The Bronfman family built the Seagram Company into the fabulously successful Canadian real estate, beverage and entertainment conglomerate. After selling Seagram to Vivendi in 2000, it deepened its commitment to Birthright Israel and other Jewish philanthropies.

Like his father, Stephen Bronfman has long been active in Liberal Party of Canada politics. He recently launched the Jewish Climate Trust, published the Jewish Guide to Climate Philanthropy and explained why he believes “climate action is the next great Jewish responsibility.”

He believes climate change is the “defining challenge of our generation,” the “next great Jewish responsibility,” and presents his guide as a summary of “climate risks” facing humanity and planet – and a “clear, strategic roadmap” to help donors decide where and how to help end the “crisis.”

Mr. Bronfman wants to “align what we say we value” with “where we allocate resources.” Unfortunately, it won’t be just his family’s resources and those of other donors he recruits. Millions of other Canadians and billions of people worldwide could be compelled to bear the trillions of dollars in costs and lost personal freedoms and living standards that any quest for “net zero” carbon dioxide/greenhouse gas emissions will unavoidably bring.

My interest in climate change began during college geology studies of plate tectonics and Pleistocene glaciers. It intensified with the UN’s 1992 Earth Summit and subsequent efforts to attribute modern climate and weather changes to human causes, especially fossil fuel use and agricultural practices.

A limestone slab on my desk comes from the Niagara Formation, recalling the Silurian Period 430 million years ago, when coral reefs covered what later became my childhood home in Wisconsin. Striations on its surface are from the last of several mile-high glaciers that scraped and crushed much of North America, Europe and Asia between warm interglacial periods.

The Pleistocene........

© Townhall