Buddhist Climate Project
350 TARGET:
Dalai Lama’s Endorsement;
background, letter, new developments
Economics of 350
BUDDHIST DECLARATION
ON CLIMATE CHANGE:
Read & Sign it
En Francais
THE BOOK:
Contributors, Overview,
Contents, Excerpts
TAKE ACTION:
Plant a Tree in the Sheltering Grove
THE THIRD POLE:
Climate Crisis in Tibet & China
Food, famine & climate change in India
Nepal, India, Bangaldesh:
Signs of Deadly Climate Change
MULTIMEDIA:
Our Slideshow
ANALAYSIS OF FIRST 5000
DECLARATION SIGNATORIES:
Signatories by Country
Signatories by Affiliation
Dharma Teacher/Scholar Signatories
Ecological Buddhism Blog
Declaration Progress & Key News Updates
Extreme Ice Survey
Seeing Is Believing
Photo Essay (click to watch)
Climate Change: One Planet One Chance
Slideshow (Powerpoint)
Plan B 3.0 - Mobilizing to Save Civilization
PDF (right click & save)
Climate Change, Biggest Global Health Threat of the 21st Century
Taking Action
to Reforest the Earth
The symbolism—and the substantive significance—of planting a tree has universal power in every culture and every society on Earth, and it is a way for individual men, women, and children to participate in creating solutions for the environmental crisis.
- Al Gore
Trees beautify our planet and are important symbols for all religions. They provide very many protective functions and services. Those include home and shelter for mammals, birds, insects, and other species—and shade. Trees prevent desertification, stabilize soil, and conserve water. They control avalanches and floods. They provide essential oils, gums, resins, syrups, and vital medicines. They yield fruit, nuts, timber, paper, and fodder. Trees carry out the crucial unseen work of carbon sequestration. In one year, a typical tree inhales twelve kilograms of carbon dioxide and exhales enough oxygen for a family for a year.
Planting a tree is something everyone can do—from school children to old people, in both rural and urban environments and in any nation. To plant a tree is empowering and effective. All major strategies proposed to draw down carbon dioxide and secure a safe-climate future include reforestation of the planet on an unprecedented scale.
The Sheltering Grove of Interdependence
The Buddhist Climate Project collected funds for a grove of 230 indigenous trees that will be planted in autumn 2010 by Trees For Life, in a new grove dedicated to the health, long life and spiritual activity of the Dalai Lama. It will be named after his own poem, The Sheltering Grove of Interdependence and located in the Dundreggan estate, Glen Moriston, as part of the restoration of the Caledonian Forest.
The forest originally covered 1.5 million hectares of the Scottish Highlands as a wilderness of Scots pine, birch, rowan, aspen, juniper and other trees. Today just 1% of it remains. Trees for Life (TFL) is dedicated to restoring the forest to a target area of 600 square miles. They own and manage the 10,000 acre Dundreggan Estate. Hundreds of volunteers join TFL annually in planting over 100,000 trees in protected areas, and carry out other restoration work such as seed collection and propagation of young trees and rare woodland plants. The work focuses on all parts of the ecosystem, from fungi and insects in the soil to large mammals such as wild boar and beavers, as they are all are essential to the whole. Because of the long-term vision and time frame for the project, and due to the remote locations involved, the 250 trees we have sponsored will grow indefinitely and will never be cut down. They will be there as part of a restored Caledonian Forest for many generations into the future, contributing to the healing of the Earth.