An Assessment of Climate Engineering from a Buddhist Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.34831Keywords:
Buddhist perspective on mankind’s relationship with nature, Buddhism and environmental conservation, Buddhist ethics applied to climate engineering, interdependence and karma in the environmental contextAbstract
This article expounds a Buddhist perspective on the rapidly emerging topic of Climate Engineering, i.e. the deliberate, large-scale manipulation of the environment as a proposed means to counteract anthropogenic climate change or some of its specific aspects like global mean temperature increase. It sets the stage with two orthogonal aspects: an overview of the topic of Climate Engineering, and a broader analysis of the Buddhist perspective on mankind’s relationship with nature. Linking these together, we show that as one of the world’s major faiths, Buddhism can provide valuable insights and perspectives for the evolving global discourse on Climate Engineering methods, and that it advocates some basic requirements concerning their further development and possible future deployment.
References
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The Royal Society. 2009. Geoengineering the Climate, Science, Governance and Uncertainty (London: The Royal Society).
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Schäfer, Stefan, et al. 2015. The European Transdisciplinary Assessment of Climate Engineering (EuTRACE): Removing Greenhouse Gases from the Atmosphere and Re?ecting Sunlight away from Earth (Funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement 306993).
Schmithausen, Lambert. 1997. ‘The Early Buddhist Tradition and Ecological Ethics’, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 4: 1-74.
Schmithausen, Lambert. 2009. Plants in Early Buddhism and the Far Eastern Idea of Buddha-Nature of Grasses and Trees (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag).
Shepherd, John G., et al. 2009. Geoengineering the Climate: Science, Governance and Uncertainty (London: The Royal Society).
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Stanley, John, David R. Loy, and Gyurme Dorje (eds.). 2009. A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency (Boston: Wisdom Publications).
Steffen, Will, Paul J. Crutzen, and John R. McNeill. 2007. ‘The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?’, Ambio 36.8: 614-21. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:TAAHNO]2.0.CO;2.
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Swearer, Donald K. 2006. ‘An Assessment of Buddhist Eco-Philosophy’, Harvard Theological Review 99.2: 123-37. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816006001179.
Thanissaro, Bhikkhu. 2001. The Buddhist Monastic Code II: The Khandhaka Rules Translated and Explained by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff). Online: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/bmc2.pdf.
Thich Nhat Hahn. 1992. The Sun in My Heart: From Mindfulness to Insight Contemplation (London: Rider & Co.).
Thich Nhat Hahn. 2008. The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology (Berkeley: Parallax Press).
Tucker, Mary E., and Duncan R. Williams (eds.). 1998. Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds (Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press).
Vaughan, Naomi E., and Timothy M. Lenton. 2011. ‘A Review of Climate Geoengineering Proposals’, Climate Change 109.3-4: 745-90. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0027-7.
Von Brück, Michael. 2007. Einführung in den Buddhismus (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag).
Von Weizsacker, U. Ernst, and Daisaku Ikeda. 2016. Knowing Our Worth: Conversations on Energy and Sustainability (Cambridge: Ikeda Center).
Waldau, Paul. 2000. ‘Buddhism and Animal Rights’, in D. Kewon (ed.), Contemporary Buddhist Ethics (London: Routledge Curzon Press): 81-112.
Walshe, Maurice. 1987. Thus Have I Heard: The Long Discourses of the Buddha, D?gha Nika4ya (London: Wisdom Publications).
Watson, Gay. 2014. A Philosophy of Emptiness (London: Reaktion Books).
Williams, Paul. 2008. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (London: Routledge Curzon Press, 2nd edn).
Zenger, Erich. 1986. Gott der Bibel: Sachbuch zu den Anfängen des alttestamentlichen Gottesglaubens (Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk).
Bodhi, Bhikkhu. 2012. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the An9guttara Nika4ya (Boston: Wisdom Publications).
Bodhi, Bhikkhu. 2013. Buddhism and the Environment. Online: https://easternreligions.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/ven-bhikkhu-bodhi-buddhism-and-the-environment/.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu, Rewata Dhamma, and U. Silananda. 1993. A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma (Onalaska: Pariyatti Publishing)
Bodle, Ralph, Lena Donat, and Matthias Duwe. 2016. ‘The Paris Agreement: Rebooting Climate Cooperation—The Paris Agreement: Analysis, Assessment and Outlook’, Carbon and Climate Law Review 10.1: 5-22.
Daniels, Peter L. 2010a. ‘Climate Change, Economics and Buddhism, Part I: An Integrated Environmental Analysis Framework’, Ecological Economics 69.5: 952-61. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.12.002.
Daniels, Peter L. 2010b. ‘Climate Change, Economics and Buddhism—Part II: New Views and Practices for Sustainable World Economics’, Ecological Economics 69.5: 962-72. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.01.012.
Dalai Lama. 2017. ‘Caring for the Earth’, in H.H. Dalai Lama, Environment—Collected Statements 1997–2017 (Dharamsala: The Tibet Policy Institute): 36-37.
Daw Mya Tin (trans). 1993. The Dammapada (Yangon, Myanmar: Department for the Promotion and Propagation of the Sa"sana").
Eckel, Malcom D. 1998. ‘Is There a Buddhist Philosophy of Nature?’, in R.S. Cohens and A.I. Tauber (eds.), Philosophies of Nature: The Human Dimension (Berlin: Springer Verlag): 53-69. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2614-6_5.
Falkner, Robert. 2016. ‘The Paris Agreement and the New Logic of International Climate Politics’, International Affairs 92.6: 1107-125. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12708.
Fuss, Sabine, et al. 2014. ‘Betting in Negative Emissions’, Nature Climate Change 4.10: 850-53. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2392.
German Advisory Council on Global Change (WGBU). 2014. Climate Protection as a World Citizen Movement (Berlin: WBGU Berlin).
Gombrich, Richard. 1998. Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (London: Routledge).
Gombrich, Richard. 2009. What the Buddha Thought (London: Equinox Publishing).
Harris, Ian. 1997. ‘Getting to Grips with Buddhist Environmentalism: A Provisional Typology’, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 2: 173-90.
Harris, Ian. 2000. ‘Buddhism and Ecology’, in D. Keown (ed.), Contemporary Buddhist Ethics (London: Routledge Curzon Press): 113-36.
Harvey, Peter. 2000. An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800801.
Harvey, Peter. 2013. An Introduction to Buddhism—Teaching, History, and Practices (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Ikeda, Daisaku. 2012. For a Sustainable Global Society: Learning for Empowerment and Leadership. Online: http://www.sgi.org/sgi-president/proposals/.
IPCC. 2013. Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis: Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
IPCC. 2014a. Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
IPCC. 2014b. Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change: Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Jerryson, Michael 2017. ‘Buddhism, Con?ict, and Peace Building’, in Michael Jerryson (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 546-64.
Kaza, Stephanie. 2014. ‘Buddhist Contributions to Climate Response’, The Journal of Oriental Studies 24: 73-92.
Kaza, Stephanie, and Kenneth Kraft (eds). 2000. Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism (Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications).
Keown, Damien. 2000a. Buddhist and Bioethics (London: Routledge).
Keown, Damien. 2000b. Contemporary Buddhist Ethics (London: Routledge).
Keown, Damien. 2005. Buddhist Ethics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780192804570.001.0001.
Keown, Damien. 2009. Encyclopedia of Buddhism (London: Routledge).
Lenton, Tim M., and Nem E. Vaughan. 2009. ‘The Radiative Forcing Potential of Different Climate Geoengineering Options’, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 9.15: 5539-61. Doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-5539-2009.
Markus, Till, and Harald Ginzky. 2011. ‘Climate Engineering: Paradigmatic Aspects of the Regulation of Ocean Fertilization’, Carbon and Climate Law Review 5.4: 477-90. Doi: https://doi.org/10.21552/CCLR/2011/4/197.
McNutt, Marcia K., et al. 2015a. Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable Sequestration (Washington, DC: National Research Council of the National Academies).
McNutt, Marcia K., et al. 2015b. Climate Intervention: Re?ecting Sunlight to Cool Earth (Washington, DC: Research Council of the National Academies).
Oldham, Paul, et al. 2014. ‘Mapping the Landscape of Climate Engineering’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 372.2031: 20140065.
Rayner, Steve, and Elizabeth L. Malone. 1997. ‘Zen and the Art of Climate Maintenance’, Nature 390: 332-34. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/36975.
Rickels, Wilfried, et al. 2001. Large-Scale Intentional Interventions into the Climate System? Assessing the Climate Engineering Debate: Scoping Report Conducted on Behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Kiel: Kiel Earth Institute).
The Royal Society. 2009. Geoengineering the Climate, Science, Governance and Uncertainty (London: The Royal Society).
Sahni, Pragati. 2008. Environmental Ethics in Buddhism: A Virtues Approach (London: Routledge Curzon Press).
Schäfer, Stefan, et al. 2015. The European Transdisciplinary Assessment of Climate Engineering (EuTRACE): Removing Greenhouse Gases from the Atmosphere and Re?ecting Sunlight away from Earth (Funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement 306993).
Schmithausen, Lambert. 1997. ‘The Early Buddhist Tradition and Ecological Ethics’, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 4: 1-74.
Schmithausen, Lambert. 2009. Plants in Early Buddhism and the Far Eastern Idea of Buddha-Nature of Grasses and Trees (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag).
Shepherd, John G., et al. 2009. Geoengineering the Climate: Science, Governance and Uncertainty (London: The Royal Society).
Spash, Clive L. 2016. ‘This Changes Nothing: The Paris Agreement to Ignore Reality’, Globalizations 13.6: 928-33. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2016.1161119.
Stanley, John, David R. Loy, and Gyurme Dorje (eds.). 2009. A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency (Boston: Wisdom Publications).
Steffen, Will, Paul J. Crutzen, and John R. McNeill. 2007. ‘The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?’, Ambio 36.8: 614-21. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:TAAHNO]2.0.CO;2.
Streck, Charlotte, Paul Keenlyside, and Moritz von Unger. 2016. ‘The Paris Agreement: A New Beginning’, Journal for European Environmental & Planning Law 13: 3-29. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/18760104-01301002.
Swearer, Donald K. 2006. ‘An Assessment of Buddhist Eco-Philosophy’, Harvard Theological Review 99.2: 123-37. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816006001179.
Thanissaro, Bhikkhu. 2001. The Buddhist Monastic Code II: The Khandhaka Rules Translated and Explained by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff). Online: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/bmc2.pdf.
Thich Nhat Hahn. 1992. The Sun in My Heart: From Mindfulness to Insight Contemplation (London: Rider & Co.).
Thich Nhat Hahn. 2008. The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology (Berkeley: Parallax Press).
Tucker, Mary E., and Duncan R. Williams (eds.). 1998. Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds (Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press).
Vaughan, Naomi E., and Timothy M. Lenton. 2011. ‘A Review of Climate Geoengineering Proposals’, Climate Change 109.3-4: 745-90. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0027-7.
Von Brück, Michael. 2007. Einführung in den Buddhismus (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag).
Von Weizsacker, U. Ernst, and Daisaku Ikeda. 2016. Knowing Our Worth: Conversations on Energy and Sustainability (Cambridge: Ikeda Center).
Waldau, Paul. 2000. ‘Buddhism and Animal Rights’, in D. Kewon (ed.), Contemporary Buddhist Ethics (London: Routledge Curzon Press): 81-112.
Walshe, Maurice. 1987. Thus Have I Heard: The Long Discourses of the Buddha, D?gha Nika4ya (London: Wisdom Publications).
Watson, Gay. 2014. A Philosophy of Emptiness (London: Reaktion Books).
Williams, Paul. 2008. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (London: Routledge Curzon Press, 2nd edn).
Zenger, Erich. 1986. Gott der Bibel: Sachbuch zu den Anfängen des alttestamentlichen Gottesglaubens (Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk).
Published
2018-06-07
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Markus, T., Vivekānanda, B., & Lawrence, M. (2018). An Assessment of Climate Engineering from a Buddhist Perspective. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 12(1), 8-33. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.34831
