As Joan Rivers would say, "Oy, don't get me started here."

Are Jews who light Hannuka candles contributing disproportionately to global warming when compared to other religious groups, e.g., Catholics lighting votive candles in churches around the world?

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I think the minimizing benefits and maximizing costs is sort of the point here: environmentalism is trying, quite explicitly, to be a substitute for religion, and this is the sort of shared, viral, and possibly ostentatious sacrifice that characterizes many religious observances. (Says the strict Catholic, who most definately does not care what the carbon footprint of a votive candle is.)

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I think the proper response is to calculate what the carbon savings would be from all of those non-religious environmentalists refraining from driving or using electricity in their homes for one day a week all year (i.e., the Sabbath). I strongly suspect that the savings would be much much more than any putative savings from not lighting candles on Hanuka.

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I don't know about the environmentalism as a religion issue or the anti-semitic angle (I mean, it does seem a little selective, but oh well) but to me this strikes me as the kind of intentional publicity seeking we see from this element of the left. How many times, for instance, has PETA stirred up a stupid controversy because of a stupid suggestion they have made? Like drink beer not milk, for instance...

So they try to tell people to ignore what their faith says because it is not eco-friendly. Its silly and bound to invite controversy, and thus you have to think that the controversy is the point.

But it is inherently suspicious when people are selective like this, when it happens against jews. There is a history. Indeed, clearly anti-semitic selectivity is also a present reality, though that might not be at work here. But still you have to think we could save alot more carbon if Al Gore took one less private jet flight, if John Edwards owned one less SUV, or the potheads (who are so often environmentalists) smoked one less joint.

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Why do I think that environmentalism is attempting to substitute itself for religion? Glad you asked. The Global Warming alarmists have appropriated the myth of the fall from grace of Adam and Eve. If only we could have left well enough alone and not started burning coal, we would not be cast from Camelot like Adam and Eve were from the Garden and the loving arms of God.

You remember Camelot? Were "Winter exits March the 2nd on the dot."

It is also reminiscent of destroying the Golden Calf to regain God's love. If we just renounce Capitalism and consumerism, Gaia will love us again.

All of this would just be coincidence if the evidence for AGW were stronger.