The Heschel Center’s Climate Project Pushes for Sustainability in Israel
Israel is one of the countries that is known to have so many policies when it comes to pushing for sustainability.
By LEO GIOSUÈ(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Israel is one of the countries that is known to have so many policies when it comes to pushing for sustainability. It’s a country full of innovation with its green technology and it is now considered a powerhouse when it comes to this aspect.Israelis are known to have already tackled issues like desalination, irrigation, and recycling. The country is solving its own problem through having stability in population and supplies. What’s great about this country is that everybody is making efforts toward sustainability.While its government is working on many projects to promote sustainability, the people of Israel are also fond of following green trends. Gardening in Israel is very popular with many and they don’t just grow simple plants and animals.Even the first lady of Israel has already joined the backyard gardening trend wherein they also grow the food that they eat. Indoor gardening with a complete setup that consists of a ventilation system, lighting system, which mainly involves grow lights, and tent or other grow room spaces, is quickly becoming popular to many Israelis.They don’t really just stop there. Included in gardening and sustainability, in general, is climate action and this is where Israel’s Heschel Center is focusing at the moment. Its sole purpose is to promote sustainability in Israel not only for its current residents but also for the future.The center would like to work on ensuring that Israelis get a more sustainable and healthy food system, more green jobs, a resilient environment, and improved consumption acts within the country. Heschel aims to achieve all these through climate politics.Climate politics hasn’t really been in the best interest of the public, but there are now just more movements created for this. Recently, David Dunetz from the Heschel Center for Sustainability was interviewed about this.David is hoping to see more environmental issues resolved within the country. Despite the government’s efforts towards sustainability, he still thinks that the climate issue is still not seen the way it should be by the government.The Heschel Center is currently interested in Germany’s Climate Action Plan 2050. They have invited representatives from the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy to share their experiences regarding the frameworks they’ve had about this matter.Aside from how Germany works on this issue, they are also looking forward to knowing how other countries like Ireland and the UK are working towards it. They’d like to know how the municipalities in these countries participate in the budget process. David was also asked about Fridays for Future which is now making noise worldwide. This movement has been around since August 2018 and it started after Greta Thunberg sat in front of the Swedish parliament for three weeks.Greta is known for her protests against the lack of action on the climate crisis. Even if she has been doing this for over a year now, it’s just recently that many people worldwide began to really listen to what she was saying.Her recent speech in front of many world leaders during the 2019 UN climate action Summit in New York has gained the rightful attention of many as it was deemed very powerful. In her emotional speech, accusations about the leaders ignoring climate crisis were made.“We are at the beginning of mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth – how dare you!” She also added, ‘’You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.’’David from Heschel said that he really admires Fridays for Future and Greta in particular. He found her approach to the opposite of what they have been doing. As an environmental educator, David has been avoiding alarmist and apocalyptic stories, which is very different from what Greta is doing and saying.He seemed to be delighted with this approach as what Greta is doing seems to be working. The team in Heschel is now reassessing their pedagogics after this. Greta’s impact made David and Heschel realize that young people are now ready to hear the truth about their possible future.David understands that the youth and high school-aged kids seem ready to take action even going so far as to adhere to standards of excellence and get away from their phones, but of course, the help from adults is still necessary. Even if they find complexity and uncomfortableness in certain ways to battle climate change and make leaders focus on this issue, they’d start going for it.The recent speech from Greta just changed how they might do things, and he clings on what Greta has said about how hope is essential and that it shouldn’t be the prerequisite. They have to take action first so that real hope will come.
