The Dalai Lama - 'Take Individual Responsibility'

[Sujatin]

Would you like to comment on this quotation by the Dalai Lama? What steps are you taking to safeguard the environment? All suggestions warmly - or global coolly - invited:

"Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities, and so on. When we feel love and kindness towards others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. And there are ways in which we can consciously work to develop feelings of love and kindness. For some of us, the most effective way to do so is through religious practice. For others it may be non-religious practices. What is important is that we each make a sincere effort to take seriously our responsibility for each other and for the natural environment."
~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “Nobel Peace Prize Lecture,” in The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness, edited by Sidney Piburn

[Sujatin]

Here's one from me:
Showers use about 2 gallons of water per minute. When I was first at Amida France a few years ago (where one was very conscious of water consumption), apart from cutting down the number of showers I took - a big challenge to me, I would turn the shower on for a few second until I was thoroughly wet, turn it off, apply shampoo and shower gel, spending about 3 or 4 minutes to massage scalp/hair and rubbing body, and then just turn the shower on again for as long as it took to rinse, thus saving water and electricity.

[Stephanie]

I lived in Spain for 2 years and my house had no electricity or mains water. It was quite a challenge, a man with a truck delivered my water which was stored in a big tank, then using a small generator I could power a pump to get it to the bathroom. I put buckets of water in the sun to heat up. It really made me think about how much I used. Every bowl of washing up water, or clothes washing water etc I saved to flush the loo. Since coming back to the UK and all mod cons it is too easy to get back to being wasteful.

[Emma]

It is very easy to put the blame for all our green issues and its consequences onto each other, and completely miss our own opportunities to help the world, but also we have to take into account that what is happening to the world is also part of a natural process, that occurs every few hundred thousand years and there are no records from times past as to how the fast or slow polar caps melted or how quick the last onslaught of ice age came about or indeed how it came about.
True we have discoverd that alot of "man made" activity hasnt helped our planets decelenisation into what appears to be an oncomming ice age. But can we completely blame ourselves?
Massive corporations produce billions of co2 carbon emissions more than a standard home that is fitted with all the mod cons of insulation and double glazing, yes we all use energy, but some of us have no choice but to use what we have been given.
Look at social tenants.. their homes are single glazed, wooden doors and the best they can hope for is a bit of loft insulation and possibly cavity wall insulation. Under no circumstances are they allowed to go and change anything in fear of loosing their tenancies and ending up in a far worse situation with sub standard accomadation being the only affordable means. Or they cant afford to, which is the main reasons why people opt to take on social housing, although they may be a bit better than some of these private accomadations, their ability to control what work is done is dictated by finance available to local councils in order to carry out the required work necessary.

I have lived in these sub standard accomadations and know they waste more energy that could feul a small city, they are always cold, damp and very often the only way to keep warm is to burn gas heaters and use as much electricity keeping heaters on even in summer conditions.
So whilst people are still living in degraded environments can we really make it better for the world, when it is down to their landlords and housing associations.
As it happens there is a requirement that all council and housing association homes have to be brought up to the european standards by 2012, but often work is being done very slowly or it is negligable. It may be that the targets may not be met by the required time, and even if it is will it be too late?

Also the burning of fossil feuls is often the only way people can heat their homes, as it stands alot of industry is also still run by burning of fossil feuls in such huge quantities, which would equate to 10 billion homes, whether for the production of electricity, or just in general.
As for the use of public transport, there are alot of people without such an opportunity as they are not served by regular busses or have train stations near to just hop onto a train.
I happen to live in such an area myself, the bus timetable is scarce, about 3 times a week and my nearest train station happens to be 38 miles away. This necessitates the use of a car due to the remoteness of such communities.
So it is ok to say that people should take into their own hands about being greener, but it also depends entirely as to what is whithin their own power to change or not.
City living being alot easier to dictate the circumstances , whereas rural areas are slower to respond to such green issues or are unable to.