What Buddhism Teaches Us About the End of the World
My training as a buddhist priest sheds light on the climate crisis
Recently, over six million people around the globe protested climate disaster. On Friday, September 20, 2019 over two million people walked out of their schools or workplaces.
Why? According to scientists, the only way to prevent global temperatures rising above 1.5 degrees is to decrease our carbon emissions by 40% to 50% before 2040. Scientists predict that even two extra degrees of planetary warming will result in a complete disintegration of coral reefs, increased wildfire damage, and put millions at risk of flooding, heat waves, disease, and famine. In addition to reducing emissions, governments must achieve negative emissions in the years following 2040 — and this best case scenario will only give us a 50:50 chance of avoiding unparalleled temperature change. Most experts agree that this is an unrealistic goal, as it would require unprecedented changes in our society and we have not yet instituted the kind of policy changes that are necessary.
Still, on the day of the Climate March, my professor and schoolmates helped stage a small climate change ceremony in the lobby of the California Institute of Integral Studies, where I am studying to become a therapist. We constructed an “earth altar”…
