Dear Pacifica Community,
Below you can read the statement that went out from Pacifica supporting the work being done by global leaders and others in Paris to address the continuing crisis of climate change. This statement has been drafted by academic and staff leaders at Pacifica as well as members of the IMC and our Board of Trustees. Our advocacy is rooted in our mission and core values. I am sending this to you, on behalf of Pacifica, with hopes that we, the people of earth, will bring consciousness and behavior change to this critical threat/challenge of our time.
With regard,
Steve
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Faithful to its intention to tend anima mundi, the soul in and of the world, Pacifica Graduate Institute resolves to use its own educational resources to support the shift in paradigm and in human consciousness that can lead to and support actions to protect the planet’s climate and all species and habitats dependent on it.
While human divisions continue to erupt into violence, it can be hard to remember what is shared in common by all of us: the Earth. This week the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol will meet in Paris to address the continuing urgency of climate change. The objective of the 2015 conference is to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world. This agreement must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels or life as we know it on Earth will be forever changed, causing loss of species and human lives and an almost unimaginable migration from regions of the earth that are no longer habitable by humans. Alongside such an international agreement, nations, regions, cities, towns, and their residents must work to transform our relation to the environment from one based on extraction and depletion to one based on an acknowledgement of radical interdependence. In addition, those from more politically and economically powerful nations must empathically understand the differential impact of climate change on many regions with less resources and power. As civil society is locked out of demonstrations and deliberations during the Paris conference due to security concerns, we are all called upon to raise our voices to support the comprehensive agreements that are necessary. We at Pacifica pledge our efforts and resources to that intention.
