Jews more climate aware than most, but significant distinctions by denomination

To what extent do British Jews understand or accept the scientific consensus on this? In general, they are quite climate aware – our data show that 92 per cent think that the world’s climate is either ‘definitely’ (69%) or ‘probably’ changing (23%). That said, Jews are more equivocal about the human role in it – just 63% blame human activity ‘mainly (50%) or ‘entirely’ (13%). Nevertheless, the overarching picture suggests that UK Jews are rather more climate conscious than the UK population in general.

Yet remarkable differences in attitude can be seen when the data are analysed by denomination. Members of non-Orthodox synagogues overwhelmingly believe that the world’s climate is changing – the proportions lie in the 85-90% range. But levels drop among modern Orthodox synagogue members to around 66% and fall further among haredi synagogue members to just 25%. The same pattern can be seen on other climate change measures too – whether it’s how responsible people feel personally to help address it, how worried they are about it, or whether they think human activity is to blame for it. So it’s progressives who lead on this, and haredim who lag behind.

However, by contrast, when we measure aspects of Jewish identity – belief, practice, community engagement and numerous other indicators – we find exactly the opposite. It is haredi Jews who consistently score highest, followed by the modern Orthodox, followed by the non-Orthodox.

Perhaps none of this is surprising. Yet it does raise a key question about the nature of Judaism today. How can it be that the most halachically-observant and communally immersed among us can be so sceptical, indifferent, or perhaps oblivious to a problem that so clearly represents an existential threat to human life? Why is the climate change issue so seemingly absent in the Jewishness they encounter? Surely Judaism should speak to this enormous challenge in some way?

Yet interestingly, when we conduct more advanced statistical analysis on the data, it looks like it’s not really Judaism that is influencing views among the non-Orthodox either. Their climate consciousness appears to come mainly from their secular education and their political views, which tend to be more left-leaning than those of the Orthodox. Non-Orthodox synagogues probably engage with climate change issues more than Orthodox ones, but they are preaching to the choir – non-Orthodox Jews were already largely on board before they even set foot in synagogue.

In short, wherever we look, Judaism itself doesn’t appear to be shaping our opinions or actions on this huge global issue. That should concern us – if the Judaism we encounter today doesn’t compel us to act on such a clear threat to human life, surely we need to ask ourselves some tough questions about how we are living and interpreting it?