Thoughts After Meeting the Pope to Talk About Our Planet’s Health
Rabbi Yonatan Neril – I recently met Pope Francis at a Vatican conference titled Laudato Si’: Saving Our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth. What I appreciate about Pope Francis is that he is a forward-thinking religious leader who is aware of the ecological and spiritual crisis which humanity faces. His Encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, is one of the most powerful articulations of a religious environmental ethic. Caring for our common home shouldn’t be a right or left wing, conservative or liberal issue. It’s a religious issue because this is God’s earth.
Floods, Cars and Our Collective Future
Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean are experiencing an extreme storm in late April. Twelve people, mostly teenagers, have already died from flash floods stemming from intense rainfall and hail. Most were hiking in a riverbed, and swept away before they could return to their vehicle.
What does God have to do with eggs?
Rabbi Yonatan Neril – Where do the eggs we eat come from? How do the chickens that produce those eggs live? Is this in line with religious and ethical values?
The Arctic is Sick, and Florida is Freezing
Rabbi Yonatan Neril & Louis Platt – What is being called ‘the bomb cyclone’ or a ‘winter hurricane’ is now striking North America. We are facing a crisis of civilization, an evolutionary crisis, a spiritual crisis. Our warming planet is a warning to us and a call for awakening. What on earth are we doing to God’s bountiful Creation?
Blessed Rain washes away 6 Days of Dust
Rabbi Yonatan Neril – An added benefit to the much-needed rain that Israel received yesterday and today was in washing away the Beijing-level air pollution and dust that has plagued this land for the past week.
Can an Ethical Liberal Eat Kosher Meat?
Fran Hawthorne – “Choosing food is now so complicated, between the environmental destruction, cruelty to animals, exploitation of workers, and carbon production due to transport,” summarized University of Virginia psychology professor Jonathan Haidt.
Do These Hurricanes Herald the Apocalypse? An argument.
Do Hurricanes Irma, Harvey, Jose, and Katia herald the coming of the apocalypse? Or is humanity really behind these ‘natural’ disasters? An argument.
Earth to Houston: We have a Problem
Humanity this week experienced ecological disasters on an unprecedented scale. Flooding on the Gulf Coast and in South Asia impacted 60 million people, killed 1,200, and destroyed or damaged close to 1 million homes.
Drilling Holes on Our Collective Ship
We have one home. With seven and a half billion of us and 10 billion species, the earth is our collective ship. Jumping ship is out of the question. So we have to figure out how to make it work here, together.