Letter to the Editor: Barry Kriegel

Rabbi [Laurence] Rosenthal’s column “Georgia Faith Leaders Ready to Act on Climate” in the AJT (June 30 June) raises the question, to what standards should we hold our rabbis? As Jews, we are part of a sacred community that has survived millennia, despite adversity. As a sacred community, we should demand intellectual honesty from our spiritual leaders.

Using phrases such as “climate crisis,” “environmental justice,” and attaching clean energy to “injustices of the past,” all devolving into unrelated advocacy for [President Joe] Biden’s “American Jobs Act,” is political advocacy, not intellectual honesty nor spiritual leadership.

Having taken college geomorphology courses which were heavily invested in the role of ice ages and glaciers over geologic time, citing “46 [undefined] extreme weather events” in Georgia from 2010 to 2020 is offensive. Ten-year weather records, even if extreme, from one state mocks science. Barack Obama’s purchase of a seaside estate belies any imminent “crisis” about rising oceans.

An intellectually honest discussion would have to include how “clean energy” itself might affect climate. Wind and solar power involve taking energy from the atmosphere. Atmospheric energy variations drive weather; changes may result in new “extreme weather events” that cause the rabbi such distress.

Barry Kriegel, Atlanta