The Daunting Nature of Climate Change

I have a vivid memory from the early ‘90s of sitting on the front steps of my suburban house outside of Albany, NY. I was a teenager, it was springtime, and I was reading a book called 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth. I remember thinking, “I already turn the faucet off when I’m brushing my teeth,” as my newly awakened adolescent mind started to ponder, for the first time, the systems within our society that could also be changed to make a far more significant impact than a single person saving water at home (of course, I still turn off the faucet when I brush my teeth!).

Around that time, I bought a t-shirt at an Earth Day event that read “Think globally, act locally.” Throughout my adult life I have vacillated between focusing on environmental and climate action I can personally do at home and in my local community, and action I can do with others to effect broader change in my city, province, and country (I moved to Canada in 2002).

When I attended my first URJ North American Board meeting last year, I finally met then-outgoing WRJ president Sara Charney in person for the first time. Sara and I had met on Zoom, as both of us were members of the nascent Tikkun Olam Steering Committee established by the Reform Jewish Community of Canada, the Reform movement’s Canadian arm.

Sara knew through our work together that climate justice is very important to me, and she pulled me aside to ask if I’d participate on a steering team at WRJ tasked with exploring climate change and climate action through a gender lens. Though I was not involved with WRJ beyond participating casually in my sisterhood, I couldn’t refuse an invitation to work closely with a small group of Reform Jewish women to see if we could establish a framework for taking action at all levels—as individuals, as women’s groups, as a movement, and in partnership with other organizations.

Over the last year, I have loved getting to know the other members of our small steering team as we met virtually to work through Jewish environmental organization Adamah’s Climate Action Plan for WRJ. I have learned so much from them and gained a greater understanding of how climate change affects us in different areas of North America, and about how it intersects with many of the established pillars of WRJ’s social justice work.

Now, we’re preparing our first real action as a steering team: we’ll be hosting a virtual event on June 5, 2025, to introduce the issue of climate through a gender lens, to connect with others in the WRJ community across North America, and to begin to learn together and take steps toward action at the individual, local, state/provincial and federal levels.

I take my role as a Canadian on our team very seriously. Climate change knows no borders, but we do know that some areas of the world are impacted more dramatically than others at this stage. The severe wildfires we see more and more frequently in the Canadian North threaten people, animals, and ecosystems to a frightening degree, and contribute even more to our changing global climate. We also know that women and other gender minorities bear the brunt of the challenges climate change causes, from food and housing instability to civil disruption to mass migration.

At this moment in history, it can feel like the governments of Canada and the U.S. are farther apart than they’ve been in two centuries, but what we know as Reform Jewish women+ is that we are not far apart. In our shared Jewish values, our commitments to heal the earth, welcome the stranger, and love our neighbours we have an opportunity to come together to learn, strategize, and to make real, positive change. To look fiercely at a daunting challenge and find something each of us can do on our own, together, or both.

Climate change is big and scary, and it can feel impossible to do anything about it. I think, every day, about a text from Pirkei Avot (2:16): Lo alecha hamlachah ligmor, v’lo atah ben chorin libatel mimenah: “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it.”

We can’t let the daunting nature of climate change paralyze us into inaction, but we also don’t need take on the responsibility of solving it entirely.

Every action we take, no matter how small or how bold, makes a difference. I hope you’ll join us on June 5, as we begin to explore climate change education and action through a gender lens, engaging Reform Jewish women across North America to effect change in our homes, in our local communities, and for our shared world.