A philosophy hoping to achieve enlightenment must help society progress? It promotes respect, knowledge, peace and development. What we have at the moment is the opposite.. a bunch of politicians bickering with each other does not promote peace.
Buddhist philosophy and practice, properly implemented, automatically makes one a constructive, positive contributor to any attempts to create viable proposals to mitigate the effects of climate change and peak oil, but it is unrealistic to expect everyone to become Buddhists. But, Buddhists can help by teaching, or sharing, with others their knowledge of the key coping skills of mindfulness and meditation, which helps anybody, Buddhists or not, to attain the degree of mental stability and contentment they need to cope with the enormous stresses and challenges ahead.
http://www.ourfutureplanet.org/component/youtopia/mlcoote1/issues/172
