Issue

10th Issue (December, 2008)

Ecocrisis: The Gap between Hope and Reality

Wong Weng Hon

Introduction

The United Nations Organization (UN) empowered by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) has unveiled that the planet earth is being menaced by the negative effects of global warming and climate change. The report of IPCC unveils that the collaborated researches and findings of the global expert life or climate scientists have unravelled that global warming and climate change have caused or intensified epic and dire disasters or catastrophes. The catastrophes are churned up by extreme weather changes. The report emphasizes that global warming and climate change are due to anthropogenic green house gases, such as CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (methane). The Chairman of IPCC, Mr.Rajendra Pachauri warned at the World Economic Forum in Davos on 23rd of January, 2008 that climate change, if unmitigated, can have grave implications for the economic well-being of human society.

The UN has sponsored a multitude of global earth conferences on the basis of the IPCC’s report. Very useful and pragmatic recommendations were made to furnish the framework or blueprint for implementations by the policy makers of the member countries of UN. Nevertheless, the Chairman of IPCC, Mr. Rajendra Panchauri revealed the reality that global efforts to mitigate the serious environmental problems remain weak and inadequate, even as changes in climate become more epic and dire. The catastrophes swamping the victim countries in 2008 mirror the severity of environmental problems. Why is the gap between the hope of experts’ recommendations and the reality of mitigation tasks by policy makers to stem the ecocrisis is widening rather than narrowing ?

Buddhistly put, the discouraging reality of lax mitigation is itself a worrying phenomenon. Ontologically viewed, every phenomenon is a unity of existence. Every unity of existence is the unity of contigent conditions. Since laxity of mitigation is an unwholesome or negative conditioned phenomenon. Adverse phenomena are conditioned by the unity of unwholesome or negative contigent conditions enumerated as follows:

1. Anthropocentrism and Lack of Environmental Ethics
2. Worsening Global Unemployment Problems
3. Impoverishment Problems of Polluting Nations
4. Financial Meltdowns in the Western Financial Industry
5. Worship of Science and Technology
6. Ignorance of Appearance and Reality: Religious Ignorance

Environment Ethics

 Anthropocentricism connotes self-centredness or selfishness of capitalist man in exploiting the resources of the natural environment without concern for its conservation and sustainability. Religious put, at an individual level, such a person is either a carnal believer or non-believer in religious wisdom or philosophy. His self-centric ego (attā; ahaṃakāra) directs and empowers all his sense activities including his anthropogenic and anthropocentric exploitation of the natural environment. He exploits unrighteously (dhammena) or excessively the resources of the natural environment without concern for the preservation of the eco-balance. Buddhistly put, his anthropogenicism and anthropocentricism are rooted in the grasping (upadāna) upon the five aggregates (form, feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness) as this is I; this is mine; this belongs to me. Grasping (Upādāna) gives rise to anthropocentric activities. An anthropocentric person is one who does not self-realize the Truth of Anattā (Insubtantiality or Seflessness) or Emptiness (Śūnyatā) as the ultimate truth of Reality or Existence. Anattā or Śūnyatā rejects separate existence and advocates interdependent existence or unity of existence.

Unemployment Problems

Generally, if unemployment has exceeded 4%, this percentage of joblessness is considered a serious employment problem. I believe that some major polluting advanced nations in the west, such as United states of America has actually wished to respond to the IPCC’s recommendations to reduce the concentration of the green house gases. If green and clean energy technology laws are enacted and enforced strictly, the production costs of most of the polluting factories in the highly industrial economies would be increased. The increased production costs may force the factories to retrench more workers worsening the already dire employment problem further. The unemployment problem in United States has already exceeded 7% during the 2008 financial meltdown. The 2008 financial crisis has worsened it further.

It is analogous to the metaphor of a man who wished to embrace the tree but his hands did not suffice to embrace it. Human conscience must come to play at such a critical time. The whole world is confronting a dilemma: The future cost of mitigating the ecocrisis will escalate much higher as it is escalating everyday. It is comparable to the metaphor of health neglect: Present extravagant material lifestyle may end up in future in bad health that would require heavier medical expenditure to treat it. Likewise, it is wise to reduce the present extravagance and invest wisely in the conservation or protection of our ecosystem. Present prevention is less costly than future cure. The law of karma and vipāka (cause and effect) enlightens us that treating the cause is wiser than treating the effect. A bodhisattva (wisdom being) treats the cause and not the effect.

Impoverishment

Some polluting countries may not want to enact and enforce anti-pollution laws to regulate industrial wastes discharged by the existing factories. Any additional environmental protection regulations will raise the production costs and thus reduce the profit margin. Reduction of the profits of manufacturing companies, which are key corporate players of any industrial nation, will certainly reduce the corporate taxes payable. Reduced tax collections will reduce the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of an industrial nation. A weaker GDP will affect the national strategy of poverty eradication of any industrial nation still plagued with impoverishment problems to mitigate malnutrition and diseases of their poorest citizentry and to furnish basic education to them.

 For instance, rapid growing developing economies with huge populations, such as China and India, are two largest polluters of the natural environment besides United States. Owing to their huge populations, there is an enormous consumption of energy that engenders the more green house gases. Paradoxically, both these two emerging economies in Asia are struggling and striving to develop their economies to ease their domestic poverty or impoverishment. Higher production costs of green or clean and more efficient technology will reduce their profit margins and their governments’ concern of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). However, any delayed mitigation of air pollution would incur heavier mitigation costs in the future. The future opportunity cost should seriously be contemplated upon now. The contagious western financial turmoil erupting in September-October, 2008 should serve as a warning due to anearlier oversight – lack of appropriate internal control.

Financial Crisis

The 2008 western dire financial meltdowns errupted in United States and Europe mirror that these industrializing developed economies have been severely battered by the economic recession rooted in anthropocentric activities. Besides, the epic western humanitarian aids to the victims of unpredictable natural disasters or catastrophes in Asia and the regular annual aids to the poorest nations in Africa, Latin America and Asia have both enormously depleted their financial reserves. The dire natural disasters or catastrophes, such as epic forest fires, stronger Hurricanes Gustavs and Katrinas occurring in their own countries in the black year of 2008 have further dissipated their financial reserves. The soaring oil and food prices add salts to the wounds further. It is akin to the metaphor of unfortunate man: Having fallen from a ladder, he was struck again by the ladder.

The enormous financial bank bailouts made by the victim governments to rescue their toxic and contagious giant financial institutions have dissipated gravely their financial reserves to the utmost depth. Their mitigation plans to fight global warming and climate change may thus be weakened or chilled by the economic woes.

 Nevertheless, minimally, for the sake of the well-being and security of the future generations, the cap-and-trade mechanism should be adopted by all nations to reduce global warming. The cap-and-trade mechanism is a brilliant idea of ecocrisis mitigation measure. The mechanism rewards companies that pollute the environment below the cap or standard set and punishes those that pollute above the cap. Such wise measure of mitigation helps produce a more accurate GDP (gross domestic product) calculation as pollution costs are taken into consideration to calculate the net GDP. The balance sheets of the polluting corporations are more ethically justified.

At the time of my writing of this article (October 15, 2008), Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change reported a nerve-lifting news to the world. The news was that a strong concensus has been achieved by the environment ministers from U.S, China, India, the European Union and other participating countries in the Warsaw Preparatory Climate Meeting for the December Climate Conference in Portland. The concensus was that the 2008 financial turmoil must not halt efforts to combat global warming. Much to my relief, the concensus was a cherishing news to the future generations and to the third world poor countries most vulnerable to the negative effects of global warming. The world must fully be committed not to permit the financial turmoil to hamper efforts to stem global warming. Mitigation of global warming is a critical decision of either a concerted global action to live together peacefully or unresponsive non-action to be doomed or gloomed together in the future.

Science and Technology

Science and Technology fulfill the satisfactions of materialism and consumerism in a post-modern society. The ordinary worldlings conceive that happiness and well-being lie solely in the satisfaction of the material needs and sensual cravings. Consequently, the modernists, advocating the political philosophy of a secular state, alienate themselves as remotely as they can from religion. They conceive religion negatively as the obstruction to their natural instinct of seeking satisfaction of human sensual desires. They worship science and technology as the best means to consummate their highest good of hedonism and utilitarianism. Consequently, the resources of the natural environment are anthropocentrically exploited through capitalism to fulfill their modern lifestyle of hedonism and utilitarianism. Leading such lifestyle of seeking sensual pleasures, they tend to forget their God (Brahman, Tao, Buddha or Allah). When human beings live in a Godless society, the natural environment will suffer the negative impact of pure secularism and extreme capitalist exploitations by unethical capitalism. Consequently, we witness the eruption of ecocrisis currently. However, environmental ethics ensue from the knowledge of spiritual wisdom of Theosophy. Religious ignorance negates the environmental ethics. Being ignorant and neglectful of the ecocrisis, we live on at our own peril.

Religious Ignorance

Ordinary worldlings alienate themselves from God (Brahman, Tao, Buddha or Allah) or religion because they are not aware that they are parts of God unity intrinsically. Human beings are the pivotal parts of the phenomenal world. Religious wisdom of Theosophy unveils that an intimate relationship between the phenomenal world and God exists. The relation between the world and the God is perennially synonymous with the relationship between the conventional truth and the ultimate Truth (Brahman, Tao, Buddha, God and Allah). The current ecocrisis is the outcome of the unfriendly attitude of human beings towards the natural environment. They are ignorant of the ultimate Truth that whole universe is a co-operative in which every living or non-living is an integral member interwoven interdependently with each other.

The unfriendliness is rooted in the ignorance of the Truth pertaining to the relationship between the phenomenal world and the God or between the phenomena and the noumenon or principle. The phenomena are the appearances and the noumenon or principle is the ultimate Reality or Absolute. Whoever is not aware of the noumenon – one’s religious Lord, will damage the natural environment for his or her personal selfish gain or benefit.

I have just elucidated the six factors which restrict the aspirations of the western and eastern nations to adopt mitigation measures to conserve the natural resources and to preserve their sustainable development. Let’s assume that the aforementioned six discouraging factors represent six dissimilar stances of six polluters defending their position not to adequately address the environmental problem but instead of being in favour of satisfying a more urgent individual nation’s domestic urgent need. We assume that a poll is conducted and the result is 6-0 in favour of prioritizing the mitigation of national domestic financial problem instead of mitigating one’s own environmental problem. This explains why there exist a lack of global efforts to mitigate ecocrisis. Anyway, we assume again that these six votes represent the votes of general members. Nevertheless, there is an absolute, sacred veto power to reject the six unfavouable votes against addressing ecocrisis. That absolute, sacred veto power is none other than the power of God (Brahman, Tao, Buddha, or Allah) that ensues from human conscience in the inner heart.God is innately imposed veto power in all living beings and non-living beings. No one can escape from the influence of God (Truth of Unity or Non-duality).

Neglect of Absolute

 God is everything or Buddha-nature is immanent in every phenomenon. The Absolute pervades all phenomena including the ecosystems. If we live in the phenomenal world and ignore the Absolute, we would be doomed and would suffer in gloom. The metaphor of a road user ignoring the traffic rules can help us perceive the potential peril: If a driver is driving restlessly without obeying the traffic light in a busy a city centre, he or she is certainly heading for a grave tragedy.

Theosophically visioned, God is real and anything other than God is unreal. The real is definitely more important than the unreal. Thus, God - our inner conscience, thus votes Himself in whether we like it or not. It is similar to a biological situation: When one is hungry, one must eat whether or not one likes the food or not. People generally marginize religion because they conceive it as a want which is optional. If one is aware of the soteriological function of religion, one would concur that religion is a compulsory need and not an optional want.

Drink and Cup

Every human being is a phenomenon like a drink contained in a cup. The cup is analogous to God (Brahman, Tao, Buddha or Allah).The cup contains the drink and the drink is contained in the cup. They are dependently co-arisen Unity or Non-duality. They are interdependent and interrelated. When one’s knowledge of religion or God is consummated, one discerns the relationship between the world and the God or between the conventional truth and the ultimate Truth. Having discerned this dual interrelationship, one will develop the lovingkindness (mettā) and altruistic compassion (karuṇā) towards the natural environment. Lovingkindness and compassion will drive the policy or decision makers to address the ecocrisis as a top priority. Lovingkindness and compassion are Buddhist environment ethics.

Failure of Education

 Man is slow to address or mitigate the ecocrisis because most of us do not understand the relationship between phenomenon and Principle and the implication of lack of knowledge about this interrelationship. I really blame the failure of modern pedagogy of religion in schools, colleges and universities as well as those houses of worships or religious associations or societies. The central religious theme of interdependence and non-discrimination has not adequately stressed and imparted for digestion and daily practice. The stress is placed heavily on ritualism as one extreme or personal salvation as the other extreme. Even, the second noble agenda has faltered for many carnal believers amid the temptations and aversions of the modern society. The discovery of the communal Truth of Wisdom to bridge inter-faith understanding is not adequately emphasized to hammer home the central theme of religion – interdependent co-existence or unity of existence. The unity of existence is God or Emptiness.

Conclusion

The Principle is Brahman, Tao, Buddha, God or Allah which is actually ineffable and cannot be designated. In actual fact, knowledge of symbiosis in ecology is very similar to religious wisdom of Theosophy. Ecology deals with the unity of ecosystem or co-existence. God or Buddha is the Truth of unity of existence. Hence, whoever is unfriendly towards the natural environment, is Godly unconscious or Buddhaly unconscious. He or she impedes his or her Buddha-nature or obscures his Godhead. Human beings are like fish living in the water. If the water is unceasingly contaminated, it is matter of time that human health will be jeopardized or even human species will perish due to the excessive toxicity of the natural environment and the inequilibrium of the ecosystem. Buddhism and world’s religions are teachings about the ecology of the eco-system - the holistic interdependence all beings, living and non-living.