil in Israel should be banned in Israel pending further research into the environmental effects of the relatively new fossil-fuel extraction techniques, according to a new report issued by Israel’s Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael / Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) at the initiation of the Green Zionist Alliance.

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Holiness can be created anywhere; it is not confined to the synagogue or home. In Judaism’s holistic approach to life, the exercise of making a livelihood is critical — the presence of God also should be felt in the way we conduct our business. There is a considerable classical and modern literature on Jewish business ethics, and now that area of ethics should include environmentalism. In Jewish environmental ethics, one of the most important ways of expressing kedusha — holiness — is through the greening of physical space, wherever it may be.

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At different times in history, Jews have engaged in growing crops, tending fruit trees and shepherding animals in the Land of Israel. These activities were critical to provide food to sustain Jews living in the land. Yet they also may have presented challenges to environmental sustainability in the Land of Israel. Jewish tradition can teach us about sustaining the land over time, both in pre-modern times and today.

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SARAJEVO (Sept. 1, 2013) — What happens when Jews sit down in the same room with Muslims? We ask lots of questions.

The Muslims ask:

• What is the significance of the kippah?
• Why can’t you do anything on Shabbat?
• And what is Zionism?

The Jews ask:

• What does it mean for you to cover your hair?
• What is the range of opinions in Islam about homosexuality?
• What would your ideal solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be?

And in a twist on the classical Christian question, a Zionist asks: What would Herzl do?

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KIBBUTZ KETURA (Dec. 26, 2009) — The folk rock musician James Taylor laments in one of his songs, “And in between what might have been and what has come to pass, a misbegotten guess alas and bits of broken glass.”

The ongoing tragic saga of the Arab-Israeli conflict can be summed up in this poignant line. This conflict repeats its refrain of violence and dehumanization over and over again. Like a song, its lyrics do not change.

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DURBAN, South Africa (Dec. 5, 2011) — Negotiations at the climate talks here are gaining momentum as the senior representatives of the countries who will take the reins arrive. This may constitute a turning point on the road to an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which is due to expire in a year.

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DURBAN, South Africa (Nov. 28, 2011) — Two years ago, negotiations over a new worldwide agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions “rolled over and died” at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen. Attempts were made to revive them at last year's conference in Cancun. This year's conference, which opened today, must try to “stabilize the patient’s condition.” In the meantime, fewer than 12 months remain until the previous agreement, known as the Kyoto Protocol, expires. Despite all of this, the impression here is that the countries that hold the key to remedying the situation are not feeling the sense of urgency necessary to spur signing the agreement required to stabilize the rise in temperature which is projected at a maximum of two degrees over the next 100 years. And there is a broad consensus that an inability to meet this target will have disastrous effects worldwide.

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For hundreds of years, humans have used wind to pump water and grind grain, mostly with small windmills. Large, modern wind turbines are used to generate electricity for individual use and to feed into the electric grid. Wind turbines generally have three blades and, because higher altitudes yield higher wind velocities and lower turbulences, the turbines are mounted on tall towers to capture as much energy as possible. As the blades turn, the central shaft spins a generator to make electricity.

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Just as the majority of all people in the world live near the sea, so too do the majority of Jews. But Jews have a special connection to the sea. Israel, our homeland, has four seas — and they are all in trouble. The Galilee has been so overpumped that the remaining fresh water may become salinated from saltwater springs; about 900 million tons of pollution dumped annually into the Mediterranean has nearly wiped out the Mediterranean monk seal, native to Israel’s coast; higher water temperatures brought on by climate change are bleaching the coral reefs of the Red Sea; and the shrinking Dead Sea is projected to disappear entirely by the year 2050.

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When one thinks of the stereotypical Jewish Long Islander, one does not usually think “environmentalist.” But take 34 Jewish educators from Long Island to Israel — from a diverse array of backgrounds, from 20 years old to it’s-not-polite-to-ask — and you get a group of passionate, caring people who are looking at Israel through an environmental lens and generating amazing questions and solutions. That's what happened on the SAJES-sponsored visit to Israel that I accompanied in February 2008.

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Maybe Kermit was wrong — maybe it actually is easy to be green. Or, at the very least, it is pretty easy to start being green. There are many projects that you can do that will not just green your home, but will keep the green in your pocket, too.

Plant a garden

There’s no better summer treat than fresh fruits and vegetables grown in your own backyard. And no plot of land is too small for a garden, even if that garden is only a few potted cherry-tomato plants on your windowsill. Plant trees As long as you’re planting, plant big! Trees around a home can help cool a house in the summer and keep a house warmer in the winter. Specifically, trees on a house’s southern side only help cool a house if their shade extends over the roof, so it’s best to plant evergreen trees on the northern side of the house to help block cold winter winds, and deciduous trees (the kinds that lose their leaves in the fall) on the house’s eastern and western sides to protect the house from summer sun.

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COPENHAGEN (Dec. 14, 2009) — In honor of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, the city of Copenhagen had an especially optimistic ambiance. Despite the optimism, it could be said that the conference planners miscalculated in bringing the world's policy makers and the decade's most important conference on global warming to the Danish frost. Situating this conference in the Sahara desert may have resulted in a less amiable conference — but a more effective one.

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Moses took a wrong turn leading the Israelites out of Egypt, the old joke goes, and instead the Jewish people ended up in the rare spot in the Middle East without oil. As Arthur Herman noted recently in the New York Post, it’s now known that Israel has about as much oil as Saudi Arabia. Well, sort of. On his way to blindly embracing the thought of Israel as the world’s next oil superpower, Herman ignored details that make all the difference.

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"One generation goes, another comes," reads Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), "but the Earth remains the same forever." The sun will rise, the wind will blow and the rivers will continue to flow into the sea, uncontrollable no matter what we do. As the most recent natural phenomenon of Sandy has shown us, nature is so much larger than us. The Earth is unpredictable and holds endless power and strength. We as humans tend to forget that we are partners with God in creation. Part of our role is to maintain the planet's homeostasis, to keep Earth healthy — because when the Earth gets sick, it affects us all. We must tune into the Earth's messages, as they are divine whispers, reminding us to come home. However, humankind has chosen to ignore these whispers. Even as whispers turn to shouts, and shouts to desperate cries, we continue to destroy the Earth's resources, to pollute its waters, poison its air and skew perfect ecosystems with our mindless and power-driven actions.

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For most of my professional career, I have researched environmental issues in Israel. While issues of water scarcity and loss of open spaces loom large among the country’s problems, the more I study the more I’ve become convinced that many of its environmental problems are rooted in underlying socio-political problems. This could be direct — as when the inequitable distribution of land resources favoring Jews over Arabs leads to wasteful use of land resources — or this could be indirect, as when the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and between Israel and Arab states deflects resources away from pressing social needs like the environment and education, in favor of military expenditures.

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When the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in December 2004, women died, in part, because they could not swim, because they put the needs of their children first, and, most tragically of all, they drowned in their homes because they would not flee after debris had torn off their clothes. In the years since the tsunami, these shocking facts have motivated NGOs to develop programs to prepare women for the increasing number of disasters expected to result from climate change.

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Attending Jewish sleep-away camp for nearly a decade’s worth of summers taught me some invaluable life lessons, such as how to sweep sand out of a craggy floored cabin, how to rap the Birkat HaMazon, and the value of tikkun olam — the Jewish commitment to repairing the world. I learned that we are all responsible for one another, even in a cabin with 14 girls hiding behind each other when “spin the bottle” took a turn for the worse.

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After the Beginning — whether we call it a six-day Creation or a Big Bang — every creation embodies destruction and every destruction embodies creation. A sapling replaces a seed. A wildfire clears space for new growth. The world developed — whether by design or evolution — into a natural balance. As people, we are part of that balance, but we also have the power to upset it, to cause disproportionate destruction when we create.

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