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
- EcoMadres mission is to empower and mobilize Latino communities to fight for clean air, equitable climate change solutions, and protections from toxic chemicals. Working with a growing network of state-based field teams and allies in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, and Texas, the team facilitates conversations between Latino communities and lawmakers at the state and federal levels about the connection between environmental issues and our children’s health.
- The Eco-anxiety in Africa Project (TEAP) seeks to understand and validate the experiences of eco-anxiety and environmental-related emotions in Africans. Through research, space-making initiatives, and climate-aware psychotherapy support, TEAP intends to raise awareness on the interlocking effects of the changing climate and other social challenges unique to the African population.
- The Leftovers Foundation is a Canada-based organization seeking to ensure that good food does not get wasted. With networks across Alberta and Manitoba, the organization connect food donors with service agencies to redirect food surplus to where it is needed most.
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
- Green Faith will be holding the Faith for Climate Justice in May 3 – 12 2024. Check out the action guide (focusing on North America) offering resources to help you create powerful and meaningful action in your community, and sign up to receive updates about getting involved.
- This Earth Day on April 22nd, EARTHDAY.ORG is advocating for the end of plastics for the sake of human and planetary health. Check out their action toolkit, join or host a clean up, or visit their Earth Hub for resources and more ways to get involved.
- Global Days of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) will take place from April 12 to May 15. Learn more about the Global Campaign on Military Spending and find ways to get involved in GDAMS 2024.
- Participate in the upcoming online trainings hosted by Beyond Plastic to learn practical ways to end plastic pollution and engage your larger community.
- Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance is conducting virtual focus group sessions to inform the development of tools and resources to facilitate communications about climate change and climate-related feelings. Learn more and sign up for these sessions here
United States
- Call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Israel to avert further loss of civilian life and humanitarian catastrophe, call on your senators to do so (phone numbers here).
- Support Jewish Voice for Peace (JWP), a US-based, grassroots organization seeking to organize a multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of US Jews into solidarity with Palestinian liberation.
- Both the Eastern and Western migratory monarch populations have declined by more than 90% in recent years. Your local leaders can help by joining a network of cities and communities that are investing in habitat restoration, community science, environmental education, and local policy change to benefit monarch butterflies. Send a message to your local leaders encouraging them to take the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge and commit to monarch conservation.
- The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 made the largest climate and clean energy investments in U.S. history. However, big polluters and their polluter allies in Congress are working to dismantle this progress. Sign the petition to call on Congress to defend our climate progress for current and future generations.
Canada
- As violence and destruction continues to escalate and play out in Gaza, insist on an immediate arms embargo, and email your Member of Parliament, the Prime Minister, and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, and Defense to demand that Canada stop arming Israel’s genocidal violence.
- The upcoming global plastics treaty negotiations held April 23-29 in Ottawa are an opportunity to put a stop to plastic pollution. Send a message to Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and party environment critics to commit to reduction targets for primary plastic production and banning the export of plastic waste.
- The Climate-Aligned Finance Act (CAFA) introduced by Senator Rosa Galvez in March 2022 would comprehensively align our financial sector with the realities of climate change. Send a letter to the Senate Banking Committee Chair and Deputy Chair urging the advancement of the CAFA.
- 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.
- Despite plans to transition away from coal, Canada still exports millions of tonnes of Canadian and American thermal coal every year. Urge your MP and key cabinet ministers to support Bill C-383, calling for the ban on thermal coal exports.
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.
Featured Campaigns
Faith Climate Action Week 2024
- Katie Benvenuti
Talking About our Earth and Ecological Crises
- Katie Benvenuti
Regenerative Solutions for the Living Earth Community
- Katie Benvenuti
We Can. We Will.
- 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