Full Catastrophe Ethics
Original source: satipanya.org.uk
Noirin Sheahan examines how to respond skillfully to the overwhelming reality of climate change and potential social collapse. Drawing from a bioethics paper endorsed by Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy, she presents six ethical maxims for navigating environmental crisis: grasping the immensity of what's coming, cultivating radical hope beyond optimism, maintaining ethical boundaries, appreciating this unique historical moment, training body and mind for resilience, and acting for future generations of all species. The essay explores how common reactions to climate news—anxiety, rage, numbness, despair—can be transformed through these practices. Sheahan connects each maxim to the potential for deeper Dhamma practice, suggesting that climate collapse presents both unprecedented challenge and spiritual opportunity. She emphasizes how Buddhist principles of interconnectedness, non-attachment, and compassionate action provide essential resources when external securities fail. The essay concludes with an invitation to explore how these maxims align with Buddhist teachings and can be integrated into meditation and daily life practice, offering a framework for maintaining integrity and purpose amid civilizational uncertainty.
Full Catastrophe Ethics.
How do you react to news of climate change and forecasts of ice-caps melting, cities
flooding or burning, widespread drought and famine, breakdown of essential services
like water and electricity, hundreds of millions of refugees seeking homes in
temperate regions like ours? Do you shrink into a ball of anxiety and disbelief?
Weep? Pound your fists in frustration and rage? Numb out? Feel totally out of your
depth and inadequate? Trust the scientists to find a way out?
Any or all of these happen for me depending on circumstances. Afterwards I might be
prompted to read some relevant articles, sign a petition, donate to an environmental
cause, re-commit to living sustainably, toy with the possibility of learning basic
survival skills. Then I’ll turn back to more immediate concerns. Till the next
depressing news bulletin.
The ‘out of my depth and inadequate’ feeling I find particularly troublesome. It begs
so many questions. Surely there is something I can do to help myself face what might
be coming down the tracks?
I was relieved and grateful therefore to come across a bioethics paper suggesting
ethical maxims that we can practice to help us face the environmental and social
disaster that the authors see coming as soon as 2031 – only nine years away!!!
The paperi was publicized in a recent Zoom event featuring Joanna Macey, the
renowned author, climate activist and Buddhist scholar in conversation with the
authors of the paper. She enthusiastically endorsed their suggestion to prepare
ourselves so as to behave with as much integrity as possible in the face of
environmental and social breakdown. Here’s a brief summary of their suggested
maxims:
Work Hard to Grasp the Immensity. The possibility of environmental and
subsequent social collapse is inconceivable for most of us. We enter a fog where we
no longer know how to think, where right and wrong become meaningless. And yet
that incomprehension may be a necessary steppingstone to the next maxim.
Cultivate Radical Hope. This not based on optimism that some solution can be found
to restore the social security we now enjoy. Having worked through grief and anger
and a depth of despair, hope takes the form of faith that some values are worth
preserving to the end - kindness, not abandoning people, behaving with integrity.
Radical hope sees openings for positive action, finds gaps in the gloom.
Have a Line in the Sand. Know that there are some things you will not do, some
actions you will not embrace. Be prepared to die rather than cross your red line.
Appreciate the Astonishing and Unique Opportunity. Acknowledge what an
extraordinary transition is coming for humanity and the biosphere. Appreciate what
is vanishing before your eyes, be glad for every blade of grass that is still green, every
tree still standing. Practice gratitude for being alive now, able to breathe now.
Train Your Body and Your Mind. Develop the capacity to deal with despair. Learn
skills for getting beyond the limits of ego. Climate collapse will bring widespread
physical, psychological, and spiritual trauma. As our physical and social resources
shrink, our mental and spiritual resources will become ever more valuable to ensure
human survival and flourishing.
Act for the Future Generations of All Species. Think beyond yourself and your
immediate circle. Act for the benefit of the poor, future generations, other species,
forests, seas and mountains. Act, personally and politically, to limit the damage -
every 0.5° C increase avoided will save millions of lives, species, resources. We are all
in this together, interconnected, a multiplex unity.
The authors of the paper aren’t proposing these maxims as absolutes, but as a bare
beginning that will provoke discussion. Personally I feel very grateful to have this
skeleton upon which I can begin to take on board the spiritual challenge that is to
come.
Over the coming months I hope to examine each maxim in more depth, see how it
ties in with the Dhamma, see how we could put the maxim into practice in our
meditation and daily life. I hope to be back with a series of tips on the subject and if
any of you would like to practice alongside me on this, please get in touch.
i https://media2-production.mightynetworks.com/asset/39337730/Schenck_-_Ethical_Maxims.pdf