Do not worry the earth can balance it, like what happen today.
Someday when human greed achieve its peak, it is a good time to end human civilization and start it all over again.
Well, if human civilization goes down, I find it hard to imagine how the Sangha can survive in a post apocalyptical world, with very few Buddhists able to give alms.
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Being somebody with a bit of knowledge on agriculture and the state of farming … this is so sad, but so true. First thing we talk about in “sustainability” circles is that we must define what that word means. Sustainable is not good enough. Sustainable presents an “even keel” that is not what the Earth needs. Even many “organic farming” operations, for example, still till the earth and cause soil erosion, or use “organic” pesticides that kill insects—beneficial and not so beneficial alike. Farming by its very nature is exploitative. That is why even plant based people (myself included) must be aware that yes, various forms of vegetable farming disrupt natural ecosystems, displace wildlife, and decimate soil microbial life. A regenerative approach is the best approach to all things we as humans do. Especially farming. Our aim should always be to give back more than we take when possible.
I think renewable energy is a very noble endeavor, and I applaud those who wish to achieve some semblance of freedom from the grips of fossil fuels. But these technologies present their own set of issues that are sometimes ignored, and masked, by that very nobility.
I probably sound like I’ve hugged one too many trees, but I’ve actually never hugged any.
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Agree 100% … ‘go-green’ means ‘go-greed’ and the earth does not need it … what the earth want just ‘breathe’
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and it is time, Bhante … Vàpitam ropitam dhannam pajaham niravasesato
aneka guna-sampannam pavattaphalam àdiyam.
Well hurry up then, while we still have some to hug!
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… then hug one, Bhante, at least we still got some fruit to live for, just kidding
Just sharing my response to previous posts, as a reflection.
As we all know, behind the current climate change is a wrong view of the world and wrong thinking. But wrong thinking in this case is not just obviously harmful or greedy thinking, like deliberately harming others or stealing or wanting to be rich. But rather it is also thinking that an ordinary individual’s actions are too insignificant to make much difference on a larger scale to add to or reverse global pollution and climate change.
There is an old parable of the commons. In essence, an individual thinks that it doesn’t matter if he just has one more animal than others to graze the common land, so he adds one. Others nearby of cause will notice the difference, but instead of saying anything, they quietly do similar. Next generation then doesn’t remember what the commons were like before, but they follow the same false thinking that changing a few actions by a few individuals doesn’t matter. And when that kind of thinking spreads, it results in what we have now – an outcome of such thinking and actions over many years by many people - that is now global-scale pollution and climate change.
Most current business organisations are just supplying demand of individuals for products and services and encouraging it to make more money for themselves. Unlike ordinary citizens, all political and other leaders have rare opportunities to influence many peoples’ thinking. But if they don’t lead by personal way of life, they can mislead many and waste their unique opportunity to help make this world better for everyone – like a farmer who thinks that his extra cow will make too little difference - very bad kamma.
A virus, real or virtual, starts with a few individuals too and tends to spread exponentially. Every social change started with a few people, and Buddhism too started like that. And even if this global change to restore damaged ecosystems will take many years at the current rate, at least we can live at peace now, when living a good way that helps to achieve it.
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I am not pessimistic but just reality that anything will not happen as expected. There will be no restoration especially what we called, The New Normal.
Its like an Intensivist (ICU doctor) who work very hard to intervene body which is trying very hard to normalize haemodynamic system of the body. And at the end the body shut down due to multiple organ failure.
Yes, definitely right. But, it is not our last chance but a few more live as what have already predicted before The Teaching lost forever followed by The Dark Era again before everything engulfed by the dark hole. So, we still have the chance before this ‘Anicca’ process end.
That is so true, and such question is very helpful along the path of ongoing enquiry and evolving actions, guided by the Dhamma.
Reviewing briefly the last 30 years, from the 1st IPCC report in 1990, the process of change sadly, but somewhat humorously, reminds me of the Buddha’s simile of the poisoned arrow (MN 63). Hopefully we won’t need a worse prognosis report for all our politicians to see clearly enough that waiting any longer or dwelling on irrelevant details will only make the situation worse.
While the last UN Decade was dedicated to Biodiversity Conservation, the focus was then primarily on government and organisation engagement. This new UN Decade on Ecosystems Restoration however runs in parallel with UN call to every individual to Act Now by taking responsibility for one’s personal actions, and so help avert bigger disasters.
I think these UN initiatives, like vaccinations, are great news and in harmony with the Buddha’s teaching on personal responsibility and peaceful way to freedom from suffering.
May many respond wisely to these UN calls for help, and soon – out of care for children, other species and future generations, including themselves.
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From
I found this
" if your circuits are overwhelmed there’s a reason and the reason isn’t because you are heartless, it’s because there is not a human heart on this planet that can bear all of what it happening right now. "
The writer Nadia Bolz-Weber is a “preacher”; I did not dive in to look at her background because the words were useful for my reflection. Her advice was (essentially) to exercise restraint of attention but gratitude for diversity of care, among individuals & groups.
The question we each face is, what can I do now and going forward? Will I do it, and will I return to those questions as I move forward? The answers will be diverse and that is fortunate.
I am glad I do not have children snd am not young, yet there are still things I can do,and one is to urge focus and diligence and a Noble Eight Fold Path life.
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I think this raises the question of what is “better” for the environment.
If we become in conscious control of the carbon cycle, and gain a degree of control over the world’s temperature, the young among us will actually have a decision to make. What temperature should the world be? +2, +1, 0, -1, -2? If there is a geologic time scale presence of intelligent life on this planet, they’ll need to think about how the next glacial period “should” proceed.
I think these questions naturally make people uncomfortable, and give us a sense of the disturbing power humanity now has. It reminds me of the opening story of the Vinaya, when Mahamogallana offers to use his psychic powers to resolve a famine, and the Buddha warns against it.
Then Venerable Mahāmoggallāna approached the Buddha, bowed, sat down, and said,
“At present, Venerable Sir, Verañjā is short of food and afflicted with hunger, with crops affected by whiteheads and turned to straw. It’s not easy to get by almsfood. Sir, the under-surface of this great earth is abounding with food, which tastes just like pure honey. It would be good if I inverted the earth so that the monks may enjoy the nutrition in the sprouts.”
“But what will you do, Moggallāna, with those creatures who are living there?”
“I will transform one of my hands to be just like the great earth, and I’ll make those creatures go there. Then with the other hand I’ll invert the earth.”
“Let it be, Moggallāna, please don’t invert the earth. Those creatures might lose their minds.”
Eventually, they get through it through moderation, austerity, and leaving the afflicted area. But we don’t have anywhere else to go! We have no resort, other than using these powers which might cause us to lose our minds.
Iron-seeding ocean algae, cloud-seeding the skies, altering terrain albedo - there’s a lot of crazy ideas out there.
But even on the near side, just the idea of really taking responsibility as humans and saying, “this area is a forest. It will have these trees, these shrubs, these fungi, these bugs, birds, reptiles, and mammals, including big scary ones like wolves, tigers, moose, and elk, and we are responsible for keeping them all healthy” is a massive inversion that can be very frightening for people, and the decisions of what is best for these ecosystems can be very uncomfortable. In my country, there’s a “minor” environmental problem of coyotes ranging far out of their natural range, even into city centers where they are a danger to humans. This was in part caused by exterminating wolves that kept coyotes confined to a smaller niche. Part of the solution to this problem will likely have to be helping wolf populations recover - which is scary and at times morally dubious. Wolves can also be a threat to humans, though usually less so, because they avoid population centers. What responsibility do the people who reintroduce wolves into these parts of my country have for the harm those wolves cause? The people who culled wolves to the brink of extinction mostly operated on a simple “moral” view - wolves are dangerous, killing them makes the world safer. We are faced with choices that we know are much more complex - every option will end up causing harm. But it’s too late to be aloof - we already inverted the earth, and the animals who live in it are in our hands.
A lot of that, however, is pie-in-the-sky thinking. Practically,
And again, from the Vinaya,
Then, after robing up in the morning, the monks took their bowls and robes and entered Verañjā for alms. Not getting anything, they went to the horse-pen. They then brought the portions of steamed grain back to the monastery, pounded them, and ate them. Venerable Ānanda crushed a portion of steamed grain on a stone, took it to the Buddha, and the Buddha ate it.
The Buddha heard the sound of the mortar. When Buddhas know what is going on, sometimes they ask and sometimes not; they know the right time to ask and the right time not to ask. Buddhas ask when it is beneficial, not when it is unbeneficial, for Buddhas are incapable of doing what is unbeneficial. Buddhas question the monks for two reasons: to give a teaching or to lay down a training rule.
And so the Buddha said to Ānanda, “Ānanda, what’s this sound of a mortar?” Ānanda told him what was happening.
“Well done, Ānanda. You who are superior people have conquered the problems of famine; later generations will despise even rice and meat.
To conquer the problem of climate change, we have to be humble and resourceful, and cannot despise what we see as unglamorous or unluxurious.
Honestly I believe Buddhist monastics have a huge part to play in this, not even as activists (though I know many have done great work in that way) but as life examples, even for non Buddhists. “Live like a Buddhist monk” is a cliche meaning “live simply” and even though it’s often used negatively, (“I’m not a Buddhist monk, I need to X, Y, Z”) people are often also aware that Buddhist monks (and, to be fair, clergy in general) are some of the happiest people around. I am extremely thankful for the example provided by the Sangha in all respects.
I know Ajahn Brahmavaso has cited a little study that showed an Australian monk’s support cost about as much as an average Australian dog. If there were 7 billion dogs on the planet, rabbits would be in a rough spot, but we wouldn’t be burning the Amazon and melting the Arctic for luxury beef. Our “carbon budget” (sorry Bhante) is more than enough to afford all humans wonderful lives, it’s just our “wisdom budget” that is lacking.
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Just offering a few more drops, to help cool the world from within:
"Think not lightly of goodness,
Māvamaññetha puññassa,
that it won’t come back to you.
na mandaṁ āgamissati;
The pot is filled with water
Udabindunipātena,
falling drop by drop;
udakumbhopi pūrati;
the sage is filled with goodness
Dhīro pūrati puññassa,
piled up bit by bit.
thokaṁ thokampi ācinaṁ."
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Just saw this interesting article on how solar farms can hurt biodiversity, along with some ideas to mitigate that damage:
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Very interesting! Will read now!
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Just wondering - is the climate change following a mathematical logistic curve? And has turning point been reached in attitude to it by majority in human population? Have any surveys been done? Maybe climate change issue should be included among questions in the population census, not just religion. It could help change the promotional advertising on TV and the governments partitioning of their annual budgets.
Reflecting on the Buddha’s teachings related to this, verses from Dhammapada came to mind (Dhp 47). Then searching for suttas on flood I found one helpful towards CC issue - SN 45.171.
I think that slowing down and stopping the anthropogenic global warming just by technology and government rules and prohibitions will have only limited impact and will be very slow. Because, as we here all know, visible anthropogenic CC and large scale floods from it, is due to inner causes…
2500 years ago impact of human triple-actions on environment at global-scale was negligible, because of the population size then and also the technology was not developed like now. People then also didn’t have a global view of their environment as we now have through science, to be able to visualise and understand long-term global-scale impacts of their ordinary daily actions on other species and future generations. So the Buddha didn’t need to say much about it.
I have long thought that the elephant in the room is human population growth. If a world government stopped all medical and therapeutic care for those over, say, 49 the demands on resources would diminish in a generation. … But of course, this is unthinkable … Sigh.
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Interesting point. I guess then people would have to allocate their personal savings to personal medical care so many wouldn’t have much left to spend on shopping for what they don’t need. But then many people don’t have much savings if any… so as you said, that is unthinkable.
And yes I agree, human population growth is the greedy elephant in the room and getting bigger.
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Changing diet is one of the biggest powers in the hands of the individual to influence the health of the planet.
“Eating Our Way to Extinction is a feature-length documentary film that describes the necessary movement towards a plant-based lifestyle from a big-picture perspective, while taking into account the complex situation we find ourselves in. Even though there are many films that tackle individual aspects of the movement, the brothers and co-directors Ludo and Otto Brockway seek to present all aspects of the plant-based lifestyle movement, including interviews with celebrities and scientists, as well as ordinary people. The documentary shows the strength of the movement globally and the power of people to change; it exposes the economic inefficiencies in the global meat market; it presents groundbreaking research into the profound intellectual capabilities of animals as well as the myriad benefits of a plant-based lifestyle.”
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I simplify. We’re doomed. And we are not the first civilization to lack the ability to prevent its own demise. I am okay with that. Humans are too unevolved to recover given the time left on this former paradise. I hope I am wrong. But I doubt it.
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