In his message to the Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama said that tackling climate change requires realistic action based on scientific understanding.
“Today we need to talk about the future not by praying out of fear but by taking realistic action based on scientific understanding. The living beings on our planet are more dependent on each other than ever before. Everything we do affects humans as well as innumerable animal and plant species.
“We must solve climate change issues cooperatively globally for the benefit of everyone,” he said. But we should also do whatever we can on a personal level. Even small daily tasks like how we use water and how we dispose of things we don’t need have an impact. We should make taking care of our natural environment a part of our daily lives and learn from what science has taught us.
The Dalai Lama said he was glad to see that younger generations are calling for concrete action on climate change, which gives some hope for the future. He said the efforts of young activists like Greta Thunberg to raise awareness of the need to listen to science and act accordingly. His stand is realistic, we should inspire him.
“Global warming is an urgent reality,” he said. None of us can change what has happened but we can all contribute for a better future. We certainly have a responsibility to ourselves and to the more than seven billion human beings alive today to ensure that we can all live in a peaceful and secure environment.
“With hope and determination, we must look after our own lives and those of all our neighbours,” he said.
The Dalai Lama said that apart from the North and South Poles, the Tibetan Plateau, the largest reservoir of ice, is called the “Third Pole”. “Tibet is the source of some of the world’s major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, the Ganges, the Indus, the Mekong, the Salween, the Yellow River and the Yangtze. These rivers are a source of life as they provide potable water, irrigation water for agriculture and hydropower for nearly two billion people in Asia.
“The threat of global warming and climate change is not confined within national boundaries, it affects all of us,” he said. As we face this crisis together, it is imperative that we act in a united and cooperative spirit to limit its repercussions. I hope and pray that our leaders muster up the strength to take collective action to deal with this emergency and set a deadline for change. We have to take steps to make the world safer, greener, happier.
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