Israel:Blog Action Day for the Environment · Global Voices
Maya Norton

This post is part of Global Voices Online's contribution to Blog Action Day for Climate Change 2009.
As bloggers around the world geared up for October 15 to write about climate change and the environment, the Israeli blogosphere focused on a different date. This year, environmental organizations, activists, and perhaps bloggers as well, will mark October 24 as a day of climate change protest across the Middle East.
Events are being organized under the auspices of Friends of the Earth Middle East and 350.org. Activists in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria are all expected to participate. 350.org provides lists of regional protests, including one for Israel, while the Green Prophet blog supplies an additional list for all known Middle Eastern activity.
The name “350” sources from the idea that:
350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.
Our current count is 387.
Blog Action Day
A number of Israeli blogs have chosen to use Blog Action Day to bring the issue of climate change to the forefront, advocating for continued attention to the issue beyond the designated day.
JGooders promotes the Jewish Climate Change Campaign, urging readers to get involved with Jewish Social Action Month (JSAM), which begins on the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, starting October 19. JSAM, JGooders explains, will be commemorated by social action events in Jewish communities throughout the world.
While communities and environmental activists seek to raise awareness in the global community, what better way to get their ideas across than through images, videos in particular?
Alison Avigayil Ramer of Your Virtual Community Organizer posts “Top 10 Climate Change Videos for Change.org's Blog Action Day.” Among these is a video called “Flat,” by Israeli filmmaker Nitsana Bellehesen, which portrays the world in 2050. The video shows boys and their fathers visiting an exhibit dedicated to the female breast– which no longer exists due to the cancer induced by environmental and atmospheric toxins.
At one point, a boy points to a photograph in the gallery and says, “Look at that one. That baby is eating her breast.” The father responds, “Well, that's actually how babies used to be fed.”
While viewing of this powerful film is highly recommended, you should be warned that there is explicit nudity.
Ramer encountered the film, which was shown at the Breast Fest 2009: A Film Festival that Targets Breast Cancer, at the hub for social entrepreneurs where she works in Tel Aviv. She writes:
Web video can be an extremely effective way to raise consciousness about a sustainable business or cause. Video is a great interlude to all the text online and is relatively inexpensive to make, share and watch. The moving images and music can captivate an audience and convey thousands of words in just a few minutes. Especially today, now that we have numerous ways to share video on social networks and blogs, video has great potential to become viral and carry your business, non-profit organization or cause to thousands or even millions of viewers.
Note that while thinking about climate change can be disturbing, that feeling of discontent should lead to action, not apathy. At Judaism and the Environment in the Talmud, Carmi Wisemon, executive director of Sviva Israel, a prominent environmental organization, writes about the role of reflection in Jewish practice.
Israel and the Jewish world have just celebrated the holiday of Sukkot, in which they build huts where they eat meals with their families, spend quiet meditative time, and sometimes even sleep under the stars. Like Shabbat (the Sabbath), as well as many other Jewish holidays, Sukkot provides the opportunity to cease all action and think about our place in the universe.
Wisemon writes:
So this Sukkot [holiday], as we relax in our sukkot [huts], and admire the natural splendor of our lulavs and etrogs, think about the deeper meaning of the holiday.  We can all do our bit to prevent climate change, and that includes a 2,000 year-old tradition of praying for rain to fall– neither too little nor too much– in Israel, but also in the Philippines, Indonesia and even Atlanta.
On my own blog, The New Jew, which focuses on philanthropy and social innovation, I published a post on “Caring About the Environment, Jewishly.” There I share a speech by environmental activists who urge us to think about how the practices of traditional Judaism connect us to the natural world.
Shabbat– is an ecological treasure! A day to rest from shopping, manufacturing, driving!
Kashrut (keeping Kosher)– the idea that what we eat matters, that it’s upon us to minimize suffering of animals! We need to update this to take responsibility for the full impacts of what we eat, the stuff we buy, and what we put into landfills. We vote with our dollars and with our forks for the full story of our food and our stuff.
Brachot (the blessings over our food)- invite mindfulness of where our food comes from. To bless food we have to figure out whether it grew from the ground or a tree; from there it’s a short step to thinking of how it was raised, whether the people involved in getting it to us were paid a fair wage, whether its story helped or hurt our environment.
In keeping with the natural theme, Elisha at O'Sprinkles profers beauty through photography and reminds us what our fight is really about: growth and renewal in the natural world.
As you finish up October 15th, urge yourself to use Blog Action Day as part of a continuum. How can you reduce your carbon footprint, improve the way you use natural resources, and reassess your consumption patterns?
The Jewish Climate Campaign leaves you with some suggestions.