Earlier in the week, Jonathan Axelrad, Co-Chair of this past weekend’s Jewish Response to the Energy Challenge (J-REC) conference held in San Francisco and broadcasted through out the United States and Israel, was asked if a “Jewish response to energy” wasn’t as superfluous as the Korean response to hurricanes.

As one of the few, if not only, gentiles I began the morning a bit skeptical, though after a day of thought provoking lectures and panels, I feel it was not another superfluous conference, and the concept of a concerted Jewish response could indeed be the seed of a terrifically successful piece of the large puzzle that will be the energy (and consumption) solution of the future. The core ideas behind why I agreed with the many bright panelists and moderators for why there should be a particularly Jewish response is because of the interdisciplinary and international nature of the energy challenge, the acute water and related energy challenge within Israel, and the Jewish concept of tikkun olam (loosely translated from Hebrew: the pursuit of things that avoid social chaos).

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Everybody is talking about “green energy” these days. It seems, anywhere in the world, the “green movement” has taken hold of individuals, companies and organizations. Individuals are making efforts to shift some of their consumption to renewable energy sources, companies are eagerly trying to develop or employ innovative clean technology and organizations are lobbying the green idea. Even governments are actively promoting and supporting the development of renewable energies.

With 64,500,000 search results for “green business”, 30,100,000 for “green energy” and 14,500,000 for “clean technology”, Google provides some insights into the dimensions of this movement.* Other sources give a clear picture: The International Energy Agency (IEA) indicates that investments in renewable energy will nearly triple from the current €40 billion to €115 billion by 2020. At the same time, employment in the overall sector will increase by 54% and even double in the solid biomass and photovoltaic fields, according to the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).**

There are many centers of activity in this worldwide movement for a better (greener) world, and I don’t want to take sides for one or the other. However, I would like to share an observation:

The United States has been criticized for its high levels of energy consumption, lack of adequate governmental policies to curb usage and insufficient promotion of alternative energy sources. At the same time, it might be the country with the largest and most dynamic “green energy” movement in the world.

Truth of the matter is: There is a large and ever growing group of dedicated people out there in the United States who believe in a “green future”. These are people who want to make a difference, people who are fed up with the current legislation’s stance on energy. These people rally all over the country in a quest for change. And they are pretty good at it.

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