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October 7, 1996

A Jewish View of the Environment and Ecology (1996)

Bereishit Shoftim Torah & Ecology
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Article on Ecology (1970)

It goes without saying that the current drive to restore the ecological balance to our environment is a good thing that has come none too soon. Surely there are few more worthy and urgent causes of the many that clamor for our limited attention in these tumultuous times. Human nature being what it is, unless some nasty, well-defined, and easily recognizable opposition materializes to hold attention and focus its activity, this energetic campaign may yet go the way of all fads. The ecology movement deserves all the support it can get. Hence this effort to show that the values and norms of a great religious tradition support and encourage a movement which affects the very survival of life on this planet. Unfortunately, we shall be somewhat deflected by a new pollution problem – a fall-out of silliness in the theological environment. The New York Times (May 1, 1970) reports an altogether as-pected theological conference on the subject. Most of the (Protestant) divines at the Claremont symposium were “with it,” from the crisp title (“Theology of Survival” – in an age when Portnoy's Complaint is elevated into a “Theology,” why not?) to the conventional self-flagellation. After all, having written the obituary for the Deity and debunked His best-seller, what is so terrible about theologians asserting that religion is responsible for our dirty planet, and that the solution requires another one of those “major modifications” of current religious values? Yet, some of the confessions were so extravagant that they deserve at least passing comment, particularly when they affect aspects of the Biblical tradition presumably shared by both Judaism and Christianity. The case for the ecological movement is obvious and beyond dispute. One point, of the many cogent ones made in the growing literature on the subject, is worth repeating here. Rene Dubos has reminded us that we still know precious little about pollution. Seventy percent of all the precipitate contaminants in urban air a…
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Ecology, the Work of Creation (1970)

The case for the ecological movement is be­yond dispute. One point, of the many co­gent ones made in the growing literature on the subject, is worth repeating here. Rene Dubos has reminded us that we still know precious little about pollution. Seventy per­cent of all the precipitate contaminants in urban air are still unidentified and twenty to thirty years hence those who are today below the age of three will undoubtedly show vary­ing signs of chronic and permanent malfunc­tion. Man is clever enough to conquer nature — and stupid enough to wreck it and thereby destroy himself.We have a concomitant danger in the theo­logical environment — a fall-out of silliness, if the reports of a theological conference on the subject are to be trusted. Most of the(Protestant) divines at the Claremont sym­posium were “with it,” from the crisp title (“Theology of Survival” — in an age when Portnoy’s Complaint is elevated into a “Theology,” why not?) to the conventional self-flagellation. After all, having written the obituary for the Diety and debunked His best-seller, what is so terrible about theo­logians asserting that religion is responsible for our dirty planet, and that the solution requires another one of those “major modi­fications” of current religious values?The starting point for a serious consideration of the religious view of man’s relations with his natural environment is the divine blessing to man in Genesis 1:28 — “be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth.” For years the Bible had been iden­tified as the major impediment to the progress of science. Now that science and technology are ecological villians, the blame for them is placed — on the Bible. “And subdue it” has now been proclaimed by theologians at the Claremont symposium as the source of man’s insensitivity and bru­tality. “Dominion. . .over the fowl of the …
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Saving the World (1990)

The unprecedented growth of science and technology which has become one of the chief characteristics of Western civilization, is today the subject of profound and trenchant criticism. The very success of technology threatens to become its undoing. Students of ecology now alarm us to the dangers that an unrestrained technology poses for the delicate balance of nature on which the survival of the biosphere depends. Ever since the publication of Rachel Carson’s "The Silent Spring," the public has become more and more concerned about the possible consequences of man’s unthinking interference in and disruption of the natural processes which make life possible on earth. Polluted air, dirty water, littered landscape, an environment contaminated with impurities from radioactive strontium to waste detergents—all of these place in jeopardy not only the quality of life, but the very survival of many or all species, including the human. Sheer necessity has caused ecology to emerge from its ivory tower of pure science to pronounce a great moral imperative incumbent upon all mankind—to curb its arrogant and mindless devastation of nature.The case for the ecological movement is obvious and beyond dispute. One point, of the many cogent ones made in the growing literature on the subject, is worth repeating here. Rene Dubos has reminded us that we still know precious little about pollution. Seventy percent of all the precipitate contaminants in urban air are still unidentified and, twenty to thirty years hence, those who are today below the age of three will undoubtedly show varying signs of chronic and permanent malfunction. Man is clever enough to conquer nature—and stupid enough to wreck it and thereby destroy himself.The Theologians’ MasochismUnfortunately, the ecology issue has itself inspired a new pollution problem—a fall-out of silliness in the theological environment. It has now become almost a dogma of the avant-garde cognoscenti, who only a short while ago were telling us…
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