Permafrost receding northward

In two concurring studies, researchers from Canada’s Université Laval and Sweden’s Lund University have found that the permanently frozen ground known as permafrost is melting at southern latitudes.

In the case of Canada’s James Bay region, the permafrost layer now begins 130 kilometers north of where it had been 50 years ago. In Sweden, scientists found over a several-year period that the permafrost in one peat mire region completely disappeared. The Canadian researchers also noted a temperature rise of some 2 degrees Celsius over the last two decades, saying that if this continues, permafrost in the James Bay region will vanish.

Not only is the melting of permafrost a sign of acute global warming, scientists have warned previously that its effects include the collapse of entire communities, which has already been seen in Arctic locations like Alaska, USA.

Worse yet are the vast underground stores of methane that are released as the permafrost melts, with tipping points beyond which runaway global warming is inevitable.

We thank you for your careful observations, Canadian and Swedish scientists, despite our alarm at what they foretell. May everyone turn to harmonious lifestyles that sustain our environment while there is still time.

As in a September 2009 videoconference held in Peru, Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently spoken of such warning signs as permafrost melt, along with the way we can all act to halt it.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: US and Canadian scientists traveling to the Arctic have noted increased methane gas being released from the Earth’s melting permafrost, which is storing immense amounts of methane beneath the frozen surface. Other research has also highlighted how quickly the temperature is rising in the Arctic, much faster than in the rest of the world.

This means a vast quantity of methane could be released from the previously frozen soil very quickly, which would be a complete disaster for life on Earth.

One fact is clear: if we stop meat consumption and livestock raising, we will also eliminate one of the most heat-trapping gases, which is methane.

And since this gas disappears more quickly from the atmosphere, the planet will cool almost immediately.

This will also address problems like the melting permafrost, which will otherwise emit more methane if nothing is done to halt it.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100217101129.htm
http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCATRE61G5BG20100217?sp=true
http://www5.fsa.ulaval.ca/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090218081629.htm

UN recommends tax on livestock

A report issued by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recommends levying fees for livestock as a way to reduce this sector’s emission of greenhouse gases, currently estimated at 7,000 billion tons of CO2 equivalent annually.

Moreover, livestock raising is known to impact not only human health but also causes enormous damage to ecosystems, biodiversity, land, forests and water quality.

“The State of Food and Agriculture” report thus calls for market-based policies such as taxes and subsidy reductions that would cause producers to minimize environmental damage by being required to absorb its costs.

FAO Director-general Jacques Diouf stated that the rapid growth of the livestock sector has unfortunately thus far had little oversight, with current estimates forecasting that without a change in course, the number of livestock cattle alone will increase 70% to 2.6 billion by mid-century.

Director-general Diouf and United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, we laud your recommendations for such planet-protecting policies. May governments across the globe be motivated to implement measures as these for the benefit of all the Earth’s inhabitants. During an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of this very subject, calling on world leaders to forego livestock raising as a way to save the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I hope the governments would please make it into law to forbid the killing of animals, to forbid any more animal livestock raising. If they are truly the leaders that pledge to protect their people, to improve their country in many aspects, then this is the first step we have to do. Stop the meat industry, stop the fish industry, stop the dairy industry, then our planet will be the way it was and even better.

There are only two ways to do things in our world - the correct way and the incorrect way. And right now, to save the planet, there is only one way to stop the cause - that is, the animal industry, by all means, in all aspects. We have to do it.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Spread information, encourage everyone, inform everyone to be vegan.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/38154ea0-1cb2-11df-8d8e-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
http://www.agrimoney.com/news/un-green-crusade-plans-tax-on-livestock-wind--1368.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

Community teams up to save stranded whales

In response to a pod of 50 pilot whales that were found beached in Banks Peninsula on New Zealand’s South Island, some 80 community members, including holiday visitors, worked to save the whales and return them to the ocean waters.

Although 15 of the mothers and calves did not survive, 35 were successfully restored, thanks to the help of the community volunteers who were led by the marine-mammal rescue organization, Project Jonah.

The reason for the strandings, which have increased over time, is not completely known. However, scientists have suggested that global warming’s effect on the complex ocean environment is a factor.

We are saddened to know that mothers and babies lost their lives but thankful to Project Jonah and all rescuers for their tireless efforts to save the pod. May our greater consideration for the delicate marine environment allow the whales to continue gracing our world with their loving presence.

In response to a question about whale stranding during a 2008 videoconference with our Association members in Thailand, Supreme Master Ching Hai shared a deeper perspective on this behavior and its connection to humanity’s wider impact on the environment

Q (m): We have been seeing dolphins and whales stranding themselves in many places throughout the world, more often in the past few years. Are these events related to the global warming?

And are these animals trying to tell humans something?

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Yes, yes. They have been telling us a long time already, but very few listen. Poor souls. What suffering they must have endured, due to our carelessness and unkind habits.

Let’s hope the humans will develop more spiritually and understand the needs of the animals, and give them love and respect as they deserve. I hope the humans wake up soon. For their own sake even, and the animals’ sake.

If we just stop meat eating, stop killing animals for food, then 80% global warming gas pollution will disappear. And we will live in peace, health, happiness, and long life again.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/mass-burial-held-stranded-whales-3341231
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3258074/50-whales-saved-15-die-as-port-rescue-pays-off
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/24/AR2010012400497.html
http://www.greenfudge.org/2010/01/24/48-pilot-whales-stranded-along-new-zealand-33-of-them-saved/
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2010/01/24/Whales-die-after-New-Zealand-beaching/UPI-94681264383595/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3260515/Whales-taken-to-final-resting-place

New York Times reports on being veg to save the planet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

European Parliament Vice President calls for less meat to ease global warming

In an editorial published in the UK’s Yorkshire Post, European Parliament Vice President Edward McMillan-Scott explained why he, along with leaders like Sir Paul McCartney and UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chairman Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, has chosen not to eat meat. Citing the 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistic that 18% of all greenhouse gases come from livestock, Vice President McMillan-Scott stated that meat takes 16 times more energy and resources than its vegetable equivalent.

Meat also uses vastly higher amounts of water, even as 62% of the world’s population faces scarcity and drought. In addition, farmed animal raising occupies a full 70% of agricultural land and is a major cause of destructive deforestation. Other environmental and health detriments include meat consumption’s effect on the more than one billion who are now suffering from hunger.

His Excellency went on to call on governments, organizations and individuals to opt for a healthier and environmentally-friendly alternative diet. Today, Thursday, December 3, His Excellency joins Sir Paul McCartney and UN IPCC Chair Dr. Rajendra Pachauri at a hearing before the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on “Global Warming and Food Policy: Less Meat = Less Heat” to urge policy makers’ focus on this vital action.

Our heartfelt thanks, Vice President McMillan-Scott, Sir Paul McCartney, Dr. Pachauri, and all distinguished leaders and citizens supporting avoidance of the climate-harming meat fare. We pray that many others will heed your call to action and wisely choose a plant-based diet to save our planet. Supreme Master Ching Hai has time and again called upon courageous government leaders to lead their co-citizens to safety by informing them of the truth about the extremely adverse impacts of meat on the environment, as in this July 2008 videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff in California, USA.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The governments have to explain to people that it’s truly harmful now and this is an emergency that people should stop eating meat. If meat eating will not be banned or not be limited, then the whole planet will be gone. This is a life and death matter for everybody; it’s not a personal choice.
And we are eating meat, eating up the whole planet It’s not necessary, choice, at all. Even if before the planetary urgency, meat eating people eat up the whole planet, eat up so much food and result in hunger and war, and it has never been a right choice in the first place.

Everything is good for people if they don’t eat meat anymore. So they should also quit it for their better life, better health, better environment, and saving this Earth home for all to enjoy, especially for their future generation. If we don’t do it now, the Earth will be gone! Who is there to eat meat?

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/opinion/Edward-McMillanScott-Losing-our-appetite.5864065.jp
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/31516