Anonymous

“When all the living see, at kalpa’s end              

The conflagration when it is burning,

Tranquil is this realm of mine,

Ever filled with heavenly beings,

Parks, and many palaces

With every kind of gem adorned,

Precious trees full of blossoms and fruits

My Pure Land will never be destroyed,

Yet all view it as being burned up,

and grief and horror and distress

Fill them all like this.” The Lotus Sutra ¹

“Are you alright?” At the end of July, a number of us were working outside on the necessary and long overdue thinning out of the spruce trees around the bottom car park. The weather was dry, very warm and with a slight breeze – perfect for the job. But we were slowing down because John using the saw and wearing thickly-padded protection trousers, kept stopping. Thus the question. Waiting for it to be sorted out, I looked around, and noticed a stand of our mature alder trees. We’d planted dozens in our lower fields originally, as alders like having their roots in wet, boggy ground. But now they are struggling, many with very few leaves, some have died even, as our lower fields are slowly drying out. John replied to the effect that he was fine, but that he kept over-heating and it didn’t feel safe to keep working. Although he was working in the shade and only wearing a thin linen shirt on his top, you could see the sweat literally running off him; I hadn’t seen that before.

Even here in the far north of England, you can see the signs; something is going on. A few days later, we heard that week had been the end of the hottest month ever recorded in Britain, with the national temperature record broken.²

These two things reminded me of a report³ recently come my way which I had been meaning to look at, so I sat down to read it. Of the two Australian authors, one was previously a senior executive at Shell, and past chairman of the Australian Coal Association; and the foreword’s author was an admiral, former chief of the Australian Defence Force, and currently a member of the Global Military Advisory Council on Climate Change. They had sifted through a lot of recent work on climate change. They quoted, “Climate scientists may err on the side of ‘least drama’, whose causes may include adherence to the scientific norms of restraint, objectivity and scepticism, and may under predict or down-play future climate changes.”^3a Borrowing from another study for the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, they quoted “In 2007, security analysts warned that, in the two previous decades, scientific predictions in the climate-change arena had consistently under-estimated the severity of what actually transpired.”⁴ The Australians went on to say that even if all countries did keep to the commitments they made in 2015⁵, and managed to keep global warming to under 3°C by 2100, this commitment ignores the growing relevance of the long-term carbon-cycle feedbacks in exacerbating warming⁶. They sketched out a scenario for 2050 based on the ‘severe’ end of possible developments (i.e. there are less severe scenarios too), and they quoted again: “Climate change now represents a near-to-mid-term existential threat to human civilisation…in high–end [my emphasis] scenarios, the scale of destruction is beyond our capacity to model, with a high likelihood of human civilisation coming to an end.”^3b This was based on CO² emissions peaking in 2030 and then falling, resulting in a rise in temperature of 2.4°C, but with the extra 0.6°C added by the feedbacks.

They did hold out some hope however: “A short window of opportunity exists for an emergency, global mobilisation of resources. The global effort to address climate change should be akin to a wartime level of response. It is essential to build a zero-emissions industrial system very quickly.”³

I picked up another article by way of cross-referencing and read, “It’s appropriate to be scared.”⁷ came the respected voice closer to home of David King⁸, adding, “We predicted temperatures would rise, but we didn’t foresee these sorts of extreme events [extreme heat-waves and hurricanes] we’re getting so soon.” Elsewhere he made it crystal clear: “This is the most serious challenge humanity has ever had to face up to. Time is no longer on our side. What we continue to do, what we do that is new, and what we plan to do over the next 10-12 years will determine the future of humanity for the next 10,000 years.”⁹

This degree of seriousness may remind you of the experience of some other past Sōtō practitioners. There’s the first native Chinese Ancestor in our lineage Taiso Eka, the chief monastic heir of Bodhidharma, who in 577 AD, witnessed his country invaded wholesale, and, quite feasibly, was one of the many monks summoned to come to the main square of his own capital city, to listen to the conquering emperor, in person, read out the imperial edict that out-lawed Buddhism throughout the empire. Within a year, almost all temples and shrines had been levelled, all scriptures and records burned, and monastics either laicized, conscripted into labour/military service, or simply killed outright. It is likely that Eka, then aged ninety, fled for his life to the safety of the southern Chinese empire.

Then there is Dōgen, who brought Sōtō Zen from China to Japan. Born in 1200 AD, he found himself in a nation in which it was widely believed throughout all layers of Japanese society that since 1052 AD they had entered what was termed the ‘Age Of Mappo’.¹⁰ An unrelenting litany of fires, earthquakes, epidemics, war, famines and murders only served to reinforce this belief. There was a very deep sense of the pointlessness and wretchedness of human existence that pervaded all layers of his society, along with the belief in the inability of anyone or any group of people to do anything about it. And Dōgen’s response to all of that? None of this can stop you realizing what Shakyamuni Buddha realized. (Welcome to Zen.)

Coming closer to our own time; by June 1940, German domination of much of Europe was almost complete, with many of the foundations for the thousand-year Nazi Reich in place. Britain, then fighting on alone, was waiting for imminent invasion. Peggy Kennett¹¹ (who in later life became the Founder of our Order) was then sixteen when the new Prime Minister gave one of his most famous speeches: “Upon this battle depends the survival of… civilization…our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions … The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us… if we fail, then the whole world…. including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.” The Battle of Britain began soon afterwards, followed by the Blitz. Peggy later wrote of this time, “I am sixteen, the war rages, my father is dead, the bombs fall everywhere…”¹² It’s easy today to take the existence of the OBC for granted; however for Peggy “…the sea is a dirty grey, railed in by barbed wire; someone grabs me and pushes me over the parapet of the promenade while a ‘plane dives down and sprays it with machine-gun-fire – someone holds me close to the parapet – I do not know him – in all this horror, does love still exist?”^12a There may be some small comfort to know that we are not the first generation of Sōtō practitioners to have very serious reasons to wonder about the future.

In all of these situations, what happened was restricted to different degrees by the constraints of geography. At the same time, today there are well-respected voices who consider artificial intelligence posing a bigger threat to humans than global warming; there’s also the fact we have yet to fully solve the koan of weapons of mass destruction. Further, do you remember watching Gordon Brown talking in late 2008 as the fuller global extent and possible consequences of the unfolding banking crisis hit? The then Prime Minister looked frightened. Having said that, in our situation now, what is unprecedented is the number of apparently unconnected events occurring across all continents, at the current rate of one a week¹³, and the accumulating total of the effects. “I have a sense of the numbing inevitability of it all,”¹⁴ commented another respected climate scientist. Particularly disturbing increasing land and ocean temperatures, rising sea levels and extreme weather events are the known as the predictable side of climate change.

What then might the unpredictable side be? This comes from a Declaration¹⁵ published in November this year: “Especially worrisome are potential irreversible climate tipping points…and nature’s reinforcing feedbacks^6a (atmospheric, marine, and terrestrial) that could lead to a catastrophic ‘hothouse Earth’, well beyond the control of humans. All of the indicators in our paper are heading in the wrong direction and we are clear in advocating for global action against what we are calling a climate emergency.”^15a With 10,997 more scientists from 152 more countries signing it than the first report above, this had reached the same conclusion. One London University researcher commented that the Australians’ report added to the deep concerns expressed by security experts such as the Pentagon¹⁶ over climate change.

Unlike even warfare then, it looks like part of the consequences of what has been put into motion is already beyond our ability to control; “With European heat-waves, we have realised that climate change is a total game-changer. It has increased the likelihood (of events) by an order of magnitude.”¹⁷ Certain gases in the atmosphere have a similar effect as glass in a greenhouse; sunlight can pass through them into the greenhouse, but the heat is blocked from escaping, in the Earth’s case into space, and carbon dioxide (CO²) is one of them. But how did we get to this point? Here is the clue from an unexpected source. A very recently discovered entry in the Mining Congress Journal of America suggests that some working in the field were already aware of the likely consequences of the continued burning of fossil fuels and resultant release of CO²  and could see that “the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere will increase and that vast changes in the climate of the earth will result. Such changes in temperature will cause the melting of the polar ice caps, which in turn, would result in the inundation of many coastal cities including New York and London.”¹⁸ And the date of that Journal? 1966.

Buddhism does not encourage false hope, seek to assuage fears, or propound wishful tales of optimism. It is sober, it is realistic and looks to see what can be done. Although there is the argument it would be better for all the other species if our particular one did permanently disappear from the stage, for the purposes of this article, I am going to set that thought aside. So, in terms of the opening quotation from The Lotus Sutra, as we see more and more ‘precious trees’ burning, do we just sit back and watch it happen? If your answer to that is no, what then could those “many kinds of gems” mentioned in the quotation be? I suggest they are a number of powerful tools a lot nearer to hand than we might realise.

Firstly, we keep sitting going, and we keep up our practise; there is something to learn from “Keep calm and carry on.” We keep breathing, we keep bringing ourselves right back to where we actually are, whatever is going on.

Second, we have a number of fingers which we can use again and again and again to turn off that un-needed light, put the computer on standby when it’s better to, turn the radiator down one setting etc. etc; “All foolish seem and dull…”¹⁹ That’s right, and they who practice this in this way are directly helping in the most powerful and immediate way possible; by just not using the energy in the first place.

Third, we have a wallet. If you have stocks or shares in holdings, or funds in banks any of whose investments are in companies whose activities are contributing to global warming, there are ways in which you can challenge that. There may already a shareholder action group that is applying pressure. If change is not forthcoming are you willing to dis-invest?²⁰ If you feel on your own with this, take heart; by the end of 2018, “…over 1,000 investment institutions with almost US$8 trillion in assets under management had committed to divest from the world’s largest oil, coal and gas companies…”²¹ The investment consultant quoting this fact noted that the direction of travel on moving to a lower carbon world was clear, whilst also noting that the commitment to divest is not the same thing as actually having divested.²¹ On this point, the action by the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas in taking shareholder action on behalf of the 9,000 nuns it represents to try and force the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, to take action on climate change is a very recent example of the application of such pressure.²²

Fourth, we have our eyes; with which we can keep looking, to see, and to read. If something seems to make sense, we can try it out: smaller vehicle engines, looking for the energy ratings on all new electrical goods for example; can you afford to switch electricity providers to one that is supporting renewable forms of generation? In Buddhism we don’t leave it to others, but neither does it help to become obsessive about …anything.

Fifth, our power of speech. Using language with care and within the Precepts, after thinking about it for ourselves – that’s a real contribution just in itself.

Sixth, we have a powerful mind with a keen intellect with which we can sift and analyse information. Part of this is being willing to use our own critical faculties.

Seventh, our scepticism. We’re well advised not to ignore evidence, even if it contradicts what we are thinking – even sure about; look at it carefully yourself – and also, who is behind it? Reports down-playing climate risks that are backed by a body with a vested interest in fossil fuels are one and more obvious side of it. The actions of Extinction Rebellion (‘ER’) on the other side have helped push awareness of the severity of the climate challenge close to the top of the political agenda in a short space of time, and ER deserve credit for that, but what was behind one of its founders saying to one audience “we are not just sending out e-mails and asking for donations. We are going to force the governments to act. And if they don’t, we will bring them down and create a democracy fit for purpose…”²³?

Eighth, we have our instincts. There’s no need to lose valuable time and precious energy – and upset yourself – by moving into blaming others too much, or finding fault with them. If others try to bait you by telling you, for example, there is no point in trying to do anything because of all the coal being burned in China, you simply do not have to pick up the challenge, if you don’t wish too, or are too tired. Why put yourself through it? We have much more choice as to what we do with our speech than we very often realise.

Ninth, we have the deep help from the regular study of our Precepts. The advice on not copying others from the Tenth, for example, can cover not repeating others’ clever-sounding words of despair, or all-encompassing phrases, or undefeatable logic. In company, it probably does not help to keep to keep bringing the subject up, especially with a mind of worry or agitation, which can cause others to start avoiding you. If others do the former, you do not have an obligation to join in; you can just change the subject if you wish to, or move elsewhere. Or, however outraged you may feel, remembering that anger is an affliction, primarily to you, so trying not add on with thought, leaves you with the raw feeling, which though powerful and often disturbing, is easier to sit still within, and nearer to the heart of the matter, for you.

Tenth is minding our own business, which is important in practice. There are times to speak directly and plainly, but it doesn’t help to keep pointing the finger at everyone else, or become an environmental ‘vigilante’, by implying or telling other people they should become vegans, for example. We need to take care not to be drawn into polarisation with others or just within our own minds; for like the other two Poles, it’s a cold and inhospitable place to live.

Eleventh, we can draw inspiration and help from continuing to recite or read our scriptures. The Sandokai’s “With the ideal comes the actual”^19a just in itself, can steer you away from mountains of unnecessary suffering. Ideals can be very useful in pointing direction, but as we move forward, we need to keep a close eye on the emerging actual, rather than cementing into place the ideal. Doing the latter is what we call delusion, and is an immediate invitation to more suffering. And, there is ambiguity. It is not always somehow ‘wrong’ in and of itself for example, to use a plane to travel; yet the new, broadly accepted idea to tax more heavily those who fly more than twice a year shows the increasing direction of acceptability.

Twelfth, we have methods within our tradition, to help us remain grounded within very trying situations. They really help: we can recite the Invocations of the Removal of Disasters²⁴, Invocation to Achalanatha²⁵ and to Mahakala²⁵ any time, any place. We can offer the merit of the meditation period or the day’s training to perhaps, all those working to solve this problem, or to all beings that are affected by it, or both. We can cultivate gratitude for what we do have, which includes having some time left; if we have ‘broken fences’ with others, we can try to mend them. Also how can you help the local temple, meditation group, monk? Nothing is perfect, and all of those are likely to become increasingly important points of refuge and stability as the pages of the calendar keep turning.

Thirteenth, there is the influence of our own actions which really do speak as loud as, or louder than words. Contrast seeing a sixteen year-old schoolgirl risking her own safety, by sailing in a yacht for two weeks across the Atlantic to the Climate Conference in New York, and then back again to the next conference in Spain, rather than using a plane, with the backlash following the A-listers and celebrities who reportedly arrived in 114 private jets and a flotilla of super-yachts, the latter burning 300 gallons of diesel per hour, in Sicily a little later, for the Google Camp Conference on Climate Change. And who were then chauffered around the island in Maserati SUVs. If we are not seen to make sacrifices ourselves, how can we hope others might be willing to do so?

Fourteenth is the value of keeping a soft and flexible mind. Perspectives can sometimes change very swiftly. Nuclear fission, for example, was seen several decades ago by environmentalists as the bête noir, and some called for its immediate shut-down, replacing it foremost with coal-fired generation, whilst renewables were developed. Although certainly not problem-free, nuclear could now be one of the very few means we have to keep some highly energy-dependent and complex societies going, buying us extremely precious time to complete massive, wholesale transition to fossil-free. Even so, in 2017 new offshore wind power became cheaper than new nuclear power for the first time in Britain, and at one point in 2018, low-carbon energy was, for the first time, used to generate more than half of the electricity used in our country. The proportion of electricity generated by renewables in Britain grew to 33% in 2018.

Fifteenth, we have a vote which we can use well in this context, every time there is any form of election. It isn’t easy to get to the bottom of things, but we can do our best; are promises ‘green-wash’, or do you think those promising really mean it, and will carry them out? And how does this aspect fit in with the overall political choice you will have to make? Are you considering tactical voting? If so, it’s probably worth doing your own brief research first on how the votes added up in your constituency the last few times, rather than take someone else’s word for it.

Sixteenth, we have curiosity and an ability to dig deeper for the truth of matters. Let’s take up that challenge thrown at you about the Chinese and their coal-burning. It is true the planned new coal-fired capacity in China is nearing three times the entire electrical generation capacity of Britain, yes; and that the former comes on top of the already very considerable coal-fired capacity already there, yes. If all that new capacity comes on stream, it will be very detrimental, yes. But, there is a struggle going on now within China between various layers of government about firstly, whether to actually build any, or how much of that new capacity, and secondly, how much to use it even if it is built. In addition the country is leading in developing coal-burning in a radically cleaner way. So that challenge to you is actually not as accurate as presented. Yes, overall, coal consumption is still increasing there for the time being, and there is a slow-down in the rate of that growth.²⁶ The government of that country are not fools; in their efforts to reduce air pollution, China is set to play a major role in offshore wind’s long-term growth. The technology is especially useful to them, as huge wind-farms can be built near the major population centres spread around the east and south of the country. So, if you experience perplexity around something like this, perhaps it is because there is a lot of complexity, and we are busy people with a lot of other things we are responsible for, and to do.

Seventeen is keeping some kind of eye on the evolving picture helping prevent us becoming out-dated, seeming even irrelevant, in conversation or debate. But I suggest there’s no need to be drowned in the information. If you feel that you are ‘going under’ that’s very likely a warning sign to you to stop. At the same time, some of what you find out can unexpectedly cheer you up. For example, there are solar farms being built, some already finished, on a vast scale in various countries, with the panels converting sunlight into electricity; the most recent one completed in China will power up to two million homes. Another example: trees absorb and store CO², there are tree-planting projects underway in various parts of the world on a staggering scale, with the current record held by India for 50 million trees in 2016; the Great Northern Forest project across lower northern England should see 50 million trees planted in that area alone by 2042. Further, the Hornsea off-shore wind farm under construction off the coast from Hull in Yorkshire will be the largest in the world, and could power up to 1.3 million homes when commissioned in 2022.²⁷ It is true that the gas SF6 most often used in the middle of each turbine is hugely detrimental to the warming-problem; but the problem is recognised, and alternatives are already being deployed.^28,29With human population increasing by over 200,000 every day, some uncomfortable choices about power-generation are going to have to be made.

Eighteenth is keeping our own wits about us, an example here being the choice to enter the realm of environmental action, were you to do so. There seemed an unusual initial leeway allowed to the ER protesters in London this April in the almost carnival-like atmosphere they created there with actions such as numbers of people blocking roads by doing exercises on their mats or placing trees in pots across roads. But as the more recent fortnight of protests got underway in October, the surrounding tone altered with the Met. Police issuing a city-wide ban on their actions. Although the ban was later successfully challenged in the High Court and the police found to have exceeded their powers, hundreds of people had meanwhile been arrested. One person present the whole fortnight told me of a number of protesters who were pretty unhappy about being put under pressure by some ER activists to become arrested, when they had never volunteered for it in the first place. If you do want to be arrested, have you thought through the consequences? Being photographed, finger-printed, your DNA taken, and then “I spent 16 hours in a cell. You’re in this tiny metre-wide space, and you go slightly mad,” said one young man.³⁰ After that a permanent police record. If you decide to carry a placard, perhaps check it first – is there a political slogan on it that you don’t wish to condone? The sense you are standing up for what is right can release untapped reserves within, which combined with the sense of being in the right often acts as a powerful intoxicant, which can cloud the subtleties of good judgement needed, especially with others around you similarly affected. From the point of practice it is very important to be aware of such feelings and thoughts and to be clear with yourself about the need to be still within them.

Nineteenth is dignity. There is a place for this for all of us, whatever happens. This is especially true if you move into the public arena.

Twentieth is keeping our sense of humour, which is important, and usually appreciated by others.

Twenty-first is acceptance. Having come this far, none of the above gives the right to succeed. This bit is rough. There are people, animals, places, values, things we care about very deeply. But even if all of us in our country did everything possible in our hands from this moment onwards, if that planned new coal-fired capacity in China, or a number of other countries, is activated and not burned in a radically cleaner way, the savings we had all made would be wiped out. There is virtually nothing you can do to affect that; and there are individuals, movements, and institutions doing their best to bring pressure to bear on those situations.

At the same time it is always Here, Now and This. This kettle with too much water, this choice to use our car when we could have taken a train, this shower lasting twenty minutes rather than five, etc.etc. There is much inspiration from Dōgen’s phrase “shishi-funjin”; which conveys the effort of someone more than up to the task in hand, but who nonetheless devotes themselves entirely to it.³¹ Everything we can do, and that is good for us to do, we do. In Zen, we clear up our own backyard first.

Twenty-second is hope based in realism. The authors of the Declaration^15b mentioned earlier said they were encouraged by a recent surge of concern over global warming, citing the student-led ‘Fridays for Future’, and ER, amongst other grass-root movements, and pointed out that the individual changes that ordinary people make in their day-to-day lives will have larger scale impacts. (Everything we can do, we do.) Such changes, they continued, would influence policy makers, business communities and governments to really start taking the much bigger steps that are needed, globally. There are many visible signs which give cause for some hope, and there seems no need to waste time and energy by trying to re-invent a wheel, by coming up with a ‘Buddhist’ response. The wheel is already invented and is rolling; probably better to work together with others to strengthen an existing spoke.

Although our monastery lies in the fairly quiet, rural county of Northumberland, even here, following requests from campaign groups, June this year saw our county council declare a climate emergency, vowing to make the county carbon-neutral by 2030. Unveiling its plan this December, it proposed a further £3million spending for climate action including a hydro-electric station in Hexham, renewable heating schemes, significant tree-planting, and making trains and buses more attractive to use. It said it wanted to team up with world-leading expert and industry leaders to make a real difference.³² September saw the council of our nearest town, Hexham, agree unanimously to recognise there was a climate emergency and it outlined a 19-point plan to become carbon-neutral, also by 2030. An obvious shift in awareness is taking place, but to have any effect, it’s just this kind of realistic planning and determined action which has to follow, and keep following. Otherwise we just have an admixture of pangs of concern, worry and conscience, in part reacting to a continually rolling news story.

Twenty-third is remembering everything is impermanent, including the causes of global warming. Despite the (slowing) increase in coal-burning in China and some other countries, globally, electricity production from coal is on track to fall by around 3% in 2019, which if confirmed at the end of the year would be the largest drop on record.³³ Based on current and projected policies the global capacity of offshore wind generation is set to increase fifteen-fold by 2040, and in Europe will soon be cheaper than natural-gas fired generation, with the cost of its installation falling by 40% over the next decade.³⁴ Britain has the three largest off-shore wind farms in the world, and 44% of all the country’s electricity was provided by wind on one day during the recent Storm Atiyah.³⁵ In China offshore wind energy looks set to become competitive with coal-fired energy by about 2030.^34a

Twenty-fourth is not to forget the deep value of a human life and to remember to make the most of the particular life, that is ours. This includes making sure there are regular breaks from being involved with, or thinking about matters such as these – especially on Xmas day.

Twenty-fifth is remembering that amidst all of this, there is good news, and it can often travel very fast. When this July the then British Prime Minister Theresa May enshrined into law the target of her country reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050;³⁶ it was a world-first. “This is a historic commitment that will reverberate right around the world.”³⁶ said one architect of the Paris climate agreement. Five months later, the EU endorsed a decision to pass a similar law for twenty-seven of its twenty-eight member countries to do the same,³⁷ and is making 1 trillion Euros available to help enable a full transition. In the US, three states and seven major cities have already committed to the same target. Although Britain is not currently on track to meet the target itself, the legalised aspiration now gives a better basis for challenging decisions which may work against meeting the target in this country.³⁸ An example here is the Dutch Supreme Court upholding a ruling on a case requiring its own government to slash greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% of 1990 levels by the end of 2020. The Court based its ruling on the UN climate convention and the state’s legal obligation to protect the lives and well-being of Dutch citizens.³⁹

Finally, there are X-factors: some scientists think the world is already overdue for moving into another small ice age (because of the tilting of the earth’s axis), and that the reason that it hasn’t developed is because…? That’s right. Also, large volcanic eruptions can sometimes have a cooling effect on climate; the enormous clouds of gas and ash from Mt Pinatubo’s 1992 eruption, for example, led to a cooling of 0.5°C across the world for over a year.⁴⁰

What however, if in spite of all the effort to generate power in cleaner ways, all of the scientific ingenuity being deployed across the globe in the search for new ways to slow down the process of warming (and even reverse it), plus the commitment, self-sacrifice, good work, intentions, and actions of many, many people, movements, institutions and some governments around our globe; what if it isn’t enough? In enough time? As someone once asked their wife:

MacBeth: “If we should fail?”

Lady MacBeth: “We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking place/And...[we still might]… fail.”⁴¹

A pill we’re unused to being asked to swallow today, where vast amounts of time, struggle and work has seen rights in the political, social and individual realms deeply embedded in our part of the world, is to see that spiritually, we don’t actually have the right to exist. If you are able to take this pill and bear the taste however, it becomes easier to see the critical spiritual role of acceptance in all of this. We allow to be present in the mind the nature and prospects of what might happen, when they arise within the mind. Being as still as you can with them; letting the images or thoughts arise and not engaging with them; see that yes, these things could occur, and some of the images may hold valuable clues for you as you discern your way forward within choices, but in terms of your actual life right here and now, they are not occurring – to you. We ground ourselves within the reality of this life and this moment. Being aware of layers of fear, grief, outrage, anger, despondency, and trying to not let them drive us, particularly in speech and action. And if such images don’t arise in your mind, that’s fine too.

“Climate change is now reaching the end game where very soon humanity must choose between taking unprecedented action or accepting it has left it too late and bear the consequences”. If we continue down the present path, “there is a very big risk that we will just end our civilisation. The human species will survive somehow but we will destroy almost everything we have built over the last two thousand years.” ⁴²

 It appears to me unlikely enough will be done to avert at least part of what is coming. In which case, the thinking and reality-check behind terms such as ‘sustainable retreat’ and ‘deep adaptation’ are useful to point to the evolving reality as things change. Where we live, I’ve been advised beech and oak trees would happily replace those alders, as the former thrive in warmer, drier conditions. On the much larger canvas however, public warnings by bodies as sober as the UN of the prospect of between many millions up to a billion plus people migrating away from submerging farmland and coastal cities, deadly tropical heat, and from newly arid regions of the world to primarily, the north of the globe can sound close to science fiction – until you realise it has already begun.

In Lancashire recently, I met a woman from Mali who, with her whole family, had risked everything to get to Britain, forced to do so in good part by the continuing drought in her own country. I was told all her relatives had died along the way, but in the dignity and composure of her face, there was not a hint of what had happened. The many hundreds of thousands of those desperate to get into Europe in recent years, with the consequent strains and defensive reactions in some areas within Europe, is a small taste of what may be coming. In Britain, the desire for the country to control its own borders was the number one reason cited for the unexpected win of the ‘Leave’ side in the EU Referendum of 2016. Whatever your own view of the actual result, we all know only too well the continuing difficulties and unrest that have come with it.⁴³

 So, now I know why John was overheating that day back in late July, and why our alder trees are dying; where we started off is the visible evidence in one small, northern valley of the truth of interdependence on a vast scale. Although the future is not in your hands and what you do will not alone determine the final outcome, the two hands that are yours are the only ones you have to use along with your diligence, compassion, level-headedness and persistence.

Between all of the combined efforts of every single person willing to make any possible difference they can to avert what is coming, if in the end it isn’t enough, then what more could have been done? Over 2019, the combination of the serious images and warnings in Sir David Attenborough’s latest natural history TV series, ER’s imaginative attention-catching ways of determined protest in sixty different countries, and Greta Thunberg’s intelligent and lucid testimony on the world stage, has focussed attention much more sharply on the problem than ever before, which is good. But if it comes to it, could there also be room for ‘Extinction Acceptance’? Being born, by definition, was always going to be a risky business, and actually there never were any guarantees. Whether all the efforts being applied now succeed or fail, all of the merit and the beneficial karmic consequence of working to try to avert potential catastrophe will continue into the future, somehow, somewhere.

 Within all of this, the particular, permanent, and visible offering of a monastic, is the willingness to work around the clock, within a very specific frame of reference, on freeing themselves from the grasp of all the unresolved karmic tendencies that re-appeared with their own birth; those same tendencies that in some people tempt them to ignore the evidence that aspects of their own industry will have devastating consequences on a truly global scale. In doing that work, a monastic is hopefully an encouragement to others, thus helping them to find their own stability of being, whatever the future may hold for us all.

Notes

1. The Lotus Sutra trans. Kato, Tamura etc. (Weatherhill 1975) p. 255.
2. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that July was the hottest month on record, with global temperatures averaging 62.13 C which is 1.71° C above the 20th century average.
3. 3,3a,3b “Existential climate-related security risk: A scenario approach’ May 2019 by Spratt and Dunlop. A policy paper produced by the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration in Melbourne, Australia.
4. “The Age of Consequences: The foreign policy and national security implications of global climate change.” Campbell, K.M., et al. Washington DC, Centre for Strategic and International Studies/Center for New American Security 2007, p.5 of “Existential climate-related security risk: A scenario approach’ May 2019 by Spratt and Dunlop.
5. 2015 Paris Climate Agreement intended to keep global warming to under 3°C by 2100.
6. 6,6a “Arctic wildfires: How bad are they and what caused them? ‘Extremely dry ground and hotter than average temperatures, combined with heat lightning and strong winds, have caused the fires to spread aggressively. The burning has been sustained by the forest ground, which consists of exposed, thawed, dried peat – a substance with high carbon content. Scientists say what we’re seeing is evidence of the kind of feedbacks we should expect in a warmer world, where increased concentrations of greenhouse gases drive more warming, which then begets the conditions that release yet more carbon into the atmosphere. A lot of the particulate matter from these fires will eventually come to settle on ice surfaces further north, darkening them and thus accelerating melting.” ‘BBC News August 2 2019. “Staggering video shows how much of earth was actually on fire in 2019” New Scientist December 16 2019.
7. “Faster pace of climate change is ‘scary’, former chief scientist says”. BBC News September 16 2019.
8. Professor Sir David King was the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Special Representative for Climate Change from 2013 until 2017. Previously he was UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Government Office of Science from October 2000 to December 2007. In that time, he raised the profile of the need for governments worldwide to act on climate change and was instrumental in creating the new £1bn Energy Technologies Institute.
9. The Independent, May 10 2019.
10. This was a Buddhist doctrine of Three Ages: 1. Age of the Right Law in which teaching, practice and realization in the authentic Dharma was prevalent; 2. Age of Imitative Law in which teaching and practice within mere forms of the Dharma; and 3. Age Of Degenerate Law/Mappo in which Dharma had completely decayed and there was only teaching (no practice or realization was possible).
11. Peggy Kennett was the name of the Founder of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives, Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett.
12. 12,12a. The Wild White Goose by Roshi P.T.N.H. Jiyu-Kennett, Shasta Abbey, 2002, p.71.

13.“Climate crisis disasters are happening at the rate of one a week, though most draw little international attention and work is urgently needed to prepare developing countries for the profound impacts, the UN has warned”  The Guardian, July 7 2019.

14. “Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado told us he’d been anticipating changes like these for four decades, although he hadn’t been certain when they would arrive. Few of the scientists we contacted had faith that governments would do what was needed to rescue the climate in time. They’re alarmed that global warming of just over 1°C so far has already created a new normal in which historic temperature records will inevitably be broken more often”. BBC News Sept 16 2019.

15. 15,15a,15b “More than 11,000 scientists have ‘clearly and unequivocally’ declared a climate emergency that could bring ‘untold suffering’ unless there are significant transformations in the way humans live. The signatories, from 153 countries, said in a paper published in Bio Science The alliance of scientists, led by Ripple and Wolf of Oregon State University, USA said the climate crisis is “accelerating faster” than most researchers expected.” Quoted from The Times, Nov 6 2019.

16. “Pentagon Signals Security Risks of Climate Change. The Pentagon on Monday released a report asserting decisively that climate change poses an immediate threat to national security, with increased risks from terrorism, infectious disease, global poverty and food shortages. It also predicted rising demand for military disaster responses as extreme weather creates more global humanitarian crises.” New York Times October 13 2014.

17. Dr Friederike Otto of Oxford University, is an expert on how extreme events are linked to climate change; quoted in BBC News Sept 16 2019.

18. ‘Unearthed journal reveals coal industry knew about dangers of burning fossil fuels in 1966” 25 Nov, 2019 New Zealand Herald, quoting original article in Huffington Post.

19. 19,19a. Sandokai, quoted from Scriptures and Ceremonies at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey 2005, p.8.

20. Fossil Fuel Divestment 101: A Complete Guide to Divesting Your Money (UK) Sarah Young https://ethical.net.

21. Investment consultant Paul McGuire quoting campaign group ‘Fossil Free’ in Charity Finance October 2019, p.44.

22. “Nuns attack world’s largest asset manager” BBC News, Science and Environment, December 16 2019.

23. Quoted in Extremism Rebellion: A review of ideology and tactics. Tom Wilson and Richard Walton; Policy Exchange.

24. The Liturgy of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives for the Laity , Rev. P.T.N.H. Jiyu-Kennett, Shasta Abbey Press, 1990, p.266.

25. ibid 110.

26. “Coal: Is this the beginning of the end?” BBC News Nov. 25 2019.

27. “World’s biggest wind farm secures Yorkshire coast contract” BBC News September 24 2017.

28. “In this case we are using a combination of clean air and vacuum technology within the turbine. It allows us to still have a very efficient, reliable, high-voltage network but to also be environmentally friendly.” said Costa Pirgousis from Scottish Power Renewables. Climate change: Electrical industry’s ‘dirty secret’ boosts warming. BBC News Sept 13 2019.

29. “Why the EU should ban SF6” energypost.eu May 21 2018 by Nicholas Ottersbach.

30. Sam Knights quoted in “My Six Months with Extinction Rebellion” BBC3 documentary by Ben Zand, July19 2019.

31. Shōbōgenzō by Eihei Dōgen, Vol 2, Transl. by Nishijima and Cross, 1996, p 2122

32. Hexham Courant, December 19 2019. Northumberland County Council, was named in November as the joint second most-climate friendly council in England and Wales.

33. From The Times quoted in “Carbon Brief” November 25 2019.
34. 34,34a.“Offshore wind to become a $1 trillion industry.” Report by the International Energy Agency. October 2019.
35. “UK weather: Storm Atiyah brings high winds and power cuts” The Guardian December 9 2019.

36.”Greenhouse gas emissions in the UK will be cut to almost zero by 2050, under the terms of a new government plan to tackle climate change. Prime Minister Theresa May said there was a ‘moral duty to leave this world in a better condition than what we inherited’…Laurence Tubiana, an architect of the crucial Paris climate agreement told the BBC: “This is a historic commitment that will reverberate right around the world.” BBC News June 12 2019.

37.“The European Commission…launched its plan to cut EU carbon emissions to net zero by 2050…The Green New Deal offers 100 billion euros to EU member states to help curb their global warming pollution and aims to re-gear the economy away from fossil fuel and polluting industries and towards new technologies and behaviours. Brussels wants a legally binding cut of 50 to 55% in EU emissions by 2030…” European Commission launches ‘man on the moon’ plan to cut emissions to zero by 2050. The Telegraph December 11 2019.

38. “We can’t see a future”: group takes EU to court over climate change. Litigants from eight countries claim EU institutions are not protecting fundamental rights. The Guardian May 24 2018.
39. “Netherlands climate change: Court orders bigger cuts in emissions.” BBC News December 20 2019.
40. Global Effects of Mt Pinatubo. https://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov June 14 2001.
41. Macbeth by W Shakespeare, Penguin 2015, p.23.
42. Foreword to “What Lies Beneath” by Hans Schnellenhuber, quoted in The Guardian, August 20 2018. He is a member of the International Panel on Climate Change which was jointly awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. In Expanding the Democracy Universe, he noted of 13,950 peer-reviewed papers between 1991 and 2012, “only 24 do not confirm that there is a major anthropogenic [caused by humans] greenhouse effect.”
43. “Democracy and liberal values, your report warns, are also in danger as governments will struggle to cope with the growing levels of inequality and discontent that climate change will cause. As access to resources such as food, water, land and housing are threatened, it says, the poor and vulnerable will suffer the most and nationalist sentiments will continue to rise.” UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights paraphrased in Philip Alston on Inequality and Climate Change, Chatham House 26 September 2019.

 

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