Enviro-fundamentalists use Dalai Lama for spreading global warming propaganda



Carbon taxes, "huge lifestyle changes", a "shift from a hoarding and competitive mindset" to one based on "radical, inclusive interdependence" are the central tenets of Sallie McFague´s alarmist "theology". The Christian message of hope and love has been replaced by doomsday prophecies

 It appears that there is a concerted effort by some enviro-fundamentalists to use the international fame of the Dalai Lama for spreading alarmist global warming propaganda.

The dubious Vancouver theologian Sallie McFague, author of A New Climate for Theology: God, the World and Global Warming, is one of the climate cultists, who is intent on brainwashing the Tibetan religious leader in order to use him in her doomsday scaremongering:

When the Dalai Lama calls, some Christians are eager to respond.
That's the case for Vancouver School of Theology theologian Sallie McFague, who jetted off this week to a high-level forum on the environmental crisis with famous Buddhists and noted scientists.

In an interview for the Vancouver Sun, McFague reveals her real motive for joining forces with the Tibetan religious leader:

The Dalai Lama is a very powerful pan-religious figure. Talk about having a bully-pulpit. His impact is huge," McFague said, explaining the Buddhist spiritual leader has a rare international moral authority that goes far beyond those with political power or military might.
The first step for McFague, who moved to Vancouver in 2000 after three decades at the prestigious Vanderbilt Divinity School in Tennessee, is to take part this weekend in a preconference in Colorado with some other Dalai Lama-endorsed specialists in spirituality, environment and science.
Others warmists, who participate in the "Dalai Lama indoctrination" project are:

well-known Buddhist philosopher-monk Matthieu Ricard; best-selling brain science author Daniel Goleman; Zen ecologist-anthropologist Joan Halifax, and Jonathan Patz, a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

(Donna Laframboise has some useful information on the "noted scientist" Patz here)

Here is the message McFague (78) tries to sell to the aging Dalai Lama:

More people need to see that "we have to cough it up, in terms of money" to protect the Earth and all its inhabitants. Among other things, she would like to see governments introduce more carbon taxes (similar to the one in B.C.) as well as cap and trade programs.
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When McFague gets the chance to confer with Buddhist philosophers, scientists and the Dalai Lama during this year's dialogue, she will also be talking about the need for more people to make a commitment to the "huge lifestyle changes" she says are necessary to combat global warming.
McFague is concerned political and corporate leaders have stopped trying to "mitigate" the damage caused by climate change and are simply trying to "adapt" to it. "The real tragedy is the lack of willpower."Since climate change is complex, she's afraid the desperately needed responses society needs to make will come only when "the disaster is too far gone."To raise awareness of the crisis, McFague will urge the Dalai Lama and his followers to inspire others to shift from belief to action through several means, including what she calls "voluntary poverty."
She would like to see more people move away from the "conventional model" of individual self-fulfillment, which is based on building up more possessions and prestige, to an emphasis on "the universal self."
She hopes the Dalai Lama and those who admire him will come to endorse the Christian spiritual ideal she calls "self-emptying," which could shift cultures from a hoarding and competitive mindset to one based on "radical, inclusive interdependence."
To drive home her spiritual point to the Dalai Lama about the kind of paradigm shift needed to overcome climate-change inaction and denial, McFague said she will in part rely on the teachings of Paul, the key apostle of Jesus.Unlike the ancient Greek philosophers, who taught that when people know what is morally good they will inevitably do good, self-reflective Paul warned the opposite is what often happens:"We know the good, but we don't do it."

No doubt Patz, Ricard and Goleman are also going to do their best in order to get the Dalai Lama to join the alarmist crusade against "inaction and denial".

One must hope that there are at least a couple reasonable people among the Dalai Lama´s advisers, who could warn him about these false prophets.


PS

Here is an example of what Buddhist philosopher-monk Matthieu Ricard thinks about global warming and how the world should be governed:

The present approach to climate change and other pressing challenges of our times--disarmament, controlling the greed of unregulated free-market--is similar to that of tribes fighting over the ownership of a sinking ship, a burning forest, or a time bomb. At Copenhagen, they have gotten it to go their way, for now.
The heads of state behaved like chiefs of very big tribes. Some might be wiser than others, but they have little power over the other tribes and sometimes not even over their own tribe.
Transnational institutions can only tackle global issues. In a global world such as ours, heads of states should act more like provincial governors taking care of local affairs. They should defer to a transnational authority when the whole world is at stake. No one seems to be willing to work like that. Fine. Enjoy your last swim.
(Again one of those utopian socialists, who would like to have a world government, presumable with people like themselves as the self-chosen leaders)