Smoking declines in Victoria, Australia

A Cancer Council Victoria survey found that the number of smokers in Victoria has reduced from just over 21% in 1998 to 16.5% in 2008. Ms. Fiona Sharkie, Executive Director of Quit Victoria, a program designed to help smokers overcome the life-threatening habit, said, “Women now have the lowest smoking rates on record in Victoria (14.7%); however, men’s smoking rates have also reduced from almost 25% in 1998 to 18.5% in 2008.”

Congratulations, Victoria, on the improved well-being of your citizens. May more and more individuals choose healthful habits for a vibrant life.

Heat wave claims numerous lives in Australia.

According to a recently released report by Victoria state’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Carnie, the state experienced a 62 percent increase in fatalities between January 26 and February 1 of this year. Within that one week, as many as 347 people are believed to have lost their lives to the unusual 15 degree Celsius above average temperatures during that period, with the highest temperature topping 45.1 degrees Celsius. The majority of the victims were elderly or chronically ill who were less capable of adapting to such sudden variations in weather. In response, the Victoria state government has announced expansion of a registry program to monitor and help ensure the well-being of the elderly living on their own.

We are sorrowed to hear of the lives lost due to the extreme climatic conditions of global warming. Our prayers for humanity’s caring stewardship of the planet to restore nature’s gentle stability.

In a videoconference with our Association members in Australia on August 17, 2008, Supreme Master Ching Hai conveyed once again the importance of an animal-free diet as a solution to global warming along with her optimism about its widespread adoption in time to save our planet.

Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai
Sydney Center Australia August 17, 2008

Supreme Master Ching Hai: At the point of no return that would be rolling downhill then. No change can be taken place anymore. Nothing can help anymore at that time. And there may be nobody survives, or maybe very little, a handful of people survive because of their spiritual merit. But then will be also difficult for them to continue in this kind of condition. I don’t wish to have to teach you this. There is no need to talk about this right now because we still have time. Let’s hope we will change the course of the disaster. I really am hopeful. I’m feeling positive about it, I feel positive that people will change. Not only in Australia that we will avoid disaster, but everywhere in the world. That’s what I am positive about. I feel people will change; the majority of people will change. And I only need 2/3 of the population of the planet that change, then we can save the world and repair the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: And the vegetarian people will live happily on the world full of abundance, loving and kind.

Beached whales, dolphins rescued in Australia

Tasmanians work to save beached whales. On Tasmania’s King Island in Australia, 189 pilot whales and 10 dolphins were found stranded on Naracoopa Beach. Tragically, only 54 pilot whales and 7 dolphins were still alive by the end of the day they were discovered. Rescuers kept the marine mammals wet and covered as they used equipment to dig channels for their return to the sea. The rescuers then used boats, jet skis, backhoes, and their own physical strength to guide most of the survivors back into deeper water.

We are deeply saddened by this tragic event that caused the perishing of so many innocent whales and dolphins. Our sincere thanks to the heroic rescuers for their caring and timely endeavors as we pray that humanity quickly turns to more compassionate ways, to ensure the health and comfort of these and all co-inhabitants.

In August 2008, with recent news of another such fatal marine mammal beaching, Supreme Master Ching Hai shared at an international seminar her concern and insights regarding the plight of the beings at sea:

Supreme Master Ching Hai: So many whales and dolphins, they wash up ashore and die. There are so many dead zones in the ocean. It’s suffocating them, so they have to swim out of the water where it’s full of the poisonous gas that has been released! They cannot bear it, they cannot breathe. So they have to get out of it. For them, life is in the water, but if water is full of poison, of course they come out. But when they come out, they die, too. Because they have no water. They stay in the ocean, they die; they came out, they die. There is no choice for them.

This is the worst of all cruelty, that the people don’t take care of the environment. And let all beings keep dying like this. Just to be vegetarian, how difficult can it be? Even the dolphins have to swim out of the ocean; because they think like that they can survive, even risking their lives. So why not we can just can change to vegetarian diet?

Australian wildlife pushed to extinction by bushfires

Climate change seen in Australia’s more extreme weather. The recent wildfires in the southern state of Victoria, the worst in the nation’s history, claimed at least 210 human lives and caused over a million animals to perish, with destruction to native habitats and some species being lost completely. The global temperature rise in southeastern Australia has resulted in extreme heat waves and more intense wildfires, while the northern part of the continent is getting more powerful rainfall. Around 60 percent of northeastern Queensland State is covered by floodwaters after weeks of drenching rain. Australian Green Party leader Bob Brown stated, "The fires are a sobering reminder of the need for this nation and the whole world to act and put at a priority the need to tackle climate change.”

We pray that through our compassion for all beings and the environment, the effects of climate change will be minimized.

As in numerous other occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of the urgent period we are in during an international seminar on August 23, 2008, as well as the only hope we have to save the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It’s just getting worse and worse now, and I really I don’t know how to do. If I could just go out and beg everybody on the street, “Just please stop eating meat and stop raising livestock and stop abusing the resource of the Earth, stop wasting water!” I would do that. Okay, but the critical mass may be coming soon, and it might work by itself! And we can celebrate one day that we saved the planet. If people repent in their heart and react quick enough, turn to a vegetarian diet, with the grace from Heaven, with the interference from the positive power, we might be able to save 80% of the population of the planet.