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Dear Dharma friends.

I’m sending an urgent call from Dharma teacher Thanissara, with a shorter intro and sign up here. You can go right to Thanissara’s words as you wish, but below is an orientation that may be helpful.

May all manner of things be well,

Amma

A BUDDHIST CALL TO DECLARE CLIMATE EMERGENCY

This call (http://sacredmountainsangha.org/climate-emergency/) is authored by beloved teacher Thanissara–someone I have known for 30 years as she was the senior nun at Amaravati I felt most connected to when I arrived there in 1989. She is a Buddhist Minister, fierce climate activist, and author of Time to Stand Up: an Engaged Buddhist Manifesto for Our Earth.

Why declare a climate emergency now? Ever since the gigantic wakeup call of the UN’s IPCC report (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), climate activism has blossomed like never before. After hearing the world’s leading climate scientists warn that we have less time than previously thought, only 12 years, to limit extreme climate-change catastrophe, citizen activism around the world has soared:

• the rise of Extinction Rebellion – their call to Declare Climate Emergencyhas spread to cities and local governments around the world.
• in the U.S. the Green New Deal resolution, introduced by new congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, aims to catalyze WWII level mobilization to address climate catastrophe.
• children from more than 100 countries worldwide have joined the School Strike for Climate, walking out of class to demand climate action each Friday for 30 weeks now.

Thanissara invites us to join together in practice and mutual support to truthfully acknowledge our state of crisis, and to mend our broken hearts together so that we can take wise and compassionate action, individually and in worldwide community, for the protection of the earth and all beings. Her call is based on Extinction Rebellion’s campaign to “Declare Climate Emergency” which has been taken up by cities and local governments around the world.

She provides a storehouse of links at the end to help you assess the climate situation for yourself, to familiarize you with inspiring climate allies and leaders worldwide, to help you consider your own potential for carbon reduction, and to connect you with other mutually-supportive and engaged citizens.

Please join us to Declare Climate Emergency and sign up to keep in touch.