Download Climate Change and Global Warming

Temple Israel Confirmation Class 5766
Homework Assignment for January 18, 2006
Shema Koleinu: Making Our Voices Heard
1. Choose ONE of the following three issues.
a. Climate Change and Global Warming
b. Economic Justice
c. Civil Rights
2. Read the information from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC)
regarding the Reform Jewish Movement’s position on the ONE issue you selected.
3. Using the resources we have given you, write a position letter to either Senator Coleman
or Senator Dayton. You should try to convince the senator to agree with your position
and the Reform Movement’s position on the issue you have selected. Use the following
guidelines in writing your letter.
a. Be personal – introduce yourself and why this issue is important to you.
b. Be concise – present 3 or 4 compelling points about the issue.
c. Be specific – explain exactly what you want your senator to accomplish.
d. Be polite – thank the senator for his time and attention to the issue.
4. Send your letter to Wendy Schwartz. It serves as your homework assignment.
If you choose to send your letter to your senator, include your name address and phone
number and send it to the following address:
Senator Norm Coleman
320 Senate Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
800-642-6041
Senator Mark Dayton
SR-123, Russell Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
888-224-9043
Climate Change and Global Warming
Status
Global warming refers to a rise in the global average temperature due to the emission of
greenhouse gases produced by pollutants, which trap heat in the atmosphere. The
temepature increase is accompanied with changing patterns of precipitation frequency and
intensity, changes in soil moisture, and a rising sea level. In other words, greenhouse
gases act like glass in the greenhouse: they are transparent to sunlight, which warms the
Earth, but they prevent heat from escaping, keeping the Earth warmer than its natural
state.
Human activity contributes in creating greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide, the most
important human-made greenhouse gas, is released primarily by the burning of fossil fuels
like coal, oil, and natural gas. Its concentration has risen by nearly 30% over its value in
pre-industrial times.
There is a world-wide consensus among climate scientists that global average temperature
will rise over the next 100 years if the release of greenhouse gases from human activity
continues to grow.
While the pace and magnitude of future climate changes are still uncertain, there is
widespread agreement among scientists and government officials on the key aspects of
global warming. This consensus led to negotiation and signing of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit held at Rio de Janiero.
The treaty embodied a voluntary commitment by industrial countries to return their
emissions to 1990 levels by year 2010. The treaty was strengthened in 1997 by addition of
the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for mandatory reductions of emissions by industrial
countries.
Legislative Summary
Background
The road to the Kyoto Protocol began in June 1992, when over 150 States signed the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Rio "Earth Summit." In doing so,
they recognized climate change as "a common concern of humankind," and they sought to
forge a global strategy "to protect the climate system for present and future generations."
This Convention emphasized that developed countries are mainly responsible for historic
and current emissions and must take the lead in combating climate change; that emissions
from developing countries will rise as they industrialize; that states which are economically
dependent on coal and oil will face special difficulties when energy demand changes; and
that countries with fragile ecosystems, such as small island states and arid countries, are
particularly vulnerable to the expected impacts of climate change.
Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards
The Religious Action Center has particularly become involved with the campaign against a
legislative rider that would prevent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards from
being raised. These standards set the amount of miles-per-gallon that a corporate fleet of
cars can legally produce. The higher we raise CAFE standards, the less gas we use,
preventing global warming, saving money, and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
The single greatest step to prevent global warming is to raise CAFE standards. This spring,
a compromise was reached in the Senate via a "motion to instruct the conferees" of the
Transportation Appropriations Committee. This compromise includes conducting a study of
CAFE standards by the Department of Transportation and the National Academy of Sciences.
However, this compromise must be passed through a conference committee.
Position of the Reform Jewish Movement
In 1991, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) passed a resolution calling upon our
congregations and congregants to consciously modify their behavior in order to preserve our
planet, as well as to ensure that the economic and health costs of environmental hazards do
not disproportionately fall upon poor and minority communities. In 1998, the Central
Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) passed a resolution, "Confronting the Challenge of
Climate Change," which calls on the federal government to negotiate, sign, and ratify
binding international agreements to minimize climate change; and to appropriate the funds
and adopt the policies necessary to meet these agreements. This resolution also calls upon
Jewish organizations and Jewish individuals to conduct energy audits of private homes and
communal facilities.
Global warming is one of the most important issues facing the environmental Jewish
community, and we will devote considerable energy to assure the ratification of the Kyoto
Protocol. We have helped to organize press conferences around the country at which many
reform rabbis spoke out about climate change and how it may affect future generations.
This year, the CCAR passed a strong resolution entitled the "National Energy Policy," which
calls on households, schools, synagogues, and camps to develop environmentally sound
policies and (among other things) calls on Congress and the Administration to set aside the
concerns of special interest and:
 Encourage the development of alternative energy sources
 Close a loophole allowing sport utility vehicles, minivans, and pickup trucks (over
50% of passenger vehicles sold) to meet lower fuel economy standards than cars
 Raise CAFE standards for all passenger vehicles to a minimum of 45 miles per gallon
by 2010 and 65 miles per gallon by 2020
 Support investment in environmentally friendly energy technologies
 Phase out all subsidies for coal, oil, and nuclear industries by 2005
 Provide tax credits for investments to make homes and buildings more energy
efficient
 Create progressively strict emissions standards, including carbon dioxide emissions,
for all power plants regardless of fuel source or age
Jewish Values and Climate Change
Many Jewish texts inform our belief that protecting the environment is a Jewish obligation,
especially when it comes to preventing global warming. For example, Deuteronomy 30:20
teaches us: "Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live." From this
verse, we see that we must learn how to live within the ecological limits of the earth in our
generation so that we will not compromise the ecological or economic security of those who
come after us. Genesis 2:15 teaches us that "the human being was placed in the Garden of
Eden to till it and to tend it." Global warming threatens to disrupt ecosystems across the
planet, wreaking havoc for myriad forms of life and contributing to the extinction of species.
We must learn to live on this planet in a manner which allows the rest of Creation to thrive
as well. As succinctly stated in the CCAR resolution on climate change, "Together, the
people of the world can, and must, use our God-given gifts to develop innovative strategies
to meet the needs of all who currently dwell on this planet without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs."
Economic Justice
Status
In November 2001, economists declared that the United States economy had been in a
recession since the previous March, ending ten years of sustained economic growth. Before
the attacks of September 11, 2001, the labor market was already suffering and Congress
was focused on the weakness in the U.S. economy and the means to stimulate it away from
or perhaps out of a recession. The nation's unemployment rate jumped to a six-year high of
5.8 percent in December; in April 2002, the unemployment rate was 6 percent. The year
2000 will ultimately serve as the high point in our nation's decade of economic growth. But
even in 2000, when poverty rates fell, there were some troubling trends. In recent years,
those who remained poor have become poorer. The depth of poverty remained unchanged
between 1999 and 2000, but in both years, the average poor person fell further below the
poverty line than at any time since 1979. In addition, income disparities between high- and
low-income families - as well as between high- and middle-income families - remained at or
near their highest levels since before World War II, having grown significantly in the 1990s,
as shown in a recent Congressional Budget Office study.
Legislative Summary
Food Stamps Program Reauthorization
The Food Stamp Program, first introduced in the 1930s and extended nationwide in 1974,
is widely believed to be the single most important anti-hunger program in America. On
October 5, 2001, the House passed its version of the Farm Security and Rural
Investment Act, H.R. 2646 (the Farm Bill), by a vote of 291-120. The House bill includes
$3.3 billion in additional funding for nutrition assistance programs over the next ten years.
Although limited, the House version of the bill acknowledges that the Food Stamp Program,
our nation's first line of defense against hunger, needs significant improvements. Currently,
only 57 percent of those eligible for food assistance are getting help, down from 74 percent
in 1994. Before the House voted on the Farm Bill, the Administration released its Food and
Agricultural Policy Report, which noted serious gaps in our nation's food safety net.
On February 13, 2002, the Senate passed its version of the Farm Bill (S. 1731) by a vote of
58 to 40. The Senate bill restores food stamp eligibility to legal immigrants who have
resided in the United States for at least five years and also increases funding for the Food
Stamp Program by $7.6 billion. President Bush supported the restoration of benefits to legal
immigrants.
On May 1, 2002, the Farm Bill Conference Report was officially filed. On May 2, the House
passed the bill and on May 8, the Senate passed the bill. On May 13, 2002, President Bush
signed the bill into law, stating: This bill is also a compassionate bill. This law means that
legal immigrants can now receive help and food stamps after being here for five years. It
means that you can have an elderly farm worker, somebody here legally in America who's
worked hard to make a living and who falls on hard times, that person can receive help from
a compassionate government. It means that you can have a head of a family who's been
working hard, been here for five years, been a part of our economy, been legally working.
And that person falls on hard times, our government should help them with food stamps.
And this bill allows that to happen.
Judaism and Food Stamps
Our harvest festivals remind us to rejoice in our abundance, but we must also remember
that the value we place on compassion and our tradition of generosity compel us to act on
behalf of those less fortunate. Again and again our biblical tradition demands that we share
our resources, for they belong not to us, but to God. "God says to Israel, 'My children,
whenever you give sustenance to the poor, I impute it to you as though you gave
sustenance to Me.' Does God then eat and drink? No, but whenever you give food to the
poor, God accounts it to you as if you gave food to God" (Midrash Tannaim on Numbers
28:2). Jewish tradition also teaches us to help the immigrant. The Torah commands us:
"You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt"
(Exodus 22:20). The message is clear and consistent, we must welcome and respect the
stranger and grant equal justice for all God's children. Furthermore, we learn, "in a city
where there are both Jews and Gentiles, the collectors of alms collect from both Jews and
Gentiles; they feed the poor of both, visit the sick of both... and restore the lost goods of
both, for the sake of Shalom" (Jerusalem Talmud, Dema'i IV:6).
Position of the Reform Jewish Movement
The Reform Movement has always acted upon fundamental Jewish ideals by advocating for
children, the poor, disenfranchised, the elderly, the sick, the disabled and the "stranger
among us." In past resolutions we have called for full employment programs, social welfare
entitlements for public housing, day care, family planning, health and legal services and
income maintenance assistance programs. In 1973, the URJ urged Congress to expand
social programs, and in 1981 opposed efforts to cut funding to education, job training, food
subsidies and many other social programs that were in danger of losing some, if not all, of
their funding.
Just before the passage of the 1996 welfare reform law, the URJ passed a resolution entitled
"Our Economic Commitment to America's Poor." This 1995 resolution recognized the
importance of prudent fiscal reforms and welfare reform, but asserted that these reforms
should not be made on the backs of the most needy. The resolution further asserted that
"the United States government [must]"ensure an adequate, federally guaranteed safety net
to protect our nation's most vulnerable populations." Any legislation that does not meet the
above standard should not be passed by Congress or signed into law by the President.
Economic Justice and Jewish Values
Hebrew scripture details for us one of the world's earliest social welfare systems. We are
taught to leave the corners of our fields and the gleanings of our harvest to the poor
(Leviticus 19:9), and to open our hands and lend to people whatever it is they need
(Deuteronomy 7-11). We learn that helping fellow human beings in need, tzedakah, is not
simply a matter of charity, but of responsibility, righteousness, and justice. The Bible does
not merely command us to give to the poor, but to advocate on their behalf. We are told in
Proverbs 31:9, to "speak up, judge righteously, champion the poor and the needy."
Jewish history also provides us with an example for helping the needy. During Talmudic
times, much of tzedakah was done though tax-financed, community-run programs that
provided form the poor, the hungry, the ill, and the children - a close parallel to the
entitlement security we fought, and continue to fight, to preserve in our society today.
Civil Rights
Background
Narrowly construed, civil rights are the non-political rights of citizenry. In the United States
those rights guaranteed by the by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution. More
broadly, however, civil rights refer to all those rights that allow a citizen to fully participate
in civic society; the struggle for civil rights is a the struggle to achieve equality of
opportunity for all, regardless of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation or
disability. In the twentieth century, men and women fought for equal access to voting
booths and worked to eliminate discrimination in the housing market, the work place and in
government services. Forty years after the signing of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964
and Voting Rights Act of 1965, the United States has done much to erase legal
discrimination, but the legacy of racial inequality has yet to be erased. From ensuring the
rights of Native Americans to fighting for the rights of gays and lesbians to marry, the
struggle for civil rights in the twentieth-first century has grown to include a more diverse
America and a greater variety of issues. Nevertheless, it seems clear that even as we work
to extend civil rights protections, we must vigilantly guard those rights earned in earlier
decades of struggle.
The Reform Movement works on a variety of civil rights issues including GLBT rights, hate
crimes legislation, the death penalty and other criminal justice reforms, and Native
American rights. Our policies and advocacy also address the affirmative action debate,
disability rights and legislative protections from religious discrimination in the workplace.
As Jews, we are intimately acquainted with the effects of bigotry. Our ancestors knew both
the continuing indignities of second-class citizenship and the constant fear of xenophobic
violence. Our history teaches us that discrimination against any members of a community
threatens the security of the entire community.
Jews and the Civil Rights Movement
American Jews played a significant role in the founding and funding of some of the most
important civil rights organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP), the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordination
Committee (SNCC). During the Civil Rights Movement, Jewish activists represented a
disproportionate number of whites involved in the struggle. Jews made up half of the young
people who participated in the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964. Leaders of the Reform
Movement were arrested with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in St. Augustine, Florida, in
1964 after a challenge to racial segregation in public accommodations. Most famously,
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched arm-in-arm with Dr. King in his 1965 March on
Selma. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were drafted in the
conference room of Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. The Jewish community has
continued its support of civil rights laws addressing persistent discrimination in voting,
housing and employment against not only women and people of color but also in the gay
and lesbian community and the disabled community.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 Reauthorization
Background
An important civil rights issue facing our nation right now is the reauthorization of the
Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. The VRA, which was drafted in the library of the Religious
Action Center, is widely viewed as the nation’s most effective piece of civil rights legislation.
Prior to the Civil War, African Americans were almost completely disenfranchised. Even after
enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, in 1870, which gave all men,
regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude the right to vote, many states
continued to enforce various methods to prevent people of color from voting, including
literacy tests, poll taxes, the disenfranchisement of former inmates, intimidation, threats,
and even violence. Until 1965, federal laws did not challenge the authority of states and
localities to establish and administer their own voting requirements.
The VRA sought to fix these problems and effectively remove all voting barriers for African
Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans. For the first time in
American history, all adults were able to register and vote. It empowered minority
communities to have a greater voice in the election of local, state, and federal office
holders.
Legislation
Among other provisions, the VRA prohibits discrimination based on race, and requires
certain jurisdictions to provide bilingual assistance to voters whose first language is not
English. Section 5 of the Act requires federal "pre-clearance" before specific jurisdictions
with a history of restricting minority voting rights can make changes in their current voting
practices or procedures. It also grants Department of Justice the authority to appoint federal
observers to monitor elections to ensure that they are conducted in a fair manner. These
key provisions are set to expire in 2007 if they are not reauthorized by Congress.
Discriminatory Profiling
Background
Discriminatory police profiling is a significant factor contributing to the disproportionate
prosecution and punishment of minorities. Police utilize profiling to determine which drivers
should be stopped and searched. This method of law enforcement has been criticized for
focusing on minorities, who are targeted based on race, ethnicity, and sexual preference, as
criminal suspects. In April 2005, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released a report
describing findings of clear and significant racial disparities in the rate at which motorists
are searched by local law enforcement. Further, the report demonstrates that while black
and Hispanic drivers were more likely than whites to be searched by law enforcement during
traffic stops, they were less likely to be harboring contraband.
Jewish Values and Civil Rights
Judaism teaches respect for the fundamental rights of others is each person's duty to God.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor" (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a).
Equality in the Jewish tradition is based on the concept that all of God's children are
"created in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27). From that flows the biblical injunction "You
shall have one law for the stranger and the citizen alike: for I Adonai am your God"
(Leviticus 24:22).