From the place to purchase the most effective bagels to mayoral candidates, there’s not so much the New York Jewish group sees eye-to-eye on, particularly nowadays. So when over a thousand members of the group – from all denominations and throughout the state – get behind a single problem, it’s no small deal.
The difficulty at hand? Governor Hochul’s abdication of management on the subject of addressing the local weather disaster. It’s fairly easy. The Governor, beforehand a eager champion for local weather motion, is quietly (and generally, not so quietly) strolling again earlier commitments and refusing to tackle new ones.
Subsequent week, the Jewish group will have a good time Tu Bishvat, the Jewish new 12 months for bushes. On this vacation, we acknowledge our connection to and accountability for the pure world – a world more and more threatened by the escalating local weather disaster. On this of all seasons, we can’t stand idly by whereas our elected leaders fail to make good on their local weather commitments – particularly when, previously, they’ve led with imaginative and prescient and readability.
In her latest State of the State deal with, the Governor shared her imaginative and prescient for addressing most of the issues New Yorkers face on daily basis. Her resolution to increase reasonably priced childcare and early childhood schooling in New York Metropolis with Mayor Mamdani, for instance, will profoundly enhance the lives of so many households. Her dedication to defending New Yorkers’ constitutional rights from federal encroachment couldn’t be extra important.
However her silence on local weather motion is uncomfortably loud.
A frontrunner in our nation, New York State has already made vital guarantees to cut back its dependence on fossil fuels and speed up its transition to renewable power. New York’s daring 2019 local weather regulation, the Local weather Management and Neighborhood Safety Act, mandates driving down emissions and directing clear power investments to deprived communities. However the Governor now must dwell as much as these guarantees and develop a coherent, detailed, and fast plan for New York’s power transition.
It’s true that Governor Hochul beforehand delivered on some local weather commitments, corresponding to standing up for congestion pricing and offshore wind. However she has additionally not too long ago backtracked, signalling that she could also be strolling away from renewable power. In November, she authorised a brand new fossil gasoline challenge: the Williams NESE Pipeline. This pipeline will escalate carbon emissions, speed up the local weather disaster, poison air and water, and lift power costs for households. President Trump vociferously supported this pipeline, and there’s a very actual fear that the Governor is caving to strain: each from the fossil gasoline business and the President.
Governor Hochul’s government finances, launched January 20, did little to assuage our worries; the finances doesn’t embrace a lot new funding for local weather and environmental justice. Sorely lacking is New York’s long-past-due cap and make investments program, the very program that might assist drive down emissions within the state and fund a simply transition to renewables.
The Jewish communal letter to the Governor, calling on her to not abandon her local weather commitments, was sponsored by 4 organizations and signed by scores of clergy and over a thousand group members throughout denominations. It displays the breadth of Jewish communal assist for addressing the local weather disaster.
After all, the Jewish group is just one amongst many calling on Hochul to handle the existential risk of the local weather disaster. It’s clear that New Yorkers of all backgrounds are uninterested in regressive pondering and weak management on the subject of probably the most pressing problems with our day. We insist that our state ship on its commitments to insurance policies that may allow us and future generations to thrive; all households deserve the prospect to dwell protected, wholesome, and sustainable – in each sense of the phrase.
As we wrote in our communal letter to the Governor, “We share a deep love for our families, communities and the Earth; and we are deeply concerned that the effects of climate change will ruin everything we love. This love and our Jewish values compel us to act in order to preserve life, a concept in Jewish tradition known as pikuach nefesh.”
Our message to Governor Hochul: it’s time to behave.
Rabbi Jennie Rosenn is Founder and CEO of Dayenu: A Jewish Name to Local weather Motion.
