On the 82nd birthday occasion (July
6, 2017) of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Environment and Development Desk (EDD) of the Tibet
Policy Institute brought out an updated 6th edition of His Holiness the 14th
Dalai Lama's speeches on the importance of environment protection titled 'Dalai
Lama on Environment,' a collected statements from 1987 till June 2017.
The book highlights the consistent
effort by His Holiness on environment protection and makes His Holiness's
speech on environment protection for the last 30 years available to the world.
The EDD dedicates the book to
millions of people across the world striving for a greener, healthier and more
sustainable future for our planet.
Following are few extracts from the
book:
The three main commitments of His
Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama are promotion of human values, promotion of
religious harmony, preservation of Tibet's spiritual heritage and protection of
its environment.
Peace and the survival of life on
earth as we know it are threatened by human activities which lack a commitment
to humanitarian values. Destruction of nature and natural resources results
from ignorance, greed and lack of respect for the earth's living things.
This lack of respect extends even
to earth's human descendants, the future generations who will inherit a
vastly degraded planet if world peace does not become a reality, and
destruction of the natural environment continues at the present rate. Our
ancestors viewed the earth as rich and bountiful, which it is. Many people in
the past also saw nature as inexhaustibly sustainable, which we now know is the
case only if we care for itྲ
-His Holiness message
for World Environment Day, June 5, 1986
I often joke that the moon and
stars look beautiful, but if any of us tried to live on them we would be
miserable. This blue planet of ours is a delightful habitat. Its life is
our life; its future our future. Indeed, the earth acts like a mother to us
all. Like children, we are dependent on her. In the fact of such global
problems as the greenhouse effect and depletion of the ozone layer, individual
organizations and single nations are helpless. Unless we all work together, no
solution can be found. Our mother earth is teaching us a lesson in universal
responsibility.
-His Holiness address to Parliamentary
Earth Summit,
Global Forum of the UN Conference on the
Environment and
Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil June
7, 1992
'This blue planet is our only home
and Tibet is its roof. The Tibetan Plateau needs to be protected, not just for
Tibetans but for the health and sustainability of the entire world'
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama's message for
the
COP21-UN climate Summit in Paris, 2015
"Human beings are social
animals and heavily interdepended. Climate change threatens us all. It's one of
those natural challenges that teach us that we must work together, making a
common effort to reach a common goal. A more peaceful world and a more peaceful
century require that we rely not on weapons but developing a widespread inner
peace."
-His Holiness keynote address at the
commencement ceremony for the
Class of 2017, University of California
San Diego, US. June 17, 2017
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