5786 – Our Last Chance to Avert a Climate Catastrophe?

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the world is rapidly approaching a climate catastrophe, so severe that all of human life would be very negatively affected and possibly even eliminated before the end of this century, unless major positive changes soon occur.

This article discusses why the situation is so severe and then discusses the best approach to avert the catastrophe and shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path.

Climate groups have been issuing increasingly dire warnings of the seriousness of climate threats. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organization composed of leading climate experts from many countries, warned that “unprecedented changes” were needed by 2030 for the world to have a chance to avert a climate catastrophe. Despite that warning, atmospheric carbon dioxide has continued to increase, indicating that the world is still heading in the wrong direction with regard to climate change.

Because of  many stark warnings, like the one above, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated, “the world is on a highway to climate hell,”  that the climate situation is a “Code Red for Humanity” and “delay means death.”

Facts on the ground reinforce the warnings. The world has been rapidly heating up. Every decade since the 1970s has been hotter than the previous decade. All 25 years in this century are among the 26 hottest years in recorded history. The 13 consecutive months from June 2023 to June 24 all broke monthly temperature records. Both 2023 and 2024 broke worldwide temperature records.

Due to the increasing temperatures, there has been rapid melting of glaciers worldwide, polar icecaps, and permafrost, significant sea level rises, and major increases in the frequency and severity of droughts, heat waves, wildfires, storms, and floods, with many records being broken.

Israel is especially threatened by climate change. The hotter, drier Middle East projected by climate experts increases the chances of terrorism and war, and a rising Mediterranean Sea could inundate the coastal plain that contains much of Israel’s population and infrastructure.

As devastating as recent climate events have been, prospects for the future are even more frightening, for four very important reasons:

• While all the recent severe climate events have occurred at a time when the global temperature has risen about 1.5 degrees Celsius (about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since the start of the industrial revolution, climate experts project that this could at least double by the end of this century, triggering far worse climate events.
• While climate experts believe that 350 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric carbon dioxide is a threshold value to avert the worst effects of climate change, the world has surpassed 420 ppm, and it has been increasing at 2 – 3 ppm per year.
• Climate experts fear that self-reinforcing positive feedback loops (vicious cycles) could result in an irreversible tipping point when climate change spins out of control, with catastrophic results. One example is that as the world gets hotter, more air conditioning will be used, meaning that more fossil fuel will be burned. This will release more greenhouse gases, heating the atmosphere even more, resulting in still more use of air conditioning, etc. Also, as ice caps melt, there is less reflection of sunlight back into space and more absorption of the sun’s heat by land and water.
• Military experts are warning that there will likely be tens of millions of desperate refugees fleeing from severe heat waves, droughts, wildfires, storms, floods, and other climate events, which will promote social and political instability, terrorism, and war. Severe droughts have already caused major migrations that have resulted in civil wars in both Sudan and Syria.

Because of the above factors, averting a climate catastrophe must become a central focus for civilization today. Every aspect of life should be considered in terms of reducing “carbon footprints.” Among the many positive steps that should be taken are shifting away from fossil fuels to solar, wind, and other renewable forms of energy; designing more efficient cars, lightbulbs, and other items; improving public transportation; recycling; and composting.

However, as president emeritus of Jewish Veg and author of “Vegan Revolution: Saving Our World, Revitalizing Judaism,” I have come to realize that there is one approach that has by far the greatest potential to help avert a climate catastrophe. We need a society-wide shift toward plant-based diets. This is the only approach that both significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions and lowers atmospheric CO2 levels. Such a shift would result in far fewer cows and other farmed animals emitting methane, a very potent greenhouse gas with about 80 times the ability to heat up the planet as CO2 per unit weight during the 10 to 15years the methane remains in the atmosphere.

Even more importantly, such dietary shifts have the potential to dramatically reduce CO2 in the atmosphere by permitting the reforestation of the over 40% of the world’s ice-free land that is currently used for grazing and raising feed crops for animals. The significant increase in carbon-absorbing trees would reduce the current hazardous level of atmospheric CO2 to a much safer one.

Bottom line: To have a chance for a decent, habitable, environmentally sustainable world for future generations, there must be a society-wide shift toward vegan diets. A Utopian dream? Perhaps, but, as the title of a book by Buckminster Fuller puts it, we may have a choice today between “Utopia or Oblivion.” And it would not be utopian if people become aware that the climate situation is a “Code Red for humanity,” with all of human life threatened, and that they can get plant substitutes with the appearance, texture, and taste indistinguishable from meat and other animal products.

It is essential that we Jews “choose life” by shifting to plant-based diets that are good for our lives and health, the lives of animals, and the life of our precious planet. This would be consistent with the Jewish mandate to be a “light unto the nations,” and could inspire many others to make similar dietary changes, helping to shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path. It would also be consistent with basic Jewish mandates to preserve our  health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, help the hungry, and pursue peace.

It is essential that these dietary changes happen because there is no planet B nor  an effective Plan B. The new Hebrew year, 5786, must mark the beginning of efforts to shift our imperiled planet onto a sustainable path.