Combat climate change: A Tal order

Kol hakavod to David Krantz, president of Aytzim: Ecological Judaism, for his article, “Netanyahu’s loss could be climate win” (June 22), in which he points out that having Alon Tal, Israel’s leading environmentalist, as an MK “may be the best opportunity in decades for Israelis to take action for environmental sustainability.”

Tal has great credentials to make a major difference re: Israel’s environment, as he helped found the Israeli Union For Environmental Defense and the Arava Institute For Environmental Studies, wrote the most comprehensive book on Israel’s environment,

Pollution in the Promised Land, and other books and articles on Israel’s environment, and has been a leader for Israel’s Green Party.

Combating climate change is especially important for Israel, as a rising Mediterranean Sea could inundate the coastal plain where most of Israel’s population and infrastructure are located, and the hotter and drier Middle East that climate experts predict will make terrorism and war more likely, according to military experts.

At a time when climate experts are issuing increasingly dire warnings about climate threats, and there has been a major increase in the frequency and severity of climate events, it is urgent that everything possible be done to avert a climate catastrophe and to help shift our precious, but imperiled, planet onto a sustainable path.

RICHARD H. SCHWARTZ, PH.D. Professor Emeritus, College of Staten Island