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The Spiritual Dimensions of Climate Change: Seeking Environmental Harmony in China

The Spiritual Dimensions of Climate Change: Seeking Environmental Harmony in China

Last updated on: May 11, 2015 at 8:26 pm by Philip Clayton

The Spiritual Dimensions of Climate Change: Seeking Environmental Harmony in China 2015-05-11T20:26:18+00:00 Philip Clayton

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If you measure per person, Canada and the United States have long had the dubious distinction of leading the world in per capita climate-change-causing emissions. If you measure by country, however, China surpassed America as the world’s leading contributor to global warming in 2006.[i] By 2011, it was producing 10.6 billion metric tons of CO2e, which, along with the 6.6 billion produced by the U.S., made up more than half of the world’s global greenhouse emissions.[ii]

The result: extensive smog often smothers China’s most heavily populated cities. Its rates of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases have skyrocketed; more than 5,000 Chinese species are now threatened[iii]; and China’s eco-problems are affecting their neighbors as well. In general terms, this is global warming; more specifically, it means extra pollution traveling the wind currents to places as far away as Los Angeles.

According to Sheri Liao, the most important environmentalist you’ve likely never heard of, there are spiritual as well as technological reasons for this alarming state of affairs. Liao is the subject of this, the fourth of my Pando Populus posts highlighting some of the exceptional people and multidisciplinary issues involved in our June 4-7 global conference for the planet.

By the mid-1990s, pollution problems caused by rapid modernization were already becoming glaringly apparent in Beijing. So Liao, a visiting environmental scholar at the University of North Carolina, decided to give up her cushy academic position and return home to do something about it. She had seen how American non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could create change, so she decided to try some of their techniques in China. Thus was born the Global Village of Beijing (GVB). Its aim: to create uniquely Chinese solutions to her country’s environmental problems.

Generally, NGOs outside the Communist Party are viewed with suspicion, but Liao is known for her good will, diplomatic savvy, networking connections, and prudence. Thanks to her skill, her work through GVB has paid off tremendously in terms of public policy changes and Party support.

From the beginning, GVB has been highly visible in the Chinese media, producing documentaries that run on national channels, radio programs, publications, and the like. They also focus on outreach to communities through forums, children’s campaigns, lectures, recycling campaigns, and conservation training for farmers and others.

With considerable public support, GVB introduced car-less days in Beijing, and the ”26 Degree Campaign,” which encourages businesses and the public to set their air conditioners no lower than 78.8 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius) in the summer. Since air conditioners are responsible for about 50 percent of China’s summer energy consumption, this simple measure has resulted in huge levels of energy savings.

GVB’s most important outreach, however, is philosophical. China will not succeed in addressing the worst of its pollution problems until it returns to its ancient traditions of harmony, says Liao. According to her, in their rush to embrace a consumer-driven lifestyle, the Chinese have forgotten their history “Science and democracy alone are not enough,” she told E Magazine.[iv] “We also need harmony—between individuals, between society and nature, between the body and mind, inside and out.” With inner balance, she says, people will forgo consumerism and take care of what’s really important.

Although consumerism and rapid modernization continue to exert a major influence in China, Liao’s message of harmony is resonating as well. There’s a reason for that. When Time Magazine highlighted Sheri Liao as a “Hero of the Environment” in 2009, it said, “In China’s tricky political landscape, those who walk a prudent line often travel farthest.”[v]

Liao often says, “Chinese issues are the world’s issues.” We couldn’t agree more. Americans have much to learn from Liao’s message of spiritual and environmental harmony, and we’re privileged and excited to have her as the speaker for the final evening plenary at “Seizing an Alternative: Toward a More Ecological Civilization.”

She joins two of the world’s other top environmentalists in a series of ground-breaking (and free) public events in Bridges Auditorium at Pomona College, Claremont, Calif. They begin at 7pm Thursday, June 4, with Bill McKibben, followed by Vandana Shiva on Friday, June 5, and Sheri Liao on Saturday, June 6. Our friends from Homebrewed Christianity, Tripp Fuller and Bo Saunders, will be hosting a live podcast from the conference after Liao’s talk, with special guests to be announced.

Register now to join Sheri, Bill, Vandana, Tripp, Bo, and almost other 1,000 innovative leaders who care about the Earth at “Seizing an Alternative” this June. Thanks to a generous donor, scholarships are available so that students may now attend free.

Next Up: My good friend Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution, writes a guest column on the sacred side of science, where he looks at evidence as a kind of modern-day Scripture, and ecology as theology.

References

[i] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/business/worldbusiness/20iht-emit.1.6227564.html?_r=0

[ii]http://www.wri.org/blog/2014/11/6-graphs-explain-world%E2%80%99s-top-10-emitters

[iii]http://www.emagazine.com/daily-news-archive/commentary-sheri-liao-chinas-green-fighter

[iv] ibid.

[v]http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1924149_1924155_1924436,00.html

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