Ecodharma - Appendix 1 A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change

[Tairin]

Appendix 1 is a Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change. It is pretty much a summary of the Ecodharma book we have been reading together. It was first published in 2009 but there doesn’t seem anything has changed since then. In fact I’d say there has been little meaningful progress, at least on the scale needed to prevent further ecological decline.

This chapter lists several steps that we as a species need to take in order to save ourselves.
I don’t believe there is any single “silver bullet” that will be the answer. I believe we will need to make a lot of progress on many fronts. Nevertheless there are some changes that will have a larger impact than others.

After reading this book, and drawing from any other sources you wish, what are the top 2 or 3 changes you feel we must start enacting now to have our best chance of avoiding disaster? Why do you believe these are the most critical changes?

Many of us have expressed pessimism about our chances to avoid an ecological collapse and yet we are all here reading and contributing to the discussion which tells me there is still a sense of hope among us.

Who or what is your focus of motivation when you look to the future and the changes necessary? Is it your children? Yourself? Your partner? The poor? The plants and animals ?


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Doshin]

Thank you Tairin.

I believe we have many technical solutions to address the environmental problems. We know what to do. What is lacking is the will. Yes there are many living more sustainable lives and governments are moving forward with policy/solutions/education but there needs to be a larger cascade of effort. It is not enough.

The theme of our readings is what is missing “within us” to take the path that is necessary. To make the right choices, to sacrifice for the greater good, to understand we and the world are interdependent. As pointed out, our cravings are leading us in a direction that is non sustainable and leaves less room for other species and a diminishing quality of life for many of our species. Those with much do not want to give it up. Those with little want more. There is not an equitable distribution of resources among all peoples. This creates a motivational challenge for many.

Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is the most obvious course we should take. But that does not necessarily address all problems such species loss or pollution. A world with a smaller population could use fewer resources if there is the desire to do so. As we know some of us use much more than others. How do we address that?

Those are my thoughts. I will learn from all you.


My motivations are all that Tairin listed. I have lived a long and good life and most of the challenges coming will be after I am gone.

Doshin
St

[Tairin]

I guess I should answer my own questions

After reading this book, and drawing from any other sources you wish, what are the top 2 or 3 changes you feel we must start enacting now to have our best chance of avoiding disaster? Why do you believe these are the most critical changes?

I think that the early days of the COVID pandemic pointed us towards at least one solution. Initially the pandemic forced a general shutdown of our cities, economies, and daily movements. It has been reported that there was a measurable improvement in the CO2 in the atmosphere from even such a relatively short window. What this says to me is that for lasting impacts we need to severely limit our consumption. Unfortunately the shutdown did cause real hardships for many people but then again governments showed us the answer through a change in the distribution of wealth.

Unfortunately I don’t think people will make this sort of sacrifice willingly, It seems that we need something like an individual existential crisis (I.e. the very real probability of dying from the pandemic) to save us all from the very real world wide existential crisis.

Who or what is your focus of motivation when you look to the future and the changes necessary? Is it your children? Yourself? Your partner? The poor? The plants and animals ?

Well ultimately I don’t want harm to come to anyone but really I think about my 19 year old son. He is just at the beginning of his adult life. He is an intelligent, kind, thoughtful person who has a lot of potential. It saddens me to think about what sort of world he will be facing when he gets to my age. My wish is that we somehow divert disaster before it is too late for my son, for all young people, and for all inhabitants of this planet.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Heiso]

Thank you Tairin.

After reading this book, and drawing from any other sources you wish, what are the top 2 or 3 changes you feel we must start enacting now to have our best chance of avoiding disaster? Why do you believe these are the most critical changes?

I think reducing the use in fossil fuels seems the most urgent and something we have the technology to do something about now. But as we've all discussed previously, there needs to be the will to do something about it now and that doesn't seem to be there with many people, governments, and corporations.

But also general consumption of goods we don't really need which use resources, and produce waste and pollution - these again come back to needing a general shift away from craving. I agree with Tairin in that I can't see this changing until many of us are faced with very immediate consequences.

Who or what is your focus of motivation when you look to the future and the changes necessary? Is it your children? Yourself? Your partner? The poor? The plants and animals ?

Yes, immediately it is my kids who are 5 and 2 and thinking about the world they will live and maybe raise their own kids in, and I hope we can stop the worst before then. This sounds a bit of a cop-out Zen guy answer but ultimately it is all beings, particularly those in parts of the world that will feel the impacts more immediately.

As a side note, I was at a Royal Horticultural Society gardens this weekend and they had areas where they were demonstrating how to grow plants in much more arid climates, with less water. It wasn't showing us how we might prevent climate change, but how we are going to live as things get increasingly worse. That was fairly sobering to see.

Gassho,

Heiso

[Dogukan]

Thank you, Tairin.

After reading this book, and drawing from any other sources you wish, what are the top 2 or 3 changes you feel we must start enacting now to have our best chance of avoiding disaster? Why do you believe these are the most critical changes?

I believe that we definitely force the authorities to prevent big corporations from causing further destruction. Personal engagement is very valuable, but it is only up to a point. (This caricature strikes home: https://i.ibb.co/wRgZGPq/FN0-L7-So-X...me-900x900.jpg) Maybe we Buddhists must be more like King Ashoka again for this cause for what is at stake is life itself with all of its components. Since I believe this is the top priority, I can repeat the valuable points made in the comments above as other necessary changes.

Who or what is your focus of motivation when you look to the future and the changes necessary? Is it your children? Yourself? Your partner? The poor? The plants and animals?

Well, just today, at the bus stop, I met a man who told me that he hadn't been able to find a job for months and was trying to fill his stomach by drinking Nescafe. Even in the movies, there is a small group of survivors of the apocalypse. And even in the most independent film or Pollyannaist utopia, this man cannot be among those survivors. My main focus of motivation is to help them to survive.

Gassho, Doğukan.
Sat.

[Kokuu]

After reading this book, and drawing from any other sources you wish, what are the top 2 or 3 changes you feel we must start enacting now to have our best chance of avoiding disaster? Why do you believe these are the most critical changes?

As Doshin points out, the changes we need are well known - decreasing meat consumption, leaving fossil fuels in the ground and switching to renewables, reduced air travel - it is getting people to buy into the changes that is the big issue right now.

Sadly, I cannot see this happening while the threats are still largely existential in most of the largest economies of the world. Climate change and mass extinction of species is just too theoretical compared with the cost of living crisis and other daily realities. It should be for governments to take care of longer-term issues but they work within 4-5 year elections cycles for the most part so have little motivation to look further ahead.


Who or what is your focus of motivation when you look to the future and the changes necessary? Is it your children? Yourself? Your partner? The poor? The plants and animals ?

My children are aged 16-21 so are inheritors of a climate catastrophe they played little part in creating. Of course, I fear for them. However, in common with Heiso, although it is a Buddhist cliché I think of all sentient beings, which includes everyone on the planet and every animal that is going to suffer the effects of the ravaging of the planet by human beings over the last couple of centuries.

Although I may not live to see the worst effects, I fear that we are going to be acting as witnesses to devastation achieved through our inability to tamper the greed of advanced economies and all of us who live in them.


Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-