Sulfur dioxide pollution highlights methane as key to global warming

With countries such as China and India now reducing pollutants containing sulfur dioxide, Dr. Frank Raes, head of the Climate Change Unit of the European Commission Joint Research Center in Italy reports that the planet is likely to heat more quickly in response.

Sulfur dioxide, which is emitted in the processing of coal, oil and other industrial processes, has already been significantly reduced in many developed nations.

Although it is harmful to health, sulfur aerosols create an atmospheric cooling effect that offsets the heat emitted by the CO2 released in these same processes.

This suggests that the heat from coal, oil and industry in developing nations has played a smaller role in global warming than previously thought. Such a finding corresponds with the conclusions of Dr. Drew Shindell from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, who estimated that because of sulfur dioxide’s cooling effect, methane, which is generated primarily by activities related to meat production, is heating the atmosphere much more than previously thought.

Our appreciation Dr. Raes and European Commission Joint Research Center fellow scientists, for this insightful finding. Let us choose the fastest way to return to health and cool the planet, namely, through the safe and Earth-friendly vegan diet.

As mentioned on previous occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai reminded once again during a September 2009 videoconference in South Korea that the most urgent global warming threat lies in sources other than carbon dioxide.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If the goal is to be a truly carbon-free society, we should consider all the major sources of greenhouse gases emissions. You see, we are emitting greenhouse gases not just through the fumes from factories, houses, and cars, but also through the products that we choose to consume. Besides, CO2 is cancelled out by aerosols, which are released at the same time from burning fossil fuels.

Even though aerosols are very detrimental to our health, they actually have a cooling effect that cancels out the CO2 heat in the atmosphere.

So the warming climate problem is not from CO2 I repeat, it’s not from carbon dioxide. It is from other sources, mainly methane.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: First and foremost, eliminate the single largest source of human-caused methane, namely, livestock. Stop animal products, then we stop global warming.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527481.400-smoke-bomb-the-other-climate-culprits.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/earth-environment/article6895907.ece

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

Mars ice map reveals past climate change

Using laser technology from the Italian Space Agency, a map constructed from data gathered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed the remnants of a formerly vast ice sheet located between the Martian equator and its North Pole.

What remains of the ice is now scattered below rocky debris on the planet’s surface, with portions that extend to a kilometer in depth.

Scientists estimate that the intact ice sheet existed some tens to hundreds of millions of years ago, and Dr. Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory stated, “It's definitely a record of a different climate period.”

While land contours have indicated for decades that Mars contained water and ice, this first-ever confirmation through laser technology also supports the likelihood of previous periods of climate change.

Our appreciation, Dr. Plaut and scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Italian Space Agency for sharing these intriguing findings. May such valuable information continue to expand our understanding of our planetary neighbor and indeed our Earth.

Speaking during an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand, Supreme Master Ching Hai reminded that past events on Mars are an opportunity for us to act in protecting our own fragile climate.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We only need to look at our own neighboring planets, Mars and Venus, to see that the vision is bleak, is disastrous, if we don’t make the right choice,the right change now.

Any planetary scientist knows that Mars and Venus went through dramatic atmospheric changes in the past, similar to what we have begun to experience right now.

Long ago, Mars and Venus were once a lot like our planet - they had water, life, and people similar to us. But the inhabitants of Mars and Venus destroyed their respective planetary homes because they raised too much livestock, and the gases released triggered an irreversible greenhouse gas effect, plus poisonous hydrogen sulfide in the case of Mars.

So let’s not end up like either Mars or Venus, our neighboring planets. Humanity must uphold a gentler, higher standard for the Earth to continue supporting life.

http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-ice-sheet-map-climate.html

Pamela Anderson speaks for seals and the environment

The Canadian-born actress, a vegetarian spokesperson for the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), recently organized a media event in Vancouver, Canada calling for the cancellation of the Canadian seal hunt this year.

Prior to the event, the actress had written a letter of appeal to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, asking him to spare the seal pups, whose survival is already threatened by habitat loss due to global warming.

Pamela Anderson - Vegetarian (F): This is another reason to stop the seal hunt - the environmental information that the Canadian government has now found is that the ice caps are the lowest in the last 30 years.

We are even asking this year to stop it, so we could actually have a bigger population, because their population is going to be nonexistent pretty soon.

VOICE: With petition signatures that have reached the prime minister numbering half a million thus far, members of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association also showed support, and had a chance to present Pamela Anderson with an SOS bag on the vegan solution to climate change.

Accepting the gift, Ms. Anderson shared her encouragement for the actions people can engage in to stop animal cruelty as well as protect the environment.

Pamela Anderson (F): I have loved animals since I was little, so I was an animal activist since I was little. There’s just so much difference we could make. I think it’s just really important to do whatever you can.

Supreme Master TV (M): Is our diet part of that solution?

Pamela Anderson (F): Yes! Being vegetarian is a great way to a healthy environment. It is better than driving a hybrid car. Factory farming is one of the leading causes of global warming as well.

So, there are lots of conscious things we can do. The more I find out, the more I change my life. I just think that’s what we all need to do.

VOICE: A grateful salute, Pamela Anderson for your valiant and compassionate shining star to protect the seals and the planet. Indeed, may all of humanity foster the conscientious and life-saving vegan lifestyle for the wholesome future of our fellow co-inhabitants and the Earth.

As often mentioned in her wish to safeguard all beings, Supreme Master Ching Hai highlighted the connection between our treatment of animals and the planet’s climate crisis during a November 2009 videoconference in Washington, DC, USA.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The whales and the seals are some of the many animals who literally radiate love to balance our planet. They were born here to help us to fill in the void of love that we lost through our inconsiderate actions.

But sadly, we kill them. If we kill these beings, we’re really killing ourselves. We take out the balance that is greatly needed at this time, in our dire situation.

Please inform yourself of the unimaginable, utterly cruel and utmost inhumane treatment involved in the meat and dairy production, or fishing even, as well as lab experiments or the animal fur industry.

How can we degrade ourselves into such a heartless state of being, by supporting these cruel, heart-wrenching practices? I hope it is clear that the best, and really the only way, is to be vegan.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Pamela+Anderson+calls+cancellation+seal+hunt... +Vancouver+media+event/2622875/story.html

Climate change to bring more intense tropical storms

A study by the United Nation’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has analyzed four years of peer-reviewed research on the ocean storms that are known as hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in Asia.

Using a mid-range forecast of 2.8-degrees Celsius temperature rise for global warming, the WMO research forecast future storms with more powerful winds and higher amounts of rainfall.

Moreover, some areas would likely see big jumps in the number of severe weather patterns.

The WMO also reported that these findings were consistent with ones published in 2007 by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, noting the likelihood of more intense cyclones, with additional rainfall and higher wind speeds.

United Nations World Meteorological Organization scientists, we sincerely appreciate your careful work that alerts the public to the likelihood of such perilous extreme weather.

Let us join in wholehearted efforts toward planet-protecting lifestyles to ensure a stable home for future generations. Expressing her concern as she has on many occasions for humanity’s plight, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of such intensifying weather extremities during an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If we look around, we can see the growing frequencies and strength of disasters everywhere. Flood events worldwide are now three times higher than in the 1980s. In 2008, there were 40 category 5 storms, the most ever recorded including in the Atlantic, India and Bangladesh, and in the Philippines.

It takes just one category 4 or 5 storm to destroy a major city, just one.
These are truly almost always the consequences of humans’ violent actions. The number 1 action is meat eating. We can stop the disasters, make them go away for good, forever, if all of us switch to the organic vegan diet. Pray it be so.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/tropical-storms-to-be-more-intense-20100222-oo8z.html

New film focuses on climate change in Formosa (Taiwan)

Indian girl speaking before UN delegates (F): I’m so much concerned about climate change, because I don’t want our future generations to question us, just as I’m questioning the need for more concrete action on climate change today.

VOICE: Through compelling facts intermingled with voices of eminent scientists along with powerful music and imagery, a new documentary has been bringing citizens together in shared concern for Formosa’s future in the face of global warming.

The film “±2 Degrees C” was named based on scientists’ conclusion that human survival depends on limiting global temperature rise to within 2 degrees Celsius.

Producer Sisy Chen, a renowned Formosan media personality, said she wished to bring the climate change reality, such as rising sea levels, closer to home.

Sisy Chen – Formosan (Taiwanese) media host, producer of “±2°C” (F): On a global scale, the first group of people who might be wiped out the most vulnerable are those on the islands in the Pacific Ocean and Africa. Next, it affects the Asian countries like Formosa.

VOICE: Based on data from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Central Research Institute, the documentary informs viewers that Formosa’s densely populated areas are in locations vulnerable to disasters; that the island has one of the world’s 10 highest rates of erosion, and that typhoons and heat waves are increasing in severity.

In fact, the film was made deliberately within just six months of Typhoon Morakot, so that it would be widely screened on television and in city and county government venues by the time the next storm season struck.

Chung-Ming Liu – National Taiwan University Climate Change Center (M): Extreme weather events will be happening continuously in the future. We predict that the temperature will hit the record high next year.

VOICE: During the February 22 premiere of the film, the unprecedented gathering of more than 1,000 people was also attended by high-level government officials, including Formosan Premier Wu Den-yih and Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-Pyng.

When asked how global warming should be addressed, President Wang, along with producer Sisy Chen, expressed their support of the veg diet solution.

Wang Jin-pyng – Legislative Yuan President (M): Cows, pigs and so on release gases and feces which are part of the cause of greenhouse gas emissions.

So if you consume less meat, people will raise less livestock. The less livestock raising, the less gas emissions It’s simple logic.

Sisy Chen (F): I am Sisy Chen. “±2 Degrees C,” Be Veg, Go Green, Save the Planet.

VOICE: Kudos and our appreciation, Ms. Chen and all involved in the making and promotion of this timely documentary. We join the Formosan people in shared resolve to halt the real cause of climate change, praying that all will do so in time through the most effective organic vegan diet.

In an October 2009 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan), Supreme Master Ching Hai once more shared her concern for those who suffer from the effects of our urgent planetary situation, asking governments and citizens to quickly take proper action.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We also do not forget all the islands and other countries who are submerging or sinking or disappearing or disappeared because of climate change. My heart is troubled every day, thinking of all these innocent people and all the defenseless animals who have to suffer in this great upheaval we call climate change.

But we still have time. We could not reverse the effect of climate change in the past. Whatever happened due to typhoons and floods and earthquakes, etc., we could not reverse the effect. But we could stop future disasters by returning to the compassionate vegan diet and encouraging others to do the same. The government has the power to do this.

I beg all the governments of the world, please, do this before it’s too late, for the sake of your citizens and your own children as well.

* This documentary is also available for downloading at its official website http://正負2度c.tw

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

India halts genetically modified food crops

Citing concerns for human health and the environment, the government of India has decided not to introduce genetically modified brinjals (eggplant), the nation’s third most important crop after potatoes and tomatoes.

India’s Environment and Forestry Minister Jairam Ramesh stated that although the measure was proposed as a way to stabilize food prices and ease impacts of climate change such as declining yields, concerns expressed by environmentalists and farmers as well as the potential hazard to public health made it too large a risk.

Research thus far has shown that besides human health risks, genetically modified crops also require increased application of pesticides and have not been noted to produce higher crop yields.

We thank Your Excellency and India for your careful consideration and wish to safeguard human health. Wishing that organic plant-based farming may continue to flourish in India, providing wholesome nourishment for all.

In a March 2009 videoconference in Mexico, Supreme Master Ching Hai cautioned about the effects of such practices as genetic modification, offering an alternative that also addresses climate change.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Genetically modified food is not very good for health. We don't need that. If we don't raise animals, we have enough food, extra for everybody.

Even to feed freely to the hungry people, free of charge. And still have 1 billion portions left over. And organic farming yields plentiful food and, at the same time, absorbs 40% of CO2.

So, organic farming is good for everything and good for us, and good for the farmers to have a new job, good for our health, good for the planet.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB40001424052748704140104575058383515565108.html
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1964217,00.html
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g3zjL-uMZ2_dQ6fh0YeAm7YMPMlQD9DT2D205
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F0RS20100216
http://www.namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=110107

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

Media report: Irish celebrity spreads veg solution with Supreme Master Television

Recently in the Environmental Data Interactive Exchange, or Edie.net, Europe’s largest environmental website that has become a main news source for environmental professionals, journalist Luke Walsh wrote about Irish top model and Miss World 2003 Rosanna Davison’s recent campaign to promote the vegan diet.

Titled “Former Miss World backs veganism for climate change,” the article stated: “Rosanna Davison is fronting the campaign for Supreme Master Television, featured on TV3 in Ireland, on buses and the Luas – Dublin's light rail tram system.

The campaign is aimed at encouraging people to re-think their attitudes to animal treatment generally and to eating meat in particular, due to its carbon footprint.”

Ms. Davison, daughter of the world-famous Irish singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh, had been a vegetarian since childhood. She decided to be vegan after working with Supreme Master Television and learning about how only a pure veg diet could most effectively stop animal cruelty while sustaining personal and planetary health.

Edie news cited Ms. Davison as saying: “Watching the effect meat production and meat consumption is having on the world around us in terms of cruelty, emissions and health issues, I was determined to totally cut out dairy, eggs and cheese and have a completely vegan diet. It's going well so far and I feel great.

I've loads of energy and just feel so much more invigorated as a result.”

Many thanks, Mr. Luke Walsh and Environmental Data Interactive Exchange, for your articles that inform readers about global warming’s most effective solution. We also extend our appreciation to you, Ms. Rosanna Davison, for your noble initiative as a beloved role model. May all of Ireland and the world join in preserving our planet with the smart, rejuvenating, and lifesaving vegan diet.

http://www.edie.net/about.asp?channel=0
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=17547&channel=0&title=Former+miss+world+backs+veganism+for+climate+change

Studies show warming oceans driving Greenland ice loss

With melting of the country’s massive ice sheet having more than doubled in the last decade, a study led by scientist Dr. Fiammetta Straneo of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, USA found that warmer waters coming into Greenland’s fjords are eroding the foundation of their glaciers, causing them to descend more quickly into the ocean.

While such an effect is known in the Antarctic, this is the first time it has been indicated in Greenland as well. Senior research scientist Eric Rignot of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the USA conducted a similarly-timed study, which found that up to 75% of Greenland’s ice loss was due to these warming waters.

Climatologists have stated that the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet could rise sea levels by 7 meters, which would cause low-lying coastal cities and deltas worldwide to vanish.

Thank you Drs. Straneo, Rignot and colleagues for your work that shows more of the alarming effects of global warming. May we swiftly turn to eco-actions and kinder deeds to restore our Earth’s balance.

Supreme Master Ching Hai, who has frequently spoken of the actions needed to alleviate our planetary crisis, again addressed the urgency of the situation during an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Everything is heating up so quickly, as we can see from the scientists’ reports on such alarming upheaval, such as rising sea levels and glaciers melting. So we must work quickly to avoid such unwanted outcomes. And the most effective way, as I have mentioned, is the organic vegan diet, organic vegetable farming.

This is also the fastest way to reverse the increased warming climate to prevent further damage and disaster. The more people who understand and change, the more chance our world will be saved in time.

http://www.france24.com/en/20100214-greenland-ice-loss-driven-warming-seas-study
http://news.oneindia.in/2010/02/15/globalwarming-taking-giant-bites-out-of-underbellies-ofgre.html

Copenhagen pledges will not stop planetary demise

US researchers report that the commitments made by governments so far to reduce greenhouse gases are not enough to avert runaway climate change.

A collaborative analysis conducted by a group of scientists from several leading institutions showed that the reductions pledged in Copenhagen would still lead to temperature increases of approximately 3.9 degrees Celsius.

Expert climatologists have already stated that an increase of more than 3 degrees Celsius will bring the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, along with devastating water shortages in the Southern hemisphere, a disastrous loss of species and decreases in food production.

Earlier in the week, European researchers also confirmed that the Copenhagen commitments would lead to a global temperature rise of more than 3 degrees Celsius.

US and European researchers, our sincere appreciation for your work that clearly shows we must do more if we are to save our planet.

May we swiftly choose the most effective ways to live in harmony with the environment. In a speech addressing government magistrates and judges of Mexico City, Mexico, Supreme Master Ching Hai once more urged the world’s governments to go beyond protocol with actions to halt global warming.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: At this most urgent time for the planet, I beseech your honorable graces to please help your country and our world spare lives from the impending global warming calamity.

If you don’t, there will be too massive a catastrophe, too immense a suffering upon people, families, the children, that our conscience might never be able to bear it.

We eliminate most of the human-made greenhouse gases by simply adopting the animal-free vegan organic lifestyle.

This also leads to considerable financial savings for world governments. We cannot wait for the sustainable energy and green technology to be available and used by everyone. It would be too late.

We must become vegan to save our planet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/12/copenhagen-carbon-emission-pledges

Slow Arctic ice growth foretells summer melt

US scientists have noted minimal ice formation this winter in the Arctic, with only 34,000 square kilometers’ growth per day in January compared to more than twice that rate in the 1980s.

Warmer temperatures were observed to be a contributing factor in the slowed ice growth. US National Snow and Ice Data Center Director Dr. Mark Serreze cautioned that such a winter phenomenon would likely mean a bigger summer melt, stating that this year’s winter ice would create only a thin layer that takes less energy to melt the following summer.

This process in turn exposes additional areas of darker ocean waters, which absorb more heat than the reflective ice and accelerate melting even further.

Dr. Mark Serreze: We will probably see, for example, an accelerated hydrologic cycle, because we were talking earlier that you warm it up, you put more water vapor into the atmosphere. Well water vapor fuels storms. So you would have, for example, more and more severe weather events.

Many thanks, Dr. Serreze and colleagues at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, for this vital information about the disappearing Arctic ice. As we all realize the danger of the Earth’s changing climate, let us make united steps toward lifestyles that return stability to our planet.

Speaking as on previous occasions with concern for our planet’s urgent state, Supreme Master Ching Hai emphasized during a September 2009 videoconference in Japan the dangers posed by such melting, while offering the most effective solution.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I think we’d better heed the warning of the scientists because otherwise it’s not just the ice melt, maybe we will melt also. I hope not. I hope not! And we are working frantically toward saving the planet. So if we be vegetarian, our good karma of saving lives will in turn reward us with our lives saved. That’s all I can say.

And the more vegetarian people join us, the more time we will have. That is the thing. Well, green technology, planting trees does help, but this is very secondary, very little. But the vegetarian diet will help stop 80% of the global warming and save our lives.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6135TD20100204

Rising levels of fish contaminants linked to climate change

Scientists studying aquatic life in Canada’s Mackenzie River have found that levels of toxic substances such as mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the damaging insecticide DDT have risen dramatically in recent years.

Over just the past decade, the mercury levels of certain fish have increased by 160%, while PCBs have jumped to being six times higher and DDT has tripled.

Their rise is attributed to Arctic melt, with air-borne pollutant particles that were deposited over time in the pristine environment now being released as temperatures warm and the ice continues to melt.

The researchers believe that this has also led to a growth in the algae, zooplankton and other life forms that absorb the pollutants from the water and are in turn consumed by the fish.

Canadian scientists, our appreciation for your work that again highlights the delicate interconnections of life on our planet.

May we show our deep respect for environmental balance by adopting the organic, vegan diet. Supreme Master Ching Hai, who has frequently addressed the importance of every being’s existence on Earth, spoke once more of our need to be good environmental stewards during a May 2009 videoconference in Togo.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The marine ecosystem is in big trouble right now from global warming already. Further fishing will only make matters worse. Also, mercury poisoning causes problems to aquatic life even before it gets to the humans. These are things we need to address in trying to save our planet, not to talk about our health also. Eating fish will definitely not help this.

The coastal ecosystems will also be affected greatly by diseases and algae blooms that release toxins. The ocean is a wonderful recycler that normally can purify the water and create nutrients and turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, etc. The ocean is a miracle. But if we ruin the ecosystems , this will spell disaster for us.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It’s better for our body, for our conscience, for our mind, and for the planet to stay away from fish. We should be vegan.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/mackenzie-rivers-fish-contaminated-with-dangerous-toxins-scientists/article1462248/

Evidence of global warming mounts in Australia

New research indicates that the drought gripping the southwestern part of the nation since the 1970s is rooted in climate change. Drs. Tas van Ommen and Vin Morgan of the Australian Antarctic Division have discovered that the approximately 20% decline in winter rainfall is linked to higher snowfall in East Antarctica, found by viewing ice core samples that date back 750 years.

The scientists’ report showed a type of moisture oscillation that is occurring, with cool, dry air flowing northward toward southwest Australia, bringing very little rain; while warm, moist air flows toward East Antarctica, causing increased snowfall.

Previous research has already linked a rise in greenhouse gases to changes observed in the southern hemisphere’s atmospheric circulation.

Dr. van Ommen, Dr. Morgan and associates, many thanks for this insight into Australia’s troubling dry conditions. May we all quickly implement lifestyles that tread more lightly for the restoration of harmony and balance on our planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has long cautioned about the human disruptions to climate balance, as during a September 1994 lecture in Singapore where she also explained how our actions can help.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Recently, our world has a lot of disasters, like drought. And then dry climate and heated-up planet due to a lot of weather changing. And then the more it heats up, the more dry.

The more dry, the less trees.
The less trees, the less rain.
The less rain, the less trees, and this is the devil circle.
And every corner of the earth, affects the whole planet.

Therefore, if you yourself; your heart, your mind, your speech, your actions are pure, how much beneficial can it be to this planet?

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The vegan diet is good for you; it would purify your spirit, purify your aura, and make you clear, inner and outside, and protect you.

http://www.physorg.com/news184771509.html

Galapagos fur seals migrate to Peruvian waters

The Peru-based Organization of Research and Conservation of Aquatic Animals (Orca) recently reported that a colony of 30 fur seals had traveled some 1500 kilometers from their original Galapagos Islands home to settle in the waters of northern Peru.

This first-ever instance of the fur seals moving to an area remote to the Galapagos is being attributed to warmer Peruvian waters due to global warming.

The Peruvian Geophysics Institute indicated that the average sea surface temperature in northern Peru has risen 6 degrees Celsius over the past 10 years and thus now closely matches the sea temperature of the fur seals’ original native habitat.

More fur seals and other marine species are thus expected to act similarly in migrating to Peruvian waters.

Our appreciation, scientists at the Organization of Research and Conservation of Aquatic Animals and Peruvian Geophysics Institute, for these observations of marine animal response to global warming effects.

May such disrupting signs accelerate our actions toward lifestyles that support a restoration of balance to our planetary home.

As on previous occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke again with concern for the Earth’s fragile balance as she offered ways to encourage both awareness and hope in young people during a May 2009 videoconference in Togo.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: You can show how the migrating birds have to fly farther and farther to find a place to nest, and the polar bears swim longer and longer now because there is no more ice until sometimes they drown of exhaustion, or why the neighboring country has so many floods in recent years, so many disasters, etc.

Tell them how climate change is affecting real lives, real animals, real people, and their own lives as well.

But it’s also important to show the young people that there is still hope; we can still save the planet.

It’s a chance to be true heroes, by being vegan and spread the news of this solution.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7193082/Sea-lions-abandon-Galapagos-Islands-for-warm-Peruvian-waters.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8503397.stm

Tipping points could arrive suddenly

A recent study by Dr. Alan Hastings, professor at University of California, Davis in the USA and one of the world’s foremost mathematical model experts, forecasts that sudden shifts in the Earth’s natural systems could arrive precipitously, without warning. Such tipping points, which could come in response to global warming effects like the disappearance of Arctic sea ice in summer, would lead to more dramatic and relentless changes in climate, in turn disrupting other ecosystems and larger weather patterns.

Other effects that could trigger tipping points include accelerated ice loss from Greenland and the Antarctic, leading to massive sea level rises, and carbon dioxide saturation of ocean waters, with acidification that would endanger all life.

Dr Hastings offered a warning summary of the study’s implications as he stated, “This means that some effects of global climate change on ecosystems can be seen only once the effects are dramatic.

By that point, returning the system to a desirable state will be difficult, if not impossible.” Dr. Hastings, we are grateful for your expert voice on this urgent topic.

Let us avert such disturbing consequences by adopting harmonious and sustainable lifestyles now. Speaking with concern about such sudden environmental changes, Supreme Master Ching Hai highlighted the key to their prevention during an October 2008 global warming videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: There’s no other way we can prevent such a disaster like this. We can only wait and see because we don’t know when it will strike us and where and what we can prepare anyway.

Even if we stockpile some food and all that, it is not always helpful. It just makes the world food shortage worsen. So, we can only rely on the good karma that we can create. And that we can do.

We can save ourselves right now by turning into vegan diet which is benevolent, which is very compassionate, and by being compassionate to others, Heaven will be compassionate to us.

Everything will return to a more peaceful abundance because Heaven is merciful. And we have to start to be merciful like Heaven; then we can experience Heaven.

http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9389
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100209191445.htm

Sea deforestation could be another tipping point

Recent studies in Japan have revealed that certain underwater areas of once lush sea grass have all but disappeared. Such regions have been called the “cradle of the seas” because they supply vital food, oxygen and habitat for fish. However, when the seaweed beds vanish, so does all other life, as observed near Shizuoka Prefecture, where an underwater area previously filled with species such as abalone, flounder, sea bream and others is now barren and empty.

According to the Marine Ecology Research Institute in Tokyo, climate change is a contributing factor, as the warming waters cause certain fish to stay active in the winter rather than hibernate, resulting in continued feeding on the seagrass.

Moreover, humans’ revival efforts through replanting alone have thus far been unsuccessful, with a study of 129 seaweed beds indicating that a tipping point may have been reached beyond which no restoration is possible.

A report from Japan’s Environment Ministry corroborated, stating that when the environment changes beyond the stage that the seaweed beds can regenerate naturally, attempts to stem their loss could be too late.

Our earnest appreciation, Japan’s Environment Ministry, Marine Ecology Research Institute and all participating scientists for citing yet another aspect of the dire state of our oceans.

Let us quickly adopt more sustainable ways to protect the Earth and her amazing seas. Speaking during an interview for the July 12, 2009 edition of the Irish Sunday Independent, Supreme Master Ching Hai emphasized as in previous times the critical actions that would not only save lives but would restore the entire ecosphere.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The truth is that, scientifically speaking, we have a short time left because we have already waited too long to act. Leading scientists and organizations are now saying this as well, especially as they find that the tipping points, which indicate irreversible damage to the Earth, are being reached much faster than anyone had previously thought and calculated.

See, We need the solution, which is organic life-saving vegan diet, then our future is transformed. Life will quickly become better than what you could even imagine. With no more killing, humans and animals alike will flourish in peace, and the world will be restored to beauty and happiness.

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201002070166.html

Tibet’s climate is dangerously warming

With data that was recorded across 29 observatories, including the base of Mount Everest, China’s Meteorological Administration reported that 2009 temperatures were the warmest on record and that precipitation was the lowest in nearly 40 years.

Saying that the Tibet Autonomous Region is particularly vulnerable to climate change effects, Zheng Guoguang, head of China’s Meteorological Administration stated, “The impact of global warming has accelerated glacial shrinkage and the melting glaciers have swollen Tibet’s lakes... If the warming continues, millions of people … would face floods in the short term and drought in the long run.”

Many thanks Mr. Zheng and China’s Meteorological Administration, for these factual observations that highlight our global predicament. As we pray for the safety of people in Tibet’s Autonomous Region and beyond, let us all hasten our efforts to restore the ecosphere.

As on previous occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke with concern of the rising toll of climate change during an October 2009 videoconference in Hong Kong, along with the actions needed to avert a planetary crisis.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Tens of thousands of lakes and rivers throughout the world are drying out now due to global warming and glaciers melting. It is thus only a matter of time Knowing this, it would be best if we adopt the lifestyle that will restore the stability of our environment and benefit all beings in the world, which surely is the compassionate way of life, beginning with a vegan diet – no animal products.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/TOE61402P.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/05/tibet-warming-china

Vanishing topsoil foreshadows impending food crisis

A study presented by Professor John Crawford at the recent Carbon Farming Conference held in New South Wales, Australia, focused on the dangerous loss of topsoil throughout the world.

Some 75 billion tons are being eroded annually through a combination of agricultural mismanagement and climate change effects, with livestock grazing also causing significant losses.

In the United States alone, 54% of pasture land is overgrazed, with more than 100 tons of topsoil being lost per hectare per year. At the current rates, experts say that recent events such as the major dust storms in Australia will become more and more frequent, with a vanishing of the resource within decades.

Saying that restorative actions are needed now, Professor Crawford recommended a combination of practices, including organic farming methods to help rebuild and replace carbon in the soil.

Dr. Crawford and associates, we are grateful for your research that highlights the value of this imperiled natural resource. May such information motivate more and more people to adopt lifestyles that protect the Earth for ourselves and future generations.

Supreme Master Ching Hai, who frequently reminds of humanity’s crucial role in environmental conservation, spoke of the benefits of organic vegan farming during an interview for the September 2009 edition of The House Magazine.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: There are so many benefits from organic vegan farming, as well as many benefiting parties. First, for the farmers, organic vegan farming is productive, saving 37% more energy and even more water than conventional farming methods.

Next, there are environmental benefits, like the topsoil stays and proves better at withstanding floods and hurricanes. Furthermore, organic vegan farming will halt the runoff of chemical fertilizers that have created monstrous dead zones in the ocean.

Organic soil matter also absorbs CO2 so effectively that the Rodale Institute calls organic vegan farming a powerful strategy to reduce global warming, by up to 40% of all CO2 emissions now in the atmosphere.

Finally, we all benefit from better health because it’s free of toxins and abundant in nutrients, without the genetic modification and cancer-causing pesticides.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/6828878/Britain-facing-food-crisis-as-worlds-soil-vanishes-in-60-years.html
http://carbonfarming.blogspot.com/
http://cspinet.org/EatingGreen/pdf/arguments3.pdf
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/24/topsoil-farming-defra

Mid-east countries unite to find water solutions

At a recent conference held in Amman, Jordan, experts gathered to discuss the growing water crisis due to climate change. Organized by Jordan’s Ministry of Agriculture along with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and other partners, participants spoke of how to counteract the alarming decrease in water supply to the region.

More than 150 villages were abandoned during 2007 and 2008 in Syria alone due to climate-related drought, and the United Nations just announced the nation’s worst dry spell in four decades, affecting some 1.3 million people.

In an effort to address the situation, the Water and Livelihoods Initiative has been launched, a ten-year collaborative project involving Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen.

With an initial US$1 million in funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), each country is contributing plans for sustainable land and water management.

Nations such as Morocco and Jordan have already shown promise in implementing practices such as harvesting water from rainfall runoff as well as supplemental irrigation.

Jordan’s Ministry of Agriculture, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, all other participating partners and countries, we laud your resource-sustaining goals.

Wishing you every success as we pray that all governments awaken to the ultimate water savings found in the plant-based lifestyle. Concerned for the Earth's urgent state, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often addressed the actions needed to replenish our currently dwindling resources, as during a video message for a June 2009
climate change conference in Mexico.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We can stop water shortage. While droughts are plaguing more populations, we cannot afford to waste water. Meat production uses massive amounts of water, as you know. It takes up to 1,200 gallons of fresh and good clean water to produce just one serving of beef. In contrast, a full vegan meal costs only 98 gallons of water. That is 90 plus percent less. So, if we want to stop water shortage and to preserve precious water we have to stop animal products.

Adopting a plant-based diet can halt as much as 80% of global warming, eradicate world hunger, stop war, promote peace, and it will free up the Earth’s water as well as many other precious resources, offering a lifeline for the planet and for humanity. In short, it will very quickly halt many of the global problems facing us right now.

Therefore, it is vital that we do our part to bring to the public’s attention the urgent climate change issues and its solutions; the foremost being the vegan diet, to safeguard our precious planet.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87991
http://www.firstscience.com/home/news/agriculture/scientists-unite-to-combat-water-scarcity-solutions-yield-more-crop-per-drop-in-drylands_78493.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9714c514-10e3-11df-9a9e-00144feab49a,s01=1.html
http://www.speedy-fit.co.uk/Climate-Change/Drought-Drives-Residents-from-160-Syrian-Villages.html

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

Aquaculture endangers wild fish

According to recent research led by Professor Rosamond L. Naylor of Stanford University in California, USA, more than 50% of fish consumed by humans now comes from fish farms, or aquaculture.

The report, authored by Dr. Naylor and other international scientists, indicated that between 1995 and 2007, production of farmed fish around the world nearly tripled in volume.

However, along with the rise in aquaculture has been a corresponding increase in fish meal used to feed the farmed fish, with five pounds of wild fish being consumed, for instance, for every pound of farmed salmon produced. Even vegetarian fish such as Chinese carp and tilapia are now given fish meal garnered from wild ocean fish, thus furthering endangering species such as anchovies and sardines.

The researchers warn that this exponential rise of aquaculture, once thought to relieve pressure from depleting wild fish, is now being seen as an additional threat to their survival.

Dr. Naylor and international team of scientists, we appreciate your factual account of the true cost of farmed fish. May we all be reminded that our planet depends on the oceans’ vibrant life and choose from the wide assortment of healthful and delicious plant-based foods. Concerned for our fragile ecosphere, Supreme Master Ching Hai highlighted again the critical need for the more considerate care of our fish co-inhabitants during a May 2009 videoconference in Togo.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Fish farms are like on-land factory farms. They have similar problems environmentally, with impacts that include polluting the bodies of waters. The farmed fish are contained in big netted areas off the ocean shores with uneaten food, fish waste, antibiotics, or other drugs and chemicals that pass into the surrounding waters where they harm our ecosystems and pollute our drinking sources.

Depleting wild fish stocks also. Fish like salmon that are eaten by humans are usually fed huge amounts of other fish like anchovies. This practice also endangers sea animals, like sea lions and birds

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Fish are God’s creations that we should also care for, respect, protect, not to eat. We should be looking for ways to help the fish, to protect them and all the marine life from the devastating effects of climate change. Once we start thinking in this way, we are in a better position for ourselves, for the fish and for the planet.

http://www.naturalnews.com/028059_salmon_fish_stocks.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090907162320.htm
http://www.ratical.com/renewables/TherapHoil.html

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

“Global Warming and Health” Summit held in Formosa (Taiwan)

Findings on climate change presented by Dr. Liu Shaw-Chen, Director of the Environmental Change Research Center of Academia Sinica in Formosa showed that the duration and intensity of typhoons and rainstorms on the island have doubled within 45 years, while the rate of sea level rise in Formosa is higher than the world’s average.

In response to the urgency of these and other global warming effects, the National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin Branch and the Yunlin County government held their first climate change forum in Yunlin.

Participants called on the government and medical professionals to act decisively in reducing meat consumption to halt global warming, while also averting a human health crisis.

Ming-Been Lee, President of Taiwan Medical Association, Formosa (M): From the medical field, we already found out that meat-eating is one of the factors that affects global warming. So as we talk specifically about health issues,of course we should emphasize vegan, plant-based food.

Dr. Rui-Yun Xu – Attending physician, Hua-Lian Tzu Chi Hospital , Formosa (F): Vegetarians have a purer and healthier body. We see that from many of our past surveys and many medical reports.

VOICE: Initiatives to encourage the veg trend, such as that already launched by the Yunlin County government, were also discussed.

Zhi-Fen Su, Yunlin County Magistrate, Formosa (F): We encourage all schools to go meatless at least one day a week. From Meatless Mondays, we gradually promote and extend to two days a week. We hope this would allow all of us humans to focus on our own health as well as the harmonious relationship with natural resources, and begin to take this kind of issue seriously.

VOICE: National Taiwan University Hospital, Yunlin County government, and all summit dignitaries and participants, many thanks for your efforts to encourage society toward the manifold benefits of the plant-based diet.

May everyone swiftly turn to this nutritious fare to halt climate change in time and ensure the health of all. As mentioned on previous occasions in addressing the urgent state of our Earth, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke during an October 2009 videoconference in Hong Kong of the personal and planet- saving benefits of the
organic vegan lifestyle.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Everybody knows organic vegetables are very healthy. You see, if you eat organic vegetables, you will hardly have to go to the hospital and all the money we can save to better education for the children, better care for the elderly, and building more beautiful roads, more equipment, inventions, and use it more for sustainable energies, for free for everybody. The benefit has no ends.

It’s high time we turn away from the harmful, unsustainable meat business and go toward a more civilized, more efficient, more sustainable, more humane means, namely organic vegan. And it will save the planet.

In a letter to the United Nations, US climate envoy Todd Stern confirms the United States’ goal of reducing emissions 17% from 2005 levels by 2020.

http://www.france24.com/en/20100128-us-affirms-climate-goals-un

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

US scientist assesses regional impact of climate change

Professor Steve Running of the University of Montana, former member of the Nobel laureate UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), recently published results of a study assessing the impact of global warming to the Rocky Mountains in the western USA. His findings include a forecast that climate change in the region was likely to significantly affect wildlife as well as ecosystems and the economy.

The report specifically warned of temperature increases having dramatic impact on forests in the coming decades, with a corresponding worsening of droughts that would incur epidemics of insect infestations and catastrophic wildfires throughout the states of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

Professor Running, we appreciate this informative report, despite its disturbing implications for the iconic Rocky Mountain range. Let us join in concerted care and act now to bring a sustainable future for our planet.

In speaking of her concern about the consequences of global warming, Supreme Master Ching Hai has also offered a solution to alleviate its effects, as during an August 2008 videoconference with our Association members

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Even if we plant more trees, there will be something else happening, maybe wildfire, or the beetle will be more in abundance, and then they will also begin to eat away all the forest.

So this is a really terrible situation. The only thing is we have to be morally fit. And have to be virtuous. Otherwise, there’s no getting away from the bad karma, meaning the retribution, for whatever we do.

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/long_drought_ahead_from_global_warming_study_says/C41/L41/
http://www.missoulian.com/news/local/article_544db786-fb4e-11de-805b-001cc4c002e0.html
http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/tempunits.html

Pakistan adversely affected by climate change

A new report by the UK-based charity Oxfam has found that although Pakistan emits only a small fraction of the world’s total greenhouse gases, it is being significantly impacted by global warming.

Noting more frequent and intense extreme weather events along with hotter summers and warmer winters, the report stated that some 40% of residents have become increasingly vulnerable to coastal rainfall, increased cyclones, flooding in some areas and drought in others.

Besides the property devastation caused by extreme weather events, farmers report that many crops are also destroyed by floods or diminished by shortened agricultural cycles overall. The resulting losses are causing poverty levels to rise.

We are deeply saddened to learn of the suffering of Pakistan’s gracious people. Let us unite in protecting our planet for the sake of all cherished inhabitants.

In these urgent times, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often reminded of the actions that we can take to alleviate the tolls of global warming, as during a June 2008 videoconference with our Association members in London, England.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It's just getting worse nowadays, more obvious. You just have to tune in to any TV channels, any radio, read any newspapers; they are full of reports, almost daily, about world hunger, and the shortage of food, unaffordable food prices, unaffordable daily necessities, basic necessities.

And unprecedented frequent disasters. And crop failures due to bad weathers. And the non-stoppable sea rising levels, high priced fuels, shortages, incurable or strange new diseases... all of these are happening now!

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Veganism is the only solution. It's the best, the fastest solution.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I pray that people in the world wake up on time and just forsake that piece of meat; then everything will be just fine. Everything will be beautiful, nice, peaceful.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/13+climate-change-affecting-crop-output,-says-oxfam-610-za-04

Methane emissions foretell runaway climate change

Scientists at Edinburgh University in Scotland have observed a 31% increase in methane emitted by high latitude permafrost, or Arctic tundra, in just the past five years. They also note that global warming in the Arctic is occurring at twice the rate as anywhere else on Earth, with some regions having already warmed by 2.5 degrees Celsius.

Dr. Phillippe Ciais with the Laboratory for Climate Sciences and the Environment in France reported in 2009 that vast stores of methane could be released with just a 2 degree Celsius average global rise. As Arctic soils store billions of tons of the gas, which has far more warming potential than carbon dioxide, the thawing of this region could create what has been called a “ticking timebomb” that would overwhelm any human efforts to halt it.

Dr. Ciais and University of Edinburgh researchers, we appreciate your observations and their resounding call to action. Let us step urgently while we still have time toward sustainable solutions that preserve our planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often emphasized the critical danger of triggering such a methane release, as well as what we can do to halt it, as during September 2009 videoconference in South Korea.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I would say that the most serious one is the frightening prospect of runaway global warming, described by scientists as the conditions that will trigger out-of-control climate change effects.

This runaway warming of the climate could easily be caused by melting permafrost, which is the frozen soil extending across the vast expanse of the Arctic tundra.

As the permafrost melts, it releases methane stored underground. Since 2007, scientists have seen more and more evidence of methane from permafrost melt, with recent discoveries of pure methane gas bubbling up from
the bottom of the Arctic lakes in both northern Canada and Russia.

The more people who eliminate meat and, indeed, all animal products from their lives, the more we have a chance to save the planet and not only that, to actually restore our earthly home to her original grace and beauty and even more so, more than what we have known, more beautiful, more abundant, more peace, more gladness than what we have known up to now.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/14/arctic-permafrost-methane
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8459770.stm
http://www.news.com.au/arctic-greenhouse-gas-emissions-jump-30pc/story-e6frflrr-1225820280873

Seven-foot sea level rises ‘inevitable’

Authors Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young have written a book called “The Rising Sea” that forecasts much higher sea levels than previously suggested. Dr. Pilkey is Professor emeritus at Duke University in the USA and Dr. Young is Professor of geosciences at Western Carolina University. Through their combined expertise, they point out, for instance, that although the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated a two-foot rise by the end of the century, this did not include ice melt from Greenland or the Antarctic.

Moreover, in the two years since the IPCC report was released, increasing evidence points to accelerating melt in both those locations, with many climate scientists now saying that the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will be one of the main drivers of sea level rise during this century.

Drs. Pilkey and Young go on to state that the ramifications of rising oceans are enormous: Agriculture will be disrupted, water supplies salinized, storms and flood waters will reach ever further inland, along with the creation of millions of environmental refugees.

Drs. Pilkey and Young, our thanks for this updated forecast, despite its dire implications. May governments realize the gravity of lobal warming and act now to save our planet.

During a March 2009 videoconference for the Juice Fast for Peace in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed the emerging crisis of rising sea levels, highlighting the most effective and indeed only solution.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Where are we going with this kind of rising levels? Even if we dig a hole… Nowadays, they have something like the tube ready for you, like a room, and then you can put it in the earth to protect yourself from climate change, from gases and all that, but how can we protect ourselves in this case when the sea level rises 70 meters and buries everything in its wake? And no more food, no more agriculture, nothing! No animals even to eat. Even if we want to eat meat, there will be nothing left for us. We have to change to a vegan diet, animal-free diet. Animal industry must be out. That’s it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/15/sea-level-climate-change
http://islandpress.org/bookstore/details.php?prod_id=1760

Trees absorb less carbon as climate warms

A new study by the University of Colorado at Boulder in the USA indicates that forests actually soak up less CO2 in longer, warmer growing seasons. Contrary to what was previously understood, this new research shows that decreased snowpack associated with climate change causes a corresponding decrease
in CO2 absorption by sub-alpine forests.

In analyzing the water content of the stems and needles of trees, the researchers found that even as late as September and October, 60% of the moisture contained in the trees could be traced back to spring snow melt.

As noted by evolutionary biology professor Russell Monson, “Snow is much more effective than rain in delivering water to these forests.

If a warmer climate brings more rain, this won't offset the carbon uptake potential being lost due to declining snowpacks.” Professor Monson and fellow University of Colorado at Boulder scientists, many thanks for these detailed findings about the intricacies of water and carbon absorption in the forests.

Let us act now to preserve the delicate balance of life on our planet. Supreme Master Ching Hai has long emphasized the need for prayer and compassionate living to overcome the dangerous impacts of global warming, as in this August 2009 videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Even living forests, alive forests, if the atmosphere is too hot, the forests also cannot absorb CO2 and they could even release CO2 themselves as well.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We just need to be patient, and praying a lot, praying a lot to all the gods and goddesses, all the divine beings, all the angels, to manifest themselves physically onto this planet and help each and every citizen of the world to awaken to a compassionate lifestyle so that they can escape from this planetary climate change.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: There’s only one escape route that I have told you already Be Veg. That’s the path to go, then maybe we still can have time.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100107183136.htm

The changing tides and lives in the Sundarbands.

A photography exhibit in London, England by photographer Peter Canton and field partner Cris Aoki Watanabe documents the devastation of climate change on one of the most impacted areas of the world – the low-lying Sundarbans in India’s Ganges delta.

The Sundarbans, which means “beautiful forest” in Bengali, have long been considered a region of ecological and cultural importance. However, the photographers were shocked to see the ruins that Cyclone Aila had inflicted in May 2009, as they also documented the increasingly higher water levels and more intense storms.

Families are continually displaced as they have to relocate to shelters at every coming catastrophe.

Livelihoods are at dire stakes with the encroaching salt water contaminating their rice paddies, which renders them useless for the next three years.

With the people’s lifestyles considered to leave one of the lightest carbon footprints, the photojournalists’ exhibit highlights the suffering inflicted by climate change that is wreaking havoc on the isolated and poor.

A resident grieves: “The water level is increasing and the temperature too. We cannot live here, the heat is becoming unbearable. We have received a plastic sheet and have covered our home with it. During the coming monsoon we shall wrap our bodies in the plastic to stay dry. We also have two children and we cannot manage their food either.”

Our hearts are saddened to know of our brethren suffering through the demise of their communities and our planet. May we quickly change our ways and hearts in consideration for our co-inhabitants and the environment. In an October 2009 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan), Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke with concern for all Earth’s residents afflicted by global warming, urging citizens and world leaders to help halt these calamitous changes.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We also do not forget all the islands and other countries who are submerging or sinking or disappearing or disappeared because of climate change. My heart is troubled every day, thinking of all these innocent people and all the defenseless animals who have to suffer in this great upheaval we call climate change.

But we still have time. We could not reverse the effect of climate change in the past. Whatever happened due to typhoons and floods and earthquakes, etc.,

we could not reverse the effect. But we could stop future disasters by returning to the compassionate vegan diet and encouraging others to do the same. The government has the power to do this. I beg all the governments of the world, please, do this before it’s too late, for the sake of your citizens and your own children as well.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/the-sinking-sundarbans-
1862267.html?action=Popup
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/the-sinking-sundarbans-1862267.html

Thailand’s capital sinking due to climate change

The nation’s scientists have expressed growing concern at the 2 to 5 cm per year that Bangkok has been sinking, saying that this coupled with rising sea levels will soon force regions of the city to be abandoned unless drastic and quick action is taken.

Over the years, hundreds of pumping devices and an extensive canal network have been returning floodwaters back to the Chao Praya River, with levees that prevent the water from surging back into the city.

However, estimates by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast nearly 60 centimeter sea level rises by 2050, meaning that Bangkok could face regular flood waters of up to 2 meters high.

The current system could not withstand this kind of increase. Saying that climate change must be prioritized as a current and real threat, Tara Buakamsri, campaign manager for Greenpeace Southeast Asia said, “Bangkok has been identified as one of the climate change hot spots – it will be one of the most affected cities in the world.”

Our thanks, Greenpeace Manager Buakamsri and all Thai researchers who are urging for fast climate action. May world leaders and individual citizens heed your call to avoid climate disaster and save our coastal cities.

In many discussions, including an October 2008 climate change conference with Thai dignitaries and the public, Supreme Master Ching Hai has called for the only sure solution to all climate change effects, in Thailand and across the globe.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We should not emphasize the worst effect of global warming but we should begin to focus on how to prevent this. We have to turn to the opposite direction, which is in the best interest of Thai people and the world.

That is, to live a compassionate lifestyle, to be a vegetarian, better even, vegan, meaning no animal products whatsoever so that the benevolent atmosphere will envelope our planet and of course Thailand.

With protection and blessing from Heaven, we create a shield around us, around our planet by a very compassionate, powerful, benevolent atmosphere. That is the only protection that is safe and everlasting.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87715
http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/52132/2010/00/8-120659-1.htm

Siberian Arctic temperatures and methane emissions sharply increased

Scientists from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks in the USA have reported that the shallow undersea permafrost in Siberia, which until recent years was stable, is now noted as releasing significant amounts of methane, even more than the record highs from Summer 2008.

According to lead scientist Professor Igor Semiletov, who is also head of the International Siberian Shelf Study (ISSS), the region is experiencing the fastest temperature rise of the planet.

Springtime air is currently measured at an average of 4 degrees Celsius higher than in the last three decades of the 20th century. Sudden releases of methane gas are linked to runaway global warming and are considered a factor in the past mass extinction of species.

The Alaskan researchers state that if the current warming conditions continue, the melting of underwater Siberian permafrost would release catastrophic amounts of methane.

Dr. Sergey Kirpotin – Tomsk University (Quote in Russian): As more permafrost melts, more greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. It is absolutely evident. We could be uncertain in quantitative terms, but the fact that this process has a global character, global importance and global scale is absolutely evident.

Vladimir Chuprov – Greenpeace Russia Representative (Quote in Russian): It is essential to come up with a new international agreement that could guarantee the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions – the causes of the global climate change.

Only then could we slow down these negative processes that take place also in the Russian Arctic. Professor Semiletov and University of Alaska colleagues, we appreciate this clarion call about the dire signals being conveyed by our Earth.

May we all deeply realize the grave nature of climate change and act now to protect our shared planetary home. As on many occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai explained during an October 2009 videoconference in Hong Kong the urgent situation of methane gas release, while offering the surest solution.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: There are massive quantities of gases, poisonous and explosive, such as under the permafrost. The gas released then causes more warming, which causes even more gas to be released. This is like a vicious circle. They even call this vicious feedback cycle a so-called “climate time bomb.” We are running out of time, we must wake up soon; we must make a small sacrifice and changes.

I am hopeful. I’m having a positive feeling that it won’t happen to Earth, but we all must work; we cannot sit there and wait for a miracle to happen. God needs us to represent Hirm in compassion, in merciful heart, in the way we live a godly life, befitting God’s children. If we all become vegan and live a virtuous, compassionate life, it won’t happen.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8437703.stm