by Kazuaki Tanahashi
Kaz is a widely known Japanese calligrapher, author, and translator of Zen texts.
Climate in your life
The Earth will no longer be as we know it and humanity may not survive if we don’t make drastic changes in our mind, behavior, and lifestyle. We all know that climate crisis is real and drastically pressing: The world temperature is rising. Polar ice is rapidly melting. Sea levels are going up. Unprecedented storms, floods, draught, and wild fires take place. Weather patterns are unpredictable and extreme. Less rain. Less snowfall. Soil is eroded and poisoned. Air, land, and oceans are polluted. Food and water are becoming scarce. These are affecting people living in locality and people with low income more than others. But they are affecting all of us.
You must be already doing a lot of things to counter these challenges: recycle, compost, bring bags for shopping, get local food, avoid meat, no bottled water, buy less, conserve energy, divert investing, study about issues, talk to friends, vote for environmentalists, meet online, drive less, and fly less. Naturally, these things help. But beyond that, what works to respond to the global crisis? The climate issues are so overwhelming and feel like out of our hands. We become powerless, so we try to forget it. This is cynicism that leads us to do nothing further, which is suicidal.
Who to listen to?
The best thing to do next, I believe, is to listen to the foremost expert in the field. Christiana Figueres from Costa Rica was the main architect of the United Nations’ historic Paris Agreement in 2015. Previously in 2010 after the climate conference in Copenhagen failed miserably, UN Secretary-General BanKi-moon asked Figueres to assume responsibility for the international climate negotiations. No one at that time thought any workable international climate agreement would be possible. Nevertheless, with her chief political strategist Tom Rivett-Cornac and with many people’s help, Figueres made a formidable effort. As a result, one hundred ninety-five nations unanimously adopted the most far-reaching agreement to guide their economics for the next four decades.
The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Cornac is in my mind a gospel for our common future. The authors say, ”Our collective responsibility is to ensure that a better future is not only possible but probable, and then not only probable but foreseeable.”1 “Every time you make an individual choice to be a responsible custodian of this beautiful Earth, you contribute toward major transformations.”2
The authors suggest three basic mindsets: The first is stubborn optimism. “We may be challenged beyond our currently visible capacities, but that only means that we are invited to rise to the next level of our abilities. And we can.”3
The second is endless abundance. “The realization of abundance is not an illusory increase in physical resources, but rather an awareness of a broad array of ways to satisfy needs and wants so that everyone is content. In this way resources will be protected and replenished, and the relationships among us are enriched.”4
The third mindset is radical regeneration: “We have to shift our action compass from self-centric to nature-aligned. We have to filter every action through a consequential stress test, and we have to be pretty radical about it. When considering an action, we have to ask: Does it actively contribute to humans and nature thriving together as one integrated system on this planet? If yes, green light. If not, red light. Period.”5
This is fully in alignment with the concept of “green dharma.” To me “green dharma” means to learn the reality of the world while we are engaging activities that help sustain humanity and the environment. So, let me share with you what I am learning at the moment.
Plant trees
By the way, Christiana Figueres is a daughter of Jose Figueres who led a revolution in Costa Rica, became the head of junta, and abolished military forces in 1949. In my book in progress Breakthrough Costa Rice: Lessons for the World, I declare: “The demilitarization of Costa Rica by Jose Figures is the most inspiring event in human history.”
I had the pleasure of meeting Christiana Figueres in Santa Fe in July 2022. Prior to that, my Brazilian friends Fabio Rodrigues and Lia Beltrão asked me to give an online advise to people interested in social actions. At one point I said to Fabio and Lia, “I am concerned about the vast and fast destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. How can I help?” Then, I asked them to find the most reputable and uncorrupted organization that was already successfully helping indigenous people to plant trees. After some research they recommended Amazon Reforest Alliance, a consortium of indigenous and non-indigenous people.
In early 2022, I asked the board members of the U.S. non-profit organization Inochi to initiate the project for planting trees in Amazon Rainforest. Inochi (meaning “life force” in Japanese) was founded by the painter Mayumi Oda in 1983. I have been volunteering for this organization since its founding as secretary and now as president. In the past we had sent our representative, Claire Greensfelder, to the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, Conferences on Climate in Copenhagen in 2010 and in Paris in 2015. So, climate issues had been important for us. Thus, Inochi and Amazon Reforest Alliance formed a partnership. My job has been to ask friends around the world to contribute fund to the project and spread word.
You might dread fund raising. Asking friends for money, knowing that most of them say no or ignore you? Yes, it is humiliating and sometimes discouraging. But half or more part of peace and environmental work is to collect resources for powerful actions. And remember: People may say yes or no, but they certainly respect you. You are begging not for yourself but for a good cause that can benefit everybody and the world. Some of your friends may express delight and honor to be asked to participate which is rewarding and gives you courage to continue.
Inochi’s initial goal for the first year was to ask the indigenous Puyanawa people to plant 5,000 trees of various kinds on their land in Acre Province, north west of Brazil. It’s a humble objective compared with the wide-spread clearcuttings. But humble is good, humble is great. We need an infinite number of humble projects. What we can or slightly beyond what we can is the best thing in the world to do.
Planting trees in the Amazon Rainforest is a direct way to preserve and regenerate “flying rivers,” the massive water vaper that regulates clouds, rainfalls, and temperature of the globe. We need an outstanding prototype that can be replicated or modified by other individuals, organizations, and governments. That way we can multiply our effort exponentially.
It’s a lot of work sending thank-you notes and receipts to donors of $15 or $140 or apply for a $5,000 grant. Also, we need to update the progress report every month on the web site (in our case www.inochi-trees.org) and email an update to all donors and those who are involved every three months or so. But we need to honor and treat equally benefactors of all amounts. To handle the public money, we need to be prompt and transparent. You don’t need, however, to do everything by yourself. It’s normal to use 5% of the revenue for administration and communication. You can hire people or get volunteers.
Money counts, but more importantly, people need to feel ownership of the project and encourage their friends and their friends to join. Sending a check or giving a credit card number is admirable, but it’s still a passive participation. Asking friends to join is an active participation. Thus, networking grows. You may not be used to the idea of raising fund, but anyone can do it. And it is crucial.
The authors of The Future We Choose say, “In short, we could return the climate to how it was decades ago just by planting trees.”6 “Plant Trees. As many as you can.7 “Finance others to plant more trees as a symbol of the fact that you still have some way to go. Trees are good, and the world needs more of them.”8 Yes! And yes! If each of us plants or helps plant one hundred or more trees in our yard, community, or elsewhere, it can be a beginning of a great turning. If you can do one thousand, why not?
According to the Flower Splendor Scripture, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, the wisdom being of practice, says:
It is also like planting a large tree of the Medicine King
in the Snow Mountains.
Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching it
all remove sicknesses.9
All of us can be tree planters, who plant trees of healing people, healing the planet.
Regeneration
Paul Hawken, an environmentalist and entrepreneur, with 189 “fellows,” created a book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. Howken explains that “Gglobal warming” refers to the surface temperature of the earth, and “climate change” refers to the many changes that will occur with increases in temperature and greenhouse gas. Howken and his colleagues use the word “drawdown” to mean reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.10
The team has successfully summarized an enormous body of scientific papers on climate for a broad audience “from ninth graders.” They propose eighty solutions in seven sectors—buildings and cities, energy, food, land use, materials, transport, women and girls. For each solution the team presents a total tonnage of atmospheric CO2 reduction, net cost, and net saving. For example, managed grazing can reduce 16.34 giga tons of CO2, costs $50.48 billion, and saves $735.27 billion. This is an epoch-making work for all of us, including policy makers, non-profit organization leaders, and corporate executives, to understand the overall issues and potential solutions in a gigantic scale.
In his later book Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, Hawken says, “The only effective and timey way to reverse the climate crisis is the regeneration of life in all its manifestations, human and biological. It is also the most compelling, prosperous, and inclusive way.”11 “The climate crisis is not a science problem. It is a human problem. The ultimate power to change the world does not reside in technologies. It relies on reverence, respect and compassion—for ourselves, for all people, and for all life. This is regeneration.”12
Hawken also clarifies the difference between an outcome and purpose.“Reversing the climate crisis is an outcome. Regenerating human health, security and well-being, the living world, and justice is the purpose.”13 Well said, indeed. “Our concern is simple: most people in the world remain disengaged, and we need a way forward that engages the majority of humanity.”14 Then how do we do that? Hawken suggests things that can be categorized as Frameworks, Equity, Reduce, Protect, Sequester, Influence and Support. For “Support,” he suggests: “In virtually every area of climate, social justice, and the environment, there are organizations that are highly competent at what they do, that are ahead of the curve and embody knowledge and networks that make them the most effective change agent.”15 (The list of such organizations is found at www.regeneration.org.) We all have different interest and concerns. So, it’s good to have a wide option in what field and how we can be a climate angel.
An avalanche effect
In his highly acclaimed book Web of Meaning, Jeremy Lent says, “We can choose to live as an ecological self, as an integral part of the emerging human planetary consciousness as it finds its way to synergize with the multitude of other sacred, sentient beings comprising Gaia.”16
Lent also refers to a couple of scientists who were studying how avalanches occur. They set up a big heap of rice, and one by one they added a grain to the top of the heap. As predicted, many grains seemed to have no effect, while an occasional single grain would arbitrarily set off an avalanche of rice. Lent made his own pile of rice, dropping grains and studied the change. He realized: “Unseen, the tiny impacts of the grains on top were resonating throughout the pile, causing innumerable other tiny reaction among adjacent grains, which in turn passed their movement on throughout the pile. It dawned on me then that each grain I dropped was contributing something unique to the eventual avalanche.”17 Then, he concludes: “With every strand we weave in the web of meaning, we become intertwined in Gaia’s future—an intimately embedded node within Indra’s Net, reflecting infinitely out into the mystery.”18
I had an opportunity to sit next to Jeremy Lent in a small social gathering. I said, “Your analogy of grains of rice is extremely helpful for general readers because we feel everyone’s contribution is equally important. But when you actually engage in activities, don’t you want to choose an action that can have a maximum impact? It could be like a pile of beans and you have a choice of dropping a soybean or a lama bean?” We laughed.
Finally, let me restate the “four commonplace truths,” a principle for social transformation, from my earlier book Painting Peace:
1. No situation is impossible to change.
2. A communal vision, outstanding strategy, and sustained effort can bring forth positive changes.
3. Everyone can help make a difference.
4. No one is free of responsibility.19
Yes, all of us have power to help make a difference. Young, old, scarce, plenty, strong, bedridden—without exception. Thus, all of us have dire obligation. So, think deeply and act effectively.
- Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Cornac. The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis,8.]
- Ibid., 44.
- Ibid., 53.
- Ibid., 64.
- Ibid., 77.
- Ibid., 126.
- Ibid., 168.
- Ibid., 169.
- Flower Splendor Scripture, chapter 37.
- Paul Hawken, ed. Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. Xiii.
- Paul Hawken. Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, 9.
- Ibid.
- Ibid., 11.
- Ibid., 12.
- Ibid., 13.
- Jeremy Lent. Web of Meaning, 380.
- Ibid., 381.
- Ibid., 382.
- Kazuaki Tanahashi. Painting Peace: Art in a Time of Global Crisis, 156.