Three Spiritual Tools Responding to Climate Crisis

The climate crisis:  it’s real.  If you weren’t convinced before, perhaps this summer helped you to realize that Earth is in trouble.  In this video, I’m exploring three ways that we can draw on our spiritual resources for the good of the planet as climate change becomes more pronounced. Join me in thinking about these important issues.

The following is a text version of this blog.

It’s been a hot summer.  Not only has it been hot, but throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, there have been devastating fires. Catastrophic storms of various types have increased.  While we’ve known of melting polar ice for years, that has seemed distant to us.  But the day-to-day heat and humidity make it difficult to deny that the climate is changing. 

What role does spirituality play in what the Secretary General of the United Nations calls a climate crisis?  Is spirituality just about going into our own comfort zone in the face of this collective suicide? Are there ways for spirituality to be foundational in our response to the climate crisis?

People living in the global north are now beginning to realize that climate change is serious. We can’t air condition our way out of it.  People in the global south have already known this.  It’s not just that they don’t have air conditioning at the levels found in the US, but regions of the world are becoming uninhabitable.  Island nations are losing their land to rising oceans.  The number of climate refugees in the world is increasing along with illness and death due to climate-related illnesses. 

As I talk with close friends about this, we agree:  the political will doesn’t exist to make changes in the US.  Too many elected officials are influenced by the fossil fuel industries as well as religious conservatives who deny climate change, even when we are all experiencing it. In the face of such obstruction, spirituality is critically important.

First, a essential key to spirituality is hope.  I understand hope itself as a spiritual practice. The practice of hope teaches us to greet each day as a gift, with a promise of goodness.  Hope doesn’t deny the realities of life.  Instead, hope empowers us to resist the temptation to be jaded and to look for creative possibilities.  Hope is key as we face the climate crisis.

Second, compassion is a bedrock of spiritual practice.  Whether it’s the teaching of Jesus to love your neighbor or the Tibetan Buddhist practice of holding oneself and all living things in compassion, or the Muslim practice of charity that is deeply tied to the Islamic faith, having compassion keeps us mindful that we are all moving forward in life together.  On the journey forward, some of us need help and encouragement while others of us can provide greater support.  That’s true both individually and among nations.  Compassion compels us to work together.

Third, authentic spirituality isn’t about escapism.  It’s not about being secure in my own comfort zone.  Instead, spirituality is the energy of life flowing through us and all living things that brings us connection.  Spirituality softens our hearts and opens them to strive for justice for others.  Authentic spirituality leads us to act.

Now, in this climate crisis, it is our time to act.  Yes, it is overwhelming.  I can’t tell you what you should do.  But look around in your area for others who are working to protect the environment. Perhaps donate to national or international organizations.  Perhaps write letters to elected officials.  Perhaps talk to others about your concerns.  If you have a yard, plant a tree or some environmentally appropriate shrub that will support biodiversity.  We all need to be part of the change.

It’s not as though people haven’t experienced insurmountable challenges before.  Humanity has faced incredible challenges and found positive ways forward.  In this regard, perhaps the young girl in hiding with her family to avoid capture by the Nazis said it most clearly in her diary. Here are words of Anne Frank, as she addressed about insurmountable challenges in life: “How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment, we can start now, start slowly changing the world! How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make their contribution toward introducing justice straightaway. … And you can always, always give something…”

Yes, all of us can always give something to restore balance in the world.  Our lives on this planet depend on it.  Doing whatever we each can do to advocate for the environment is responding to the deep spirit that enlivens us all.  It is spirituality in action.