The seeming inconsistency between the values of Torah and environmentalism
Many might feel that climate change is not really our issue, given that it has been championed by the environmental movement, a movement which expresses positions seemingly at odds with Torah values. This compatibility issue is one we discuss at length in our discussion of Torah and Environmentalism - Friends or Foes. For the purposes of our discussion here, we will just point out that:
Climate change is a scientific issue, not a political or ideological one: Just because a particular movement has championed a cause, that doesn’t mean that they own that cause and that others should feel alienated from it. Climate change is an issue, not because environmentalists say so, but because scientists do. We should be focusing on listening to the scientists rather than to the ideological noise in the background.
Climate change is about public safety, not “just” the environment: We don’t look at having clean water as an issue for environmentalists. It is a fundamental concern for all reasonable and sensible citizens of the world, whether they are enthusiastic about protecting the environment or not. The fact that people have pigeonholed it as a “concern of environmentalists” means that people are focusing too much on who is speaking rather than on the issues at hand. We have to seek to understand what the Torah thinks about the issue, rather than what others might be saying about it.
“Environmentalism” is not one thing: Many people believe various stereotypes about what “environmentalists” think, but there are actually many different shades of environmentalism. To be sure, some environmental ideologies endorse positions that are very inconsistent with Torah-thinking and we need to take that into account. Nevertheless, it is not helpful to generalize about environmentalists as a whole, and we would certainly see eye-to-eye with many environmentalists on many issues.
