CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — In two important news articles about climate change (“How much more proof is needed for people to act” and “Ignoring the future — the psychology of denial”), the importance of facing major issues that will confront the future of the Jiewsh people were emphasized. Not only is the state of Israel threatened by climate change and rising sea levels, but the descendants of Jews around the world — wherever they live: North America, Europe, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Latin America — will be under threat.
Climate change is indeed an issue that is on everyone’s mind today, and Jewish scientists and Jewish thinkers will be on the front line of
these issues in the future, too.
The world as we know it today may very well not be the world of tomorrow, and the very survival of the Jewish people, as a people, will be at stake. And more: the very existence of the human species, our kind, homosapiens, will be on alert.
Despite most observers thinking that solutions lie in mitigation ideas, there are a growing number of Jewish climatologists and scientists who believe that the A-word — adaptation — must be confronted head-on, too. The fact is, despite the head-in-the-sand protestations of climate denialists, we cannot stop climate change or global warming.
The Earth’s atmosphere has already passed the tipping point, and in the next 100 to 300 years, temperatures will rise considerably, sea levels will rise considerably and millions, even billions, of people from the tropical and temperate zones of the Earth will be forced to migrate north in search of food, fuel and shelter. This is where Jews in particular, will play central roles.
By the year 2200, Israel could be no more. The entire Middle East will have been abandonned for polar cities up north in Scandanavia, Russia and Canada. Alaska, too.
Alaska and New Zealand and Tasmania could be home to millions, even billions, of climate refugees from India and China and other Asian nations who will have
migrated north and south, seeking safe harbor from the devastating impact of global warming in those future times. Are the Jewish people, in Israel and in
the Diaspora, ready for this?
Many parts of the world’s coastlines will be under water, and many northern countries will find themselves home to new kinds of visitors from Asia and Europe. Just ask Laurence C. Smith at UCLA; he wrote a book about this, setting his story in 2050. These climate refugees won’t be coming on cruise ships or airplanes, since there will be no fuel for such services. They will be coming by rudimentary sailing vessels and barges. Prepare yourselves. It could be Noah’s Ark all over again. It could be God’s Judgement all over again, if you believe in such things.
Jews must be prepared for the worst-case scenario. By 2500, millions, billions of people will have been forced to leave their home countries
in the tropical and temperate zones and migrate south en masse to faraway southern regions to find shelter in United Nations-funded climate refuges.
Lifeboat Israel? Forget it. Israel will be no more, if climate chaos gets as bad as British scientist James Lovelock says it well. Lovelock is 90, and he says he’s ”an optimist.” Say that again? Is he using Jewish humor there?
It won’t bea pretty picture — what’s coming, that is. Am I a prophet? No. Am I a visionary? No. I am just a Jewish realist looking directly at what’s most
likely coming our way in the distant future. I’m prepared. My Jewish upbringing and Jewish education has prepared me to face reality. I realize
not everyone agrees with me on these ideas, but that’s par for the course when you go out on a limb and try to sound the alarm. And I am not
talking about a posh golf course here. Enough of that! I am talking about the future of our people Israel! Is anyone concerned about that?
Humans cannot engineer our way out of global warming, although scientists who believe in geo-engineering have offered their theories on how to do it. There are no easy fixes.
Humankind has put too many greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, the result of the industrial revolution that gave us trains, planes and automobiles – and much more to live comfortable and trendy lives – and now there is so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that the Earth cannot recover. Forget trying to be more “green” in our daily lives. Israel and the Jewish people are doomed, like the rest of the world, to a very bleak future. The Bible does not even come close to what is in store for us all.
What we need to focus on now is preparing future generations for what our world will become in the next 100 to 300 years and how best to
survive it. The national legislatures of all countires need to start thinking about these issues. Now. In many ways, is it already too
late? How’s that for optimism? And I am an optimist, yes!
For the next 100 years or so, life will go on as normal in Israel and North America, so don’t worry too much. There is nothing to worry about now. For the next 100 years, posh department stores will continue to hawk their trendy items, international computer firms will continue to launch their latest cell phones
and tech gadgets, and airline companies will continue to offer passengers quick passage here and there, to the Maldives and to Manhattan, for business
and for pleasure.
But in the next 500 years, according to Lovelock and other scientists — many of whom are Jewish — who are not afraid to think outside the box, things are going to get bad. Unspeakably bad. Those of us who are alive today won’t suffer, and the next few generations of humans will be fine, too. The big troubles will probably start around 2200 – Lovelock says sooner – and last for some 300 years or so. By 2200, Israel and the entire Middle East will be uninhabitable
and uninhabited. Mark my words. I am not joking here.
Prepare yourselves, o ye who think this is all science fiction. In fact, this is science fact!
We are entering uncharted waters, and as the waters rise and the temperatures go up as well, future generations of the Jewish people will have some important choices to make: where to live, how to live, how to grow food, how to power their climate refugee settlements, how to plan and how to pray. Alaska will be on the front lines of this new world. Canada and Russia, too. The question is: will the human race be ready for what is going to be the most trying time of our
very existence on this Earth?
NOTE: Dan Bloom is the founder of the Polar Cities Project, based in Taiwan (http://pcillu101.blogspot.com). It
would be nice to say he’s kidding, but apparently he’s not.
Let the discussions begin, pro and con my POV. “”Beware of Global Cooling” writes
Fred L. Oliver from Dallas, Texas, in February 1, 2001. Google his article which takes a different POV than mine.
“”This is an attempt to put the current (scientific) studies of ongoing Global Climate Change in perspective for my grandchildren and the average American and for the Congress, politicians, environmentalists, journalists and current administration officials.”” — he begins…
”Dan, I call what you seem to believe is really happening “globaloney” — because it isn’t, and even if it is, it isn’t human-caused.” SAYS a conservative rightwing blogger in DC, and he is a friend of mine too!
maurice picow says ” Living underground is not really the answer, however. My cousin built the modern version of “that little old sod shanty on the plains” in Norman Oklahoma about 25 years ago; in which only one side is exposed.
While it is great for cooling in the summer and warmth in the winter (he also has a Franklin Stove to provide heat), trying to sell that place is a bit problematic, as he has found out – it’s like selling the land, and throwing in the house for free!
Even the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is getting into the fray now, re:
Yet another threat to Jewish survival | The Telegraph | JTA -……Ben Haris wrote: ”Don’t know if this will persuade any climate.
change skeptics, but according to Danny Bloom, Israel is going to be.
nearly gone in a couple hundred years if things don’t get fixed. ”
and then he quoted some of my article above. 14 comments then came in.
… pro and con: among them:
1. This poor shlock must just have crawled out from his cave and.
missed the whole Global Warming hoax as amply documented during the.
last few months. But, all these “watermelons” (outside green, inside.
red) haven’t learned anything and haven’t forgotten anything. They
still pine for the bad old days when being a communist was sooo.
fahionable. Now they are trying to empty our pockets to their benefit.
with a new guilt-trick.
Sorry, boychik! Try again when it gets warmer!
Patrick tells me re Fcaebook: “Interesting angle, Danny, I never thought it is that way before.”\
”An interesting angle on climate change that hadn’t occurred to me.”
”