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Something of Worth for the Future

After quite a bit of time I finished reading a fascinating, thorough, and comprehensive history of pollution and environmental issues in Israel. Pollution in a Promised Land by Alon Tal is well worth the read if you can put your hands on the book - it's out of print, but of course you can grab a used copy on Amazon. Or come for a visit and borrow my copy!

During the course of my reading I was struck often by so many amazing historical facts and anecdotes. Towards the end, which correlates to modern times, two quotes jumped out at me leaving behind significant impact to make me dog-ear the page to remember to return to the note (it was on Shabbat, so no other option to record it!)

The first is in relation to efforts to build public or private projects, or some that are a bit of both, to convert public lands into developed areas. Initially the case was going in favor of the city officials and developers who wanted to build a marina in Herzliyah, an upscale, well-to do community north of Tel Aviv. However, when the final decision was handed down the judge wrote the following.

"It is incumbent on us to leave something for our children. The tendency to derive financial benefit from public lands ought to be secondary to the benefits public lands bring the public" Justice Sara Serota, in her written court decision against the Herzliyah marina development efforts, to both the city officials and the developers. (Alon Tal, Pollution in a Promised Land, page 391)

In the continuation of the same chapter, Tal recounts an interview he conducted with Yossi Sarid about his tenure as Minister for the Environment, with a sense of perspective towards Sarid's state-building past. While once the goal of the government had to be to build up the country, literally, build the buildings to house the new citizens and residents, modern times call for a shift in development thinking.

Yossi Sarid said in an interview, "It's not just that the country needs to be a home; it needs to be a home that you can live in." (Alon Tal, Pollution in a Promised Land, page 430)

Our perspective on the use of natural resources and public spaces must be informed by our awareness that there are generations to come after us and we not only want to leave them something, we want them to want and be able to use and enjoy what is left for them. With an ever growing population, both in Israel and world-wide, how can that be possible? What kind of planning and thinking must we do to ensure that not only is there a livable planet but one that someone, lots of someones want to live on?
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