The biggest, and in recent years most symbolic, example of our interconnectedness with the planet is climate change.

We must judge with more reverence the infinite power of nature, and with more consideration of our ignorance and weakness. M. E. de Montaigne (1533-92)

Though I am not a scholar in either field, I believe that the environmental protection movement and Buddhism share several deep-rooted, wide-ranging concepts, the most important being reverence for life. The difficulties posed by excessive desire, the interconnectedness of all things, the virtue of humility, and the practice of mindfulness also have relevance for both. Most of the Japanese environmental protection advocates I have met during more than twenty years of volunteering for Japanese environmental protection groups do not consciously associate their commitment with their religion, but I may be wrong---people do not often speak of such things and may not even be aware of unconscious associations, which can have a powerful effect on life choices.

Reverence for Life

Reverence for life is sometimes said to be the most basic ethic taught in Buddhism. Most environmental protection movements are also founded on the passion of people who have deep experiences of the sense of wonder called forth by nature. For such people, in Japan and around the world, the joy of beholding the wild world translates into a life-altering commitment to protect wild creatures and their habitats from human-engendered destruction.

The worst thing that can happen to any creature is arguably the extinction of its species. The environmental protection movement is aimed at slowing down the major global extinction event now going on. Extinction events, in which a significant percent of species disappear over a relatively short time, have happened before, but the present one is the fastest in Earth's 4.5 billion-year history. Most biologists agree that all the reasons for this accelerated extinction rate are anthropogenic---caused by humans. The recent rapid increase in human population is only part of the story---rapid increases in our destructiveness and in our ability to consume and waste resources also play a large part.

Is the sense of wonder called forth by the natural world something completely different from the discovery of buddha-nature permeating the world? Should we confine our compassion to other people, or should we include nonhuman beings? The idea that nonhuman species deserve at least to survive is gaining adherents worldwide, but many people still assume that humans are overwhelmingly superior and that the sacrifice not only of individuals but of species and entire ecosystems to human demands is justifiable as a matter of course. Even Buddhism places humans closer to the Buddha than nonhumans.

However, how are we to judge the merit of one species against another? Are humans better because we can "consciously" adapt our behavior with unprecedented alacrity? In the long run, will this new type of adaptation work as well as the more conventional, trial-and-error methods of natural and sexual mutation, adaptation, and selection, which have produced countless marvelous creatures?

Let us look at the crocodile, a brutal predator with little cognitive ability---on the surface, perhaps, a distinctly less celestial being than humans. However, crocodiles do not completely wipe out their prey resources---they cannot do so because predator and prey have coevolved over long periods of time. The ancestors of modern crocodiles are said to have lived from 95 to 98 million years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Distinctively human traits are said to have started evolving in our primate ancestors only about five million years ago. Cave art dates from about one hundred thousand years ago, farming from about ten thousand years ago. Do you think we humans will be able to beat out the crocodiles and keep ourselves from completely using up our resources for another 90 million years?

More troubling is the question of whether any other single species has ever caused the extinction---not death, not suffering, but total annihilation---of so many other species. Some scientists believe that the present extinction event is happening more quickly than the one caused by the major meteor strike that helped wipe out the dinosaurs. Still, we do not even consider causing the extinction of an entire species a crime and treat it more lightly than, for example, stealing possessions from one another. We will spend millions of dollars to buy a famous painting but allow fellow species to be permanently snuffed out because of lack of funds for their protection. Can we really be so confident about our superiority? The least we can do is treat other species with more respect.

The Problem of Excessive Desire and Self-Delusion

Buddhism and other Oriental religions have always seemed to me to be particularly harsh in their condemnation of desire. Desire is the wellspring of life. The desire to live causes the tadpole to struggle out of the egg, the sunflower to face the sky, the migratory crane to surmount the Himalayas. Our world exists precisely because all creatures pursue their desire to live. So is desire bad? Or is life good? I put this question to the head of the temple to which my Japanese family belongs. "It's a matter of degree," he said. "Up to a certain extent, desire is good, but excessive desire is bad." "That," I objected, "does not sound like philosophy." "Buddhism is not a philosophy," he answered, "it is a religion." My interpretation of this answer is that we may need more than just knowing in our heads that we need to get a grip, if not on all of our desires, at least on our wastefulness. Humans, of all creatures, may need enlightenment to accomplish this.

Humans have in the last few millennia learned to avoid the checks and balances nature places on excessive desire. Greed, shortsightedness, anger, stupidity, excessive desire, and self-delusion in humans---especially in humans with bulldozers and firearms---have acquired a scale of destructiveness that few other creatures can stand up to. We are the tyrannosaurs of unbridled desire---we will eat every fish in the sea, burn every drop of oil, and cut down every tree without looking back or forward.

However, our tendency to unrepentantly and efficiently pursue our excessive desires has probably not changed much since Shakyamuni Buddha very clearly identified the pitfalls attending excessive human desire. Environmental damage that is potentially able to degrade human civilization on a world scale results at least partly from excessive desire run wild in a system of bad management. I think our age can now perceive the teaching of the Buddha about eschewing excessive desire not so much as a moral injunction but as practical advice for securing the survival of our world and our own species.

The Interconnectedness of All Beings

The idea that all things are interconnected is also said to be one of the foundations of Buddhist teaching. Scientific discoveries over the last few centuries have confirmed our interconnectedness with all creatures and with the physical earth through space and time. We are all connected, not only genetically through evolution from shared ancestors millions of years ago, but also as members of our local ecosystems and the global ecosystem. Shakyamuni Buddha may not have consciously perceived these facts in 450 BCE, but they are, I believe, thoroughly encompassed in his teaching about the interconnected nature of all beings.

Interconnectedness also means that seemingly insignificant alterations to ecosystems can cause imbalances that lead to impoverishment of the entire web of life. One of the first environmental issues that caught my attention was that of tropical rain forest destruction. I knew nothing about ecosystems, and reading about these staggeringly diverse forests and the interconnections among their physical and biological components amazed me and changed the way I looked at nature. It could no longer be just scenery to me.

The more I learned, the more I realized that we can make very few assumptions about what we see around us. The natural world is interconnected in complex, technical ways that require careful study to understand. Most environmental protection advocates realize this on something beyond a cerebral level. I feel a kind of unreasoning panic when those with the power to irreversibly alter these balances have no true comprehension of the fundamental importance of interconnectedness. I remember joining citizen-group colleagues in a meeting with government bureaucrats in order to beg them to sincerely assess the environmental impact of a planned development and being asked, "Well, which species do you want to protect?" It was difficult to make them understand that all species are part of an interconnected whole that they would have to take a great deal of time and trouble to comprehend.

In 1985 the Wild Bird Society of Japan adopted the slogan, "Birds, Then Men." The meaning of this somewhat cryptic phrase is that a world where birds are swiftly becoming extinct will be a world from which humans will also disappear in the not-too-distant future. Therefore, to protect birds now means to protect, if not yourself, at least your children and grandchildren.

The biggest, and in recent years most symbolic, example of our interconnectedness with the planet is climate change. The amalgamated and unintended consequences of our present way of life---from our dependence on the internal combustion engine to our growing preference for meat provided by methane-emitting cattle---now threaten us with the incalculably fearsome powers of climate and weather. I think there will probably be some completely unpredictable outcomes in the course of these ongoing changes. A Buddhist awareness and readiness to accept constantly and sometimes abruptly changing realities could be a valuable asset in the coming decades.

The Value of Humility

Another confusing aspect of Oriental religions is the value they place on losing one's ego. Like desire, we need our ego, weak and flawed as it may be, to survive and enjoy the good things in life. However, it is very refreshing to forget yourself sometimes, and losing yourself in nature is an excellent way to do this. Losing yourself often enough can potentially teach you to put yourself aside and practice humility when the need arises. It also helps you learn how much you still do not know, and this can make you feel a bit more relaxed about not getting your own way.

As difficult as this can be for some people, it appears to be nearly insurmountable for institutions. In the context of the environmental movement, the concept of humility is partly expressed by the practice of carrying out an environmental impact assessment before starting a development. Such assessments are legally required in most countries, including Japan, although there are many flaws and loopholes in the relevant laws. Trying to determine a development's impact on the environment through field surveys, scientific analysis, and public review requires thinking very carefully about people and other living things that are not involved in the planning and will not directly benefit from the economic returns of the development. Thus, I think that this is an inherently humble process. However, because many of the most destructive developments in Japan are carried out by the government, and because, under Japanese law, the government is the final arbiter of whether an environmental impact assessment is accurate or not, Japanese environmental protection advocates spend a lot of time trying to ensure that scientific honesty and humility prevail over power and influence in this process. Some Buddhists in East Asia are also publicly expressing their faith as a commitment to respecting others that extends to protecting habitats threatened by government development projects.

Isahaya Bay was a two-thousand-hectare area of rich tidal flats in southern Japan; tidal flats nurture explosively diverse ecosystems that support migratory birds that every year travel unbelievable distances, for example, from Australia to Siberia and back. Isahaya's tidal flats were cut off from the sea for a very badly planned land reclamation project in 1997, and many millions of nonhuman lives were snuffed out for no good reason. Local environmental protection groups joined sympathetic Buddhist priests to hold a funeral ceremony for these casualties. Visitors ring a yellow-painted temple bell set up next to the tidal flats to commemorate the wild lives lost, and also in memory of the international award-winning leader of the Isahaya Bay protection movement, Hirofumi Yamashita, who joined Isahaya's creatures in death in 2000.

Partly in conscious imitation of the Isahaya project, the government of South Korea undertook a similar land reclamation project---though ten times as large---at Saemangeum. Nuns and priests from Christian, Buddhist, and other faiths joined the citizens' movement in opposition to this project, and in the spring of 2003 a small group of clerics undertook an arduous pilgrimage in which they performed sambo ilbae---three steps and one bow down to the ground---over the entire 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Saemangeum to Seoul, where they were joined by eight thousand protesters. These Korean clerics certainly made the link between their faith and the need to protect the ecosystems that sustain not only innocent wild creatures but our own societies as well. Unfortunately, the Saemengeum project is now nearing completion, and South Korea plans more landfills elsewhere. The Japanese government also remains unrepentant about the Isahaya project and ignores calls to restore its wetlands.

Mindfulness and Mottainai

The Japanese language borrows many words from other languages, but one Japanese term currently making a bid to enter other languages in the field of environmental awareness is mottainai. The quick translation is "wasteful," but mottainai embraces wider meaning and usage. It is of course mottainai to leave a light unnecessarily burning, to throw away good food, or to use resources for the luxury of a few when they are needed for the survival of many. It also is mottainai for people to be overqualified for their jobs. It is mottainaii> to grill a fish fresh enough to eat raw. It is even mottainai to love someone and not say so. Mottainai is a marker that brackets off the appropriate from the wastefully excessive on one hand and failed potential on the other.

Another quality of mottainai is that it is often and easily applied in everyday thought and conversation, typically as an exclamation. I believe that Buddhism teaches that enlightenment should lead us to be mindful of everything we say and do and to pay attention to how this is going to affect others. I think this can easily be extended to paying attention to how our daily lives affect the environment---what are we doing that is mottainai?

Conclusion

Respect for all living things, awareness of the interconnectedness of all things and of our own tendency toward excessive desire, humility, and mindfulness are all qualities that we will need both as individuals and as members of our species in order to stop the destruction of nature that has escalated so frighteningly during the past fifty years. They are also qualities that Buddhism encourages us to develop and practice. Why not connect the dots? In view of the scale of human-caused extinction, I believe that Buddhist teachers could give more emphasis to the need to revere not only other people but all living things. I also think that many environmental protection advocates could derive courage and comfort from Buddhism as a way of giving shape to feelings they may already have about the divine nature of the world.

Respect for life, an ability to control excessive desire, recognition of the interconnectedness of all things, humility, and mindfulness based on a religious or ethical commitment can help us reach personal enlightenment. Extended to a level that encompasses our impact on the environment, these same qualities may lead enough of us to act in ways that end up ameliorating the suffering of others now and in the future, perhaps in unpredictable ways.

Of course, some eminent critics offer well-informed, deeply thoughtout, and entirely plausible reasons why no social movement, including religion, will have enough effect on the present economic and social structures before human population growth and per capita consumption cause the bottom to fall out of the ability of our planet to support civilization. The alternative to compassionate and reasonable change will be uncontrolled change driven by the degradation of environmental services and competition for the remainder. Someday our world will carry on without humans. The biosphere will recover from the present human onslaught, and new species will evolve. Perhaps the day when humanity truly accepts this future, whether it comes sooner or later, will be the day when our destructiveness finally starts to abate.

The epigraph for this article was drawn from Donald M. Frame, ed. and trans., Montaigne: Selections from the Essays (New York: F. S. Crofts and Co., 1948), p. 32. The quotation is from chapter 27 of the famous essays of the French philosopher Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, "It is Folly to Measure the True and False by Our Own Capacity."

Margaret Suzuki, who lives in Shikoku, has long been involved in Japan's environmental movement and works as a translator on environmental issues for nongovernmental organizations, researchers, and government offices. She was coeditor of the Japan Environment Monitor (published 1989-99) and serves on the steering committee of the Japan Wetlands Action Network (JAWAN).