Can Compassion Help Us Personally and Globally?
Climate change is causing a lot of human pain and suffering in many parts of the world. In order to be healthy and effective I think we need to limit our consumption of the news, but also stay sufficiently informed to make good decisions about how to be engaged in helping to create more just and sustainable societies. We need not follow every detail of each climate catastrophe, but I do think it’s healthy to face the extent of the crisis we humans face as a result of climate change. Trying to turn away from the reality of it seems to leave us ungrounded, alienated, and anxious.
Facing the disastrous effects of climate change may cause us to feel fear, grief, or other painful emotions, but it keeps us grounded in reality. Facing our feelings and sharing them with others can be healing and lead us to be more open-hearted, appropriately vulnerable, and connected with others.
Train your compassion
I recently listened to an audio book titled, Humankind: A Hopeful History, by Rutger Bregman. One of the things I found helpful in his book is the recommendation to “train your compassion.” He advises that in the face of other people’s suffering, rather than trying to share in their pain, we strive to call up our compassion — our feelings of “warmth, concern, and care.” These are much more likely to energize us and help us feel more connected.
I’ve been trying to choose compassion as I read about what’s happening in Pakistan as a result of climate change. It’s a real horror tale, but it can quickly give us a sense of the dimensions of the problem and of some of the areas where we humans need to promptly develop effective responses equal to the magnitude of what’s happening. Knowing about the crisis in Pakistan can help inform what we advocate for and what actions we take.
Pakistan
Beginning in March an unprecedented heat wave hit Pakistan and India, affecting a billion people. As I wrote recently, in the Pakistani city of Jacobabad, the temperature rose to over 100°F 51 days in a row and four times was over 122°F.
Pakistan has more than 7,000 glaciers–more than anywhere else on earth outside the poles. As a result of climate change generally and the recent heat wave in particular, these glaciers have been melting more rapidly, sending meltwater down the mountainsides, swelling streams and rivers. Then the rains came. The annual monsoon rains came early and were far more intense than ever. By the end of August, Pakistan had received three times the amount of rain that it usually gets in a whole year.
The swollen rivers burst their banks, and as the Economist reported, flooded some one-third of the country, “washing away buildings and destroying harvests and the livelihoods of millions in a country where 65% of the population is sustained directly by agriculture.” Thirty-three million people were displaced from their homes. Over 1500 people were killed, and now a “second disaster” of disease, homelessness, food shortages is underway.
Some $60 million in aid has been committed from nations around the world, but estimates of the amounts needed to deal with the aftermath of the floods in Pakistan are now at $30 billion. In other words, the commitments of aid so far are roughly one half of one percent of what’s needed.
I’m writing about this in part because I think it illuminates a major global problem. At the same time as this situation in Pakistan, people are suffering from major climate change-induced crises in Puerto Rico, China, and the Horn of Africa, just to name a few of the myriad places currently affected.
We knew climate change would be bad, and it is
We’ve known for quite some time that the effects of climate change were going to be disastrous, and now they are. Clearly the problems and needs far exceed any plans or financial mechanisms yet developed by the people of the world to meet them. At the UN climate conferences nations have reached some agreements that the wealthy nations will help fund efforts to reduce emissions in developing nations (this is termed “mitigation”) and to help those nations take action to prepare for the effects of climate change (“adaptation”). So far, however, the wealthy nations, especially the U.S., Australia, and some European nations, have blocked any agreement on funding to enable developing nations to deal with “loss and damage” from climate change.
Loss and damage
Apparently, the wealthy nations are fearful that any agreement to pay for loss and damage will open them to “legal liability for past emissions and vast compensation claims.” At COP 26 in Glasgow last November the Alliance of Small Island States and the G77, a UN coalition of 134 developing nations and China put forth a proposal to create separate funding agreements and mechanisms for the wealthy nations to fund loss and damage costs in the developing nations. Some are seeing this as a form of climate reparations–wealthy nations paying for the worldwide damage that their vast greenhouse gas emissions have led to. Others see this as a matter of practical necessity–only the wealthy have the money that’s needed. The predominately white, wealthy nations blocked the Glasgow proposals by the developing nations, agreeing only to continue a dialogue on the topic.
COP27
As COP27 in Egypt approaches, the wealthy nations have so far kept loss and damage off the official agenda but it is still expected to be a major topic of discussion. Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General said it is “high time for a serious discussion and meaningful action” on loss and damage, urging COP27 to address it “as a matter of climate justice, international solidarity and building trust”. Guterres also called for rich countries to tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel corporations and use the money to help poor countries suffering the worst effects of climate change. Noting that the fossil fuel industry has hundreds of billions of dollars in windfall profits and subsidies right now, he said “Polluters must pay.”
One action you can take
I encourage my readers in the wealthy countries to contact your government officials and urge them to support agreements on loss and damage at COP27. For readers in the U.S., I again recommend the Sierra Club petition that calls on President Biden and U.S. climate negotiators– US Climate Envoy John Kerry and Director of Climate Negotiations Trigg Talley–to acknowledge that the countries most responsible for climate change must begin paying the costs of loss and damage from climate change in developing nations.
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The photo above is of Playa Hermosa in Costa Rica by Russ Vernon-Jones.
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