Download Posters 21-35 () - Dharma Action Network for Climate

Wanted!
A Different View
In our culture, most of us tend to feel an ongoing deep connection only to
those nearest to us — our immediate circle of family and friends. We find it
harder to sustain a sense of a wider human family and a connection to the
other species with whom we share the earth.
Could it be that this narrower view of who and what we are really
connected to is partly responsible for our current environmental crises?
Seeing ourselves as separate rather than as connected parts of a larger
whole isn't a fixed feature of human nature, although we may have come to
regard it as our natural state. Perhaps we can start instead to see ourselves
in a different way — intimately woven in to a miraculous and
interdependent web of life.
Viewing ourselves this way can change the very way we feel about
existence. It may empower us to find and play our unique role within the
wider community of Life, to serve something greater. In the coming years
and decades, this may be sorely needed.
Dare to see things differently!
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care
Wanted!
Compassion
Compassion is a beautiful quality of the human heart. At times it might not
be obvious, but we are all, by our very nature, deeply sensitive human
beings. We care about ourselves and given the right conditions we all care
deeply about others. We all know in ourselves this spontaneous
compassionate response to suffering and pain.
The ways we humans are changing the earth’s climate will likely, in the
coming years, involve us in unprecedented amounts of suffering. All too
easily and understandably we may close our hearts and minds, turn away,
go numb, deny, blame and judge.
Could it be that the challenges we are facing are a wake-up call for us to
develop, nourish and support our capacity for compassion ― a love that is
grounded in our conscious interconnectedness with all life? Could we start
to see every act, however big or small, as an expression of courageous
compassion, for the sake of Life on Earth?
“Love and compassion are necessities not luxuries. Without them humanity
cannot survive” (The Dalai Lama)
Will you dare to care?
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care
WE WANT YOU
Reveal your strength, bring out your skills,
show your powers, unleash your creativity,
imagine the impossible, live a life of
adventure and exciting challenges.
… these are times we need heroes and
heroines like you.
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
Missing!
Canadian Boreal Forest
Beneath a huge expanse of northern Alberta’s forests lie the Canadian tar sands the second largest oil deposit in the world. But this whole area – the Canadian
boreal region – is also the largest wetlands ecosystem in the world, serving as a
breeding ground for tens of millions of water birds and land birds, and supporting
a considerable diversity of plant species. Much of the region is being targeted by
oil companies, and if currently approved projects go ahead vast areas will be
strip-mined, and destroyed, replaced by a landscape of toxic lakes, open pit
mines, refineries, and pipe lines.
Both mining and processing of tar sands have devastating environmental impacts,
including massive emissions of global warming gases, destruction of wildlife
habitat, and impacts to air and water quality. In addition to producing fossil fuels
- which emit greenhouse gases - tar sands development is significantly more
energy intensive than conventional oil and gas development. Greenhouse gas
emissions from tar sands production are three times those of regular oil and gas
production, and producing synthetic crude oil this way emits up to 20% more
greenhouse gas emissions than low-sulfur, light crude oils.(www.sierraclub.org)
Not only this region, but the whole earth’s climate will suffer as a consequence.
What shall we do about it?
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care
LOST?
Summer
In the last 20 years, a trend towards more extreme rainfall events has been
observed around the world, particularly in countries such as India, Thailand
and Pakistan, and now in the UK.
2012 was the wettest year recorded in England and analysis by the Met
Office suggests that the UK may be getting increasingly wetter as climate
change causes warmer air to carry more water. Four of the five wettest
years on record have occurred in the last 12 years.
Government scientists have concluded that global warming is increasing the
risk of flooding in the UK, and that the trend to wetter weather may be
influenced by the shrinking of the Arctic ice cap.
We are changing the earth's climate.
What shall we do about it?
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care
LOST?
Food Security for Billions
Unless we take drastic action now to mitigate climate change the kinds of severe
heatwaves seen in America and Australia in 2012 and in Russia in 2011 will
become more frequent in coming years. Extreme heat is not good for crops and
current advances in agriculture are too slow to offset the expected damage to
crops from heat stress in the future.
Less abundant harvests will bring with them a sharp rise in food prices
jeopardizing the lives and futures of many of the most vulnerable people around
the world. Food price spikes are a matter of life and death to many people in
developing countries, who spend as much as 75 per cent of their income on food.
Currently 1 billion people in the world are going hungry. Without appropriate
action 2 billion people will not have enough to eat by 2050, as increasing
heatwaves reverse the rising crop yields seen over the last 50 years. Widespread
food shortages will also likely fuel more regional conflicts, further compounding
the suffering.
What would it mean for us to prioritise preventing this and creating a better
future instead?
Dare to care!
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care
Missing!
Arctic Ice
2012 was a year of record-breaking and extreme weather events in the
Arctic - a record loss of summer sea ice, a decline in spring snow, rising
temperatures in the permafrost in northern Alaska, and dramatic melting of
the surface of the Greenland ice sheet.
Some scientists have warned that such changes, particularly the signs of
thawing permafrost, could bring the planet much closer to a climate tipping
point than previously anticipated. Large-scale thawing of the permafrost the frozen soil that traps vast amounts of carbon - may already be
underway, releasing more of the gases that cause climate change.
The melting ice in Greenland has also added to global sea-level rise over
the last two decades. And over a four-day period in July 2012 the entire ice
sheet experienced melting so rapid it stunned and alarmed scientists.
Future melting is expected to add further to rising sea levels, significantly
increasing the risks of severe flooding and storm damage in densely
populated coastal regions, and inflicting suffering on millions of people.
We are not completely powerless.
What shall we do about it?
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care
LOST?
Dormouse
Native British species such as dormice are under pressure from warmer
weather. The UK's wildlife – from oak trees to newts – is already feeling the
effects of climate change. And the Environment Agency has warned that in
coming years rising temperatures and sea levels brought on by global
warming could have devastating effects on British wildlife from salmon to
wildfowl.
"There is a danger that we think of climate change as something that is
happening in other countries. But it's not just polar bears and rainforests
that are at risk. What we see in our rivers, gardens, seas and skies here in
the UK is already changing and delays in reducing harmful greenhouse gas
emissions will lead to more severe impacts." (Chairman, Environment
Agency)
Maybe we are more connected than we think. If we lose such wildlife
forever, we forever lose parts of ourselves. Let's act so that our children can
have a deep sense of home and delight in the wonders that surround us.
Dare to make a difference!
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care
Missing!
Rainforests
Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a
mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be
consumed in less than 40 years.
One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second.
Although the speed of forest clearance has recently slowed, data from NASA
suggests that the Amazon Rainforest may be showing the first signs of largescale degradation due to climate change.
Rainforests are the lungs of the planet. They act as significant absorbers
of carbon dioxide; and more than 20 percent of the earth's oxygen is
produced by the Amazon Rainforest alone. Massive deforestation releases
enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It brings with it
air and water pollution, soil erosion and malaria epidemics, as well as the
tragic eviction and decimation of indigenous Indian tribes. Fewer rainforests
also mean a huge loss of biodiversity through extinction of plant and animal
species, and a greatly increased threat from global warming.
What shall we do about it?
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care
Lost?
House-Sparrow
Not so many years ago, House-sparrows used to be a common sight in our
streets and gardens. But sparrow populations have declined over the last 25
years by more than fifty percent, and they now have been listed as one of
Britain’s endangered bird species.
The reason for the sparrow's decline remains a mystery. Although no direct
link with climate change has been proven yet, it seems to be connected
with a shortage of insects in summer, which may in turn be climate-related.
Other wonderful and once-common birds on the official list of dwindling
and threatened species include the starling and the cuckoo.
Maybe we lose more than we think when we lose these familiar birds and
animals. Maybe an increasingly impoverished natural environment will leave
humanity profoundly impoverished too. Maybe it is time to act.
What shall we do about it?
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care
Lost?
Cuckoo
For many of us the call of a cuckoo is synonymous with the arrival of spring.
But when did you last hear that wondrous and evocative call?
Since the mid-1990s a shocking 37% decline in cuckoos has been observed in
the UK, and the cuckoo's distinctive call is becoming an increasingly rare
springtime sound. Now the Cuckoo joins the official list of Britain's most
endangered species - a list that includes an increasing number of familiar
and once widespread birds, such as the house-sparrow and the starling.
While no direct link to climate change as a cause for the decline has yet
been proven, there are concerns that warming temperatures in Europe
mean migratory birds are losing their ecological advantage over birds that
spend the winters here.
Wouldn't it be terribly sad if the cuckoo became yet another species kept
alive only in our old tales and songs?
Concerted and dedicated responses to the climate crisis now can avert a
great deal of loss and tragedy.
Dare to care! Dare to act…
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care
Lost?
Mountain Gorilla
Aren't Gorillas some of the most powerful and striking animals?
They capture the human imagination not only with their size and force but
also with their gentle human-like behaviour. Gorillas have a well-developed
social structure and live in stable family groups. They play a crucial role in
local biodiversity too by spreading the seeds of the fruits they consume
while roaming through large territories
In addition to being hunted and killed for meat, Mountain Gorillas are also
illegally hunted for trophies and live infants.
One other major cause for their tragic decline is habitat loss. Forests are
rapidly being destroyed by commercial logging interests, road building and
agriculture.
Will wild Mountain Gorillas - like so many other iconic species – become a
legend of the past?
Mountain Gorillas are listed as Critically Endangered
along with thousands of other species of animals and plants
What are we going do to about it?
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to make a difference
Lost?
Tigers
Featuring significantly and so often in the myths, stories, songs and poems
of human kind, tigers are of great cultural importance to many peoples
across the globe. As a top predator, they are also essential to the proper
functioning of their entire ecosystem.
Apart from when a mother brings up her cubs, tigers live a mostly solitary
life, predominantly active during the night. And to be able to survive,
individual tigers need a large territory with dense vegetation and access to
water, where prey is in abundance.
The world’s tiger population, though, is at its lowest level ever, with
possibly as few as 3,200 tigers remaining in the wild.
We have lost 97% of our wild tigers in just over a century.
If the wild tiger population continues to decline at the current rate,
recovery may not be possible.
Perhaps we lose much more than we think when we lose these iconic and
magnificent creatures? Perhaps an earth utterly emptied of free-roaming
wild animals like the tiger will leave us all feeling somehow empty too —
profoundly impoverished, displaced. Perhaps it is time to act.
Endangered!
as well as thousands of other animal and plant species —
Want to do something about it?
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for opportunities to express your care
Job Vacancy
Job title :
Currently accepting applications for Climate Heroes and Heroines in your
local area, nationally and also internationally to combat climate change
and hopefully avert its worst effects.
No experience needed as you will learn on the job. Superhuman powers
helpful, but not necessary. Superhero outfits welcome...but not
supplied.
Strong applicants will possess some perhaps extraordinary source of
inspiration, optimism, stamina and creativity. (Kryptonite or something
similar would be great, if you have it. If not, maybe just your Big Love
and your sense of deep connection.)
Successful candidates will also possess: an unflinching gaze — capable of
holding steady and open hearts in the face of vast and unprecedented
destruction, suffering, sometimes wilful blindness, and much that is not
known;
an avid interest in questioning the prevailing views;
a courageous willingness to speak up, even when it may not be popular;
a futuristic and wider sense of ethics, embracing a care for those far
away, those not yet born, and non-human life;
a patient openness to engage others whose opinions differ;
a readiness, at least sometimes, to put the expressions of far-reaching
care before personal comfort, convenience and profit;
Hours: flexible
Salary: …Just the beauty of it all…
Your planet needs YOU!
Apply now!
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
Wanted
Courage
Because it affects almost everything else, the looming global environmental
crisis is probably the biggest issue presently facing humanity. Unless we
change our ways, individually and collectively, global warming is set to
bring unimaginable suffering to human beings all over the globe and mass
extinction of animal and plant species. Change is needed. But to bring
about this change we need courage:
 to face the reality of our predicament and to take responsibility;
 to consider the bigger picture, and how our personal choices and lifestyles may be causing harm to people living far away and to future
generations;
 to overcome any sense of powerlessness and futility, to hope, and to
get active, in big or small ways;
 to swim against the stream;
 to take a stand and to speak one's truth;
 to base our actions on the simple understanding that what we do to
the planet we do to ourselves;
 to see this crisis as an invitation to bring out the very best in us;
 to unashamedly declare our deep care for Life.
Maybe the world needs your courage
www.facebook.com/groups/DharmaActionNetworkforClimateEngagement
for different opportunities to express your care