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!

69 Days - Dalai Lama Finally Sees the Light

The Dalai Lama has finally seen the light on climate change. In an August report from the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, we learn that His Holiness is finally concerned about climate change ... because he has just realized that it is happening in his own backyard.

"Earlier this week the Dalai Lama told the Swiss press that one of his greatest concerns these days is climate change as rapidly melting glaciers in the Himalayas are posing a great threat to Tibet and the many surrounding Asian countries that rely on its rivers.

"Here at the DLC, we're accustomed to hearing His Holiness talking about his concerns about the human condition and its capacity for kindness, but it's not often we hear Him discuss our planet's condition and its capacity for survival. It raises an interesting question: what is the relation, if any, between compassion and climate change?"

Not wanting to be unkind, I would have to ask, What ISN'T the relation between compassion and climate change? And with all due respect, I would want to add, What took you so long?

We've been waiting a long time for this. Think of all the followers of the Dalai Lama around the world who haven't paid much attention to climate change because their spiritual leader wasn't paying it much heed. I am very grateful for this turnaround.

175 Days - What I Learned from "Fierce Light" is the Importance of Love and Solidarity

We saw the movie Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action, by Canadian filmmaker and media activist Velcrow Ripper, last night. It's currently playing at film festivals and in selected theatres around the world.

One of the best things about the movie was that we enjoyed a full half hour of it before hearing that "hope" word. What a wonderful half hour! I'm so sick of "hope" — people around the world are dying, starving, being flooded or parched, ill, losing their homes and their whole nations because of global climate change, but people in my culture have to feel "hope." Blech. Hope is a drug that takes other people's pain away — from you. Feel the pain, people! Feel their pain! Feel your own anguish! Feel it, then do something about it. (That is when spirit meets action.)

Anyway, a shining light in the movie was Congressman John Lewis, a hero of the 1960s civil rights movement in America, who was beaten almost to death for taking part in a peaceful march for voting rights (on a day later known as Bloody Sunday).

Mr. Lewis exuded a calm during his interview that I have long forgotten. He reminded me of the importance of doing our activist work in a spirit of love and solidarity — and compassion.

I came away with this zany urge to send flowers to Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation. Exxon is the world's biggest oil and gas company, which makes Tillerson one of the Earth's biggest enemies and one of my least favourite people on the face of the planet.

I realized that we can't save our love and compassion just for the poor and climate change vulnerable (though they certainly deserve all our solidarity). Rich people like Tillerson, whether they know they are frying their grandchildren's future or they are so ignorant that they don't realize they're doing it, are going to hell either way. (Oops, sorry, that wasn't very loving, was it?) I'll report back if I do send those flowers. You could help me figure out what to write on the card!

In a post to ACTivist Magazine, Fierce Light's Ripper included a poem from the Dalai Lama. I'd love for the Dalai Lama to get right on board with climate change (since it's the biggest spiritual crisis and the greatest threat to human rights ever), but that's another story. [UPDATE: Turns out he's done it! He just needed to see those Tibetan glaciers melting before he decided to give it his focus.] I'll leave you with his poem:

No matter what is going on

Never give up

Develop the heart

In your country too much work is spent developing the mind

Instead of the heart

Be compassionate

Not just to your friends

But to everyone [including the CEO of Exxon]

Be compassionate

Work for peace

In your heart and in the world

Work for peace

And I say again

Never give up

No matter what is happening

No matter what is going on around you

Never give up.

— The Dalai Lama