Global warming to necessitate land use changes

According to a new report by Britain’s Government Office for Science, increasingly hotter, drier summers could cause extreme water shortages as river flows are reduced by 80% even as a rise in population of 9 million people is expected by 2031.

Scenarios in the report, written by 300 contributing scientists, economists and planners, include a future in which greenhouse gas emissions would be controlled by carbon rationing and state-mandated reductions in the space allocated to livestock as well as forced migration of citizens from places like the crowded southeast to more northern towns.

Chief UK scientific adviser and director of the research, Professor John Beddington warned, “Over the next 50 years we cannot manage land in the way we’ve done…

The effects of climate change and new pressures… could escalate, seriously eroding quality of life.” Professor Beddington, Government Office for Science and all report contributors, we are thankful for your objective report informing of outcomes we would wish to avoid. Let us join in making choices today that allow a harmonious and plentiful future for all on our planet.

During an August 2008 interview by Ireland’s East Coast FM Radio, Supreme Master Ching Hai highlighted as she has on previous occasions our need to act upon the factual information provided by scientific experts.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: According to the scientists, whatever they have predicted or prescribed about our critical situation is accurate up to 99%. They want us to change the way we live our lives, to protect our fragile ecosystem, by cutting down CO2 emissions. And the fastest way that individuals can do, without a lot of protocol and ado, is to be veg.

It’s truly critical now, as we have witnessed increasing disaster worldwide, due to climate change.

We still have time, we still have a little time to change the course of destiny, thanks to the vegetarian population, old and new members that reduce the most karmic retribution in the shortest span of time.

But it’s not much. We must change fast to avoid much more damage to the Earth as well as loss of more lives and resources.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7041857.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/26/uk-land-management
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7317864/Land-management-in-UK-must-change-to-cope-with-climate-change.html

History shows that sea levels can rise very quickly

An article published in the February 12 issue of Science magazine describes a study led by US geoscientist Dr. Jeffrey Dorale, in which rock samples were collected from caves off the coast of Mallorca, Spain.

In so doing, the researchers not only identified sea level changes over the past 135,000 years, they discovered that the oceans can rise as much as 2 meters in a century.

Noting that this is nearly 12 times as fast as in the past 100 years, Dr. Dorale stated, “This has major implications for future concerns with sea-level change.

The mechanisms underlying these dramatic changes need further onsideration as we look to a future of impending climate changes.”

Our thanks, Dr. Dorale and team, for your detailed work and its cautionary forecast for our future. Let us all engage in actions that restore harmony and beauty to our shared Earthly home.

Concerned for humanity, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often addressed the tolls of global warming such as rising sea levels and the need for actions to curb them, as during an interview for the September 2009 edition of The House Magazine.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: People forced from their homes and communities due to rising sea levels and a host of other natural disasters, so-called natural disasters, but in fact these are all man-made.

Sea level rise, for example, threatens half of the world's population living within 200 kilometers of a coastline. Seventeen million in Bangladesh have fled their homes already, mainly because of coastal erosion.

At least 18 islands have completely submerged around the world thus far, with more than 40 other island nations at risk from rising sea levels, and planning to relocate.

If humans switch to the vegan diet, the Earth will begin cooling immediately and many of these dilemmas can even be reversed. So please, be veg and do good, to save the planet and all the beings on it, including you and me.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sea-caves-reveal-rapid-rise-in-ancient-ocean-levels
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/02/12/sea-levels-erratic-during-latest-ice-age.html

Seychelles threatened by rising sea levels

In the Indian Ocean nation of 155 islands and 80,000 people, beaches have become noticeably more crowded as the ocean waters have crept inland within just a decade.

Apart from the country’s infrastructure becoming inundated by the forecast of a two-meter sea level rise, other urgent problems include once-thriving coral reefs that are already dying due to warmer ocean temperatures.

The increased heat is also threatening animal species such as a rare sea turtle that depends on stable temperatures to bear its young. Knowing of this increasingly urgent situation, Seychelles President James Michel had addressed the United Nations Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009, saying, “I am not here to celebrate the limited progress, but to speak out once again, as we have always done, of our fight for survival, our human right to exist.”

Your Excellency we are touched by your concerned appeal for climate action. Let us join in united efforts to stabilize the environment for the preservation of our globally shared planetary home. In an October 2009 videoconference in Indonesia, Supreme Master Ching Hai expressed her deep concern for all sinking island nations, offering the one sure remedy for their safety.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The threats imposed by global warming are more than imminent; they are already here, as you can see through many disasters, upheavals, climate refugees, phenomena around the world.

It’s the rising sea levels as well that force people to lose their home, their ancestral home, to go begging elsewhere; losing also their dignity, losing everything, not just physical possessions, but losing their loved ones as well.

We must change while there is still time. If we want to receive the mercy of Heaven for our life here on Earth, we must first be merciful in granting the same dignity and freedom of life to the animals.

So please, everyone, plant veg, be veg and we can go green later when we’ve already saved the planet.

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100212/FOREIGN/702119852/1135/pollarchive

Reducing meat consumption a sure way to alleviate climate change

Speaking of the United Kingdom’s already established emission goals during a February 3 conference, Soil Association Policy Director Lord Peter Melchett said that these will be met only if consumers reduce their intake of pork and poultry alone by at least 75%.

Lord Melchett stated, “It's ludicrous … not to talk about consumption when we're talking about environmental sustainability.” Meanwhile, he also highlighted the benefits of organic farming, saying that a recently conducted study found that if all the farmland in the nation went organic, the soil could absorb 3.2 million tons of carbon, or the equivalent of removing nearly 1 million cars from the road.

Our appreciation, Lord Melchett and Soil Association, for your encouragement of the transition to meat-free, organic living. May we soon herald a vegan world for the vibrant stability of our precious Earth.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently advocated organic vegan farming and adoption of the same planet-cooling diet, as highlighted in an October 2009 climate change conference in Formosa (Taiwan).

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Without the needless animal industry, not only will we gain forests, we can also have organic vegan farmlands to grow real, decent food for humans, and like the forests, these farmlands can also absorb a lot of heat from the atmosphere.

And a global shift to organic vegan practices could mean 40% of all greenhouse gases absorbed as well, apart from the 50 plus percent that we eliminate through the terminating of the animals raising practice.

World governments could save tens of trillions of US dollars, tens of trillions of US dollars if everyone be veg and plant organic. So you see, 50% less from no more animal industry, 40% less carbon dioxide from organic farming, then we will be singing, our world will be saved.

http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2010/02/03/119820/Consumers-need-to-eat-less-meat-says-Soil-Association.htm
http://www.meatinfo.co.uk/...../Soil_Association_calls_for_UK_consumers_to_eat_less_meat.html
http://www.soilassociation.org/Whyorganic/Climatefriendlyfoodandfarming/tabid/215/Default.aspx

The World Day for the Abolition of Meat recognized around the world

On January 30, the second annual World Day for the Abolition of Meat was held in over 50 towns in nations across Europe, as well as South Africa, Bolivia, Brazil, USA and India. Let us join our correspondent at the Leicester Square in London, United Kingdom.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent, London, UK (F): World Day for the Abolition of Meat is a growing movement intended as a means of promoting the end of the slaughter of at least six million sentient beings globally every hour for the consumption of meat. And this figure does not include the fishing industry and other industries that produce animal products.

Older lady with glasses Participant, London, UK, Vegan (F): We’re trying to call for governments to instead be promoting vegan farming, not only not exploiting animals but also kinder to the land and environment and can feed more people on a smaller amount of land.

Handsome Man Participant, Vegan, London, UK (M): Cut back on meat that is consumed, not only for people’s health, but also for animals’ welfare.

VOICE: Our Association members also joined in this movement in Paris, France and Rome, Italy.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent, Rome, Italy (F): Viewers of Supreme Master Television, we’re here in Rome for the World Day for the Abolition of Meat.

Participant, Rome, Italy (F): Maybe governments are starting to be more sensitive and even the media has started talking about the problem of meat eating and its impact on the environment and on the planet.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent, Paris, France (M): I am standing here, in front of the Opéra De La Bastille in Paris. There are a lot of stalls and people who have come as well and vegan food being offered for tasting.

Student, but a bit gothic-looking Participant, Opéra De La Bastille, Paris, France(f): People should realize that there is something on their plates, something that has feelings.

Participant, Opéra De La Bastille, Paris, France(f): My message above all, is to stop subsidizing livestock; it is an economical waste. We all know that livestock is one of the main causes of pollution. So we really have to stop eating meat.

VOICE: Hats off, global participants of the World Day for the Abolition of Meat, for your noble initiatives! May the world soon choose vegan to herald a Golden Era of harmony for all beings.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has long called on a global shift to the vegan diet for our planetary welfare, as during an interview published in the September 2009 edition of The House Magazine.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We raise and slaughter billions of animals per year! We can’t stop the climate change with all this methane heating our planet and in turn heating the Arctic.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I wish I could find another solution, but all the evidence doesn’t favor any other solution except the vegan diet We have only a few years now, and we don’t know what comes yet even.

Be green is just by the way. Be veg is the only, the main, the 90% solution. CO2 is not the main problem, it’s not our main problem. Methane is! Nitrous oxide is! These all come from animal products, and these are the ones that heat up the planet, and fast, hundred times, or 60, 100 times more than CO2.

http://www.nomoremeat.org/

Warming oceans are leading to extensive acidification

A recently published study provides the first direct evidence of increased levels of carbon dioxide absorption from climate change that have led to acidification across an entire ocean basin.

Led by Dr. Robert Byrne of the University of Southern Florida, the research analyzed the pH of Pacific seawater over a 15-year period from Oahu, Hawaii to Kodiak, Alaska in the USA.

The scientists found that CO2 levels were increasing down to half-mile depths, with only the deepest ocean waters containing levels that were unchanged.

Dr. Byrne stated that the study leaves no doubt about the danger posed by acidification to the world’s oceans, saying, “If this happens in a piece of ocean as big as a whole… basin, then this is a global phenomenon.”

Dr. Byrne and fellow University of Southern Florida scientists, our thanks for the further revealing of global warming’s effect on the fragile marine environment.

Let us all step toward sustainable measures to protect our planet while there is still time. At a May 2009 videoconference in Togo, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke, as on previous occasions, of the critical situation of the world’s oceans and the need for humanity’s better stewardship on Earth.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Balanced marine ecosystems are extremely important, as more than two-thirds of the planet is covered by oceans. They provide half of the world’s oxygen and play a major part in regulating the global climate.

So, life on Earth truly depends very much on the ocean for survival. In addition, oceans also absorb atmospheric CO2 – carbon dioxide – which directly helps to cool our planet.

From the oceans themselves, we are seeing warming temperatures, rising sea levels, increasing acidification and terrible levels of pollution. So global warming is affecting the oceans, which in turn is affecting the fish. This is an equally urgent situation as the one presented by livestock industry, and it has the exact same solution.

Stop eating the flesh; stop killing for food; stop eating the fish. This will help restore the balance of both the ocean and land, immediately.

http://www.physorg.com/news183231158.html
http://www.marine.usf.edu/PDFs-and-DOCs/Quantum_Leaps_Byrne.pdf

International media, CCTV reports on “Eating for a low-carbon world”

On China Central Television (CCTV-9), news journalist Wang Mangmang is host of a program series called “My Low Carbon Life” and reported recently how being veg is catching on in China as a way to curb climate change.

She went on to say that this trend is actually being set by the younger generation. Dong Ziyang, manager of the organic vegetarian Jintai Catering Club said, “The average age of our customers is under 33 years old...

Young people are more environmentally aware and more open to new ideas.” The journalist also cited the United Nations report on animal agriculture generating more greenhouse gases than all the transportation in the world combined, and concerns about livestock being the cause of environmental desertification and deforestation.

She stated, “As more and more people strive for a low-carbon lifestyle, the climate-diet equation is becoming more prominent.”

Our appreciation and applause, journalist Wang Mangmang and CCTV for sharing the eco-statement being made by the low-carbon diet.

Blessed be such programs as yours in benefiting many viewers as well as the animals and our Earth. Speaking during a May 2009 videoconference in Togo, Supreme Master Ching Hai highlighted the key role of the younger generation in being good stewards for the environment.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I’m happy to see young people especially involved in endeavors like this, which contributes to human health and also the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: They are also often the most open-minded people. They are intelligent, they are easy, they are an impressionable and honest group of people.

Once they make a connection of global warming to their lives, they may really decide to do something.

Especially if they understand that what they do can truly make a difference, they may be the first ones to take action.

They can be true heroes, by being vegan and spread the news of this solution. They can save lives, including their own, but also of people all over the world, and countless animal lives around the world.

The young people are oftentimes the most ready to change their lifestyle if they see a reason for it. Their age group is also, in many cases, the first one to see that veganism is good, it is correct.

http://english.cctv.com/program/newshour/20100121/103665.shtml

New York Times reports on being veg to save the planet

Since the December 2009 international climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, discussions continue to address the evermore pressing matter of halting global warming. In an article published in the New York Times on January 24 entitled, “Stop Eating Meat and Save the Planet” author James Kanter acknowledged the growing number of people raising awareness of the vegan diet as a solution to global warming, including members of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association.

He wrote: “Delegates arriving at the gates of the climate conference in Copenhagen last month were met by women in furry animal suits holding placards showing pictures of lambs, cows and pigs, warning, “Don’t Eat Me.” The women were representatives of [Supreme Master] Ching Hai, the leader of a group that advocates adherence to… precepts, including following vegan… diets.

As they lined up for hours in freezing conditions, many of the delegates seemed grateful for the neatly wrapped snacks — meat-free sandwiches — that the women were handing out free[ly]. Followers of [Supreme Master] Ching Hai say that one of her principal goals is to fight environmental disasters, and her representatives in Copenhagen … spread the message that methane, which is belched in large quantities by cows and other livestock raised for the meat and dairy industries, is among the most potent planet-warming gases.”

VOICE: Mr. Kanter went on to state that being veg to halt climate change goes beyond being a spiritual matter as he cited others who have also identified the livestock industry as a primary cause of global warming.

These include former Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, along with international campaigns like Meat Free Mondays as well as a recent World Watch Institute report showing that over half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions arise from the meat industry.

We thank James Kanter and the New York Times for helping inform society about this urgent matter of our times. With such awareness being brought to the attention of the public, surely we all can swiftly and conscientiously transition to the Earth-saving vegan lifestyle.

Speaking at a September 2009 videoconference in South Korea, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of the media’s potential to engage in such noble endeavors as bringing more awareness of issues like global warming.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: This is exactly the role the media should have, like that of a true, honest friend to human society: warning everyone of any harmful situation; bringing new connections and data to light, like the urgent link between meat and global warming; giving chances for people to choose a better way of life; and being a brave voice, a heroic voice especially for the voiceless, including animals who suffer so much, so much, because we are all related and affected.

The world needs the media’s noble service and leadership. So please, again, once more I ask all the courageous journalists to do what you do best, tell the truth about how we are to save the planet.

Please, tell as many people as you can through your profession and otherwise to be veg, to do good, and be good, and save our planet. Be the fine example for the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/business/energy-environment/25iht-green25.html