Dan Coleman
During a recent discussion of environmental politics in Carrboro, a friend directed me to a video of a conversation between Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh and environmental activist and Right Livelihood Award-winner David Suzuki. Their topic was mindfulness, climate change and how to bring about “the collective public awakening needed to restore health to the planet.†(Watch it at vimeo.com/27873038.)
The conversation began with a quote by Paul Mazer of Lehman Brothers, who advised business leaders in 1930 that, “People need to be trained to desire, to want new things even before the old have been entirely consumed. … Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.”
This elevation of desire over need is at the root of many of our environmental challenges. It leads us to consume 150 percent of planet Earth’s regenerative capacity every year. Contemplate that number. If your household spent one and a half times its income each year, how long could it survive?
Much of the conversation centered around climate change and Suzuki’s point that while scientists are virtually unanimous in agreement about human impact on global climate, they have been surprised by the pace at which those impacts are appearing. As he put it, “Never before has humanity been so powerful as to be a geological force. … There is a crunch coming.â€
Nhat Hanh offered a somber note of his own, pointing out that civilizations have failed in the past and that ours might do so as well. Suzuki added that it is commonplace in natural history for species to become extinct (it is estimated that 99.9 percent of all species that have ever existed are now extinct).
Acknowledging that the above topics are pretty much a bummer (not his word), Nhat Hanh talked about how to overcome despair, and suggested personal, spiritual transformation and community building as profoundly effective tools.
Recasting Mazer’s point on expanding desire, Nhat Hanh explained that “there are good desires, like the desire to love, to protect, to serve, the desire to be loved, the desire to understand … desires if fulfilled you become a happier person … you cannot set a limit to that kind of desire.â€
To elevate those desires above the materialism of modern society requires that we “look deeply, gain insight, and with insight you are freed of anger and despair and you are a better worker for the environment.â€
Nhat Hanh enjoins the environmentally concerned to “organize a community where you live in such a way that shows that there is a future for mankind, where you live simply but happily … this is very healing, healing this way is not possible without a hopeful environment, building community must include a hopeful environment.â€
So much of this already takes place in Carrboro in the preservation efforts of Friends of Bolin Creek, the runs organized by Fleet Feet, the community-based work of PORCH, the various community gardens or the always-inspiring urban farm tour. Our farmers’ market anchors one of the nation’s leading farm-to-table success stories, as plentiful local food becomes the cornerstone of our commitment to a vibrant local economy.
Nhat Hanh says we need communities that “can inspire hope,†places where “if people come to the city and see community, they have confidence, they have hope in the future.†Carrboro is such a community.
Nonetheless, in Carrboro we understand that we are tied to a destructive global economy and that “restoring health to the planet†will require that countless like-minded communities join in. A great thing about our town is that we are not content to rest on our laurels, and continually seek new opportunities for more sustainable and resilient living. As we do so, let us not forget those nonmaterial desires whose fulfillment, Nhat Hahn reminds us, will make us happier people and more effective activists and citizens.
Dan Coleman is a member of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.