Thursday, January 8, 2015

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi: Fostering Peace, Inside and Out (from Tricycle Magazine, 1/7/15)

The greatest challenge of our time is to avoid climate chaos. The earth is our irreplaceable home, and if we destroy it, we will have no other place to go. At the rate we’re spitting out greenhouse gases, within a few decades we may raise the earth’s temperature to the point where the planet becomes inhospitable to human life. All the money in the world will be worthless on a planet where the grain belts have withered and oceans have turned deadly acidic.
We need to start making a rapid and full-scale transition to a new economy powered by clean and renewable sources of energy. The sun, wind, and heat of the earth are capable of providing us with all the energy we need. The main obstacle to date has been the lack of political will, whereby a band of powerful corporations, lobbyists, and compliant politicians reject the hard truths of science and even the clear decrees of rational self-interest.
We must stand up against moneyed interests and press our governments and civil groups to expedite the transition to a clean-energy future. Our window of opportunity is closing, and we must act fast before it slams shut. We need a sense of urgency, as if our clothes were on fire, an urge to act to preserve this precious planet—a miracle in a sea of cosmic dust, a blue-green pearl teeming with living forms.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Thanissara speaks at Light for Lima Candlelight Vigil in San Francisco

RALLY FOR A GLOBAL CLIMATE TREATY


CLIMATE JUSTICE IS A HUMAN RIGHT: RALLY FOR A GLOBAL CLIMATE TREATY
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 | 4-6pm Dag Hammarskjold Plaza | E. 47th Street, NYC (between 1st & 2nd Aves.)

Climate change is the greatest threat to basic human rights: food security, access to water, employment, housing, public health and the right to live in dignity.

On Wednesday, December 10th, International Human Rights Day, New Yorkers will gather to demand that world governments address the serious threat global warming poses to human rights, especially to people living in vulnerable communities throughout the world.

This event coincides with a UN meeting in Lima, Peru, a part of the 2014-15 negotiations for a global climate treaty that will stress the urgency of the climate crisis and highlight the human rights dimension of the struggle for climate justice.

We call on the US government to take decisive action to address the climate crisis in the US and to fully commit to a legally binding global climate treaty.

We support the call for a new Global Climate Treaty to be negotiated in Paris in December 2015 to explicitly require world governments to protect the human rights of citizens affected by climate change.

We call for developed nations to fully fund the UN Green Climate Fund to support developing nations in climate mitigation and a just transition to a green economy.

Join us on December 10th in NYC as we stand in solidarity with frontline communities in NYC and nations throughout the world.

SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS (to date)
Roberto Borrero, United Confederation of Taino People; Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez, Earth Guardians; Kevin Murungi, Global Kids; Jennifer Viechweg, Oxfam; Ray Rivera Figueroa, NYC Community Gardens Coalition; Christine Halvorson, Rainforest Foundation

Organizers: 350NYC.org | E-mail 350nyc@gmail.com

Co-sponsors: AmericanEthicalUnion;AuthorsforCauses;BronxClimateJusticeNorth;CampaignforPeaceandDemocracy;EarthGuardians;FoodandWaterWatch;
Fossil Free & Green NY; Global Kids; GreenFaith; Green Party of NYS; Left Labor Project; NYC Community Gardens Coalition; Responsible Endowments Coalition;
Sane Energy Project; Saving Souls Corporation; Show Up! America; Sierra Club NYC Group; Social Action Committee of Park Slope UMC; System Change Not Climate Change NYC; The Black Institute; The Mothers Project, United Confederation of Taino People; WESPAC Foundation; Widening Circles, NY, Manhattan Green Party Local

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

JOIN THE LIGHT FOR LIMA INTERFAITH VIGIL ON DEC 7

With our lights we can guide the way.
Candlelight interfaith vigil of prayer, witness, song, and meditation Sunday, December 7 at 4 pm
 in Union Square. 
At the vigil, representatives of different faith communities will offer one- or two-sentence prayers while lighting their candles (or solar lanterns). These lights will be symbols of our hope that the negotiations in Lima will be carried out in a spirit of love, compassion, and caring. To sign up to represent your faith community, please contact n.lorence2013@gmail.com and catherineskopic@yahoo.com. 
Sponsored by the #LightForLima NYC Interfaith Coalition
part of the #LightForLima project of OurVoices.net – “bringing faith to the Climate Talks” 
Co-sponsors (list in formation): GreenFaith, Sisters of Charity, Zen Center New York City Earth Initiative For more information, search #LightForLima interfaith vigil NYC on Facebook.
Part of the #LightForLima project of OurVoices.net
World leaders will come together in Lima, Peru this December for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 20/CMP 10). They’ll be working to establish the fundamentals of a strong, global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – an agreement that we hope will then be finalized in Paris in 2015.

These leaders need to know that we’re holding their work in our thoughts, meditations and prayers. As they start their work, join us in a vigil – 

• for strong action by world governments in response to the climate crisis, including meaningful progress in Lima

• for governments to fulfill and even increase their pledges to the UN’s Green Climate Fund, which will assist poor nations in dealing with the climate crisis
• for justice for the poor, who have done the least to contribute to the climate crisis, but are most vulnerable to its effects
As citizens of the so-called First World, we recognize our responsibility for having despoiled and destabilized the global climate. As people of faith, we recognize our moral responsibility to do everything we can to reverse the worst effects of our society’s wastefulness, and to work to restore Creation. We also recognize our special responsibility to our brothers and sisters the world over who are already dealing with the devastating impacts of climate destabilization.
As people of faith we can make a difference. As humanity finally begins to grapple with this existential crisis, we must ensure that our actions are grounded in the values held by all faiths – respect for the natural environment, a passion to do justice for the vulnerable, and a deep love for one another.

Monday, November 17, 2014

VIDEO: Into the Streets (People’s Climate March + Flood Wall Street)


Click HERE to watch this excellent video on the People's Climate March and Flood Wall Street as directed by Meerkat Media Collective (meerkatmedia.org).


Wednesday, November 12, 2014

U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change and Clean Energy Cooperation | The White House

FACT SHEET: U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change and Clean Energy Cooperation | The White House

From The White House:

Building on strong progress during the first six years of the Administration, today President Obama announced a new target to cut net greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.  At the same time, President Xi Jinping of China announced targets to peak CO2 emissions around 2030, with the intention to try to peak early, and to increase the non-fossil fuel share of all energy to around 20 percent by 2030. 
Together, the U.S. and China account for over one third of global greenhouse gas emissions.  Today’s joint announcement, the culmination of months of bilateral dialogue, highlights the critical role the two countries must play in addressing climate change.  The actions they announced are part of the longer range effort to achieve the deep decarbonization of the global economy over time.  These actions will also inject momentum into the global climate negotiations on the road to reaching a successful new climate agreement next year in Paris.
The new U.S. goal will double the pace of carbon pollution reduction from 1.2 percent per year on average during the 2005-2020 period to 2.3-2.8 percent per year on average between 2020 and 2025.  This ambitious target is grounded in intensive analysis of cost-effective carbon pollution reductions achievable under existing law and will keep the United States on the right trajectory to achieve deep economy-wide reductions on the order of 80 percent by 2050... 
News items on this announcement:

U.S., China Unveil Ambitious Climate Change Goals
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/11/us-china-climate-change_n_6142978.html

The U.S.-China Deal Won’t Stop Climate Change. But It’s Exactly What We Needed.

Questions Over China’s Climate Change Plan

Politicians and Climate Experts React to U.S.-China Emissions Pact

Earth Initiative Meeting at Zen Center of NYC on November 16 at 1 pm

[NOTE: Below is a message from Green Dragon Earth Initiative]



Hello everyone,

We hope you're enjoying this wonderful Autumn air and sky. This coming meeting (on Sunday, November 16 at 1 pm) is an important one as we'll begin our next area of study: Fire / Energy. During this coming year we'll focus our Earth Initiative work towards various subjects and actions that relate to energy. We'll form several 'action groups' that will each concentrate on different topics that will be suggested and chosen by all of us. 

Some possible areas of focus were provided through our meeting last month with Clare Donahue and Kim Fraczek from Sane Energy Project. They spoke about their work to diminish our reliance on fossil fuels and to encourage renewables on local, national and global levels, and how we might want to collaborate with them. We'll discuss this in more detail at our next meeting.

We want to continue to build from the great energy created at the People's Climate March, as the realities of climate change and our need to live together in a better way on this Earth become clearly apparent to more and more people around the world. The Earth Initiative is a wonderful way of merging our Dharma practice with our love and stewardship of the planet and all its humans and creatures. We are also exploring possibilities of working together with some of the other NYC-based Buddhist centers, and will share these developments on the 16th.

So do try to attend and offer your ideas and energy to our work together. It's just a couple of hours that you can offer in service to the Earth, which supports us in every moment.

Thank you for caring,

Shugen & the EI Planning Group


Green Dragon Earth Initiative
Zen Center of NYC Chapter
500 State Street, Brooklyn  NY 11217
Tel: 718-875-8229   email: zcnyc@mro.org
Web: www.mro.org/zesi/greendragon