[ad_1]
JEBEL MUSA, Egypt – An initiative to mobilize religious leaders around the world to push governments to take more action on climate change, an Israeli environmental activist tore down artificial stone slabs on top of what is believed to be Mount Sinai, an Egyptian peak, on Sunday morning. a world that cannot protect the planet.
The idea was developed by solar entrepreneur Joseph Abramowitz and David Myron Wapner, chairman of the Jerusalem-based Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, ahead of the COP27 United Nations climate conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The Sinai Climate Partnership, symbolically launched at the ceremony, brings together the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, the Elijah Interfaith Institute, the Department of Peace, the United Nations Earth Trust Initiative, Abramowitz’s Gigawatt Global and the Israeli environmental organization Adam Teva. B’Din.
After sunrise, Abramowitz and Wapner, along with Nigel Savage, founder and former director of the US environmental organization Hazon, and his successor, Jakir Manela, gathered at the summit to read chapters of the 2011 multifaith-signed Holy Land Declaration on Climate Change. A council of religious leaders of the Holy Land. Two teenagers from the United States also participated in the ceremony as part of the Christian Climate Observers.
After the group read from a new list of “Ten Principles of Climate Repentance” drawn up by dozens of multi-faith leaders gathered in London over the past few days, Abramowitz smashed two tablets on the floor.
This act was a symbolic echo of the biblical Moses breaking the 10 commandments in protest against the Israelites after the descent from Mount Sinai.
“We’re looking at Sharm el-Sheikh and we’re not happy,” Abramowitz said as he smashed a tablet.
From left: Nigel Savage of Hazon, Anneka of Christian Climate Observers USA, David Myron Wapner of Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, Elsa of Christian Climate Observers and Jakir Manela of Hazon launch the Sinai Climate Partnership in Jebel Musa, Egypt. November 13, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)
One of the tablets was made by the youth of the Israeli branch of Strike 4 Future, with the words “Broken Promises” written in Hebrew. Another tablet is painted green to denote the ‘green commandments,'” Abramowitz said.
“The political leadership of the world is still not out of the climate situation,” he said. “The 27th meeting of world leaders is taking place and the situation is getting worse. We call on faith leaders to increase their sense of urgency and weigh in forcefully and globally to push them to reduce global warming by at least 50 percent by 2030. It is immoral to gradually reduce emissions. At this point.”
James Sternlicht, head of the Peace Department, called on faith leaders to take a climate pledge: “As a person of hope, I pledge to make the world a better place for people and the planet, every day that I live.
“Today, as religions put aside their differences in a common call to fight climate change, we are working toward a new deal for humanity to protect our common home and improve our common human future,” he said in a video. Link from COP27 confab.
Céline Phillips, a member of the French delegation to the UN COP27 climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, reviews the Holy Land Declaration on Egypt’s Jebel Musa summit on November 13, 2022. (Sue Surkes/Times of Israel)
One of the immediate signatories to the climate pledge was Flora Wano, a member of the COP27 confab delegation from the tiny Republic of Vanuatu, a small archipelago of 83 islands in the South Pacific with mostly coral reefs.
The United Nations ranks seismically active Vanuatu as the world’s worst-hit country when it comes to natural disasters, and Vano says they are getting worse because of climate change. These include food loss and migration due to sea level rise, cyclones, severe storms, severe floods and droughts.
“I am a woman, a mother and a part of humanity,” she said. “I have the right to survive. “
An IsraAid worker talks to a local man after Cyclone Pam hit the Pacific island of Vanuatu in March 2015. (IsraelAID/File)
Abramowitz and Wapner’s original idea was to bring dozens of leaders of many faiths to Mount Sinai, but the Egyptian authorities refused, saying the time was not right.
The town of St. Catherine under the high mountain is currently a huge construction site. The state is building new hotels and a large multi-denominational prayer center. The mountain is the most popular of several sites in Egypt, Israel and elsewhere that are traditionally associated with the biblical location of Mount Sinai, where Moses ascended to receive the Ten Commandments from God in the Old Testament.
St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, southern Egypt, on April 16, 2017. (AFP/Pedro Costa Gomes/File)
Instead, the new Sinai Climate Partnership will be officially announced on Sunday evening at a ceremony on Parliament Hill, London’s highest point.
Ceremonies are also held in Jerusalem, Salt Lake City, Ecuador, Australia, Mount Abu in Rajasthan, India and Calcutta, and Mount St. Francis, a Catholic retreat in Indiana.
Savage noted that Israel recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, describing it as a turning point for the nation. In Israel, this is a truly important moment and opportunity for the State of Israel and the Jewish people to say that the next 25 years will be about responding to the climate crisis.
[ad_2]
Source link