How Buddhism can help to prevent earth becoming extinct

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
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Macavity
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Re: How Buddhism can help to prevent earth becoming extinct

Post by Macavity »

Rhino wrote:Better and worse are just assessments born of craving that wants to reach something.
If the cessation of craving eliminated the capacity to discriminate, we should expect to read of arahants living on grass and dung.
Individual
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Re: How Buddhism can help to prevent earth becoming extinct

Post by Individual »

Although global warming is a serious problem, many people's "solutions" for it aren't very practical largely because they don't seem very knowledgeable. For instance, that website says that renewable energy is "limitless". That's not true. Renewable energy is more flexible, because you have a much larger, purer source of energy, but there is still a fixed amount of energy that can be used (ex: the total amount of energy output of the sun over its lifetime).

Anyway, it's good to have a global cap and trade program to reduce emissions, but the Earth is going to continue to rise in temperature, climate will change, and we will simply have to adapt. Eliminating carbon emissions entirely is not a feasible option economically. Also, a global cap and trade program might be meaningless if underdeveloped countries don't have to abide by the same standards as developed nations. If the standards are unequal, it will basically be a means of wealth distribution to poor countries, so that they can pollute.
The best things in life aren't things.

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chownah
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Re: How Buddhism can help to prevent earth becoming extinct

Post by chownah »

Macavity wrote:
Rhino wrote:Better and worse are just assessments born of craving that wants to reach something.
If the cessation of craving eliminated the capacity to discriminate, we should expect to read of arahants living on grass and dung.
.....and urine.
(see: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... .ch05.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ....I don't want to get banned on my first post!!!)

chownah
PeterB
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Re: How Buddhism can help to prevent earth becoming extinct

Post by PeterB »

Rhino wrote:
clw_uk wrote:Hasnt the world become slightly better since the bronze age?
Better and worse are just assessments born of craving that wants to reach something. If there was no craving there would be no differentiation of good and bad. Then the things are just like they are.
We know that sentient life in the Bronze Age was characterised by Dukkha, Anicca, and Anatta. We can be pretty sure that any sentient life on earth in 2000 years time will be characterised by Dukkha, Anicca and Anatta. We can and should attempt to ameliorate the effects of Dukkha, but we aint going to fix it.
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Ceisiwr
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Re: How Buddhism can help to prevent earth becoming extinct

Post by Ceisiwr »

PeterB wrote:
Rhino wrote:
clw_uk wrote:Hasnt the world become slightly better since the bronze age?
Better and worse are just assessments born of craving that wants to reach something. If there was no craving there would be no differentiation of good and bad. Then the things are just like they are.
We know that sentient life in the Bronze Age was characterised by Dukkha, Anicca, and Anatta. We can be pretty sure that any sentient life on earth in 2000 years time will be characterised by Dukkha, Anicca and Anatta. We can and should attempt to ameliorate the effects of Dukkha, but we aint going to fix it.


Didnt say we could but we can remove some Dukkha even if its just on the outward physical level
“The teacher willed that this world appear to me
as impermanent, unstable, insubstantial.
Mind, let me leap into the victor’s teaching,
carry me over the great flood, so hard to pass.”
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Rui Sousa
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Re: How Buddhism can help to prevent earth becoming extinct

Post by Rui Sousa »

Individual wrote:Although global warming is a serious problem, (...) Anyway, it's good to have a global cap and trade program to reduce emissions, but the Earth is going to continue to rise in temperature, climate will change, and we will simply have to adapt.(..)
I support renewable energies effort, having myself installed a solar water eating system last year, because it seems a reasonable thing to do, instead of relying on a polluting and limited resource like petrol. I think we humans should have less impact on our neighbours, and should pollute less.

But I believe that the sources that indicate that the planet's temperature has risen 0.7 Cº in the last century years are not reliable, as recent studies/events show:
A review of 90% of the 1200 US temperature stations (about 50 % of all stations) : http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress. ... ring09.pdf
UK Met Office claims that have lost original temperature data: http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=6789#comments
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DNS
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Re: How Buddhism can help to prevent earth becoming extinct

Post by DNS »

chownah wrote: .....and urine.
(see: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... .ch05.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ....I don't want to get banned on my first post!!!)
Hi chownah,

:hello:

Welcome to Dhamma Wheel!

Good to see you here. No banning here, especially for quoting ascetic practices. Some ascetic practices are considered okay.

"I do not say householder, that all asceticism should be practiced; nor do I say of all asceticism that it should not be practiced." (Anguttara Nikaya 10.94)
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