UK’s Environmental Secretary calls for action to protect biodiversity

In an article written for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s online News, Right Honorable Hilary Benn, Member of Parliament and UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs cautioned that biodiversity worldwide is reaching a point of irreversible loss.

Highlighting the interdependence between human activities and ecological systems, he warned that deforestation, overfishing, and other environmental abuse is impacting sustainability on all levels.

Secretary Benn stated, “…Our ecosystems also sustain us and our economies – purifying our drinking water, producing our food and regulating our climate. Climate change and biodiversity are inextricably linked.

We ignore (such) natural capital at our peril.” His Excellency concluded by urging for continued protective measures with close monitoring for effectiveness, saying that the time to act is now.

Our earnest appreciation, Your Excellency Hilary Benn, for bringing attention to the vital safeguarding of Earth’s biodiversity. Let us be quickly motivated to work together in saving our irreplaceable planet and co-inhabitants.

Concerned for our global welfare, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often emphasized the need to act to protect all beings on Earth, as during July 2008 Heart-Touch Tour videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan).

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Up to now, we have lost so many, not just marine life, but land species. They disappear faster than we can imagine. They suffer a lot, they die, or they completely disappear because of our careless management of the world.

And we just feel like it doesn’t concern us or that we are not responsible for their plight, for the death and disappearance of our precious co-inhabitants. But the fact is that we are responsible.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We have to stop the harmful effect of meat consumption, then we will see a happy, sufficient and satisfied world manifest in front of our eyes in a matter of weeks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8461727.stm
http://www.hilarybennmp.com/41c571d4-9a4c-85c4-3104-a7b2af04423e
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8467746.stm
http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/
http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2010/01/biodiversity_year.html

Impacts of climate change in Madagascar

With three consecutive years of unsuccessful crops, dwindling resources in southern Madagascar have resulted in food insecurity and malnutrition among children. Village chief Valiotaky stated, “When we plant trees, we don't have rain and nothing grows.” By contrast, the country’s northern regions have been inundated with cyclones three times a year.

United Nations World Food Program Deputy Country Director Silvia Caruso said, “Environmental degradation and climate change are building on each other. The results are dramatic in Madagascar.”

Mother in Madagascar (Malagasy Language):I had seeds and planted sweet potatoes. But because there was no rain, they dried up. I noticed my daughter was getting thinner but there was no food and when she got even thinner, I took her to the health center.

Our prayers go to the people of Madagascar for Heaven’s protection and the blessings of more comfortable living conditions. Let us quickly turn to compassionate lifestyles that honor and cherish all beings for the restoration of our shared planetary home. Ever concerned for humanity’s welfare, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressedthe perilous situation facing Africa during a May 2009 videoconference in Togo.

Supreme Master Ching Hai : There are water crises from Sierra Leone to South Africa. Zimbabwe, Somalia, Mauritius, Mozambique, and Sudan – just to name a few – are experiencing worsened droughts that make it difficult to plant crops, thus adding to food shortages and prices rising. Add to this, desertification and deforestation that further degrade the land. Increased temperatures mean erratic rainfall If you’re a farmer, you already can feel that the climate is in trouble.

There are more frequent droughts, heat waves, floods, storms, frosts, freezes, and locusts than before.
If the world becomes vegan as a group, we can remedy the disasters that affect us globally.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: This is something all citizens of the world can do. Be vegan. Be a world-saver.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/23/madagascar-drought