Does a Planet Have the Buddha Nature?....

A few days ago, I saw a piece on Scienticamerica.com that described how the surface of the Earth affected by serious drought has doubled in the last three decades. Findings presented at the recent meeting of the American Meteorological Society argued that "the fraction of global land characterized as 'very dry' has increased from 10 to 15 percent in the 1970s to nearly 30 percent in 2002." Large regions of Canada, Europe, and Asia are much drier; the U.S. has become wetter over the past 50 years. The result, perhaps more droughts and floods, more death, more suffering. A bit of a stretch perhaps, but I think of Mumonkan and the first Koan. A monk once asked Master Joshu, "Does a dog have Buddha Nature or not?" Joshu said, "Mu!" Does the planet have Buddha Nature?