KEY ELEMENTS IN BUDDHIST ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION IN A SUFFERING WORLD

Religious environmental communication plays a crucial role in addressing the ecological crisis, with Buddhism—recognized for its environmental potential—offering valuable contributions through its religious and lay leaders. Despite a substantial body of literature on religious environmentalism, discussions specifically on Buddhist environmental communication remain limited or only briefly mentioned in most publications. This paper seeks to address this gap by proposing a Buddhist environmental communication approach comprised of six key elements: 1) communicating prophetically; 2) communicating from the stance of faith; 3) communicating as “people on the ground;” 4) communicating to energize; 5) communicating to criticize; and 6) communicating through exemplary actions. By synthesizing insights from Buddhist and non-Buddhist scholars, the paper advocates for these elements to be incorporated into environmental communication, enabling Buddhist leaders to more effectively challenge destructive and oppressive social and environmental systems and to foster a comprehensive ecological ethos across society.