Yet, a further problem arises for green Buddhism, which was briefly mentioned in
chapter 1. This concerns the contradiction in the attempt to reconcile any determinate
system of values, principles, and beliefs—such as those that fall under the term
‗environmentalism‘—with the Mahāyāna practitioner‘s stated purpose of renouncing all
views. Supposing our practitioner was concerned about the effects of climate change on
the planet, the relentless rate of species extinction, deforestation, the food and water
crises, and so forth, an important question arises regarding the way the doctrine of
emptiness affects such concepts and beliefs. It has been argued that emptiness, or
ultimate truth consists of a middle path between existence and nonexistence, and
therefore, the next task will be to examine how this might be construed, in relation to
such matters. It will be argued, in the following chapters, that in environmentalism too,there is the extreme of eternalism, where one grasps at a belief in the existence of natural beings with svabhāva, as well as an extreme of nihilism, where one infers absolute nonexistence, and draws conclusions from this about the meaninglessness of our lives and activity, including their effect on the environment.