Buddhists on ecological emergency

You don't have to be a Buddhist practitioner to appreciate, or sign, the Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change. Here's an excerpt:

"...the threats and disasters we face ultimately stem from the human mind, and therefore require profound changes within our minds. If personal suffering stems from craving and ignorance—from the three poisons of greed, ill will, and delusion—the same applies to the suffering that afflicts us on a collective scale. Our ecological emergency is a larger version of the perennial human predicament. Both as individuals and as a species, we suffer from a sense of self that feels disconnected not only from other people but from the Earth itself.

"As Thich Nhat Hanh has said, 'We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.' We need to wake up and realize that the Earth is our mother as well as our home—and in this case the umbilical cord binding us to her cannot be severed. When the Earth becomes sick, we become sick, because we are part of her."

Read the whole statement here.

ALSO: In climate-change news that's a little closer to home, the Upper Main Line YMCA (1416 Berwyn-Paoli Road, Berwyn, 610 854-1604) is being recognized as the first conservation easement in Pennsylvania and celebrating its Environmental Education Center's 10th anniversary this weekend. The Y will host the Environmental Stewardship Festival (formerly hosted by Willistown Friends Meeting) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 19. There will be live animal shows and nature hikes, eco workshops and wagon rides - fun for the whole family.

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