Climate change means we must change our lifestyles. How can we enhance the quality of our lives without increasing the quantity of our stuff?
Did I miss a memo? COP26 finished just three weeks ago having presented a powerful message. Climate change spells serious trouble, but we have a chance if we fundamentally alter our economies and our lifestyles. Then, a week ago came Black Friday and our seasonal consumer binge got under way.
The contradiction’s glaring, but what can we do when the momentum of ‘business as usual’ is so powerful? Despite all the initiatives to reduce emissions, this week’s report by the Climate Change Committee, the government’s advisors, told us that, at current rates, UK emissions will contribute to a disastrous 2.7 degree temperature rise by 2100. Technology, renewables and retooling the economy are part of the solution, but many analysts tell us we must also reduce the sheer quantity of our consumption.
Did I miss a memo? COP26 finished just three weeks ago having presented a powerful message. Climate change spells serious trouble, but we have a chance if we fundamentally alter our economies and our lifestyles. Then, a week ago came Black Friday and our seasonal consumer binge got under way.
That’s a hard sell, politically and culturally. But, approaching this from a Buddhist perspective, perhaps we can reframe the issue. Yes, there’s too much consumption, but more fundamentally, there’s too little contentment. According to Buddhist teachings, craving is the ultimate cause of our suffering and therefore the source of over-consumption. But might there be an alternative, carbon-neutral and relatively craving-free kind of pleasure?
The turning point in the Buddha’s journey to Enlightenment, according to the traditional story, comes when he’s starved himself to free his spirit from the body. Then, as death hovers, he recalls a childhood experience. Sitting beneath a rose apple tree, a deep joy had spread through him: unforced, profoundly satisfying and entirely natural – a higher pleasure that didn’t bring attachment in its wake. The Buddha knew: this was the path he must follow.
Meditation’s one way to access this dimension, and many people are drawn to mindfulness not just for its therapeutic value but because it speaks to the unsatisfactoriness of our harried lives and our yearning for contentment.
That may not be for everyone. But the need to reduce consumption challenges us all to find alternatives that we can embrace wholeheartedly. Art, friendship and contact with the natural world all fit the bill, but this is an individual matter: finding things we love that enhance the quality of our lives without increasing the quantity of our stuff.
