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Buddhism and economic factors for addressing climate change: Some key aspects for helping transform economies towards sustainability

Dr. Peter Daniels
BSc (Hons.) MA (UBC) PhD (Univ of Queensland)
Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University
Nathan 4111, Brisbane AUSTRALIA

Contact:
Phone:  61-7-3735-7189; Fax  61-7-3735-7459
E-mail:  p.daniels@griffith.edu.au

ABSTRACT

The maintenance of climatic conditions that support biotic integrity and human life on Earth is a critical  aspect of sustainable development.  Prodigious levels of human disturbance in the natural world, and its cycles, have accelerated over the past 200 years and now threaten severe ramifications for the underlying ecology upon which all life depends.

This paper examines how some central Buddhist world views and themes can contribute to effectively alleviating human sources of climate change.  The human response to climate change is considered an exemplar of the economic transformation required towards sustainable development. Cosmological and ethical aspects of Buddhism are presented as a logical and practical basis for minimising the climate change-related pressures and impacts of production and consumption in the expanding global market economy. The paper first examines the relevant nature of the drivers, pressures, and responses related to climate change.  Linking to this discussion, it develops a framework to show how Buddhist notions of interconnectedness, dependent origination, the Middle Way, and thought and action founded on compassion and loving kindness, can help explain and reshape human motives and actions for climate and other forms of environmental sustainability.

CV:

Dr. Peter Daniels

Peter Daniels is Senior Lecturer in the Griffith School of Environment and a researcher with the Urban Research Program at Griffith University.  His major research and teaching activities centre upon the relatively new “transdiscipline” of ecological economics with its emphasis on the relationship between economic activities and their biophysical consequences that influence environmental, economic and social sustainability. Within this field, one area of specialisation is the analysis of how relevant moral and ethical systems can effectively contribute to fundamental human motives and actions required for sustainable development. Dr. Daniels has published extensively on the relationship between Buddhism, economic systems and environmental problems. Other associated research includes the development and application of techniques that can be applied to assess, and help reduce, human economic impacts on nature whilst maintaining “output” that actually contributes to human welfare. These approaches include material and energy flow analysis, life cycle assessment and ecological footprint analysis as well as critical issues in sustainable production and consumption (such as industrial ecology and household metabolism). A key extension is the application of these concepts and tools in South-East Queensland (especially for water and energy) and the restructuring the Australian economy for sustainability.  He is the book review editor of the International Journal of Social Economics and a reviewer for many other journals including Ecological Economics, Environmental Modelling and Assessment and the Journal of Industrial Ecology.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Daniels, P. (2008) Buddhism and the transformation to sustainable economies. Society and Economy (in print).

Daniels, P. (2006) "Reducing Society's Metabolism". In Zsolnai, L. and Ims, K. (Eds.) Business Within Limits: Deep Ecology and Buddhist Economics.  Peter Lang: London.

Daniels, P. (2005)  "Institutional Economics and Poverty: A Focus on Perspectives from Douglass C. North".  In Rauhut, D., Hatti, N. and Olsson, C. (Eds.) Economists and Poverty: From Adam Smith to Amartya Zen. Vedams: New Dehli.

Daniels, P. (2005)  “Social Development and the Green Techno-economic Paradigm - Prospects for Lower Income Countries.” International Journal of Social Economics  32, 5, 454-482.

Daniels, P. (2005) Economic systems and the Buddhist world view : the 21st century nexus. Journal of Socioeconomics  34, 2, 245-268.

Daniels, P. (2002)  “Approaches for Quantifying the Metabolism of Physical Economies : Part 2 –  A Comparative Survey”, Journal of Industrial Ecology,  6,  1 pp.65-88.

Daniels, P. and Moore, S. (2001)  “Approaches for Quantifying the Metabolism of Physical Economies : Part I – Methodological Overview”, Journal of Industrial Ecology,  5,  4, pp.69-93.