When it comes to the environment, Alon Tal goes by the book. And the book happens to be his own: “Pollution in a Promised Land: An Environmental History of History,” newly published by the University of California Press in Berkeley.
And it was to Berkeley’s Congregation Beth El that Tal brought his message recently, in a talk sponsored by several Jewish community organizations.
Tal, an Israeli environmental law professor and founder of the Israeli Union for Environmental Defense, as well as the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, began his time at the podium with a story.
And not a funny one.
On July 14, 1997, the Australian delegation to the Maccabiah Games — Israel’s version of the Olympics — was processing across a hastily (and, said Tal, rather shoddily) built bridge across a polluted stream. The bridge collapsed and 67 athletes fell in. One died immediately. The remaining 66 were admitted to the hospital with what appeared to be routine symptoms but, within a short time, they began to complain of heart and respiratory difficulty. Four more died.
To Tal, this tragedy personifies the environmental paradox of Israel. The polluted stream was formerly a rushing river of white water. But, during the ’50s, the water was diverted to the Negev. The desert bloomed but at a high cost. “This,” he said, “is the flip side of Zionism’s success story.”
It’s not only water — although that is Israel’s most precious commodity.
The immigration policy brings in millions of people every year and, as a result, tiny Israel is the most overcrowded country in the world today, he contends, adding that cars are everywhere and more than 1,000 Israelis die every year from inhaling the particles in the polluted air. Urban sprawl and industrial waste add to the problems which, he said, have typically been snarled in the political maelstrom, resulting in “chronic neglect and evasion” on the part of government.
He emphasized that understanding of the Zionist vision is part of the prescription for curing the country’s environmental ills.
“The great zeal that the Jewish people brought to settling the land of Israel had a great environmental impact. Human beings are pushing the world just a little too hard.”
Educated at Harvard and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tal, as an Israeli environmentalist, feels himself caught between the two poles of developing the country and restoring ecological balance.
Draining the swamps and turning them into arable farmland was a great accomplishment, but it also destroyed the habitat of many species of birds and animals. The Sea of Galilee has been shrinking in recent years, “another symptom of our mismanagement of water resources,” he noted. The new Trans-Israel Highway is a great accomplishment as far as transportation goes but it unfortunately runs through or past some of the most beautiful forests in the land. “And I pity the poor gazelle that tries to cross that road.”
More than 1 million cars were added to Israel’s roads during the last decade. Traffic jams and air pollution have made a transition to public transportation another imperative. “Israelis are dying to give up their cars if we could only give them an alternative.”
The water in Israel is not really safe to drink and those who can afford it use faucet filters and bottled water, he said. Moreover, “environmental justice” [as well as the Oslo accords] dictates that the water supply must be shared with the burgeoning Arab population in the territories. Desalinization is one answer, but this requires a great deal of energy, with a concomitant environmental impact. “You cannot create a water conservation strategy based on an increase in carbons,” he said. “That’s just not responsible.”
Not all the news is bad. Thanks to the Jewish National Fund, 10 percent of the land in Israel is forest. Another 25 percent has been set aside for nature reserves. The extinction of some species has been halted and/or reversed, and a diverse Israeli environmental movement is growing.
Talks with neighboring countries progress, in spite of war. “We need to have serious cooperative efforts with our neighbors,” he pointed out. Israeli farmers may reduce the use of pesticides to manage the insect population, but bugs fly over the river from Jordan and reverse the gains.
But he expressed optimism and believes that pragmatists on both sides of the political fence eventually will prevail. “I’m very impressed with the stamina of our Palestinian environmental partners,” he said. “To some extent, in spite of everything, we have become friends.
“We hold this land in trust,” he concluded. “In some ways, we’ve done very well. In other ways we’ve failed. Now it’s time to write the next chapter in Israel’s environmental history.”
Tal’s talk was sponsored by the Israel task force of the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay; the Bay Area Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life; New Generations, the young professionals division of the New Israel Fund; and several local synagogues.