12. Global Ark: Who's at the Helm?

UN Statistics Showing Number of Natural Disasters in the World per Decade.

Hurricanes, tsunamis, floods and fires. Are environmental disasters really on the rise or is it just hype? According to a century of United Nations statistics, natural catastrophes of all kinds are whalloping us at an ever-increasing rate. And climbing fastest are disasters related to global climate change.

What can be done? And who is actually responsible for the future of the global ecosystem? Is it the heads of state? Legislators? Scientists? Consumers? Investors? Ecological accountability does not depend on knowledge or power. It doesn't depend on economics, politics or pragmatics. It depends on values. And for many people, values are a relative affair.

Every motive to conserve the environment can be compromised by some form of rational argument or another, except for one: that it is our Divinely ordained mandate to care for this planet and its inhabitants. This is the reasoned conclusion of Rutgers Professor of Ecology, David Ehrenfeld, a pioneer and world leader in environmental conservation.

And yet, the origin of this notion in Western society is not scientific, but in fact Biblical. The father of environmental conservation was Noah, and there are a number of parallels between our situation and his, as discussed by the classic rabbinic commentators cited in the Torah Anthology, a Moznaim Press translation of the Me'Am Lo'ez compiled by Rabbi Yakov Culi.

First, according to tradition, the Noahide flood itself was hot water, indicating a climatic component to the event. Second, the global flood was preceded by several periods of coastal flooding over a number of decades. Third, the flood was accompanied by widespread social ills, especially violence and corruption.

The sages illustrated the ethical roots of global environmental risk with the following archetypal incident that happened shortly before the flood some 4,100 years ago. In a market town, a small fruit vendor sued his regular "clients" for bankrupting him. They had come by daily, sampling this and that, buying nothing, and then returning later for more "tastes". The court did not convict because "it was just a little bit and everyone was doing it."

Does this sound familiar? Today, we see the same factors at work. A little wasteful emission, a little warmer, a little more melting, the waters rise.. ..A little violence, a little robbery, the earth shakes, people die. One need not be overtly religious to recognize that "what goes around, comes around." Indeed it is widely accepted among experts, as Ehrenfeld writes, that "most of today's really intractable problems of radioactive wastes, energy and pesticides are not technical but ethical and social."

Noah, with his compassion and integrity, did his small part and tipped the balance towards survival for the world's folk and fauna. Acting alone, he was a prime example of an environmental activist with a motto of "Act local and think global." Some 825 years ago, this concept was codified in Jewish law by Maimonides who stated that each individual must view himself and the entire world as delicately balanced such that his very next act will tip the scales either to world destruction or global salvation.

Historically, such an approach was taken on faith alone. In previous generations, no one could really see or understand how this vast world could possibly respond to the small local deeds of a single person.

It is really only in our generation that this principle has become a practical and evident reality in our daily lives. Planet earth has become one global village where the part can easily and instantly affect the whole. Already chaos theory has developed models that demonstrate how a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can initiate a tornado in Texas. And since good and evil are but two sides of one moral coin, positive impacts are at least as far reaching as negative ones.

In our time, philosophy and fact have fused to demonstrate that in all one's actions, words and thoughts, one is free to choose among alternative paths leading either to personal failures and ecological disaster or to personal integrity and global remedy.

Every creature has its niche. Ours is an ethical one, based on the unity of G-d, man and the environment. Let's stick to it.

For good.

Ehrenfeld, David W. (1985). The Arrogance of Humanism. Oxford University Press.
Culi, Yakov. (1730). Me'Am Lo'ez. Parshat Noach. Aryeh Kaplan transl. (1977) Moznaim Press. NY
Maimonides, Laws of Repentance, Ch.3, Par.4