If Buddhism is to address the ecological crisis,
it must clarify its essential message.
– David Loy
Awakening in the Age of Climate Change, written by David Loy, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Center, was published in the Spring 2015 issue of Tricycle Magazine. A few excerpts and a link to the full article follow.
“Let me begin by emphasizing what most of us already know about climate change. First, it’s the greatest threat to human civilization ever, as far as we can tell. Second, it’s not an external threat but something we are doing to ourselves. And third, our collective response remains, if not completely negligible, very far from adequate. …
… The whole eco-crisis attests to the fact that we are a globalizing civilization that has lost its way. The crisis of nature is, at heart, a crisis of civilization. Shifting to renewable sources of natural energy will not by itself resolve our collective preoccupation with never-ending economic growth—and the often meaningless production and consumerism it entails—that is incompatible with the finite ecosystems of the earth. Many things could be said from a Buddhist perspective about why this fixation on growth cannot provide the satisfaction we seek from it, but let’s take a look at one particularly revealing example …
See the full article here: