I'm dreaming of a green...Hanukkah

[Marnie]

In a campaign that has spread like wildfire across the Internet, a group of Israeli environmentalists is encouraging Jews around the world to light at least one less candle this Hanukkah to help the environment.

The founders of the Green Hanukkia campaign found that every candle that burns completely produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide. If an estimated one million Israeli households light for eight days, they said, it would do significant damage to the atmosphere.

"The campaign calls for Jews around the world to save the last candle and save the planet, so we won't need another miracle," said

Liad Ortar, the campaign's cofounder, who runs the Arkada environmental consulting firm and the Ynet Web site's environmental forum. "Global warming is a milestone in human evolution that requires us to rethink how we live our lives, and one of the main paradigms of that is religion and how it fits into the current situation."

Cofounder Tom Wegner, who heads the public relations firm Update Marketing Media, spread the campaign via mass e-mails and

through social interaction Web sites like Facebook and Hook.co.il. He said no money had been invested in the campaign, but it had already

raised awareness around the world and made people realize that they have to consider the environment this Hanukkah.

Wegner said he did not consider the campaign anti-religious. The unlit candle could be the shamash, which is not required for the

mitzva, he said. But he said he would encourage people who do not keep mitzvot not to light a hanukkia at all for environmental and

educational reasons.

"We have many environmental traditions in Judaism like Tu Bishvat and Succot, but there are also traditions like Lag Ba'omer and

Hanukka that made sense when they were instituted but are more problematic now in the days of global warming," Wegner said.

"There are many people who just light candles for the tradition and for their children," he said. "To tell a child on the eighth day that we are not lighting the last candle as a sacrifice for the environment is an act that is not only educational but also will prevent the release of a

huge amount of carbon dioxide that would hurt the environment."

Shas MK Nissim Ze'ev said he was not convinced by the environmentalists' argument. He warned that the campaign would take

away from the light of Torah that each and every candle symbolizes.

"The environmentalists should think about how much pollution is caused by one solitary diesel truck on the road," Ze'ev said. "They

should be fighting the trucks instead of Judaism. This is so trivial, so anti-Jewish and so anti-religious that even the worst anti-Semites

couldn't think of it. Just like the Helenists, they are trying to extinguish the flames of the Jewish soul."

United Torah Judaism MK Avraham Ravitz called the environmentalists "crazy people who are playing with the minds of innocent Jewish people." He said the campaign would only convince people who do not light candles anyway.

"They should encourage people to light one less cigarette instead," Ravitz said.

Rabbi Benny Lau of Jerusalem's Ramban Congregation, who is himself an environmental activist, praised the good intentions of the

people behind the campaign. But he said the environmentalists should be trying to reach out to observant Jews instead of running campaigns that turn them away.

"People in the green movement who have an agenda have unfortunately made it anti-religious," Lau said. "This makes religious

people think incorrectly that anything environmentalist is against them. The damage ends up being a thousand times the benefit. Tikkun olam [fixing the world] must be done by adding more light and not by adding more darkness."

The Jerusalem Post

[Vickilynn]

Shalom Marnie,

Actually, I think this is COOL and I think we will do this as well for our CHanukkah.

[Guest Biblicist]

What about not cutting down Christmas trees? That would help the environment wouldn't. Think of the thousands of "live" Christmas trees that are sacrafised every year in the name of Christmas.

I am amazed that one candle from each household would create that much carbon dioxide. I wonder if they are going to start putting banns on all candles. I know that many many house holds burn candles every day. And now with those new Fabreeze candles there will be more burned per household, probably one in every room.

This is interesting, I'm wondering where it will lead...

[Hunterpoet]

I wonder how much atmospheric destruction was caused by the unscheduled wild fires in California this year.......Sheeeesh, lite the candles....nothing bad followed Hanukkah last year

[forrestkc]

In a campaign that has spread like wildfire across the Internet, a group of Israeli environmentalists is encouraging Jews around the world to light at least one less candle this Hanukkah to help the environment.

The founders of the Green Hanukkia campaign found that every candle that burns completely produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide. If an estimated one million Israeli households light for eight days, they said, it would do significant damage to the atmosphere.

This is rather stupid. I mean, "15 grams of carbon dioxide".

Let's put this in perspective here. Say you have a car that gets 30 mpg and say that car is driven 12,000 miles a year (about average). That one rather efficient car will still emit 3.55 tons of CO2 in one year. That is 2,721,000 grams of CO2 in one year. So, if one million Israeli households light a candle each for one day, they will have emitted as much C02 as about 50 cars by my calculation. Otherwise, a purely symbolic gesture at best.

[Marnie]

This is rather stupid. I mean, "15 grams of carbon dioxide".

Let's put this in perspective here. Say you have a car that gets 30 mpg and say that car is driven 12,000 miles a year (about average). That one rather efficient car will still emit 3.55 tons of CO2 in one year. That is 2,721,000 grams of CO2 in one year. So, if one million Israeli households light a candle each for one day, they will have emitted as much C02 as about 50 cars by my calculation. Otherwise, a purely symbolic gesture at best.

Holey moley, forrest. Do you think you think too much?

[Leonard]

I'm sorry, but an elk eating Tula Beans will emit more greenhouse gasses in a year than a million Israeli candles over the course of Hanukka! Maybe we should hunt down those Elk and kill them!

I think I'll get my Elk license next year; It's my duty to the planet......

[forrestkc]

This is rather stupid. I mean, "15 grams of carbon dioxide".

Let's put this in perspective here. Say you have a car that gets 30 mpg and say that car is driven 12,000 miles a year (about average). That one rather efficient car will still emit 3.55 tons of CO2 in one year. That is 2,721,000 grams of CO2 in one year. So, if one million Israeli households light a candle each for one day, they will have emitted as much C02 as about 50 cars by my calculation. Otherwise, a purely symbolic gesture at best.

Holey moley, forrest. Do you think you think too much?

Probably.

Actually, I hate math, but have to use it all the time in my job, so I take any chance I get to exercise my mind in so far as math / algebra is concerned (no matter how useless the problem is).

[Marnie]

This is rather stupid. I mean, "15 grams of carbon dioxide".

Let's put this in perspective here. Say you have a car that gets 30 mpg and say that car is driven 12,000 miles a year (about average). That one rather efficient car will still emit 3.55 tons of CO2 in one year. That is 2,721,000 grams of CO2 in one year. So, if one million Israeli households light a candle each for one day, they will have emitted as much C02 as about 50 cars by my calculation. Otherwise, a purely symbolic gesture at best.

Holey moley, forrest. Do you think you think too much?

Probably.

Actually, I hate math, but have to use it all the time in my job, so I take any chance I get to exercise my mind in so far as math / algebra is concerned (no matter how useless the problem is).

Let's start an "I Hate Math" club. I praise the Lord in my job, the only math I use is making sure my paychecks all add up they way they're supposed to.

[forrestkc]

Let's start an "I Hate Math" club. I praise the Lord in my job, the only math I use is making sure my paychecks all add up they way they're supposed to.

I hated Algebra and Calculus in school, could not see how I would ever conceivably use it. Yet today, I have to use it all the time.