Ocean scientists sound the alarm

Chemical oceanographer Dr. Jeremy Mathis and a team of researchers at the University of Fairbanks Alaska in the USA have found that the rising acidity of northern ocean waters has decreased its ability to absorb calcium and aragonite.

These minerals are vital for shell-bearing animals, with related studies already demonstrating that the region’s king crabs suffer higher mortality rates as ocean acidity increases.

Meanwhile, oceanographer Dr. Jack Barth and colleagues at Oregon State University have also expressed concern about the effect of global warming on the Pacific Ocean, having observed that hypoxic, or low oxygen, regions have expanded.

Recently, species such as Dungeness crabs, sea stars and sea anemones have been seen dying off in massive numbers due to oxygen deprivation. Moreover, noxious bacteria thrive in these conditions.

Highlighting the forecast of such events from previous climate change models, Dr. Barth stated, “The real surprise is how this has become the new norm. We are seeing it year after year.”

Dr. Mathis, Dr. Barth and colleagues at the University of Fairbanks and Oregon State University, we appreciate your detailed studies and share your concern about this disruption to ocean ecospheres.

Let us all quickly join hands in meaningful actions to halt climate change and protect all lives on our planet. Supreme Master Ching Hai has often expressed concern about the grave state of the oceans while also highlighting the solution for the entire planet, as during a May 2009 videoconference in Togo.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Scientists are now concerned that dead zones like this will just continue to be more and more, get bigger and bigger, which of course is lethal for all life.

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.csmonitor.com/Environment/Global-Warming/2009/1204/global-warming...
http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/directory/faculty/mathis/
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-03/08/c_13201667.htm

Widespread drought afflicts China

Southwestern Yunnan province has been experiencing the most severe drought in six decades with some regions not having received rainfall since August 2009. Neighboring Guangxi and Guizhou provinces have also lacked rain, which has been disastrous for farmers.

Some 2.55 million hectares constituting 85% of Yunnan's total growing area and containing such crops as wheat, sugarcane and vegetables have been affected.

Provincial authorities reported water shortages for nearly 5 million residents and over 3 million livestock animals.

With the drought also grounding boats on the Mekong River, the Marine Bureau has stopped issuing permits and is warnings vessels instead to stay away from the waterway. It saddens us deeply to know of the suffering of the Chinese people.

Our prayers for the blessing of rain and that humans everywhere quickly adopt sustainable lifestyles that restore balance to our Earth. During an October 2009 videoconference in Germany, Supreme Master Ching Hai voiced, as she has many other times, her concern for humanity’s plight at this dire time on our planet, while at the same time highlighting the actions necessary to alleviate such crises.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: With current droughts and water shortages already affecting millions and only expected to get worse, worse and worse. But even though our predicament is very grave, we do still have time if we act now. And the solution is still very simple.

It’s the vegan diet – no animal products.

Scientists have found that each person eating a meat and dairy based diet uses around 4,500 gallons of water per day, compared to 300 gallons per day for a vegan diet.

This also means that 1 pound of animal protein requires 100 times more water to produce than 1 pound of grain protein.

Over the course of a year, the vegan diet saves approximately 1.5 million gallons of water per person.

This is the key. If everyone switches to this beneficial lifestyle, our planet will be cooled in no time, scientifically speaking and my promise.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/6900486.html
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-46421320100224
http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task...

Antarctic Peninsula ice sheets melting at worrying rate

US Geological Survey (USGS) researchers who have been conducting a first ever survey of Antarctica’s entire coastline coasts are now reporting that the southern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula, which is its coldest, has been retreating for sixty years, with the biggest changes occurring since 1990.

The scientists report that this condition is likely suggestive of the situation across all of Antarctica, whose ice sheet contains 91% of the world’s glacial water and could cause a 60 to 73 meter sea level rise if all the land-based ice were to melt.

As noted by environmental experts, even one meter of sea level rise would jeopardize food supplies across the world. USGS scientist Jane Ferrigno stated, “The loss of ice shelves is evidence of the effects of global warming.

We need to be alert and continually understand and observe how our climate system is changing." We thank Dr. Ferrigno and associate scientists at the US Geological Survey for your careful monitoring of the Antarctic.

Let us act now to restore the planet-cooling balance of our world’s ice caps by choosing lifestyles in greater harmony with nature.

As mentioned on previous occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke again during a November 2009 videoconference in Washington, DC, USA of the most direct way to avert the potentially catastrophic consequences of global warming.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Greenland is shedding 85 million tons of icebergs each day due to warming, and at a rate that is increasing by 7 percent each year. The West Antarctic Ice Shelf is also melting, with 3.3 meter sea level rises forecast that would threaten cities like New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

And if all of Antarctica and Greenland were to melt – meaning the ice – then the sea levels could rise to as much as 70 meters, which would be deadly or disastrous to most lives on Earth.

You may ask, what is the main cause of this damage and destruction to the environment?

It’s methane, which is produced primarily by the livestock industry.

NASA announced that methane actually contributes much more to global warming than previously understood and it traps 100 times the atmospheric heat over 20 years. And the largest source of methane is? You know - livestock.

So, to solve this, we do need to move quickly, and of course we know what to do, right?

Yes? Be vegan.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0223-hance_antpen.html
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/ice-shelves-on-antarctic-peninsula...
http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/books/pb4
http://www.springerlink.com/content/h28l707685463333/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/31/cattle-trade-brazil-greenpeace...

Government and schools rally for meat-free meals

On March 4, all 151 elementary and middle schools in the Formosa’s (Taiwan) Chiayi County pledged that Friday meals would be without any beef, pork, chicken, lamb or fish.

This health- and environment-promoting measure was led by Chiayi County Magistrate Zhang Hua-guan.

Zhang Hua-guan – Chiayi County Magistrate (F): From now on, every Friday, we shall have healthy veg lunches. What does it mean to have healthy veg meals?

It means that there is no meat, no beef, no chicken, no pork, no lamb. With this kind of meal, our students will be much healthier and livelier.

Children assembled (M,F): Okay!

VOICE: At the official starting event, County Magistrate Zhang and students enjoyed a nutritious vegan lunch with soy protein and pumpkin-cabbage soup. Also attending in support were the heads of Chiayi County universities, high schools, and elementary schools.

Dr. Lin Jin-chao – Dean, Toko University (F): After this activity, I will make a report to our president to have the school join together with County Magistrate Zhang.

VOICE: With the Formosan(Taiwanese) Environmental Protection Department finding that eliminating meat is a simple, effective, and practical way to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions, the central government is now recommending that schools across the island make meat-free meals available one day each week.

Dr. Lin Tsong-Ming – Deputy Minister of Education, Formosa (Taiwan), VEGAN (M): Global warming is becoming worse. As to the vegetarian diet, I think we can encourage it.

VOICE: The Chiayi plan, like other recently introduced reduced-meat programs in Yunlin, Hsinchu, and Changhua Counties, emphasizes healthy eating habits and especially the halting of global warming by avoiding animal products.

Tseng Nan-shun – Principal, Song-May Elementary School (M): Being veg is the way for us to reduce the danger of global warming, and I totally agree with it.

Chen Yun-ru – Student, Jhu-Tsun Elementary School (F): With the serious situation of global warming, meat eating is causing a lot of bad effects.

VOICE: Another aspect of this county-wide initiative is its encouragement of respect for life and care for the animals.

Dr. Huang Gui-nan – Professor, Tatung Institute of Commerce and Technology (M): The first consequence of being veg is less killing, and this is a kind of ethical education.

Zhuang Ming-xun – Student, Jhu-Tsun Elementary School (M): We have to do something to protect the animals.

VOICE: Our respectful accolades, Magistrate Zhang, Chiayi County and other Formosan governments and schools! May this be the start of even greater meat-eliminating actions to curb climate change, save the animals and ensure a safe and healthful future for all children!

Group of students (M,F): Be veg! Go green! Save the planet! Yeah!

British government agency Natural England reports that nearly 500 species of flora and fauna became extinct in the past two centuries alone, with 1,000 more now on the brink of vanishing forever due to hunting, pollution and climate change.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/11/extinct-species-england

Climate change taking a toll in Âu Lạc (Vietnam)

With no rainfall since September 2009 in the northern part of the country, forest fires have ignited in the provinces of Lào Cai and Lai Châu. Moreoever, the Red River is at its lowest in more than 100 years, with passage by boat currently impossible while regional rice farmers are in need of water for newly planted seedlings.

Alarmingly, the southern Mekong Delta is also experiencing water shortages. Worsening global warming effects have not only reduced Mekong River water levels to record lows, ocean salt water has encroached an unprecedented 60 kilometers inland this year, threatening 100,000 hectares of rice.

Central Âu Lạc has also been affected, enduring high temperatures that have caused hundreds of people to seek medical treatment at local hospitals for conditions of heatstroke, severe dehydration and other respiratory illnesses.

We are saddened to know of this suffering caused by the increasingly dire state of our planet.

Let us act now to bring relief through sustainable choices that help restore harmony to our Earth’s cycles. As on previous occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke during an August 2009 conference in Thailand about global warming’s critical tolls and the need to curb them.

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.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88320
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6909249.html
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/Health/201003/Sweltering-weather-sending-kids-elderly-to-HCMC-hospitals-898122/

Oscar-winning film director speaks out for dolphin and ocean protection.

The documentary film, “The Cove,” describing the cruelty of an annual dolphin hunt that takes place in a small bay in Japan, recently won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary.

For the filmmakers, the efforts to end marine mammal killing and to protect the animals’ environment has been ongoing. Just before the Oscars award ceremony, they teamed with vegan eco-activists to go undercover into a restaurant suspected of selling whale meat, which is illegal in the United States according to the Marine
Mammal Protection Act.

After a DNA test confirmed that the flesh being served was from the endangered Sei whale, the violation was reported to officials. The film’s director, Louie Psihoyos, who had participated in the activity, said that the exposure of whale hunting, like his film, is about saving the animals as well as the biosphere that supports their lives.

Louie Psihoyos – Director of Oscar winning film The Cove (M): We’re trying to solve the problem in one little cove, but it’s really a microcosm of what’s going on in the oceans. With all the fertilizers and run-offs and pesticides, it’s killing the oceans.

VOICE: “The Cove” also exposes the fact that the dolphins being hunted are already contaminated with mercury from the polluted ocean waters.

Those hunting them use underwater sonar waves, which drive the panicked dolphins into a small cove that soon turns bloody red as they are brutally speared or knifed to death.

As it turns out, this dolphin meat has some of the highest levels of mercury known in Japan, with the potential to cause neurological damage, especially in children. In addition, the dolphins that are not killed outright are captured and sold into lives of captivity and isolation to entertain humans in zoos and aquariums.
The film’s message is thus to raise awareness about these practices, which wreak harm to so many beings.

Louie Psihoyos (M): The only way that we can save the life of a dolphin now is to prove that we made his environment so toxic, that we can no longer eat them.

It shows you the amount of respect that we lost for the animal and the amount of respect that we lost for ourselves. We’re doing what no wild animal will do; we’re fouling our own nest.

VOICE: We congratulate and thank Mr. Psihoyos and co-creators of “The Cove” for working to preserve our precious oceans and their beautiful inhabitants.

May we treat more kindly our marine friends and the vital seas that we both share and depend upon.

Louie Psihoyos (M): Be veg, go green, save the planet.

VOICE: In a November 2008 interview with Ireland’s East Coast Radio FM, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed the issue of tainted dolphin meat and once more encouraged the protection of all marine life for our planetary survival.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Some Japanese scientists stated that these products should be taken off the shelves immediately. And Dr. Palombi of Harvard University gave the same advice to the Japanese government - that they should ban dolphin fishing and they should ban dolphin meat selling in the market.

To stop this destructive practice of fishing, the solution is the vegan diet, no fishy stuff in our meals. Choose the life- and Earth-saving vegan diet. Protect animals and the environment.

And pray that all will heed the scientists’ wise counsel and turn to benevolent life courses which will in turn offer a benevolent life on Earth.

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/in-sushi-sting-oscar-winners-nab-restaurant-selling-whale/19389362
http://www.france24.com/en/20100308-oscar-winning-film-makers-deny-japan-bashing
http://eii.org/saveJapanDolphins/coveEmail11a.htmlI
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/world/asia/20iht-dolphin.1.10223011.html?_r=1
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/30/world/main3772997.shtml

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