Former Sierra Club
Head Speaks In Troy

According to the Midrash, if you are
planting a tree when God appears, you
should continue planting then go with
God, said Adam Werbach, offering fur-
ther proof that Jews and the environ-
ment are connected.
There weren't many gas-guzzling
SUVs in the Congregation Shir Tikvah
parking lot in Troy, and the dress was
decidedly casual, when Werbach, 26,
president of the Sierra Club from 1996-
98, spoke Nov. 3 to a crowd of 35 envi-
ronmentally conscious Jews.
Other ways to connect, he said,
include walking to Shabbat services, cel-
ebrating and explaining Sukkot and Tu
b'Shevat to children, and donating to
the Jewish National Fund via "those
blue and white boxes."
Werbach made headlines in 1996
when, as a 23-year-old, he took on
the leadership role at the oldest and
largest grassroots environmental
group in the U.S. More recently, he
wrote the book Act Now, Apologize
Later, which examines what he calls
an "assault on the environment,"
and developed a television series,
The Thin Green Line, for the
Outdoor Television Network.
Werbach's local talk was sponsored by
Teva, the environmentally conscious
group of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, and the still-
forming Southeast Michigan chapter of
the Coalition on the Environment and
Jewish Life. "We have a 5,000-year-old
operating manual for the planet," he
said. The texts are there, we just need
to re-read it."
Speaking of Israel, about 1,100
birds have been hit by Israeli planes
in the last couple of years, the Dead
Sea is getting lower by one meter
every year, and about 1,000 people
in Israel die from air pollution each
year, he said.
About 60 percent of northern Israel
will be paved by the year 2020, Werbach
asserted. "We need to preserve habitat"
because Israel still is an "amazing"
migratory area for birds.
A small country like Israel still has a
global effect on the environment, he
said. "This is the place where Jews have
been chosen to steward, there are specif-
ic plots of land that we have responsibil-
ity for, and it is crashing right now,"
Werbach said. "Israel is so small, there is
no land to sacrifice. Every drop of water,
every bit of land, needs to be protected
in Israel." II

— Harry Kirsbaum, StaffWriter

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