Forms and Opportunities for Engaged Practice
Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power and the power of the earth. Environmental despair is a poison every bit as destructive as the methylated mercury in the bottom of Onondaga Lake. But how can we submit to despair while the land is saying "Help"?
— Robin Wall Kimmerer
No small part of our challenge is the pervasive poverty of agency. How often do we hear, including from ourselves, “but I’m just one person”? Yet both Dharma and sociology disagree. Our words and actions matter so much and indeed they are all we have.
Yet whether or not our actions make a big difference that we can actually see, feel, and touch is, in a way, none of our business. Our opportunity is to meaningfully respond. We can speak in ways that actually help. We can act in ways that are deeply rooted, skillful, strategic, and unattached to specific outcomes.
Featured Action Organizations
- Climate Cardinals is an international youth-led nonprofit working to make the climate movement more accessible to those who don’t speak English, ensuring that knowledge about this emergency is accessible to all.
- The Cultural Conservancy is a Native-led organization that works with Indigenous communities throughout Turtle Island and Abya Yala (the Americas) and Moananuiākea (the Pacific) to protect and restore Indigenous cultures, empowering them in the direct application of traditional knowledge and practices on their ancestral lands.
- Flock Together is a birdwatching collective for people of color in the UK. They aim to reclaim green spaces and help people of color rebuild a relationship with natural spaces they’ve too often felt marginalized from.
Explore Buddhist and Interfaith Organizations
“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” -Angela Davis
Featured Calls to Action
Upcoming
Global
- Learn more about the environmental implications of war and conflict, and check out Sacred Justice Coalition latest offering ‘Gaza Calling for a Dharma Response’ – a zine offered in collaboration with an international coalition of Dharma Teachers, Leaders, and Sangha Members. You can join their mailing list to receive updates.
- To stave off the worst of the climate crisis, we need to stop the expansion of fossil fuels, facilitate a wind down of existing production, and initiate a just transition to clean energy. Tell world leaders they need to pass a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
- Future Earth’s Global Indigenous Youth Summit on Climate Change (GIYSCC) 2024, a virtual dialogue by, for, and among Indigenous youth with global inclusion, is taking place on August 9. Learn more and register for the event here.
- Talking with children about climate change can be daunting, but seeing how climate change is already shaping the future the next generation will inherit, it is necessary and responsible. If you feel called to connect with children about climate change, check out this guide from Project Drawdown for some suggestions.
- If you are interested in learning more about the ecological and social impacts of aviation, a just transition of the aviation sector and would like to explore how narratives around aviation can be better communicated, join Stay Grounded’s upcoming online training beginning taking place in September (register before August 15).
- World Ocean Day is advocating for 12 Months of Action, an ongoing monthly collaborative campaign to help make the critical connection between a healthy ocean and a stable climate. Each month’s focus will be strategically timed around key policy and action opportunities. Subscribe to receive updates on each month’s campaign, as well as resources like webinars and action guides.
United States
- Support Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) and join the group in an upcoming in-person forum “Women on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis: Ending the Era of Fossil Fuels and Implementing Solutions” on September 25 to hear from powerful global women leading the way for a just and healthy future for all generations.
- Enbridge’s Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation project poses significant environmental, economic, and public health risks to the Great Lakes ecosystem and the communities in the region. Write to the US Army Corps of Engineers to express your strong opposition to the project.
- Many birds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators are in decline, as are an increasing number of native plants essential for their survival. Urge your members of Congress to act on saving pollinators and the native plants fully supporting and helping to pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.
- Check out Green Faith’s latest report Sacred Planet, Stained Profits to learn more about what other religious and secular organizations are doing to call on the world’s largest banks to phase out their fossil fuels, and explore ways for your community to get involved.
- The U.S. Forest Service is working to amend every national forest plan in the country to protect old growth and the agency is currently looking for public input on how they’ll manage our public forests for generations to come. Share your thoughts with the U.S. Forest Service urging them to strengthen the proposal to protect mature and old-growth trees and forests on federal public lands.
Canada
- The International Court of Justice ruled recently in an advisory opinion that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are illegal under international law. Call on Canada to endorse the latest ICJ Ruling and stand with international law.
- The Salish Sea Orcas face major threats like noise and vessel disturbance, contaminants in their waters and a decline of their main prey, Chinook salmon. With the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion operational, the orcas face an increase in noise and risk from vessel strikes and contaminant spills. Urge the federal government to implement an emergency order to protect Salish Sea orcas.
- Greenwashing by oil and gas companies knowingly misleads the public with false claims of “net zero” and “carbon neutral” oil. Support the passing of Bill C-372 calling for a fossil-fuel advertising ban,
- Enbridge’s Line 5 Wisconsin Segment Relocation project poses significant environmental, economic, and public health risks to the Great Lakes ecosystem and the communities in the region. Write to the US Army Corps of Engineers to express your strong opposition to the project before August 4.
- The Climate Justice Organizing HUB is collaborating with The Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance to offer the inaugural coast-to-coast climate café on August 1 – to participate, register here.
- October 1st is Canada’s National Seniors Day and International Day of Older Persons. More than 40 groups have committed to holding a climate action or event on that day. Check out the resources put together by Seniors for Climate, subscribe to stay informed about the project, and support the cross-Canada campaign in mobilizing seniors for climate action.
- The Sound the Alarm: Extreme Weather Events Mutual Aid and Action Toolkit 2.0 co-produced with the Climate Reality Project Canada, offers an introduction to and resources on 1) community emergency response, 2) mutual aid, and 3) grassroots action strategy in the context of the climate crisis and intensifying extreme weather events. Check out the guide, explore the resources, and where possible, practice with your community.
Ongoing Opportunities & Action Resources
- The David Suzuki Foundation (Canada-based) offers comprehensive resources for engagement at the local government level. View guides on assessing your local government’s climate plan and working with local leaders on climate action. You can also check out their Act Locally page.
- For Educators: Yale Climate Communication’s resource guide for educators of middle and high school students. In addition to teaching the science behind climate change, it is critical to help students become effective climate change communicators, and these resources aim to facilitate that.
- Specific Stop the Money Pipeline actions that can be applicable to people in many countries:
- Move your money and divest from fossil fuels.
- If you are a college student, learn about and launch a reinvestment campaign.
- Project Drawdown offers a range of technologies and practices for mobilizing around climate solutions, and resources to learn more about climate solutions. Explore ways to get involved here.
Featured Campaigns
Faith Climate Action Week 2024
- Katie Benvenuti
Regenerative Solutions for the Living Earth Community
- Katie Benvenuti
We Can. We Will.
- Katie Benvenuti
Faith Climate Action Week 2023
- Katie Benvenuti
Restoration is a powerful antidote to despair. Restoration offers concrete means by which humans can once again enter into positive creative relationship with the more-than-human world, meeting responsibilities that are simultaneously material and spiritual. It's not enough to grieve. It's not enough to just stop doing bad things.
— Robin Wall Kimmerer
Stories of Engagement
A Community Renounces Fossil Fuels
- Steve Seigan Miron
Demand for Statehood and Ecological Protections in Northern India
- Justin Whitaker
Buddhism, Social Change, and Skillful Means
- Melvin McLeod