Jan 28, 2015
“The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.” – Mahatma Gandhi The Walk for Climate is a pilgrimage to the centre of Britain. It seeks to find a way back to the strongest values we all share. In order to do this we must include all people, not just those who already share our views. The Walk for Climate is a walk for solidarity with all of Nature. It embraces the deepest and most empathic values the British people hold dear. A day’s walk with people from your community that not only includes the usual ‘greens’ but encompasses people from all walks of life can bring forth the creativity that is vitally needed if the 21st century is not to be one of the last for humanity and many other species. The reverse can be true: a flourishing of Nature and the interconnectedness of us all. Join us. A precept for Buddhists says, “Do not waste, but conserve energy and natural resources.” It is now clear beyond question that Western industrialised countries have caused climate destabilisation, which in turn has brought many species to the brink of extinction. Over the last 250 years the British landscape has been devastated by the mining and use of coal and the development of industries that depended on it. The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels has exacerbated climate change, leading to an increase in rainfall and in turn to the flooding that so many communities have experienced in the last few years. The effects of the greenhouse gas emissions already present will be part of the legacy of ‘civilised’ countries for a thousand years. However, a reduction and stabilisation in greenhouse gases in the 21st century can be achieved by a rapid increase in the use of renewable energy in the form of wind, solar, tidal and geothermal as well as other strategies, and thus mitigate a further deterioration in our climate. The precept “Do not harbour enmity against the wrongs of others, but promote peace and justice through nonviolent means” is very important. The climate dialogue has so often been an argument between ‘them’ and ‘us’. We will make greater progress to prevent climate chaos when we connect with those we perceive to be different from ourselves, whether in political affiliation or otherwise. Fortunately, the debate about whether human activity since the 1750s has contributed to changes in the Earth’s climate is over. We must now get on with finding the solutions that will protect our climate, and include everyone in finding those solutions. The ‘wrongs of others’ can easily be found in those who profit from the destructive legacy of fossil-fuel production and use, but those people too need to be part of the discussion. A shift from blame to collaboration and communication has the potential to solve many ecological concerns. Another precept “Do not lie, but speak the truth” leads Buddhists to actively pursue the truth when we ask ourselves how climate-change mitigation can take place.
Jan 19, 2015
“Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth ‘You owe me.’ Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.” – attributed to the Sufi poet Hafiz The biologist Edward O. Wilson coined the word ‘biophilia’ as meaning ‘love of living things’ or ‘the urge to affiliate with other forms of life’. British people love Nature. Britain is one of the few places on the planet that allow people the right to roam, and its public paths are unrivalled: they enable its people to connect to and celebrate Nature. But Nature as we know it is in jeopardy. 2014 was the warmest year on record in Britain, and the winter floods and summer drought caused havoc for humans and other species. The Walk for Climate is a walk for solidarity with all of Nature. It embraces the deepest and most empathic values the British people hold dear. Biophilia is not one more fancy word. It embodies the pathway towards loving, collaborative solutions in our communities to stop climate destruction and prevent ecocide. Walk for Climate continues to create the organisational teamwork necessary to bring the Walk closer to helping communities realise a zero-carbon future. Will you join us? The journal Nature published in January 2015 the most detailed explanation yet of why we must not continue to extract all our fossil fuels; in fact, we are told, over 80% of coal, 50% of natural gas and 30% of oil deposits needs to stay in the ground and is never to be burnt if we are to remain below the 2 °C global temperature rise that the world’s governments pledged to honour under the 2010 Cancún Agreements. A precautionary and ecologically prudent ‘carbon budget’ puts into place limits for global extraction of coal, gas and oil. Lord Stern has written the foreword to a very important report by Carbon Tracker that explains why we must keep a large percentage of fossil fuels in the ground. This report can be found at http://carbontracker.live.kiln.it/Unburnable-Carbon-2-Web-Version.pdf The dangers the world faces if we continue to exploit fossil fuels are graphically illustrated here: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/07/much-worlds-fossil-fuel-reserve-must-stay-buried-prevent-climate-change-study-says The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015 (COP 21) will aim for a treaty that establishes the means to safeguard the Earth’s climate stability and not exceed the 2 °C limit on global temperature rise. Yet James Hansen, an American climate scientist, said recently: “The widely accepted view that ‘science’ established 2 °C above preindustrial temperature as a safe upper limit for global warming … is unadulterated hogwash.” We need to stay far below a 2 °C+ future. Walk for Climate wishes to connect with all communities in the UK to collaborate on the necessary pathway to do so. We have moved from the use of steam and coal, with the mechanisation of the textile industry in the First Industrial Revolution, to the introduction of steam-powered ships, railways, the internal combustion engine, steel production and electrical power generation, which we call the Second Industrial Revolution,
