PRESS RELEASES
Monday, November 09, 2009
PHOTO OP: Paulin Fills Up Jewish Climate Campaign's Bus with Veggie Oil in White Plains
Contact: Allison Esposito, Press Secretary: (914) 723-1115
Where: Temple Israel Center, 280 Old Mamaroneck Road, White Plains NY
Date/Time: Thursday, November 12, 4:00pm
The Teva Learning Center and Hazon Climate Change Bus Tour will have its first stop on its National Tour at the Jewish Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) pickup on Thursday, November 12. Assemblywoman Amy Paulin will be on hand to help fill up the carbon-neutral veggie oil bus, which is outfitted as an environmental education facility. In addition to helping fill up the bus, Assemblywoman Paulin will sign the group’s pledge.
“The Jewish Climate Change Campaign is working hard to decrease the environmental footprint of an entire community,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin. “The bus has garnered our attention and I hope it will inspire people to bring ideas of conservation and renewal into their everyday lives.”
The bus tour is part of the Jewish Climate Change Campaign (www.jewishclimatechange.org) – a national effort that was created by Hazon (www.hazon.org) with contributions from dozens of Jewish institutions. The campaign was founded amidst efforts to mobilize the world’s religious and cultural communities to join together to combat climate change. The bus is equipped with vermicompost (worm), solar panels, human powered bicycle generator, solar ovens and a system to convert used vegetable oil to fuel for the bus.
Nili Simhai, the Director of the Teva Learning Center (www.tevalearningcenter.org) explains the mission of the Tour, “we are driving cross country to engage the American Jewish community through joyful experiential education and to sign a pledge committing to action and advocacy.” Jewish institutions are also asked to become organizational partners – committing to create a Green Team and share the message of the pledge.
Partnering with the Teva and Hazon is MASA Israel Journey, which recently launched its Go Green in Israel Campaign (www.gogreeninisrael.org) to encourage young Jewish adults aged 18 to 30 to take a year “on” and prepare themselves for the new green American economy by serving in Israel.
The Jewish Climate Change Bus Tour is being launched now, weeks after the world’s religions gathered at Windsor Castle to establish seven year plans for significant climate action. It also precedes the U.N. Conference on Climate Change, to be held in Copenhagen this December, where the international community will negotiate an agreement of reduced carbon emissions.
Nigel Savage, Director of Hazon and member of the Jewish delegation in Windsor, adds, “our vision is that Jewish communities be genuinely transformed by September 2015, at the end of the next shmita – sabbatical – cycle in Jewish life. That’s enough time to imagine radical change in our communities – how we heat our buildings, how we travel, how we source our food, how we integrate environmental education in all that we do.” He concludes, “it’s a vision that’s big enough to get people excited, but near enough in time that it’s not pie in the sky. It’s imaginable.”