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

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

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

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

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

Antarctic glaciers’ tipping points could be looming closer

A new study from a team of British scientists collaborating from Oxford and Cambridge Universities has found that global warming related changes to aspects of Antarctic glaciers known as grounding lines are speeding ice sheet disintegration, which in is forecast to bring significant global sea level rise.

Noting that in 2004, Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier was already melting 25% faster than 30 years previously, the researchers state that this glacier likely passed a tipping point in 1996. If the same happens to neighboring Thwaite’s Glacier, the world could easily be facing increased sea levels of 52 centimeters.

Lead author Dr. Richard Katz of Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences cautioned of a further disintegration, that of the entire Western Antarctic shelf, as he stated, “The volume of ice locked up in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is equivalent to a sea level rise of around 3.3 meters.

Our model shows how instability in the grounding line, caused by gradual climatic changes, has the potential to reach a 'tipping point' where disintegration of the ice sheet could occur.

He concluded by saying, “We should be concerned about tipping points in West Antarctica and we should do a lot more work to investigate.”

Dr. Katz and all collaborating scientists at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, we appreciate your insights into the impact of global warming on the ice sheets of the Antarctic. May humanity realize now the growing urgency of our situation and adopt lifestyles that save our planet. Concerned for the welfare of all beings,
Supreme Master Ching Hai once again spoke of the the crisis of our warming Earth as well as the way to avert it during an August 2008 videoconference with our Association members in Canada.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The time of disappearing of the ice means also the spelling of trouble for our planet. Of course it would be better if we already saved the planet before the ice melted.

But as it is, we can only do the best we can and trying to inform everybody to save themselves by being vegan. If the ice melts quicker, then, of course, we have shorter time to save the planet.

But nevertheless because people are joining the vegan diet, we still can manage to save the world.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100116103350.htm
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0114-hance_antglacier.html

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

NASA confirms accelerated ice melt in Antarctica

Using a combination of gravity and laser satellite data, scientists at the US National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) studying Antarctic glaciers have confirmed the region’s warming and consequent loss of ice mass.

Measuring the ice loss has required special techniques because many of the glaciers are underwater and do not rest on land. Nonetheless, a major review published in 2009 found that especially those on the Western Peninsula are retreating at an ever accelerating rate.

The recent NASA satellite data confirms those findings, signaling dangerous changes that could result in massive sea level rise. The retreat of the Western Antarctic’s Pine Island Glacier has quadrupled between 1995 and 2006.

Moreover, melting beneath the large ice shelves is speeding their collapse and leading to losses such as the one in 2002, where the vast, 12,000-year-old Larsen B took only three weeks to disintegrate entirely.

National Aeronautics and Space Agency scientists, we appreciate these factual observations of the rapidly changing Antarctic, disturbing as they are. At this urgent time of planetary crisis, let us join in caring and sustainable lifestyles to preserve our planetary home. Supreme Master Ching Hai has often emphasized the critical need to act in reversing global warming and its adverse effects, as 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. This, along with the effect of melting glaciers, are now causing excessive floods but eventually will cause drought and vastly diminished water supplies as well.

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.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/20100108_Is_Antarctica_Melting.html
http://history.nasa.gov/50thannnasaconf/history_50th_bio.html#jump4

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

Venice, Italy among the first cities sinking due to global warming

In the city famed for its lagoons and canals, the renowned St. Mark’s Square now floods more than 100 times a year compared to 7 times annually a century ago. Some experts have expressed concern that Venice may completely disappear in the next century as global warming causes more polar ice melts and sea level rises. Elena Zombardi of the Consorzio Venezia Nuova, the committee appointed by the Italian government to protect the city, affirmed that Venice had long been experiencing the effects of climate change, years before many other cities.

As recently as November 2009, residents and visitors alike were seen donning boots as they had to walk on raised wooden pathways to avoid the high waters.

We are saddened to hear that the beautiful city of Venice may be lost to the effects of climate change.

Our prayers such treasured sites of civilization may be preserved through our united efforts of greater kindness towards Mother Earth. Speaking during a December 2008 videoconference in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of global warming’s threat to human survival, while at the same time reminding of the one sure way to reverse its dangerous impacts.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: So many islands have sunk under water already. Many coastal cities’ land has been eroded. The cost of not doing anything is immense. I do not want to elaborate on this. I do not want to imagine it.

I WANT TO PLEAD WITH ALL THE PLANET PEOPLE.
PLEASE STOP KILLING ANIMALS.
PLEASE HAVE COMPASSION.
PLEASE TURN TO VEGETARIAN DIET.
PLEASE BE VEGAN.
THAT IS TO SAVE YOURSELVES AND YOUR CHILDREN.
SO, ORGANIC VEGAN DIET IS THE ANSWER.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/life/environment/2010/01/04/239239/Italians-trying.htm

Food insecurity looms with more rapid climate change

With recent research doubling forecasts due to new information about accelerated ice melt in Antarctica and other regions, a 1.4-meter sea level rise is now being anticipated in coastal areas and islands before the next century.

Countries such as Âu Lạc (Vietnam) are thus calling attention to the issue of food security ahead of the upcoming international negotiations in Copenhagen. Deputy Director of the Aulacese (Vietnamese) Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change Department, Mr. Nguyễn Khắc Hiếu has stated that the anticipated flooding would inundate 31,000 square kilometers of the Mekong Delta – an area about the size of Belgium.

As the world’s second largest rice exporter, the effect to both Âu Lạc and many other countries would be profound. Deputy Director Nguyễn is thus asking that adaptation issues be addressed at the Copenhagen climate summit.

Our appreciation, Deputy Director Nguyễn and Âu Lạc for calling attention to this vital topic at such a crucial juncture for humanity. May the decisions of our world leaders bring unified steps to restore the balance of our ecosphere. During an August 2009 climate change conference in Thailand, Supreme Master Ching Hai further highlighted the tolls of the current global crisis, while emphasizing the critical need for appropriate action to reverse the situation.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: In Âu Lạc (Vietnam), you probably know of global warming related problems such as the untimely flooding and encroachment of the sea of the Mekong Delta region – both of which have caused havoc and further threat to the region’s vital rice and fruit crops.
This is due to a combination of sea levels rising, along with the effect of melting glaciers, which are now causing excessive floods but eventually will cause drought and vastly diminished water supplies as well.
So we must work quickly to avoid such unwanted outcomes.

And the most effective way 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. If everyone does this – be veg – the Earth will begin to cool and we will have more time to implement the measures to eliminate all the carbon emissions. So please, be veg,and tell everyone else of these benefits.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iUQUHqrFNSnyGROkjhbTqf2dOWwQ
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977925407&grpId=3659174697244816&nav=Groupspace
http://www.rfi.fr/actuvi/articles/120/article_5911.asp,
http://www.france24.com/en/node/4938440
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/02/content_12571641.htm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iNBHb6KnUMTIa-zGMZ_bgwwgAM5w

Antarctic melting could trigger mass extinction

Following the release of reports that our planet is on track to experience a 6-degree Celsius temperature rise by the year 2100, new studies from the University of Texas, USA show that since 2006, eastern Antarctica has been shedding around 57 billion tons of ice each year. This study coincided with the recent sighting of hundreds of Antarctic icebergs that have broken away and are now floating towards New Zealand, an event that has caused officials to issue warnings for ships in the region.

Another study by the British Antarctic Survey states that past records, current temperature indications and total Antarctic ice volume measurements all point toward a 6 meter sea level rise in the coming years.
This finding has caused a revisiting of the 2007 report by UK’s Guardian news science journalist Mark Lynas, which describes the effects of such devastating climate-related change.

The report stated, “It would cause a mass extinction of almost all life and probably reduce humanity to a few struggling groups of embattled survivors clinging to life near the poles. Very few species could adapt in time to the abruptness of the transition.” Mr. Lynas, UK Guardian, University of Texas and British Antarctic Survey scientists, we are grateful for your work in revealing these findings, despite their disturbing nature.

Let us act swiftly in loving stewardship of our ecosphere while there still is time. Supreme Master Ching Hai has often emphasized the urgency of our planetary crisis while encouraging people to take action, as during an interview for the July 12, 2009 edition of the Irish Sunday Independent.

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.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: There are truly too many confirmations of the urgency of our planetary situation to even name. It is better we concentrate on the solution to save the Earth. We can still do it.

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. So, let us all act now to ensure the future that we want, and the one we want for our children. That is Be Veg, Go Green, Save the Planet.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6597757/Rising-CO2-will-cause-catastrophic-sea-level-rise-finds-Antarctic-study.html
http://www.france24.com/en/node/4931234,
http://www.france24.com/en/node/4931468,
http://www.france24.com/en/node/4931459
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/environment/news/article.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10610140
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/apr/23/scienceandnature.climatechange
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6597757/Rising-CO2-will-cause-catastrophic-sea-level-rise-finds-Antarctic-study.html

Bangkok, Thailand faced with serious threat of rising waters

This city of 10 million people, already prone to flooding, is one of 20 major urban regions named by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as being vulnerable to submergence from climate change caused rising sea levels.

Most recently, research conducted by the Asian Institute of Technology shows that Bangkok along with 30 other Thai provinces could be devastated in the next 50 years. Many families are already suffering from these effects and have been forced to relocate frequently.

Thai citizen Khamron Deedok, who has moved four times, said, "My original house was a few kilometers away from the sea. Each time we have to move, it's with great sadness but we are also happy that we are then safe from the storms. Then we move again. It is an endless cycle.”

Affirming the situation’s urgency, Professor Thanawat Jarupongsakul of Chulalongkom University stated, “The effects of climate change have come very close to our society, so there's no time to discuss whether it's real or not… It's time now to … act.”

We thank Professor Jarupongsakul, the Asian Institute of Technology and other researchers for this valuable information. Our prayers for the safety of the Thai people as well as other residents of the world’s threatened coastal regions. May we all protect ourselves from these changes by quickly adopting lifestyles in harmony with our ecosphere.

Supreme Master Ching Hai, who often reminds of the increasingly urgent state of our planet, spoke once more of the changes we must make to avoid disaster during an interview published in the September 2009 edition of The House Magazine.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It’s too serious. These are 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. These situations will only worsen, not improve, until we stop the cause. This means to halt the livestock production and meat consumption.

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://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8344311.stm
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-11-17-voa6.cfm
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/27596/rising-seas-threaten-nation http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=12844

Climate change refugees: a growing sector

In the coastal village of Moti Danti, the Gujarat state government tried building a 10-foot wall to protect residents from the encroaching sea waters and intensified storm effects. However, a portion of the village remained engulfed by the sea, and hundreds of families have had to flee their homes. Further south along the state’s coastline, rising seas have also eroded the entire road for Kaladra village, forcing hundreds to rebuild further inland.

Meanwhile, up to 10,000 people in the Sundarbans region have been permanently displaced following cyclones, and other villages in Orissa state have completely disappeared due to coastal erosion.

In fact, with global temperatures continuing to increase, sea levels will continue to rise, unleashing extreme weather events and rendering a projected 125 million people in South Asia alone as environmental migrants by century’s end.

We pray for Heaven’s protection and for the climate refugees. Let us quickly take compassionate and sustainable actions to halt climate change for the welfare of brothers and sisters around the world.

Supreme Master Ching Hai, whose humanitarian endeavors include assistance to refugees, further addressed this tragic situation during an interview with Ireland’s East Coast Radio FM in November 2008.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If we don’t have global warming, then no one would be a climate refugee I ask everyone to please imagine if that were yourself in the refugee’s situation, experiencing all these troubles – insecurities, hunger, lacking all comfort, humiliation, undignified situation, uncertain of the morrows of your future and the future of your helpless children.

Just imagine it. Then try to solve this tragedy by helping in whatever way we can. And above all, and most urgently of all, be veg, go green to save the planet, to prevent such trauma and to build a bright future for the world, for our co-citizens.
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne141109exiled.asp

Oceans found to be rising faster than predicted

A newly published report by the International Alliance of Research Universities, “Climate Change –Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions,” states that the rate of polar ice caps disintegration as well as sea level rise are both substantially faster than what the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted two years ago.

The paper, which was prepared by researchers from 10 international universities, predicts the ocean levels to rise 1 meter by the end of the century, a nearly 70% increase over what the IPCC previously projected.

Similarly,oceanic temperatures are climbing 50% faster than forecast by the IPCC. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, stated, “We have to act immediately and we have to act strongly. Time is clearly running out.”

Our sincere gratitude, scientists of the International Alliance of Research Universities for this report that clearly highlights our imminent global crisis.

Let us all quickly transition to nobler lifestyles to protect the future of our unique and beautiful planet. During the March 2009 Juice Fast for Peace seminar in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai acknowledged the reality of the world’s changing oceans, offering at the same time a way to truly transcend this planetary dilemma.

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 bury 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 vegetarian diet, animal-free diet. Animal industry must be out. That’s it.

Reference
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=afmw1nT6inhA

'Catastrophic' One-Metre Sea Rise Predicted

Sea levels predicted to rise to catastrophic levels. During this week’s gathering of some 2,000 participants at the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, revisions in anticipated sea level rise were among the concerns expressed by scientists. The latest figure, which accounts for quicker warming oceans and a faster-melting Antarctica and Greenland, now anticipates what could be more than a one meter rise before the century’s end. More than 600 million people could be affected by the submergence of lands such as the US state of Florida and island nations like the Maldives, with an additional number who would be more vulnerable than ever to natural disasters such as storms and floods.

Supreme Master Television was present to speak with the participants, where scientists indicated that present human efforts could and must be faster.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri – Chair of United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), VEGETARIAN (M): We have an enormous amount of inertia which we should be aware of. And that only requires us to take much more vigorous action to bring about change.

VOICE: Political leaders present at the meeting joined in the scientists’ call for urgent change.

Connie Hedegaard - Danish Climate and Energy Minister (F): If we don’t act now, we will stay hostage to outdated energy systems. If we don’t act now, we risk catastrophic changes to our climate causing destabilizing conflicts, and massive migration of refugees due to water and food shortages in many parts of the world. And consequently, if we don’t act now, we ultimately bring our natural security in danger
.
VOICE: We are grateful to the scientists and leaders from countries worldwide for revealing these critical insights on the perilous state of our planet. Let us quickly take heed and make the necessary eco-adjustments to save our beautiful and irreplaceable world.

In her response to panelists during the live videoconference for the SOS! International Seminar on Global Warming in Seoul, Korea in May 2008, Supreme Master Ching Hai likewise urged for rapid action, while reminding us of the priority we must place on our food choices.

The SOS! International Seminar on Global Warming Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai
May 22, 2008 – Seoul, South Korea

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We have to change. We have to. That’s the only way we can save ourselves and the planet, and the whole world and all the beings in it. Otherwise, even if we dig a hole into the mountain or under the ground to stay away from the sun’s heat, or we go up in the mountain to avoid the sea rising, there are other calamities that will be coming our way. We should move faster and take more actions. Vegetarian diet – number one. Green energy – number two. Everybody work together to be frugal, and protect the environment and the animals. It’s not that difficult. It’s just the habit that we have to change, that’s all.