The Frum World Needs To Accept the Reality of Climate Change

Why is the frum world so reluctant and even hostile to the notion of human-induced climate change? When 98% of climate scientists agree that climate change is a serious problem and is caused by human activities, it is really hard to understand the reluctance and refusal of the frum community to come to terms with the reality of climate change.

While the details of the science of climate change can be complex, the basic idea is quite simple: human activity since the industrial age has led to the burning of fossil fuels- gas, fuel, and oil- which has produced enough carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, that is trapping excessive heat and is raising global temperatures. A hotter world has led to consequences felt even today, from flooding to wildfires and droughts and extreme weather, like hurricanes and other weather-related phenomena..

The evidence for climate change is pretty incontrovertible, as any rudimentary science textbook will clearly lay out the causes of global warming and its devastating effects on the planet and its inhabitants, be it polar bears or people.

People worldwide have already been affected by the effects of climate change. Rising sea levels have forced people in coastal areas to relocate more inland, causing undue migration and financial hardships, especially in poverty stricken areas. The displacement of whole communities have wide societal and economic ramifications that extend well beyond the affected regions. An uptick in global temperatures has also made heat waves more frequent and extreme, affecting the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions. The list of the harmful effects of climate change is numerous. The point is clear: we don’t have to wait 50 or a 100 years to see the effects of climate change; we’ve already begun to see the effects for decades now.

Not too long ago, conservative commentators and think tanks disputed the very notion that the earth was experiencing a rise in global temperatures. With evidence coming from a variety of sources that demonstrated clear and irrefutable data that Earth was heating up, climate change skeptics have changed their tactic: for the most part they no longer deny that Earth is getting hotter; they deny or cast doubt on who is to blame for a warmer Earth. According to them, people are certainly not to blame for climate change.

It’s a near consensus among climate scientists that climate change is human-induced. Since the late 18th century, when the Industrial Revolution began, scientists estimate that factories burning fossil fuels have contributed to at least a 30%-40% increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas responsible for trapping heat that causes our planet to be relatively warm and habitable, a clearly good thing. Excessive and extreme heat trapping is the problem and human activities have significantly increased the emissions of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide and methane, sharply accelerating the warming of Earth.

Multinational energy corporations have for decades hired public relation companies to cast doubt on the science behind climate change, borrowing a strategy that big tobacco used in the mid-20 century to convince consumers that nicotine was not an addictive substance. The strategy worked for big tobacco and it has worked for energy corporations as well.

Part of the reason that climate change is downplayed or completely avoided in the frum media is because liberals and Democrats have taken this issue and have placed it high on their agenda. So if our ideological opponents have placed it high on the pedestal, we need to take the completely opposite approach of not even addressing it. This is a wrong and misguided approach. No one is suggesting that frum Jews should should place the issue of climate change high on their platform of priorities and become climate change activists. But to take an extreme position of completely denying the human contribution to climate change is also not a viable and acceptable option.

Another reason why many frum Jews deny human culpability for climate change is that they have the mistaken notion that one cannot reconcile a Torah outlook with climate change, as Hashem wouldn’t create fossil fuels for human beings- the apex of creation- to use, only to have it cause devastating effects on the planet. Historically, this is the same line of reasoning that many religious Jews had when confronted with evidence of the extinction of species: Why would Hashem create animals like dinosaurs, only to have them become extinct at a later point in their history? Religious Jews, for the most part, no longer deny that many species throughout Earth’s history have become extinct. And they shouldn’t deny the human responsibility for climate change either.

Frum Jews can admit and confront climate change without having to resort to the doom and gloom attitude that characterizes the approach that many liberals have toward the problem of climate change. We can be hopeful and optimistic about the future. A level-headed and positive approach in addressing the climate change challenge can be a way for us to make our unique mark on this global threat.

---

Tzvi Haimov has a degree in political science from Queens College. Haimov currently resides in Fresh Meadows, Queens, and can be reached for comment at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..