BGR partner GBIACK works in Kenya to train smallholder farmers in climate resilient agricultural methods, an essential tool in a region disproportionately impacted by climate change. Photo courtesy of GBIACK.
By Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
As I sit to write this essay in mid-December, my thoughts go back to my childhood growing up in New York during the 1950s and early ’60s. In those days, during the period from December through February, the temperature would often drop into the twenties or even lower, remaining there through most of the winter. Massive snowfalls would sometimes shut down school for a day or two, and the street where I lived would be lined with mounds of snow, which would vanish only in March. In Brooklyn, we never saw horse-drawn carriages riding across snowy landscapes, but those sentimental images on Christmas cards were not as unthinkable then as they are today.
It now seems that with each passing winter the weather becomes a bit warmer. Meteorologists have declared 2023 the hottest year on record, and they already say that 2024 will be still hotter. However, I need not consult these authorities to know that this is true. I can witness it for myself day after day, with temperatures in the 50s even in late November and December. We haven’t experienced extreme weather here in upstate New York, but the regular weather pattern is far from normal.
While many people might enjoy the warmer weather, the average rise in winter temperatures does not mean merely that we have more time to spend outdoors. It’s also a worrisome sign of accelerating climate change. The hard truth is that the destabilization of the Earth’s climate system is the most perilous crisis humankind has ever faced. Other issues might grab the headlines: the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the U.S. election, inflation and employment figures, social protests, and so forth. As critical as these issues may be, however, they pale beside climate change in their implication for our long-term destiny. And yet, strangely, we are hardly sounding alarm bells or taking the actions necessary to tackle it.
Climate change is particularly relevant to the work of Buddhist Global Relief—and to all organizations dedicated to combating global hunger—because a hotter planet will shrink the world’s food supply, increasing food insecurity. Climate scientists confirm that a hotter climate reduces crop yields and thus decreases the amounts of food available. Long droughts turn fertile land barren, dry up precious sources of water, and trigger extreme weather events, which can obliterate crops and drive up prices. The food security of whole regions hangs in the balance, the most vulnerable areas being in Africa, South Asia, Central America, and the U.S. heartland. None of us, however, is entirely safe from the ravages of a hotter climate and its impact on our access to food.
It might seem trifling to point this out, but surprisingly, many Americans are unaware of the connection between climate change and hunger. According to the World Food Program: “Barely over half of participants [in a WFP survey] agreed that climate change is a driver of hunger. A similar percentage did not think or were unsure of the fact that one-third of global greenhouse gases come from food systems. A full 10 percent said they do not believe in climate change at all.” Though ignorance may be bliss under some conditions, it becomes a prelude to disaster when our access to food is at stake.
A Hotter World Won’t Be Fun
Just consider some of the consequences of global heating, which are well documented by many reliable sources. If the planet’s temperature continues to climb, fertile land will turn into desert and will no longer be suitable for growing food. As a result, millions more people will go hungry and succumb to illness and premature death. Immigration levels will rise, as people flee their impoverished homelands for greener pastures elsewhere. Mass migration is likely to ignite social conflict, set off backlashes against the new arrivals, and even provoke regional wars between countries and communities scrambling for scarce water supplies and more fertile soil.
The impact of escalating climate change, moreover, will not be confined to humankind. Every form of life on Earth is vulnerable. Animals of all stripes, birds and fish, insects and worms, trees and grasslands: nothing will escape the radical experiment we’re unleashing upon the biosphere. And we can’t know in advance whether some slight change—the extinction of a particular species of ant, for instance—might ripple up through the great chain of life and bring humankind tumbling down in the process.
The direct and immediate cause of accelerating climate change is no secret. It’s the increasing volume of greenhouse-gas emissions in the atmosphere. And this primarily results from the burning of fossil fuels. At one level it follows that, to curb climate change, we must move away from our dependence on fossil fuels toward clean and renewable forms of energy. This much is indisputable. But technical achievements may not be enough. Inner changes are also necessary.
Using the Lens of the Dharma
Here is where the Buddha’s teaching can make a valuable contribution, offering us a lens for understanding the climate crisis at a deeper level and values to steer us away from the abyss. The Dharma shows the climate crisis to be at root a crisis of consciousness. From this perspective, global warming originates from forces deep within the human mind, from insatiable greed sustained by delusion, from craving for wealth and power, and from a refusal to relinquish wasteful lifestyles.
The fossil fuel corporations are especially at fault. Though they knew about the risks posed by burning hydrocarbons decades ago, they hid the facts from the public. They lied and dissembled. They cloaked the truth in a haze of disinformation intended to create confusion and sow doubt. And even now they continue to place profit margins above the health of the planet.
Yet all of us bear some responsibility. We’re all enmeshed in a complex network of interlocking social and economic forces whose effects extend far beyond the range of our vision. Our economies, reliant on massive inputs of carbon energy, devour forests, defile precious landscapes, and pollute rivers and oceans. We may not see the results of our choices, but the effects spread out across space and time, affecting people clear across the planet and down to future generations. The energy systems that confer on us material affluence entail drought, crop failures, and food shortages for millions in Asia and Africa. Our consumerist culture is leaving our unborn grandchildren a planet battered by natural disasters and scarred landscapes. The Buddha seems to have anticipated this long ago when he said: “When people are overcome by unrighteous greed, sufficient rain does not fall, crops are blighted, famine results, and many people die” (Anguttara Nikaya, 4.70).
What Can We Do?
To resolve the climate crisis, we must act from a wise recognition of our own long-term good and a heartfelt concern for the well-being of others all around the world. No doubt, the carbon-based economy has brought many benefits in its time, welding the world’s nations together and uplifting many from degrading poverty. But now the time has come to replace fossil fuels with clean and renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind. We must widely share these new technologies with developing nations to enable people to generate the power they need to improve their lives. We must also provide them with funds and means to remedy the climate disasters caused by our own indulgent use of carbon energy. This is a clear imperative of climate justice.
But we also need a wider and deeper vision of the common human good, coupled with a program to pursue that good in policies and institutions. Buddhism teaches that happiness does not depend on an abundance of material goods but flows from inner contentment and the pursuit of higher goals—aesthetic, ethical, and spiritual goals. At the innermost level, we must strive to replace such springs of action as greed, hate, and ignorance with generosity, kindness, and wisdom. The peak of the Buddhist spiritual path lies in a life guided by wisdom and compassion, and other faith traditions have similar goals, conceived in the light of their own premises. These values should be the moral compass of our social order.
On a broad scale, we’ll have to replace the dominant economic model, premised on limitless growth on a finite planet, with a steady-state economy rooted in a principle of sufficiency, promoting contentment and greater equity both nationally and globally. This will require fundamental transformations in our most basic values coupled with effective action from our political leadership and financial institutions. One of the practical steps called for is closely connected with the work of BGR: promoting small-scale models of ecological agriculture as an alternative to the corporate model of industrial agriculture, which is itself a major contributor to high carbon emissions. Our website briefly describes a number of our projects that support sustainable agriculture.
The Choice Before Us
As we face the task ahead of us, we may feel awed by the sheer magnitude of the challenge. To reverse escalating climate change, in the short time we have left, seems utopian. To stand up to the oil and gas corporations, with their immense wealth and political punch, is intimidating. Yet there is no escaping the choice before us. Either we work collectively to adopt new economic and social systems congenial to the flourishing of life or we grapple with a planet racked by environmental disasters and enormous levels of hunger. This demand becomes still more urgent with the approach of the new American administration, which has declared its priority from Day One to be “drill, baby, drill,” that is, to explore, extract, and market fossil fuels without constraint by regulations that protect the environment.
Despite the strength of the fuel corporations and their political allies, we can’t abandon hope or relinquish the determination to act. Our spiritual values must guide us in this struggle. If people of all faiths and commitments come together in this shared endeavor, we can create more equitable, compassionate, and mindful societies conducive to a sustainable ecosystem. There are many effective organizations tackling the climate crisis, and we can join them or support their work. To name just a few: the Natural Resources Defense Council, 350.org, the Climate Mobilization, and GreenFaith.
Facing the challenge before us requires more than good will and pious thoughts. It needs conscientious people to join hearts and hands in a common endeavor to transform our politics, economies, and social systems in a new direction, gradually but irreversibly. Only in this way can we realize our hopes of preserving a vibrant planet and a sane human civilization. To resist impending climate change is to avert a massive increase in world hunger. To combat hunger entails a commitment to fight climate change.
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi is a cofounder and the chair of Buddhist Global Relief.
