My friend Hannah Gower has written this from Copenhagen. She went with a largely Buddhist delegation from Brighton and other parts of the UK and this informs her perspective.
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This weekend I travelled with a group of fellow Buddhists to Copenhagen where the UN Climate Conference is being held. We went to join the march to demonstrate our concern for the environment and to urge the delegates to be courageous and to act with wisdom and compassion. I also went to immerse myself in the climate forum to learn more about the global situation and from those that are both personally affected by climate change and those trying to respond.
Our journey took 48 hours and 12 trains in total, much sleep deprivation and discomfort, and a lot of waiting around and walking in the brutal cold. And it was totally worth it. As the most challenging and potentially catastrophic situation facing humanity, what the nation leaders decide this week is of utmost significance to us all. With that in mind, a little bit of suffering on my part dropped easily for a bigger concern. The rally was well attended, by countless charities, NGO’s and individuals from all over the world. It was a carnival-like atmosphere with people coming from different perspectives – socialists, anarchists, workers rights, animal rights, wildlife protection, spiritual groups, students and concerned citizens of the world. It was well organized and carried a strong sense of mission, an energy that surged us peacefully (mostly) although very noisily through the city’s streets to the site of the conference.
Our journey took 48 hours and 12 trains in total, much sleep deprivation and discomfort, and a lot of waiting around and walking in the brutal cold. And it was totally worth it. As the most challenging and potentially catastrophic situation facing humanity, what the nation leaders decide this week is of utmost significance to us all. With that in mind, a little bit of suffering on my part dropped easily for a bigger concern. The rally was well attended, by countless charities, NGO’s and individuals from all over the world. It was a carnival-like atmosphere with people coming from different perspectives – socialists, anarchists, workers rights, animal rights, wildlife protection, spiritual groups, students and concerned citizens of the world. It was well organized and carried a strong sense of mission, an energy that surged us peacefully (mostly) although very noisily through the city’s streets to the site of the conference.
I am holding my breath with nervousness and prayers as to the outcome of the meetings. It is an extraordinary task before our Politian’s, our business’s, our citizens, and it would be nothing short of a revolution if what was needed to turn around global warming was agreed upon and implemented. The obstacles to success are many, and even if the most optimistic targets where agreed upon, these would be “insufficient to safeguard the planet” says The New York Times.
I have been asking myself what to do when faced with both confusion and a sense of urgency? How to engage in an emotional way – without getting lost in despair, grief or apathy – and how to act in a responsible way? Over the last few months I have felt the need to open my heart wide to the suffering of the world. And in doing so, I have opened to the complexity. Our global economic systems are so difficult to understand, I’m not sure that anyone really does. And it is our economic system that is bound irrevocably to our environment. Our economic system relies on financial growth, which relies on people buying more, which relies on things being produced, which relies on fossil fuel and natural material use, which results in environmental degradation.
I have been asking myself what to do when faced with both confusion and a sense of urgency? How to engage in an emotional way – without getting lost in despair, grief or apathy – and how to act in a responsible way? Over the last few months I have felt the need to open my heart wide to the suffering of the world. And in doing so, I have opened to the complexity. Our global economic systems are so difficult to understand, I’m not sure that anyone really does. And it is our economic system that is bound irrevocably to our environment. Our economic system relies on financial growth, which relies on people buying more, which relies on things being produced, which relies on fossil fuel and natural material use, which results in environmental degradation.
In one of the lectures I was in on Sunday, the speaker asked us to put our hands up if we believed we could live without burning fossil fuels. I put my hand up, as did most of the others, but did so thinking – yes I am willing to try, but so much would have to change, and I don’t really know how. We face a huge challenge; in business, as individuals and as a society. Business’s need to act with realism and ingenuity in contributing to a new society. Individually I feel we need to grapple with the urgency of the situation and make sacrifices. We don’t have to buy into the culture that tries to hypnotise us into believing that in order to be happy we need to consume more. We can make choices that are difficult to make and make them anyway, and let go of the expectation of constant financial growth. For me this involves practicing renunciation – relying instead on the happiness that cultivating positive states of mind bring -; continuing practicing widening my circle of care to include all others; and keeping my eyes and mind open, letting my heart struggle with what it sees, trusting the responses born from care.
“Peace is a competition between despair and hope, between disempowerment and committed persistence” Diasaku Ikeda