54 Days - Celebrating the Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change

The Time to Act is Now

A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change

Has anyone else noticed that the world's faith groups are moving on climate change more than practically any other sector of humanity? Isn't it exciting that the all Buddhist traditions collaborated earlier this year to develop this Declaration on Climate Change? (Forgive me, but I've just discovered it recently.) You can sign on and support the declaration — as a Buddhist or a concerned citizen — here. My favourite excerpts are below:

Today we live in a time of great crisis, confronted by the gravest challenge that humanity has ever faced: the ecological consequences of our own collective karma. The scientific consensus is overwhelming: human activity is triggering environmental breakdown on a planetary scale. [...]

Eminent biologists and U.N. reports concur that “business-as-usual” will drive half of all species on Earth to extinction within this century. Collectively, we are violating the first precept—“do not harm living beings”—on the largest possible scale. And we cannot foresee the biological consequences for human life when so many species that invisibly contribute to our own well-being vanish from the planet.

[...]

We have a brief window of opportunity to take action, to preserve humanity from imminent disaster and to assist the survival of the many diverse and beautiful forms of life on Earth. Future generations, and the other species that share the biosphere with us, have no voice to ask for our compassion, wisdom, and leadership. We must listen to their silence. We must be their voice, too, and act on their behalf.

Read the rest here. It rocks!