What changed from 2009 to 2011? There are several events that caused me to go to “the green side”. Most of all, Camp Shomria helped show me the beautiful things that being environmentally friendly can do. When a camper attends this moshava (camp/colony in Hebrew), they are emerged in a village of youth. These youth create their own culture and innovate the camp. At camp, we planted and cared for a garden daily. Tender care enabled the garden to yield produce. Sometimes there was enough produce to make meals for the entire camp. Then, we built an amphitheater using recycled tires covered in clay. Since my depature, the camp has announced that is has uite the ambition for the summer of 2011. Camp Shomria intends to have dozens of chickens and a cow. The camp plans to ets a majority of its milk and eggs from this organic source. In addition, they showed me that compost can actually work and that recycling is not really that hard. Also, my path to be Kosher became increasingly difficult. Instead of worrying about milk and meat, I cut out meat all together. Each day I abstain from meat eating I not only save the animals. Factory farms have one less hamburger to make. Those factories would burn coal to get their energy. A brief television program about how sparse water is in some parts of the world still resonates in my mind. Shortly after, I met Israelis who see the water crisis on a daily basis. On these occasions, I discovered that all humans need water to live, but do not always have a faucet to get it from. If all that was not enough, I read that the Torah tells Jews to be “green”. A majority of the Torah’s laws are written with farmers and agriculture in mind. Leviticus specifically tells us to not over farm the land and to appreciate the fruits the Earth provides us. It just goes to show how much can change in two years.
To my surprise and delight, going green has been fairly easy. Of all my ventures, I would say becoming vegetarian is the toughest feat. Even that seems to be getting simpler to do day in and day out. In the case of recycling, all I had to do was be conscious of my paper usage and where I put paper that no longer needs to be kept. Did you know that the regular recycling will also take cardboard? To me, this meant that there was a way to save all those trees that become tissue and cereal boxes. The easiest thing to become greener, that I am doing, is to be more cognizant of shutting or unplugging electronics as I leave the room. This reduces my family’s consumption of fossil fuels. As a result, my family has even started picked up on the eco-friendly habits. We are becoming a “green” household. I expect the progress to continue forward. All it took was gentle reminding. The key to our success has been consistency. We came to the realization that little things are never actually little. Just as an actor can never have a “small role”, an ecologist never does a “small task”. Earth can be saved, but every one of us actors has to put on the show. Life is not that different when we do these things, but our future descendants’ lives are being saved.
Every once and a while, Tu B’Shevat and Martin Luther King Jr. Day occur during the same week. Martin Luther King Jr. had a worthy cause that people did not always listen to. In a country fighting two wars and lifting itself from a fallen economy, the environment is usually put on the back burner. A report by Yale University in 2008 told us that the United States is the 39th greenest country. Israel is the 49th. Tu B’Shevat is a tough time for Jewish Americans to make a difference because it is in the pit of winter. One way we can help the Earth is by donating money to help the Jewish organizations plant trees in Israel. With the election of President Barak Obama, Martin Luther King Jr.’s dreams have become a reality. Why do we say that an eco-friendly Earth is impossible?
What are my hopes for the future of the environment? First of all, I am sure that we can each increase our recycling efforts in the world. I believe that we can transform ourselves into a world that does not have to throw away paper (except for tissues and toilet paper). Personally, I know I need to reduce the time I take in the shower. I know I can turn my 10 to 20 minutes into 5 to 10 with a little bit of effort. In my household, I hope to set up a small to medium sized compost. Composting is a wonderful way to reduce waste. Anything that is not meat, fish, or poultry can be composted. My only challenge is to find a way to keep animals in the backyard away from the container it will be in. As a country, I believe we can rise up as a nation to become a leader on the next list Yale releases. As a Jew, I think we can still honor the Torah and Tu B’Shevat by planting trees in Israel and making sure all Israelis, Jewish or not, have sufficient drinking water. As a world, I think that we need to equally distribute our water and protect our animals. A polar bear should have the freedom to roam the Arctic, just as we roam our cities. Call me a hippie, but I think with a little bit of spirit and work, the Earth can be green as Martin Luther King Jr’s dream is a reality.
Cited Source
"The World's Greenest Countries - Newsweek." Newsweek - National News, World News, Business, Health, Technology, Entertainment, and More - Newsweek. Harman Newsweek, 23 Jan. 2008. Web. 17 Jan. 2011.
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