JB Board Member to meet with the Dalai Lama
Professor Diana Liverman, JB board member and co-director of the Institute of the Environment, University of Arizona, is among a small group of scientists, theologians and ethicists who will meet with the Dalai Lama and his advisors in Dharamsala, India, during a conference on the interconnection between environmental change, ethics and individual choices.
Diana Liverman, will discuss the ways in which human activities are changing the global environment and risking Earth's capacity to sustain life when she meets the Tibetan spiritual leader at his residence.
Liverman will be the first presenter, speaking from 1.30 - 4pm (GMT) on 17 October. A livestream of the seminar will be available online and the sessions will be available for streaming and download after the event.
Liverman is one of 13 participants, including the Dalai Lama, taking part in the five-day conference, "Mind & Life XXIII: Ecology, Ethics, Interdependence." Together, the group will consider human-caused environmental degradation and what the appropriate ethical and spiritual response should be to ensure planetary stewardship.
"This is an honor and a great opportunity to talk to and learn from one of the world's great spiritual leaders about the risks of global environmental change and the responses to it," Liverman said. "Part of what interests me about Tibetan Buddhism is the focus on compassion in solving the world's problems," she added. "Because my work has always been concerned with the millions of people in the world who are vulnerable to environmental change, I see the need for a compassionate approach to understanding the human dimensions of global environmental change and developing fair and ethical environmental policies."
In her conversation with the Dalai Lama, Liverman will address several points, including the accelerated impact of human activities on Earth's natural environment and the risk of crossing irreversible planetary thresholds concerning climate change, ocean acidification, biodiversity and pollution-boundaries that, if crossed, could prove devastating to the planet's natural systems that support life.
The conference, organized by the Boulder, Colorado-based Mind &Life Institute, will explore ecological issues from different viewpoints, including the human impacts on the natural systems that support life on the planet, the responses of Buddhist philosophy and other faith traditions, and on-the-ground realities of environmental action.
"The slow meltdown of Earth's capacity to sustain much of life, as we know it, poses an urgent challenge for both spiritual traditions and science," according to the Mind & Life Institute's website. "Our hope is that this conference will be a significant catalyst for the formulation of new research ideas in these fields and solutions to our planetary crisis."
