http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t…
Climate Change: We’re Doomed
by Huseng » Wed Feb 08, 2012 8:09 pm
I read this interesting article on Alternet:
Profiting From Catastrophe: If Fossil Fuel Companies Burn All
Their Reserves We’re Undeniably Screwed
Here are the facts: The business models at the center of our
economy are in the deepest possible conflict with physics and
chemistry.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/154
... ly_screwed
This is particularly relevant:
If we spew 565 gigatons more carbon into the atmosphere, we’ll
quite possibly go right past that reddest of red lines. But the oil
companies, private and state-owned, have current reserves on the
books equivalent to 2,795 gigatons—five times more than we can ever
safely burn. It has to stay in the ground.
Put another way, in ecological terms it would be extremely
prudent to write off $20 trillion worth of those reserves. In
economic terms, of course, it would be a disaster, first and
foremost for shareholders and executives of companies like
ExxonMobil (and people in places like Venezuela).
Of course it goes without saying that they’ll keep burning that
carbon into the atmosphere as to do otherwise would mean financial
disaster and in some cases violent uprisings against states.
Democracies won’t elect leaders who demand economic sacrifice in
exchange for ecological security. Nevermind the fact that even if
half the world actually did do that, you’d still have giants like
China, India and the USA among others not
curtailing their fossil fuel use.
This of course leads one to foresee a rather bleak future. It is
inescapable. We’re screwed. Optimism won’t fix the problem. The
ship is sinking.
However, as a Mahayana Buddhist what can you do? You might
curtail your own energy consumption, but at the end of the day it
is just a token gesture given the monstrous pollution created by
our greater societies.
So, in the coming decades, Buddhism as a whole will face
unprecedented problems with the rest of the world. Ecological
payback that will probably see deaths on an enormous scale. With it
all the social discontent and emotional and psychological
deterioration that accompanies cultures in rapid decline.
This leads me to think that mere “Dharma Centers” teaching
meditation and a few classes won’t be enough. Institutions will
have to address a lot more severe problems than stress from the
workplace and family. Poverty, hunger and destitution will be huge
problems in the coming decades. Moreover, you can expect violence
to become more and more commonplace in what was once peaceful
communities as economies contract and governments inevitably slap
down anger revolts.
We’ll see what happens over time, but everything from peak oil
to climate change points in the direction of everything going down
hill. Still, I know few Buddhists who really recognize and
acknowledge this. In modern Chinese Buddhism they like to talk
about “building a Pure Land on Earth,” which is essentially
utopianism, but I think quite blind to the hard reality facing us
all. The sentiment is that if you purify your own mind and maybe
take up environmentalism, people will follow suit. This might mean
bringing your own reusable bag to the grocery store, but such
practices fail to consider that there are more cars on the roads
than ever which shuttle those shoppers with their reusable bags. A
nice gesture, but ultimately futile.
Ideally, we can be of aid to others as much as possible as the
sting of our collective past deeds becomes intolerable, but in
order to do that we should really prepare for some seriously hard
times.