Extinction Rebellion | Passover haggadah by Josh Newman

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The plagues we face

The UN IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report published in 2018 said the world has 12 years to halve greenhouse gas emissions to have any chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. Beyond this, even half a degree more will have disastrous impacts for hundreds of millions of people, animals and ecosystems. Respected scientists have since stated that we do not have that long .

Scientists say limiting temperature rises to below 2 degrees is possible, but it requires an unprecedented and urgent shift in energy systems in every country. Most importantly it requires political will. However, current government pledges put us on course for at least 3 degrees of warming. This will be catastrophic within the lifetimes of children today.

Other serious environmental threats include air toxification, plastic pollution releasing waste and poisons into the natural environment, ocean acidification and soil degradation. Together, environmental issues threaten the ecosystems essential for all life on earth.

At Pesach, we remember how Pharaoh’s hardened heart brought ten plagues on the Egyptians. Our leaders are denying this crisis and hardening their hearts against it, thus bringing multiple plagues of environmental destruction onto our world.

Read on to learn more.

)ָדם( Blood .1

The water in the Nile was changed into blood and the fish died. Similarly, nearly 90% of the ocean is now damaged by climate change, fishing, global shipping and pollution, and fish are dying . The UN IPCC says that with 1.5 degrees of warming, 70-90% of coral reefs will be lost.

)ְצַּפְרֵדַּע( Frogs .2

Frogs came out of the Nile and into homes and beds. We face a far worse danger, with the sea itself rising to flood our homes. Rising temperatures are causing melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica, putting hundreds of millions of people at risk. Combined with other pressures such as desertification, estimates suggest that by 2050, 1 in 9 people could become climate migrants - including 10% of the UK population , who may be displaced from areas including London .

)ִכּנִּים( Lice .3

3. The dust was transformed into lice, which settled on all the people and animals damaging their health. The air which we breathe is similarly being transformed, becoming toxified by emissions from travel and industry. Air pollution kills up to 9,000 people a year in London alone.

)ָערוֹב( Flies .4

The plague of flies damaged people and livestock in Egypt. We face the opposite - insects are disappearing , with 41% lost in the past decade, due to intensive agriculture, climate change and urbanisation. A global scientific review in 2019 found that “Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades. The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”

)ֶדֶּבר( Pestilence of livestock .5

Pestilence killed the Egyptians’ livestock. We too see animals dying. We are already in the sixth mass extinction event , with billions of animal populations already lost and 50% of all individual animals lost in the last few decades. Scientists say that this threatens the survival of human civilization.

) ְשׁ ִחין( Boils .6

Festering boils broke out on people and animals throughout Egypt. Climate change poses a similarly universal risk to global health. The World Health Organisation says that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately quarter of a million additional deaths per year , from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress. That number does not

include the hundreds of millions who are likely to die due to extreme weather events, climate migration and the increased risk of infectious diseases due to living in temporary accommodation such as refugee camps.

)ָבָּרד( Thunderstorm of hail and fire .7

Egypt was hit by its worst ever storm of thunder, hail and fire. At our current 1.1 degree of warming, we are already seeing many extreme weather events caused by climate change - including the recent Cyclone Idai, which destroyed 90% of the city of Beira in Mozambique, forest fires in California in 2018, heatwaves in Australia in 2018/19 killing people and wildlife and unprecedented winter wildfires across the UK in February 2019. More warming will mean more weather disasters.

)אְַרֶבּה( Locusts .8

Locusts destroyed the Egyptians’ crops and trees. We too will soon face a catastrophic inability to feed ourselves. Extreme weather, flooding and desertification will lead to crop failures around the world, causing global food insecurity and price spikes. In 2017, Environment Secretary Michael Gove said that due to intensive farming practices, UK soil will be able to produce crops for a maximum of 30 more years in its current condition.

)חוֶֹשך( Darkness for three days .9

Darkness covered all Egypt for three days. The catastrophic impacts of climate change on the natural world may cause our societies to fall into darkness. Mass migrations, crop failure and disasters are a perfect breeding ground for authoritarianism and even fascism. As Jews, we know all too well the horrors of what people are capable of doing to one another under extreme circumstances. The ecological crisis we face is beyond extreme.

) ַמ ַכּת ְבּכוֹרוֹת( Death of firstborn .10

Every firstborn son in Egypt was killed, and there was loud wailing throughout Egypt - “worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.” Global warming and the death of our ecosystems mean that we now face that human extinction (or near extinction) is a possibility in our children’s lifetime.

It took Pharaoh ten plagues before he let the Israelites go. The modern day plagues of environmental destruction are here now, yet still our leaders are not taking action. This must change. How will this happen? How do we leave this Egypt we’ve created?

לֹא ַעל־יְֵדי ַמְלאְָך,וְלֹא ַעל־יְֵדי ָשָׂרף,וְלֹא ַעל־יְֵדי ָשִׁליַח,
not through an angel and not through a seraph and not through a messenger, Rather through you, and not another, in this place at this time, by taking action.

haggadah Section: -- Ten Plagues

Source: Extinction Rebellion