Why the World Needs a Modern-Day Jeremiah

More than 2,600 years ago, Jews failed to heed the prophet Jeremiah’s warnings that they must change their ways. The result was the destruction of the First Temple. Tisha B’Av later became associated with many other Jewish tragedies, including the destruction of the Second Temple.

Although there are no prophets universally recognized today like Jeremiah, climate scientists are delivering increasingly urgent warnings based on decades of experiences and research.

Almost 200 nations at both the December 2015 Paris and the November 2021 Glasgow climate change conferences agreed, based on recommendations by their climate experts, that immediate steps must be taken to combat climate change.  Recent warnings have been so dire that UN Secretary-General António Guterres has described climate change as a “code red for humanity” and warned that “delay means death.”

Unlike in Jeremiah’s time, the world is receiving many wake-up calls today that reinforce the warnings.

Every decade since the 1970s has been warmer than the previous decade, and all 27 hottest years since temperature records began in 1880 have occurred since 1998. All of the 13 months from June 2023 to June 2024 broke temperature records. Both 2023 and 2024 broke worldwide temperature records.

Polar icecaps and glaciers worldwide have been melting rapidly. This has caused a rise in sea levels worldwide, with the potential for major flooding. There has also been an increase in the frequency and severity of droughts, wildfires, storms, and floods. California has been subjected to so many severe climate events recently that its former governor, Jerry Brown, stated that, “Humanity is on a collision course with nature.”

While Jeremiah warned about threats to the Temple in Jerusalem, today, the entire world is threatened.

The Jewish community recovered after the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem. After the first Temple was destroyed, Jews moved to Babylonia, where the Babylonian Talmud was created, and then many returned to Israel. After the second Temple was destroyed, Jews were dispersed to many other countries, but Judaism continued because the rabbis stressed that prayer, study, and good deeds could replace the Temple sacrifices.

Climate change threatens widespread human suffering, severe disruption of civilization, and irreversible damage to ecosystems worldwide. An exaggeration? Unfortunately, no. Please consider.

• Due to self-reinforcing positive feedback loops (vicious cycles), some climate experts believe we are close to an irreversible tipping point at which climate change could become increasingly self-reinforcing with disastrous consequences, unless major positive changes occur soon.
• Many climate scientists regard 350 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric carbon dioxide as a level consistent with long-term climate stability. Today, atmospheric CO₂ has risen to more than 430 ppm and continues to increase by roughly 2 to 3 ppm each year.

Ma increase of about 1.5 degrees Celsius ( 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial level, climate scientists believe that the world is now on track for an average increase of three or more degrees Celsius, which would result in even greater human suffering and significant threats to human civilization.

• The Pentagon and other military groups think that climate change will increase the potential for instability, terrorism, and war by reducing access to food and clean water and by causing tens of millions of desperate refugees to flee from droughts, wildfires, floods, storms, and other effects of climate change.

Given the above considerations, it is essential that we don’t repeat the mistake made by our ancestors who failed to heed Jeremiah’s warnings, but that we make averting a climate catastrophe a central focus of civilization today, in order to leave a healthy, habitable, environmentally sustainable world for future generations.

Yet, climate change still receives far less sustained attention than the magnitude of the threat warrants. Too often, governments and societies focus on immediate concerns while postponing the difficult decisions needed to address a far greater long-term danger.

When I hear of friends’ children or grandchildren getting married or having grandchildren or great-grandchildren, I wonder how the lives of the new couples and their grandchildren will be affected by our rapidly warming world, with its rising oceans and increasingly severe storms. This is especially relevant to me, as since I made Aliyah in 2016, my wife and I have been blessed with five of our ten grandchildren getting married, and the births of ten great-grandchildren.

To reduce climate threats, every aspect of life should be considered. We should shift to renewable forms of energy, expand efficient public transportation, develop cleaner vehicles, and do everything else possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As president emeritus of Jewish Veg and author of” Vegan Revolution: Saving Our World, Revitalizing Judaism,” I want to stress that one of the most important components of efforts to avert a climate catastrophe is a major shift to animal-free diets. This would sharply reduce methane emissions from cows, a greenhouse gas about 80 times as potent as CO2 per unit weight in heating the atmosphere. Most importantly, it would also enable the reforestation of the vast areas now used for grazing and growing feed crops for animals, resulting in the sequestering of much atmospheric CO2, reducing it to a safer level.

A utopian dream? Not if people recognize that the climate situation is a “Code red for humanity” and that there are now many plant-based substitutes with the appearance, texture, and taste so close to the animal products that even long-time meat-eaters can’t tell the difference.

Shifts to plant-based diets would also be consistent with Jewish teachings on preserving our health, treating animals compassionately, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and reducing hunger. 

Jeremiah’s generation ignored the warnings until it was too late. Our generation still has a choice. If we heed today’s scientific warnings and act with the urgency they demand, we can help preserve a livable planet for our children, grandchildren, and generations yet unborn. There is no Planet B.