Dekila Chungyalpa on uniting faith leaders to bolster climate activism

Go Simone

Dekila Chungyalpa heads the Loka Initiative, a project which she co-founded with Buddhist scholar researchers, Dr Richard Davidson and Dr John Dunne of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Healthy Minds. Launched in 2018, the initiative unites religious leaders with environmental experts to bolster climate activism and Dekila also worked at WWF for 13 years. She earned the prestigious Yale McCluskey Award for conservation innovation in 2014.

With Dekila, we talked about her roots in the Himalayas, the influence of her mother, a Buddhist nun, reconciling science and faith, how to dismantle climate change denial, and the connections between land, traditional practices, the right to self-determination and gender justice.

References mentioned during this episode:

• Loka Initiative
• Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM)
• WWF
• Upaya Institute and Zen Center
• Arundhati Roy: Our task is to disable the engine, Progressive International
• Let’s stop romanticising nature. So much of our life depends on defying it, The Guardian
• Blessed Are the Consumers: Climate Change and the Practice of Restraint, Sallie McFague
• Richard Davidson
• John Dunne
• Non-overlapping magisteria, Stephen Jay Gould
• Katharine Hayhoe
• Elke Weber
• Susan Clayton
• Mary Annaïse Heglar
• Rebecca Solnit
• Joanna Macy
• Face to Face: Women Writers on Faith, Mysticism, and Awakening, Linda Hogan and Brenda Peterson