The Dalai Lama has appealed to world leaders to take urgent action against climate change, warning of ecological destruction affecting the lives of billions of people and ruining the planet, including his birth country, Tibet.
As a call to action he has brought out a new book that says if Buddha returned to this world, “Buddha would be green.”
In an interview for the UK’s Channel 4 and the Guardian, the Buddhist spiritual leader spoke from the Indian city of Dharamsala, where he has been exiled for six decades.
Photo: Reuters
He said that “global warming may reach such a level that rivers will dry” and that “eventually Tibet will become like Afghanistan,” with terrible consequences for at least 1 billion people dependent on water from the plateau “at the roof of the world.”
The 85-year-old said that — as he announced in 2011 — he is retired from politics and his leadership of the struggles for Tibetan freedom from China, and ecology is now the thing that is “very, very important” to him.
In the week the Cop26 UN climate conference was to have been held in Glasgow, Scotland, he said that he has high expectations of world leaders and wants them to act on the Paris Agreement.
“The United Nations should take a more active role in this field,” he said.
Asked whether world leaders are failing, he said: “The big nations should pay more attention to ecology. I hope you see those big nations who spent a lot of money for weapons or war turn their resources to the preservation of the climate.”
The Dalai Lama said that if he joined a political party now, “I would like to join the Green party. Their idea is very good.”
His suggestion for how to make world leaders see sense on climate change might raise eyebrows, but seems to be the product of a lively sense of humor.
The Dalai Lama chuckled as he said that we should lock them all in a room and “pipe carbon dioxide into it until they realize what climate change really means.”
He said that “people who have a certain luxury sort of style of life in a room without proper oxygen” would realize “it is very difficult.”
The Dalai Lama said that he is in favor of large-scale tree planting to help tackle climate change.
He also said that consumption of meat worldwide should fall dramatically, but added that since his own decision to go vegetarian in 1965, health problems have led doctors to advise him to resume eating a little meat.
His greatest contribution to fighting climate change is education and promoting the concept of compassion, he said.
The Dalai Lama is most passionate when talking about his idea of “oneness” among 7 billion people.
“We see too much emphasis on my nation, my religion, their religion. That really is causing all these problems due to different religions and different nations are fighting. So now we really need oneness,” he said.
He even said that he can now live as one with China, which has “the biggest Buddhist population now.”
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