Dalai Lama's Attitude North Americans Consumption Of Non-Renewable Resources
The Dalai Lama would, without a doubt, deem the average North America’s consumption of non-renewable resources as unethical. Since the Dalai lama values human and non-human animal lives, he becomes very considerate towards the environment. Due to his religion (Buddhism) and the fact that her was raised in Tibet, he argues that material wealth does not truly bring happiness. He would note that happiness that comes from external factors are only temporary direct satisfactions and distracts us form reaching deeper, more fulfilling happiness. In fact, he would also add that this material wealth and these external factors may in fact lead to more pain than happiness. Though this industry does stimulate the economy and can help science, this economic advancement will lead to more competition in society and create personal isolation form society and the individuals living in it, which can eventually lead to mental health issues.
Enormous houses, fancy cars and new technological items that are bough and replaced every year are all made from the resources found in our environment. Though these may seem as luxuries, they harm our environment and will eventually harm us. He would argue that the happiness these materials provide are just playing their role in our hedonic treadmill. Cellphones are the perfect example for this. He would argue that material wealth such as new cellphones, provide us a great amount of happiness at first, yet a few moths later, this happiness has completely faded away, and a new cell phone is bought and repeats the cycle. He would also bring up the fact that others may be suffering from these purchases we are making. From our hedonic treadmill example, some child in a third would country is probably paid a few cents an hour while doing it in terrible working conditions. In our situation, although many people are benefitting from this oil sand industry, others are dying. Meaning that this type of happiness is only temporary and is at someone else’s cost.
The Dalai Lama would also point out that the rate of consumption of this non-renewable research is immoral due to the huge overall impact it has on the world. Since the consumption of this product encourages the oil sands industries, more and more innocent people will suffer because of our care-free tendencies in respect to overconsumption. The world is big, and the idea that something we do here might hurt someone miles away seems to us as improbable, but this is truly the case. Due to this mentality, we tend to narrow our perspectives and to perceive the world different than it actually is. A reality we do not seem to truly perceive is that there is a finite amount of resources on earth and we are running through them at a very fast pace. Some even think that once this oil runs out, renewable energy will take a lead, but the truth is, installing the material that is required for renewable energy is expensive and takes time to build. Contrary to popular belief, most sources of renewable energy are not as efficient as oil (wind turbines and solar panels for example). On this point, the Dalai Lama would also discus that people do not seem to understand or truly know the consequences these industries have on the world. When these non-renewable are only seen in society as the power supplies used for lighting or as gas fumes coming cars, no where else really. Rather than seeing the negative impacts it has on the world, we see how it comes to society’s advantage every day.
In chapter 3, the Dalai Lama explains the concept of “dependent origination” from the Middle Way school of philosophy. Similar to stoic philosophy, this concept explains that how things and events come to be with the use of three principles.
- The principle of cause and effect: “All things and event arise in dependence on a complex web of interrelated causes and conditions”.
- Den Tel: The mutual dependence between parts and a whole.
- All phenomena can be understood to be dependently originated: A relationship of mutual dependence is seen between all words, things and events.
This first principle explains that everything happens because of some other occurrence, and that occurrence happened because of another and so on. . . It tries to show that behind every event lies a “complex web of interrelated causes and conditions”, a complex series of result/events that led to this happening. The second principle draws the link between parts and a whole. A whole with out some parts is not a whole, and a part is only a part if there are other parts that builds to a whole. The third principle is the theory of dependent origination. This theory explains that everything lacks in its own identity and has to be defined using other terms in order to exist. If this concept were to be applied to society, we would notice that these industries are unethical as they are harming everything at the same time according to the 3 principles.
The Dalai Lama would then argue that the happiness felt by the industries workers in respect to their work is completely immoral. In chapter 4, the Dalai Lama defines an ethical act as being an act “where we refrain from causing harm to another’s expectation of happiness”. Due to the analysis we have done, we already know that their works is causing a lot of harm to other people. Also, in the book, the Dalai Lama begins his chapter by talking about his experience in a museum featuring the holocaust. He then explains that these horrible acts happen when “individuals lose touch with their basic human feeling” being empathy. When we think about this oil sand industry, it would be absolutely crazy to think that they do not know about the negative impact they have on the world and their immediate surrounding. This shows that they do not empathise for those who have suffered due to their actions, as they have not yet stopped their industry. Finally, to drive the point home, in the few earlier chapters, the Dalai lama states and establishes at multiple occasions that the key to judging an act ethical or not, is empathy.
