The Earth Never Forgets: A Reflection on Yom Kippur + Our Climate Crisis

Yom Kippur is a particularly tough day for the Jewish community / those practicing any year, but especially in 2020 — a year marked by health, racial, environmental, and political injustice. A year with a mentality that is both “we must fight to preserve our rights,” as well as “we must recognize when to reflect, restore, and recover, because it’s ineffective to pour from an empty cup.” Personally I’ve struggled this year to exercise my strength and not let the burdens on top of burdens control my mental health. While I’m not ashamed that I bring my full person self forward when someone asks me how I’m doing (“faced with climate anxiety while trying to stay afloat in all aspects of my life”), I recognize how much this mindset can have on personal and community impact. While I understand it is a privilege to take the time to reflect, as well as say one of your priorities is environmental justice, I am even more thankful that I’ve found an area of interest that, while frequently makes me more upset (e.g., superficial corporate commitments, greentification, unethical “environmental” lobbying, planned obsolescence), gives me direction and purpose.

I am fortunate to be able to take today off. I spent much of the morning streaming Yom Kippur services, trying to take in everything they were saying and chanting. I’d be lying if I said I felt a deeper connection this morning to myself, to others, to the world. I struggled to, while unrealistically, feel like I’d overcome a great feat or reached a level synonymous with self actualization to be able to repent for my sins, reflect, and move forward to create change. When the morning services wrapped, and I headed out to walk, sit in the park, and read, I was pleased to see my copy of All We Can Save had arrived ahead of its anticipated delivery — a book I have been so excited to read, a collection of powerful essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement.

Immediately I dove in, hopeful that I could put my cynicism aside and feel moved by a book with a mission of amplifying underrepresented voices in climate justice and carving a path of knowledge and tangible action. While I’m only a few chapters in (so far), there are already a couple quotes that have spoken to me and the democratizing nature of this work.

(1) Equity is not secondary to survive. It is survival. So often with past conversations about feminism or racial justice, there is this negative energy that in order to uplift a certain group or entity, others will suffer. We should recognize that’s it’s quite the opposite (and rather the starting issue for why we are fighting for equity).

(2) You don’t have to know the details of the science to be part of the solution. And if you wait until you know everything, it’ll be too late. We live in a click-happy, cancel culture world, where people are sometimes afraid to speak up or averse to action because they don’t feel “woke” or well-versed enough on the topic to partake. Climate change isn’t discriminatory, but the people behind the actions, or lack thereof, are, and thus we need to continue to educate and conventionalize environmental justice and equity.

While I have always been passionate about the planet, the real urgency for environmental change has motivated me to continue researching, sharing, making small life changes, and contextualizing the issue and encouraging others do to the same. I am inspired by the great justice warriors of our past and present, and I am empowered to continue contributing to the culture shift we so dearly need in order to sufficiently take care of our Earth — as the support should always go both ways.