Dharamshala, 22nd April: Today at his residence in Dharamshala, his holiness the Dalai Lama gives an audience to the participants of the dialogue for our future: A call to climate action. One of the participants was Sonam Wangchuk, a Ladakhi climate change activist and educator, who brought glacier ice from Ladakh’s Khardungla to Dharamshala. At His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s residence in Mcleod Ganj, Sonam Wangchuk submitted a block of glacial to His Holiness to highlight the urgency for climate action.
On the occasion of Earth Day, His Holiness posted a message on his official Facebook account. His Holiness emphasized in the message that all living beings desire happiness in their lives, so it is our responsibility as humans to do good and better with the help of our marvelous human brain.
His Holiness continued “Our world is heavily interdependent. New challenges, like the climate crisis that affect us all, as well as our participation in the global economy, mean that we must take the whole of humanity into account. We have to put the global interest first.”
His holiness said that we must take immediate action to minimize our dependency on fossil fuels and replace them with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar electricity. His Holiness also said we need to pay more attention to deforestation and better safeguard the environment and more trees must be planted and cared for.
To highlight the dire situation of earth’s global warming, His Holiness gave his own personal experience. His Holiness said in his own life, He has witnessed the decline in snowfall, first in Tibet and later in Dharamsala. Indeed, some scientists have told him that locations like Tibet could become deserts in the future. That is why he is determined to speak up in support of Tibet’s endangered ecology.
Image Credit: OHHDL