BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

I was just a teen when Earth Day was started. I remember going out with a few friends from school and cleaning up a park. I was excited about doing something to really help. I didn't know it was a drop in the bucket. Today I am replaced all my light bulbs as they burn out with energy efficient ones, I am probably renting solar panels for my roof soon. I recycle. I love gardening and plant and keep my yard beautiful by getting compost from the NYC Composting Project as well as the stuff I 'make' myself. But am I doing enough? Probably not. Learn more about Earth Day and what you can do: EARTH DAY FROM THE E.P.A. EARTH DAY NETWORK NYC WASTELESS

Gotta love those Global Warming deniers. Safe behind their keyboards. Since so far, this summer has been cool they're saying, "SEE - no Global WARMING! It's COOL out!" Get a clue. The fact that the predictable weather patterns are varying should tell you something. But most of them aren't gardeners like me, out tending flowers and growing a few veggies to serve to my family (tomatoes and my herbs are doing well so far this year, thanks!). No they'd rather bloviate from their computers and central air conditioned condos. Duh. And don't ask to debate them. Those bullies will just cut you off and scream louder. HOAX! I wonder if there's Global Warming in Hell? GLOBAL WARMING DENIERS ARE ON THIN ICE by Joel Connelly Chilling news on hot topics takes different forms, witness two e-mails that arrived cheek-by-jowl one afternoon last week. Sea ice in the Arctic thinned dramatically between the 2004 and 2008 winters, with thin seasonal ice supplanting thic...

President Barack Obama pushed urgently Thursday for passage of legislation to confront global warming, billing it as a job-creating machine rather than the costly "job killer" Republicans denounced. He telephoned wavering Democrats on the eve of what could be a historic House vote. Speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House, Obama said Washington must not miss the opportunity to work on cleaning the air, creating new "green" energy jobs and moving the nation away from its reliance on fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. The White House appeared concerned that momentum for the bill was slipping, though White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that when it came time for a House showdown, "I'd bet on the president." Democratic leaders scurried to line up enough votes to get the bill passed. They enlisted former Vice President Al Gore, the country's most prominent voice on the urgency of addressing climate change, to make phone call...

JUDAISM AND THE ENVIRONMENT by Rabbi Yossi Ives As a boy of six I was walking to shul with my father one morning and I unthinkingly tore some leaves off the hedge we were passing. In disapproval my father told me the Chassidic tale of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch. As a young boy he carelessly ripped a leaf of a tree and was told by his father that God had his intention for that leaf and he was not to damage it unnecessarily. The Torah proscribes wanton destruction even at a time of war (Deut. 20:19). Rabbi Aaron Halevi of Barcelona writes, This is the way of the devout and those who seek good deeds... they never destroy even a grain of mustard, and are upset at any destruction they see, (Sefer haChinuch, 529). Scriptural writings are full of natural imagery and are steeped in respect for nature, while biblical and later rabbinic law provide comprehensive legislation on issues such as conservation, animal welfare, species preservation, sanitation and pollution. The Torah orders the...

BLOG ACTION DAY October 15, 2007 PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JBLOG ME

MY AMERICA & WHY I STAND UP FOR HER In the small town of Oxford, Mass. if you proceed East through town and take a left up a lonely road at a sign that points to the local golf course, there's a small little cemetary on the left. If you get out you will see a lot of grave stones that have my last name on it (those of you who know my last name). Families going back to the 1600s. Revolutionary War times. A ship's captain who sailed for the Colonial Navy, families with babies who died after just a few weeks of life. Farmers. Wives who waited years for their soldier husbands to come home. Mayflower descendants. And I am one of them. It's my genetic duty, in a way, to speak up for democracy. I believe in family, despite all the problems my family had. My mother's ancestors ran from the Pogroms in Poland, my father's ran from the oppression of the British against the Puritans. We have yet another election coming soon. My children will be the inheritors o...