6 replies to this topic

[yid]

Rabbi Shapiro,

I've been thinking about the topic of global warming. It seems to me most frum people think it's not happening because Hashem controls nature. I asked a Rav what he thinks and he told me that kids in his area used to skate on the pond in the winter but now they cant.

It seems to me that man made global warming isn't a stira to yidishkite. Maybe Hashem is showing us that we are too into gashgmius and ba'al tashchis. Maybe we should be more appreciative and lest wasteful. Also i've heard that before mashiach comes there may be extreme weather and wars. So what is the Torah perspective(s) on the matter?

[Rabbi Shapiro]

The Torah has no opinion one way or the other on global warming. Whether it is true or not is another story, but the Torah is not committed to one way or the other.

[Menorah]

Does the Rov have an opinion he can share on whether man-made global warming has any basis in fact?

[Rabbi Shapiro]

I'm afraid I don't. As Chazal say:

תלמוד בבלי מסכת סנהדרין דף ז/ב
אמור לחכמה אחותי את אם ברור לך הדבר כאחותך שהיא אסורה לך אומרהו ואם לאו אל תאמרהו

[matisyohu28]

I saw in the book 'Rav Avigdor Miller speaks' from artscroll, that when asked if global warming was true, Rav Miller z'l replied that it is a conspiracy perpetrated by the liberals.

[taon]

Did he mean everyhting, or just the craze?

[achasshoalti]

you can hear rav miller in his own voice saying the whole thing is a bluff here  https://www.box.com/...f213d5fyj8jrxqy