Greenhouse gas methane on the rise

According to New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), readings taken from a station on the southern tip of North Island found that, after remaining stable for several years, the southern hemisphere’s atmospheric methane increased significantly in both 2007 and 2008.

Principal Scientist, Dr Keith Lassey stated, “The evidence we have shows that methane in the atmosphere is now more than double what it ever was during the 800,000 years before 1700AD.”

Related research has found livestock to be the largest human-caused source of the potent methane, which is known to trap around 100 times more heat over 20 years than carbon dioxide.

Not only do the animals themselves but also their unregulated waste matter, often stored in stagnant areas known as lagoons, account for further methane generation.

With the recent atmospheric increases being much higher than explained by any known sources, the New Zealand scientists stated that a cycle may be evolving where existing global warming is now causing even more methane to be released.

Dr. Lassey, New Zealand National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research and all researchers involved, we are grateful for your detailed observations of this disturbing change.

May we act now in harmony with the planet and assure our own well-being as a species. During an August 2009 videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke, as on previous occasions, of this alarming cycle of methane accumulation and the only way to stop it.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If we don’t turn around and walk in the opposite direction, then we are heading toward destruction of all kinds. You see planetary warming, methane gas from all sides: from all sides now, not just from livestock. But because of livestock, it triggers methane gas from all sides, from the river bed or from the permafrost, from the bed of the ocean, from the mountains, from the dying forests, do you understand?

So we are surrounded by trouble. There’s only one escape route that I have told you already. I wish there were several. There’s only one: Be Veg. That’s the path to go, then maybe we still can have time.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14151398/Livestocks-Long-Shadow-UN
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1626
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0912/S00052.htm
http://www.niwa.co.nz/news-and-publications/news/all/2009/methane
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/co2conference/pdfs/baring_head_abstract.pdf

Micronesian island suffers climate change impacts

The people of the low-lying atoll Ifalik, one of the islands of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), are facing serious threats due to the increasing effects of global warming. A king tide that struck last year is still causing damage to this years’ crops of the islanders’ staple food, taro. Co-author of a report on FSM food security and climate risks, US Professor Charles Fletcher, expressed concern that as sea levels rise, the food situation will only become more dire and said that many communities like Ifalik are headed towardthe need for ongoing humanitarian assistance.

Affirming that the outlook is not hopeful, Ifalik’s Chief Manno Pekaicheng said, “We just put our lives in the hands of God and hope the people who cause all these problems step in and help.”

Our appreciation for your informed voice of concern, Professor Fletcher and colleagues, as we pray for the residents of Ifalik and other low-lying islands whose people are already enduring the perils of a warming planet.
Let us swiftly come together in meaningful action so that all beings may once again thrive. Ever concerned for humanity’s welfare, Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently addressed the need for urgent action to halt the tolls of global warming, as during a November 2008 interview with Ireland’s East Coast Radio FM.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If we don’t have global warming, then no one would be a climate refugee. 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.time.com/time/specials/packages/article
/0,28804,1929071_1929070_1947456,00.html#ixzz0aRjRTaSK
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1929071_1929070_1947456,00.html

Warming temperatures linked to oceanic dead zones

Researchers from Oregon State University recently published results of studies evaluating the occurrence of hypoxia, or extremely low levels of oxygen, that occur in the oceans.

Although such regions were previously unknown to central Oregon, these “dead zones” now appear annually, with the low levels of oxygen causing a massive die-off of marine life including fish and invertebrates such as crabs.

Unlike the dead zones already found in the coastal Mississippi Delta and other areas, which can be traced to runoff from livestock manure and fertilizers, the hypoxic regions off the Oregon coast occur in the open ocean.

In studying ancient sea sediment, the scientists found that such dead zones also occurred about 20,000 years ago during a rapid warming of the Antarctic similar to what the Earth is experiencing now, as wind and water circulation was affected globally.

Oregon State researchers, we are grateful for your work that adds to our growing knowledge about the dangers of a warming planet. We pray for lifestyles leading to the well-being of all life in our shared ecosphere.

As she has in earlier times, Supreme Master Ching Hai indicated in a June 2008 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan) the proper action that is needed to avoid even larger-scale devastation than the ocean dead zones.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Stock raising, animal breeding, is the #1 cause of damage to our planet and it is going to destroy our world if we do not stop. I really mean it. We have to stop this. We have to stop the killing. We have to stop the meat eating. We have to stop insecticides. We have to go organic. And vegetarian is a must. Otherwise, there will not be just the dead zones in the ocean.

I repeat: Otherwise, if we don’t do anything now, if we don’t be veg and we don’t stop polluting our planet in many ways, then there will not be just the dead zones in the ocean. There will a dead planet. And we also will be dead beings, too. Vegan diet will save the planet. The fastest and the easiest, and everyone can do it.

http://www.physorg.com/news180096546.html
http://surfchecker.wordpress.com/category/pacific-northwest/

World media highlights veg solution to climate change

In their coverage of the major United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, international media groups discussed the vegan diet as providing the most effective and rapid solution to the planetary crisis. A number of journalists from newspapers, radio and television networks present during the two-week summit interviewed members of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association to understand more about the reasons that livestock must be addressed and why a change in what humans consume is so vital.

Environmental journalist Jeff McMahon of True/Slant, an online news network in partnership with Forbes Media wrote:“But during the first week, the most persistent… at the Bella Center have been the smiling followers of Supreme Master Ching Hai, sometimes clad in chicken suits… with signs urging vegetarianism.

The article went on to quote one of our Association members, who stated:“‘We have only a short time to save the planet. Technology takes a long time and needs a lot of money and this is the easiest way. Everyone must be vegan to save the planet.’”

VOICE: On the website of internationally-distributed The Wall Street Journal daily news, reporter Spencer Swartz discussed the hot issues tied to meat consumption in his article titled, “Veggie Tales: Climate Activists Urge Meat-Free Lifestyle in Copenhagen.”“…an army of about 100 people have been regulars at the U.N.’s
two-week climate change conference, passing out vegetarian sandwiches to delegates daily and carrying placards calling livestock farms ‘an environmental hazard’ and to ‘Go Veg’… Reduced meat consumption, if done on a big scale, could even prompt landowners in Brazil, the world’s biggest soya producer, to stop clearing rain forest to grow soya bean, which cattle-owners often feed their livestock to beef them up…”

VOICE: In the cover story of its December 21 issue, the major South Korean weekly news magazine, “Hankyoreh 21,” (HAN-Gyuh-Reh 21) captioned a photograph of our Association members as follows: “The way to reduce greenhouse gas is already on the signs of environmental activists who had gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark.” Citing Supreme Master Television as a source of the newest research findings on the meat industry’s abuse of resources, the magazine went on to conclude that with time, “The vegetarian diet may no longer be a preference or choice, but survival itself.”

We thank the journalists, True/Slant, The Wall Street Journal, Hankyoreh21, and all media who bring to the public information about climate change and the most important countermeasure of halting meat production.
May more people join the growing ranks of conscious citizens who opt for the Earth-saving vegan diet.In an interview with the Irish Sunday Independent published in July 2009, Supreme Master Ching Hai once more expressed her appreciation to the media, who are in the indispensable role of alerting society to both planetary problems and solutions.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: So, with the vegan diet, we eat what’s best for our health, for the animals, for the environment, and nature will do the rest to restore the balance and save our world. I thank you for such noble journalism as you are upholding, because we really need the media to propagate the new noble lifestyle to save our planet. And I thank you manifold for doing that. Thank you truly from my heart.

http://trueslant.com/jeffmcmahon/2009/12/11/copenhagen-vegetarianism/
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/12/16/veggie-tales-climate-activists-urge-meat-free-lifestyle-in-copenhagen/

Formosan (Taiwanese) high school students promote meat-free meals to save the planet

The Student Council of Yangtze High School in Yulin County, Formosa (Taiwan) launched a campaign calling on the entire school to adopt meat-free meals to reduce carbon emissions, going from class to class to promote their message.

After gaining approval from the students and teachers in the school of over 1000 people, the high school is starting with one veg meal a week and will gradually increase to meat-free meals served daily in the future.
A statement from the Student Council said, "We can be just as healthy and happy without meat, and have the vitality for our study while we love our planet at the same time."

Student Council and participating students of Yangtze High School, we applaud and admire your noble initiative. Blessed be all such efforts as yours in bringing optimal refreshment and vigor to humans while restoring our Earthly home.
http://mag.udn.com/mag/campus/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=227314

Birdlife International highlights the avian impact of climate change

Evaluative surveys including data gathered by US citizens over the past 40 years have revealed that 58% of the 305 species wintering on the North American continent have shifted significantly north since 1968, some by hundreds of kilometers. A study in Europe has also concluded that without urgent action to halt climate change, European bird populations will decrease in size by one-fifth and move 550 kilometers northeast by the end of this century.

According to Birdlife data, even with the global temperature increase experienced thus far, over 400 bird species have been impacted. Our sincere appreciation, Birdlife International for your dedicated voice in support of our avian co-inhabitants.

Let us all step quickly to bring about change that will save treasured lives on Earth. During an April 2009 climate conference in South Korea, Supreme Master Ching Hai responded to a question on how being veg and going green could protect all wildlife, including the precious birds.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: In regard to the message, “I am a vegan and green, save the Earth,” this is surely connected to all the animals and the birds also. Once we understand one species of animals, we could understand other species as well. Being vegan simply means we don’t eat the animals, we don’t harm any animal.

This will save the planet and preserve the treasured wilds, such as the birds. We should all remember that we share this planetary abode, the water, the air, the resources, the food, all of nature, we share only.
We should not be possessive of nature. So, the best thing we can do for the birds and all the animals is to stop causing suffering to them, stop killing them, stop eating them, stop damaging all our habitats.
Stop damaging our environment. Be veg, go green and save their planet too, the planet of the animals.

http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2009/12/climate_impacts.html
http://www.birdlife.org/contact.html
http://www.audubonportland.org/issues/climate_change
http://www.nhbs.com/european_bird_populations_tefno_105371.html

US town goes veg organic for the environment

Signal Mountain, a town in Tennessee, USA has passed a Green Food Resolution, which is intended to encourage organic food grown from local farms along with sustainable plant-based diets.

Launched by Council member Paul Hendricks, the initiative was unanimously passed by the five-member Signal Mountain Council. To attain the goals of locally produced plant-based fare, the resolution also promotes farmers’ markets, community gardens and other venues that provide more organic produce options.

The US-based organization Farm Sanctuary, which has already been campaigning for awareness of the harms of animal factory farming, is encouraging such Green Food Resolutions to be passed in various cities across the United States.

A big bravo and many thanks Signal Mountain Council members, residents and Farm Sanctuary for your support of this wise and healthy initiative. May such a sustainable veg trend extend throughout your community and across the globe.

As a long-time proponent of organic vegan agriculture, Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently explained its immense Earth-saving and other values, as during a February 2009 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan).

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I wish that all the governments in the world would encourage organic farming to save our world. If the governments lead the way with the message that this is how to be green, and how to protect the planet, then the farmers would be happy to grow more vegan food. To spread the practice of organic farming would help in so many ways.

The benefit of organic farming for human livelihood, for human health, and for animals’ health, natural resources and protection of our planet, all these benefits we cannot even estimate all in here. Organic farming not only helps to protect the planet, it will even help to eliminate hunger. So, I just suggest organic vegan.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/tennessee-town-passes-nations-first-green-food-resolution.php

Overfishing linked to harmful algal blooms

A new study by Swedish researchers found that, along with nitrogenous runoff from livestock raising and agriculture, algal blooms in the Baltic Sea are linked to the decline of certain species of large fish.

Specifically, the research showed that if perch and pike fish populations were healthy and no nitrogen pollution existed, the surrounding waters had only a 10% chance of being afflicted by an algal bloom.

However, in areas where fishing had caused their populations to be substantially reduced, the chances of an algal bloom went up to 50%. The researchers believe that the increase is related to a disruption of the food chain, which in turn affects the ecosystem. Swedish scientists, we appreciate your work that sheds new light on our oceanic environments.

Let us act on such knowledge to protect marine life for a vibrant planet. Supreme Master Ching Hai has often urged for an end to consuming fish and other animal products, to preserve the biosphere and our own peace of mind, as during a May 2009 videoconference in Togo.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If those fish are all gone, we will see a catastrophic loss of other marine species as well. The coastal ecosystems will also be affected greatly by diseases and algae blooms that release toxins. The ocean is a wonderful recycler that normally can purify the water and create nutrients and turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, etc.

The ocean is a miracle. But if we ruin the ecosystems through overfishing, this will spell disaster for us. SM: It’s better for our body, for our conscience, for our mind, and for the planet to stay away from fish.
We should be vegan.

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091201/full/news.2009.1116.html?s=news_rss
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Algal-Blooms-May-Be-Caused-by-Overfishing-128552.shtml

Zambian farming initiative helps mitigate climate change

A growing method has recently received support from the Zambian government and the National Farmers Union for its ability to care for the Earth while tripling crop yields such as maize.

The approach includes minimized tilling along with basins dug to retain water and the planting of nitrogen-fixing legumes and trees that help naturally fertilize the soil. This combination helps crops resist extreme weather and also sequesters carbon emissions. Thus far, over 150,000 farmers have adopted the agriculture technique.

Our hats off Zambian government, the National Farmers Union and all growers for your development and support of Earth-conserving agriculture. Blessed be such an approach in providing abundant fresh produce as well as restoring greater harmony with Mother Earth.

http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/60167/2009/10/17-113135-1.htm

Twice as many record high temperatures as lows in the US

According to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado, USA global warming has triggered unusually mild winters and intense summer heat waves over the past decade.

Research led by NCAR senior scientist Dr. Gerald Meehl surveyed thousands of weather stations across the nation to compare temperatures on a given day to that of the same date throughout the nation’s history.

From the start of 2000 to September 30, 2009, over 290,000 record highs have been set in the US, more than twice the number of record lows in the same time period. As data from the previous 60 years show that record highs and lows have previously been about even, this difference confirms that temperatures are on the rise.

The study also showed that if current trends of increasing greenhouse gas emissions continue, there will be 20 times more record high temperatures than lows by 2050, and 50 times more by 2100.

Dr. Meehl and fellow National Center for Atmospheric Research researchers, our gratitude for your work in revealing this clear but alarming trend. Let us quickly heed such urgent signs and turn to lifestyles that restore the balance of our ecosphere. In an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke once again with concern about the planet’s perilous state and reminded of the fastest way to stabilize our environment.

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.

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.

Galapagos species suffering from climate change and overfishing

The Ecuadorian Galapagos Islands were first brought to the world’s attention as the site where Darwin tested his theory of evolution. Now, they are speaking of the fragile state of our seas as a new report in the journal Global Change Biology indicates that the Galapagos black-spotted damselfish , and a remarkable 24-rayed starfish called Heliaster solaris are likely extinct as they have not been seen in the last 25 years.

Rising ocean temperatures caused by global warming-induced El Niño weather events as well as excessive fishing are blamed for their disappearance as well as the decline of other species such as the Galapagos penguin and the Floreana cup coral.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, seven species from this famous ecosystem are possibly extinct while nine others are critically endangered.

We are saddened to know of the perilous condition of the Galapagos and all marine life. Let us all act now to avert more losses by adopting considerate lifestyles that are in harmony with nature.

During a May 2009 videoconference in Togo, while addressing the urgent need to act on the crisis facing our marine co-inhabitants, Supreme Master Ching Hai again called on all humanity to turn to life-sparing ways.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The marine ecosystem is in big trouble right now from global warming already. If those fish are all gone, we will see a catastrophic loss of other marine species as well. The coastal ecosystems will also be affected greatly by diseases and algae blooms that release toxins. The ocean is a wonderful recycler that normally can purify the water and create nutrients and turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, etc. The ocean is a miracle.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It is in our interest to care for the oceans if we want to survive, and all the life that they contain, including fish. No animal products at all; that is the best way. We should be vegan.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/04_14.html
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1203-hance_galapagos.html

Scientists concerned about future temperature rise

Many have called the new Copenhagen Accord produced by the United Nations Climate Change Conference an important first step in the right direction to curb global warming. However, the Union of Concerned Scientists reminds that without stringent near-term emission reduction goals, the accord’s stated objective of a maximum global temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius will not be achieved. Rather, it is far more likely that global temperatures will rise by 3-4 degrees Celsius, a range some experts say could trigger runaway warming, with catastrophic effects.

During the conference, it was emphasized by small island nations that even a 2-degree rise would be disastrous and that the goal must be 1.5 degrees Celsius to prevent these countries and other coastal areas from being submerged.Last Chance! Pacific Island leaders call to keep us alive.

Edward Natapei – Prime Minister of Vanuatu (M): It’s a matter of survival for us.

Mohamed Nasheed – President of Maldives (M): If we go ‘business as usual,’ it’s going to be very difficult for us to be intact.

VOICE: Not only coast-lined nations but also regions prone to drought are already suffering from above-average temperatures. Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, who spoke before Copenhagen delegates about the impacts in his own drought-afflicted country, agreed that an important solution is reduced consumption
of animal products, the leading source of multiple heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

Supreme Master TV: Do you realize we have to tell people eat less meat, if possible become vegetarian?

President Ts. Elbegdorj of Mongolia (M): Please, yes, please eat less meat. But we have 2.5 million people, more than 50 million cattle in Mongolia. This is also one problem in Mongolia, because of the rise of the number of cattle.

VOICE: His Excellency then stated that a conversion from livestock to vegan farming would be preferred for the environment and fellow countrypersons.

President Ts. Elbegdorj of Mongolia (M): We have plenty of land to plant more vegetables in Mongolia. Please come to plant in Mongolia vegetables. And also we have plenty of markets.

VOICE: Members of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association were honored to present President Enkhbayar with further materials regarding the veg solution to climate change.
Also during the climate summit, our Association members had the opportunity to present this highly relevant literature to other heads of State and government – Their Excellencies German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, US President Barack Obama, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

We salute all noble country leaders, and thank the likewise caring scientists, for your efforts to save our planet. May we quickly bring the vital vegan solution to the agenda to ensure the survival of all beings in our biosphere. In a January 2009 videoconference with dignitaries and the public in Mongolia, Supreme Master Ching Hai once more urged Mongolia and governments worldwide toward the important benefits of the vegan lifestyle.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Mongolia, as with the rest of the world, is experiencing more severe weather, more fatal patterns of climate change due to the effects of global warming. With livestock raising, we deplete Mongolians’ already limited natural resources and even put the country more in danger of desertification. Instead of grazing animals, we can begin planting the organic vegetable, which is more healthy to everyone.

By not subsidizing the meat diet, we save trillions of US dollars per year in tax. We save a lot of suffering from meat-related illness. We save a lot of food to share with all the hungry in the world, so our conscience will never have to wake up in the middle of the night and bite us anymore.
We need all the help from the government. We must work together.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hRUWDr_OzTfxihjhrtk8oxU1lZqQ
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8395287.stm9

Copenhagen Accord on climate change announced

In the culmination of two years of negotiations, delegates gathered for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Denmark did their utmost to act in the best interest of the public they serve. The resulting Copenhagen Accord provides an agreed point from which to move forward. Supreme Master Television’s correspondent brings us highlights.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: After global leaders arrived, they began a day of their own meetings to help advance toward unified action to curb global warming. By the evening of Friday, December 18, US President Barack Obama announced a broad outline with objectives formed in cooperation with leaders of China, Brazil, South Africa, and India.

NM Barack Obama – US President (M): Going forward, we’re going to have to build on the momentum that we established here in Copenhagen to ensure that international action to significantly reduce emissions is sustained and sufficient over time.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: The Copenhagen Accord urges countries to cooperate in creating goals as negotiators plan for a legally binding agreement at the next meeting in Mexico City, Mexico in December 2010.

Wen Jia Bao – Prime Minister of China (M): We will honor our word with real action. Whatever outcome this conference may produce, we will be fully committed to achieving and even exceeding the target.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: Furthermore, decisions were made regarding financial assistance for developing countries to cope with climate change.

Yvo de Boer – Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (M): We’re actually getting quite close to the US$30 billion that a number of people have talked about, and it is good that the secretary is now talking about US$100 billion annually for 2020.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – Brazilian President (M): For a long time, we have been discussing the climate change issue. And more and more, we see that the problem is even more severe than we could have ever imagined. If it is necessary for us to make more sacrifices, Brazil is willing to tap money to help other countries. We will do it.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: In addition, developed countries will commit to at least 80% emission reductions by 2050, with shorter term commitments to be determined later.

NM Barak Obama – US President (M): We’ve come a long way, but we have much further to go.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: According to climate scientists, the fastest way to significant planetary cooling is the reduction of shorter-lived gases such as methane; and the quickest and least expensive way to do that is to eliminate animal products from our diets, replacing animal agriculture with organic vegan farming.

Throughout the climate summit, this vital and effective veg solution was discussed by civil group delegates and the media. Forums were held, with films about the devastating impact of livestock and meat on climate change.

Members of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association also strived to remain at the frontlines of the campaign by displaying and distributing information at the main entrance of the Bella Center conference venue, providing delicious vegan sandwiches to appreciative busy participants and passersby.

(M): I think your voice here is very good, so keep up the good work.

Besides giving presentations at public side events, our Association members were interviewed by journalists, radio, television, and print media groups from around the world. In addition, announcements about the harms of animal products along with the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle were printed in The COP15 Post newspaper
as well as broadcast on TV, featuring scientific findings and excerpts from interviews and conferences with Supreme Master Ching Hai.

Our Association member (M): During the First World War, Denmark totally gave up eating meat because it had an embargo, and during these three years, the total death rate went down by 17% and they were the only country where nobody died from hunger.

Ralph – Member of the Austrian Association against Animal Factory Farming (M): We drove the whole way from Austria, Vienna to Copenhagen to the climate summit in order to bring a very very very important topic and this topic is the connection between climate change and the mass production of meat; the animal factory farming in the world.

Bill McKibben – Co-founder and director of 350.org movement (M): Ending that kind of factory farming is key.

Vegan activist (F): It’s the #1 cause of the global warming.
George Monbiot – British journalist for The Guardian, Shining World Hero Award laureate (M): We still need to get out of livestock and everyone go vegetarian or vegan.

Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan – Governor of Delta, Nigeria (M): Meat, anyway, is very harmful to the body.

Claude Turmes – VP of European Greens, European Parliament Member (M): A more vegetarian-based diet is important. Moving on methane is a quick and very big step.

Lea Backes – Danish delegate, UNICEF Children’s Climate Forum Copenhagen 2009, Vegan, age 15 (F): I hope that many more people become vegetarians and vegans in the future, because it really will affect our planet, in a good way. Be veg, go green, save the planet.

Ancha Srinivasan - Senior Climate Change Specialist, Asia Development Bank (M): Be veg, go green, save the planet.

Marianne Thieme – Member of Dutch Parliament, Vegan (F): Be veg, go green, save the planet.

Gregor Robertson - Mayor of Vancouver, Canada (M): Be veg, go green, save the planet.

This is Supreme Master Television, reporting from Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: Our respectful appreciation, dedicated global negotiators and leaders, for your efforts in arriving at the Copenhagen Accord, and world co-citizens foryour supporting endeavors. We are grateful to Supreme Master Ching Hai for her steadfast encouragement and guidance for humanity at this time.

May the day come very soon that all governments make the wisest choice of adopting the most efficient, low-cost and rapid initiative to save our planet – the organic vegan diet. During an interview on climate change for the July 12, 2009 edition of the Irish Sunday Independent, Supreme Master Ching Hai was asked to share her perspective about decision-makers’ climate priorities for the Copenhagen conference.

Ben (m): What advice would you give to the leaders making these very important decisions for the people of the world?

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Well, if I may, I have only one humble advice, that it is important to tackle the root cause, which is animal meat production. If we take the vital step to stop the demand for animal consumption, then the rainforest destruction will stop; the lungs of the Earth will be restored; the destructive agriculture runoff and pollution will stop; we will have clean air and clean water; there will be more food for the hungry.

Above all, when we’re freed of all the massive burdens imposed by producing and consuming meat and instead practice the compassionate vegan organic farming, then the energy patterns of the world will change to a more compatible waveform with the Earth and her inhabitants and with Heaven to produce harmonious weather and benevolent life-supporting atmosphere. It’s all about changing energy. Make good energy.

Solution in agriculture discussed at climate conference

In seeking their final agreement, delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference turned to the existing Kyoto Protocol and spoke of maintaining its terms to offer additional time for a broader accord.
Supreme Master Television’s correspondent tells us more, with a special report on the factor of agriculture.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: As negotiators continued to spend long hours in intense discussion, one area considered essential is a commitment from industrialized countries to support developing nations in achieving emission reductions as well as adapting to the more immediate effects of global warming.

José Manuel Barroso – President of European Commission (M): This conference is very important from an environment and development point of view, but it is also a question of moral responsibility and the first test case for the global community.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: One significant issue discussed at the summit is agriculture. Animal agriculture is a main driver of global warming.

Maude Barlow – Chair of Council of Canadians, Food & Water Watch Board chair, Former United Nations senior advisor on water (F): Industrial agriculture is the biggest culprit.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: Livestock raising also strains water and food grain supplies in a world where global warming is worsening hunger.

Ancha Srinivasan - Senior Climate Change Specialist, Asia Development Bank (M): To grow animals and then to be eaten by human beings consumes a lot of resources. It is almost like 10 times or even sometimes more.

Jens Holm – Former European Parliament Member, Vegetarian (M): Governments of the world should take away all the subsidies that today goes to the meat industry.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: But as delegates such as US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack pointed out:

Tom Vilsack – US Secretary of Agriculture (M): While agriculture has always been conceived as part of the emissions problem, it is a significant part of the solution to climate change.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: During the Copenhagen summit, one vital way that has been proposed is to encourage farmers to adopt more sustainable practices, such as no-till agriculture that absorbs huge volumes of emissions.

Maude Barlow (F): One of the huge answers to our global crisis is more sustainable, local, safer food production, and obviously a deep reduction in the consumption of meat.

Ancha Srinivasan - Senior Climate Change Specialist, Asia Development Bank (M): People should go for organic farming as well as the vegetarian diet.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: According to a major UK government-supported report published in The Lancet, trying to capture the methane emitted by ruminant cattle, or using feed crops that would produce less methane simply won’t do enough, nor fast enough to stop temperature rises that endanger human lives. But food policy to reduce meat consumption could. Professor Sir Andrew Haines who headed the research team explained.

Professor Sir Andrew Haines, M.D. – Director, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (M): Could it all be done just by improving technology of farming, better manure management, more efficient use of feed stocks and so on? We concluded that would be not sufficient.

Many of the projections do suggest that we may be nearing the point of not being able to keep the increase in temperature down to 2 degrees. So the kind of trajectory we're on at the moment suggests that we may well breach that unless we take radical action.

Jens Holm – Former European Parliament Member, Vegetarian (M): Be vegetarian; yes, that’s by far the best you can do.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: A vegan diet and organic vegan farming – It’s in deed the fastest, least expensive way to halt global warming. This is Supreme Master Television, Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: We thank the leaders and experts who have been working diligently for the benefit of the world's co-citizens. May all wise governments act swiftly towards an organic plant-based food policy to ensure the survival and wellbeing of humankind and the planet.

With foresight about the fragile future of agriculture, Supreme Master Ching Hai has long advocated such practices as organic vegan farming to mitigate global warming, as in this November 2009 climate change conference in Washington, DC, USA.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The government could of course redirect billions of dollars now spent on livestock subsidies to help farmers switch to organic vegetable and fruit agriculture.

The government could use its powerful tools to spread campaigns about veg alternatives, bans on meat, and laws to help people switch to organic vegan farming and consumption.

A global switch to a veg diet would even save the world’s governments a lot of money, as much as 80% of all the climate mitigation costs of US$40 trillion by year 2050.

That is, we save US$32 trillion in climate mitigation costs, and having a healthy vegan population is a good business deal! Furthermore, there is very good reason for the government to abolish meat, fish, eggs and dairy, all the animal products all together.

We must stop animal production now and at all costs if we want to keep this planet. I repeat: We must stop animal product right now and at all costs if we want to keep this planet.

http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=3041
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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/15/content_12652906.htm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6283681.ece

Climate hazards of meat considered in Copenhagen

As heads of state convene in the final days of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, decisions have been forming on main issues that include industrialized countries' greenhouse gas reduction goals and financial assistance to developing nations for adapting to global warming.

Also at the summit, a side event hosted by the Dutch government called the Holland Climate House featured relevant public presentations such as “Meat: How Far Can Governments Go in Influencing Lifestyles?” Supreme Master Television’s correspondent in Denmark tells us more.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: The session was chaired by Dr. Maarten Hajer of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, who stated, “Current meat consumption patterns in industrialized countries are unsustainable from both a land use and a climate perspective.”

Further supporting this concept are results from a Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency study, which has estimated that 80% of the costs for addressing climate change could be eliminated if humans switch to a plant-based diet.

We also asked some of the public officials at the Copenhagen Climate Summit for Mayors for their thoughts on the government’s role in facilitating planet-cooling veg lifestyles.

Shri Rakesh Mehta - Chief Secretary of Delhi, India (M): It is now medically proven that a herbivorous diet is certainly healthier than a carnivorous diet. Even now the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report has brought out that cattle growing is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases.

So therefore, both from the health and the sustainability point of view, a vegetarian diet is certainly better.
Honorable Ritt Bjerregaard – Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, Denmark: We have a program, especially for the schools, where we try to be ecological. We are heading towards 80% of ecological food and use very many vegetables and a lot of fruits. So I hope that we will give our children good habits.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: It seems many of the summit participants are more readily accepting the healthier, eco-friendly vegan lifestyle, based on what we're hearing from members of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association, who have been actively promoting the veg diet at the venue.

Tens of thousands of SOS information bags and free vegan sandwiches have been received with much interest. Of the police officers who have been monitoring the event’s activities, over a dozen have asked for materials, with one officer openly expressing his plan to become a vegan.
In addition, the COP15 Post, the widely read newspaper covering the conference,has been publishing announcements featuring excerpts from interviews and videoconferences with Supreme Master Ching Hai.
The most recent article appears in the COP15 Post on December 18. From Copenhagen, Denmark, reporting for Supreme Master Television.

VOICE: Our sincere thanks, Dr. Hajer, Honorable Mayors, and all leaders for your caring participation in this forum on the important topic of ways to achieve much-needed veg communities to save our planet.
May this simple, effective climate- and life-saving solution be assimilated by decision-makers at Copenhagen and beyond. The COP15 Post announcement on the veg solution to climate change is available for free pdf download at www.cop15post.com.

In a November 2009 videoconference in Mexico, Supreme Master Ching Hai explained how government leadership can be highly beneficial to society in realizing a safer world.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: A good leader stops what is bad for the people, and facilitates what is good for them. They can facilitate, namely, through public campaigns, the media, and schools to inform about the benefits of the healthy, lives-saving, planet-saving way of life. The governments of the world have the power to make the veg trend an exciting movement for everyone toward a healthier lifestyle.

Studies show that the smoking bans actually helped people to quit smoking. And the quitters were happier because of the ban, because they know that their habit was bad for them. Similarly, a ban on meat, which we all now know from the studies is a very bad habit, which kills us and our children, our loved ones, and it’s killing our planet. So a ban of meat will be a strong current to carry the trend toward a vegan world.

http://www.kk.dk/climatesummitformayors.aspx
http://www.pbl.nl/cop15/side-events/meat-how-far-can-governments-go-in-influencing-lifestyles/
http://blog.climatesquad.org.uk/cop15-what-a-difference-a-day-makes
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/environment/news/article.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10615784
http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.a.hajer/

Damage to oceans on the rise with global warming

A study just released by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity in collaboration with the United Nations Environmental Program has found that although the oceans’ ability to remove atmospheric CO2 offsets the effects of global warming, its harm to marine life is vast and possibly irreparable due to the tens of thousands of years it will take to reverse.

In addition, the levels of CO2 are increasing at rates that scientists say could raise ocean acidity to 150% by 2050. This process, which also involves corresponding calcium loss, is occurring 100 times faster than any period in the past 20 million years. With no time to adapt to the new conditions, countless species could perish.

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and United Nations, we are grateful for this eye-opening information about our life-sustaining oceans. Let us all heed such warnings and tread more lightly to help return our Earth to her pristine state.

Highlighting the importance of our marine ecosystems, Supreme Master Ching Hai outlined the dangers they face, as well as the solution, during a March 2009 videoconference in California, USA.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: There’s another condition called acidification where the lack of certain fish has contributed to higher ocean acidity which, in turn, reduces the capacity of the ocean to absorb CO2.
And the ocean is a very complex ecosystem where every living thing has a unique function. So, removing even a small fish for humans to eat creates an imbalance in the sea. In fact, we are already seeing an effect of this imbalance on marine mammals.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: As the ocean becomes warmer and warmer and more acidic, more toxins are present in the water.
Supreme Master Ching Hai: Anything God puts on Earth is for a purpose. We should not kill anything. We should not eat anything except the plant-based diet.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091118-oceans-carbon-sink-global-warming.html

The human face – and human power – in climate change

Marking the final high-level phase of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, United Nations and partner organization representatives observed Humanitarian Day at the summit locale in Copenhagen, Denmark, raising awareness of the human implications of climate change. Supreme Master Television’s correspondent in Copenhagen shares details.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: “Nature does not negotiate.” These were the words shared by United Nations Secretary-General Ban to signal the firm decisions that must be made now to stop worsening climate catastrophes.

The human-caused decline of nature was well illustrated by UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes.
John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator (M): Whereas 20 years ago there were perhaps 200 natural disasters a year, now we’re facing more like 400. Whereas 5 years ago, half of those disasters were related to climate, now, three-quarters of those disasters are related to climate. Climate change is not some abstract future threat. Climate change is now, climate change is affecting people now.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: Like many others who travelled to Copenhagen to lend their own individual energy, members of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association continued spreading information about the power of each person to reverse global warming through a switch to the plant-based diet.

The veg solution was also discussed by the European Parliament just before the Climate Summit and specifically advocated by eminent leaders such as United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chairman, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri – Chair, United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Vegetarian (M): I think we have to use every means to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases, and I’d submit to you once again that cutting down on meat consumption would be an extremely effective way of doing so.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: This week, the Association hosted a sumptuous organic vegan banquet at the Hilton Hotel in Copenhagen, inviting 150 conference delegates and organizations to participate in a greater understanding of the dietary solution to climate change. The response was enthusiastic.

Niti Desuderai – President of Malaysian Environmental Protection Society, Vegetarian (M): I’d like to congratulate your organization for all the tremendous work you are doing for creating awareness on the importance of eating a vegetarian diet.

COP 15 Vegan dinner interview Phillipines EurporeanParliament 20091214 Ignacio T. Arroyo - Philippine Congressman (M): We would like to try your vegan food, and in fact it’s been talked of a lot by our colleagues. And also I’d like to greet your Supreme Master and thank her for all these.

Supreme Master Television Correspondent: This is Supreme Master Television reporting from Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: Our gratefulness to all the dedicated conference participants, leaders and co-citizens alike, in Copenhagen. We join in thanking Supreme Master Ching Hai for her steady support of the crucial vegan change and pray that the more than 130 heads of state and government will accept this win-win deal so needed by our planet to survive.

In an October 2009 videoconference, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed world leaders, calling for their actions in accordance with the law of harmony with nature, including our animal co-inhabitants.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Ladies and gentlemen, all the powerful people in the world, in our society, the law only punished someone who has done something wrong to the society. The animals have never done us any wrongs.

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. Only then can we have a return of the environmental balance that I know you also seek to protect. So please everyone, plant veg, be veg and we can go green later
when we already save the planet. Save our planet. Please, I wish you the best.

Ecuador offers an innovative plan for preserving the rainforest, with the country leaving an estimated one billion barrels of oil in the ground and instead selling certificates for the unreleased carbon, with proceeds going toward continued conservation and other eco-projects.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091105143823.htm?utm_source=feedburner&
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Alarming climate science presented in Copenhagen forum

In a side conference held during the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Denmark, former US Vice President Al Gore joined Arctic Council leader and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and scientists to address delegates and media on the updated status of the world’s ice caps. Supreme Master Television’s correspondent in the Danish capital has more from Copenhagen.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: This week, world government ministers and heads of state are arriving to help seal the agreement seen as the last chance to prevent runaway global warming.

Karel de Gucht – EC Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid: We are now arriving at the point where negotiations really start.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: Just as the world’s environment ministers held their first meeting, two new reports were presented about the immensely rapid changes occurring in the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctica.

Jonas Gahr Støre – Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denmark (M): The update paints a very gloomy picture of how the ice sheet is out of balance and of the consequences stemming from a melting Greenland.

It carries a clear message from the scientific community relating to climate change that we need to act and we have to act now.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: Danish ice scientist Dr. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and the respected former US Vice President and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore, explained how quickened ice loss in the Antarctic, and even doubled melt rates in the Greenland ice sheet, are raising sea levels.

Al Gore – Former US Vice President, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (M): Roughly speaking, each one meter of sea level rise generates 100 million climate refugees.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: Based on this report, Minister Støre emphasized the need – and timely advantage – of addressing non-CO2 warming substances such as methane and black carbon. This is due in part to their extremely high heating effect in contrast to CO2, which has been found to accelerate ice melt in the Himalayas, the Arctic, and Antarctica. Yet fortunately, they also disappear from the atmosphere many times faster than CO2.

Jonas Gahr Støre - Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denmark (M): If there is one positive message from this report, it’s that doing something about that, if not easy, is manageable. So while we wait for the results of curbing CO2 emissions, we need to address the issue of methane, ozone, black carbon, swiftly.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: Now, it happens that the number one source of human-caused methane is the livestock industry, while vast quantities black carbon are released from forests being burned to clear land for livestock grazing as well as grow animal feed crops.

Parallel to the leaders’ summit, various workshops have been held at Copenhagen on the climate impacts of meat production. Encouraged by Supreme Master Ching Hai’s dedicated example, our Association members have been actively participating as speakers and panelists to raise awareness of this most urgent factor
in global warming.

Our Association member (F): Methane – it’s very very potent but it also goes away very very fast.

Supreme Master Television COP15 Correspondent: In addition, members of The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association created public service announcements on the vegan solution for climate change, which are being aired on the leading Danish television station TV2 Denmark, broadcast to over one million viewers during this crucial week. This is Supreme Master Television in Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: We are grateful to Minister Støre, former Vice President Gore and all participating scientists for this important updated report. Our faith and prayers that the courageous governments of this landmark summit may seize this opportunity of the vegan diet solution and thus truly make history by saving the planet.

On many occasions leading up to the Copenhagen conference, Supreme Master Ching Hai has shared her heartfelt thoughts in response to public requests, as in this October 2009 videoconference in Frankfurt, Germany.

Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai “Be Vegan, Go Green, Protect God’s Creations in Nature” Frankfurt, Germany – October 18, 2009

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Prince Charles said to the European Parliament, “The lives of billions of people depend on your response and none of us will be forgiven by our children and grandchildren if we falter and fail.”
I’m sorry to say, but I cannot even guarantee that our grandchildren will have a chance to be born to say that, if the Copenhagen climate change conference leaders don’t agree together to stop the meat industry and talk directly to the subject, not talk around it. It’s really that urgent. I pray the world leaders will awaken to this reality, immediately, and act properly, now.

Climate change conference is about saving lives

During their meetings and negotiations, global decision-makers at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark have been keenly aware that in the end, human lives are at stake.
Supreme Master Television’s correspondent reports.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent (M): Over the weekend, churches in more than one dozen countries including here in Copenhagen (gesture to cathedral behind reporter) symbolically rang their bells 350 times at 3 pm to highlight the importance of bringing atmospheric CO2 levels to the relatively safe levels of 350 parts per million.

A 2-degree temperature rise is another way to describe a global warming limit considered in the acceptable range by leaders. However, in a press conference on Saturday, scientists from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) cautioned that much deeper emission reduction goals are needed to even meet this limit, and that a 2-degree temperature rise could still raise sea levels by up to 1.4 meters.

Addressing the delegates, Tuvalu’s lead negotiator Ian Fry translated this reality into human terms, reminding that entire nations are at risk of being lost without adequate action.

Ian Fry – Tuvalu delegate to UN Climate Change Conference (M): Pacific island countries, all the least developed countries, and millions of other people around this world are affected enormously by climate change.
I woke this morning, and I was crying, and that's not easy for a grown man to admit. The fate of my country rests in your hands. Thank you.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent (M): Not only vulnerable countries, but the children of every nation are also at grave risk, for their lives and their future. A special film was presented to all government delegates and media depicting the nightmare of a six-year-old girl as she ran from the disasters of climate change. The youth choir singing for the film also conveyed their message of hope and nature’s preciousness to the assembly.

VOICE: The younger generation care deeply about our future. Just before the climate summit, 160 youth delegates from 42 countries gathered in Denmark for the Children’s Climate Forum Copenhagen 2009, organized by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Youth representative from Maldives (M): We want to show the world that beware, we care. That's our message. Together they made a declaration of recommendations that were presented to the climate conference leaders.

Youth representative from Maldives (M): My message to the global leaders will go as a question. I will ask them: Are they ready to commit murder? Of course that's a very big word, that's very scary.

But because if they don't take action, if they don't bring any change, our country, 360,000 strong, plus another million from another country, and all the countries in the same state, we will all be wiped out.

We met with one bright young Danish representative who is also aware of the most important planet-cooling solution of being vegan.

Lea Backes – Danish delegate, UNICEF Children’s Climate Forum Copenhagen 2009, Vegan, age 15 (F): I’m a vegan because I think we need to treat animals right, and because animal raising is affecting the climate radically. And because I think that it’s not okay to kill when you can live based on plants.

I hope that many more people become vegetarians and vegans in the future, because it really will affect our planet, in a good way. Be veg, go green, save the planet.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent (M): To spread the word about the urgent veg solution, our Association members have continued to distribute information packets to VIPs as well as to the participants and observers of the conference.

In addition to joining tens of thousands of people in a large peaceful march through the city, our Association members have also been invited to public presentations and workshops in related forums, as well as to interviews with international media including Danish Radio, Radio Radicale of Italy, Brazil-based Record Television, Radio Suisse Romand of Switzerland, Denmark's Radio P3, and the Internet-based Yourclimate TV.

Our Association member (M): …Major source of methane is livestock farming. So if we eat less meat, the climate and our health and the planet will be happy. This is Supreme Master Television reporting from Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: We pray for the wise decisions of all leaders and climate change negotiators based on the best interests of people and the planet. Let us awaken now to the fastest, ever affordable solution of the vegan diet that will save our world and her inhabitants in time.

VOICE: In her steadfast plea to the world during a government-invited videoconference in November 2009 in Mexico, Supreme Master Ching Hai asked those concerned to pray for an enlightened leadership to steer the planet to safety.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It’s just that we need to make the switch to the animal-free lifestyle now. Then everything will improve, life will be easier, and we can rest knowing that our children will have a future to look forward to. And I’m praying to all heavenly beings to help as well, to further accelerate the trend that we need, by manifesting themselves physically, to awaken the leaders, the media, the influential and ordinary citizens alike.

So that our planet won’t look like Mars in the near future. So, prayer, combined with the efforts of citizens, and the governments’ and media’s powerful support, this formula could bring the fastest and smoothest transition to a stable planet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8410356.stm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20091213/wl_oneworld/world3683251260734225
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/12/12/3623534-scientists-climate-talks-aim-too-low-for-target
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?Language=en&id=2046566

United Nations Climate Change Conference enters second half of negotiations

Over the past week at the historic summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, discussions have focused on emission reductions and pledges of financial support for the more vulnerable countries, including those in Africa as well as small island nations. Let’s go to Supreme Master Television’s correspondenton location.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent (M): European Union leaders have agreed to fund €7.2 billion over the next three years, including €2.4 billion each from Britain and France, and €1.6 billion from the United Kingdom.

The United States has also pledged assistance and participation.
Todd Stern – US Special Envoy on Climate Change (M): I think the United States will be prepared to be part of an overall solution that involves financial contribution, and that’s what I was referring to with respect to the US$10 billion which is also part of the statement that the White House put out announcing the President’s decision to come on December 18.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent (M): As the conference goes into its second scheduled week, ministers are arriving who will be joined by about 110 world leaders in the final days on Thursday and Friday. Those involved are optimistic about a constructive outcome.

Stavros DIMAS – European Commissioner in charge of Environment (M): I strongly believe that we are going to be successful, because this is what common sense tells us. We have to listen to science; science is warning us.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent (M): Meanwhile, over the weekend, tens of thousands of people gathered for a peaceful rally through the streets of Copenhagen, urging for bold actions to halt global warming.

About 4,000 other rallying events were held across the world, all calling for a strong, legally binding agreement from the summit. One group of citizens specifically highlighted the crucial need for the vegan solution in cooling the planet.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent (M): We are here in front of the Town Hall, Copenhagen. The main purpose of this demonstration is to urge global political leaders to take action and to curb global warming, mainly by reducing its main cause –livestock farming, and to encourage the global population to adopt a compassionate vegan diet.

Interview with peter Fruitarian activist (M): I think it’s important to change our lifestyles to support our planet, our health, and to be compassionate toward animals and all living beings.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent (M): Our Association members also held attractive banners and distributed thousands of flyers promoting the simple, low-cost, universal way to reverse climate change.

Vegetarians, vegans, fruitarians, and others present eagerly participated in holding “Be veg” placards as they joined in the procession through the city.

Interview with american vegan Veg activist from USA (F): I came here to support global change and my first step was vegetarianism, and I’m here today holding a sign because I believe in this change.
Be veg, go green, save the planet!

Activist (M): Be veg, go green, save the planet!

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent (M): This is Supreme Master Television, Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: We send our gratitude and support to all the determined leaders whose cooperation and dedication the world depends on for a stable, livable future. May the urgently needed component of a vegan diet policy find a place in your successful agreement for a truly effective solution to climate change.As in the following gathering with our Association members in 2008, Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently affirmed the importance of large-scale government action in stopping meat consumption, the most flagrant climate change source.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: There is a solution, only three steps, no? Vegan, sustainable energy, plant trees. And the government has to say something, just like they ban the smoking. So it is banned, it is done. The same with the climate change policy. If they just do what they know is good, then it’s very quick. In no time we will recover, or we stop the effect.

No more greenhouse gas or methane gas from the animals. No more multiplying all the time. They just have to stop meat eating because it’s bad karma also. And every day we air all kind of, warning signs and warning evidence.

This is the only important thing right now. First you have to survive and then you can do anything else you want, but if you don’t survive, you don’t have the planet, what’s the use?

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091212-701129.html
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2329482

Livestock reduction is key for Copenhagen’s deep emission reduction goals

At the two-week United Nations Climate Change Conference in Denmark, discussions have continued to revolve around how much global temperatures should be allowed to rise, with low-lying countries vulnerable to sea level rise calling for no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius increase. Even at this level, many such as the tiny island nation of Tuvalu are likely to be submerged. But a new study was presented at the conference on Saturday that highlights a very important component in limiting temperature rise.

Supreme Master Television’s correspondent is on location at the Danish capital with this report.
Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent: As delegates weigh in on proposals leading up to a final agreement, a summarized draft document calls for more drastic emission reductions than have been committed to thus far by industrialized nations.

In addition, for the first time, text has been proposed that would allow “interstate cooperation” to help countries with anticipated relocation of possibly millions of global warming refugees. Meanwhile, countries have been pledging future financial aid to vulnerable nations, with European Union leaders agreeing to funding €7.2 billion
over the next three years.

Anders TURESSON, Chief Negotiator for the Sweden, Presidency of European Union (M): These monies should be used for public support, adaptation, mitigation, and capacity building, with an emphasis on the least developed countries.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent: Meanwhile, Brazil stepped up efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest, a vital climate regulator whose deforestation is a major source of greenhouse gases.
Supreme Master Television recently spoke with Brazilian Ambassador Paulo Alberto da Silveira Soares about the government’s plan coinciding with the Copenhagen summit.

Paulo Alberto da Silveira Soares – Brazilian Ambassador to Singapore (M): Brazil is really the only country that came, weeks ago, before any other countries with a very straight forward proposition, a target of curbing CO2 emissions between 36 to 39% and 80% reduction in deforestation in the Amazon area.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent: A new study released on Saturday at the Copenhagen conference found that livestock raising is the biggest source of greenhouse gases, at more than 50%, and that about 75% of total Amazon deforestation was to clear grazing land for cattle.

Brazilian sociologist Marley Winckler has more to share about this message.
Marley Winckler – Sociologist, President of Brazilian Vegetarian Society (F): If you really want to mitigate greenhouse gases, you must address meat production. SMTV Danish correspondent: The Brazilian government announced this week that it will use satellite surveillance in an effort to ensure that cattle ranchers do not destroy more land than they are already allotted and that violators will not be granted permits to transport their cattle to be slaughtered.

We asked Ambassador da Silveira Soares his thoughts about changing dietary consumption to being meat-free as an immediate solution for both government and people.
Paulo Alberto da Silveira Soares – Brazilian Ambassador to Singapore (M): We need a big effort, Brazil is net producer of meat. So we have to make more than a campaign and make people more aware that for the health, of me, you and everyone in the world, less consumption of meat only helps your health and climate change.

Supreme Master Television Danish correspondent: This is Supreme Master Television reporting from Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: We thank His Excellency Mr. Alberto da Silveira Soares, Ms. Winckler, and all negotiators and leaders who are working to chart our world’s best future course. May we work together to halt climate change through the organic vegan diet and farming practices, for the survival and happiness of all.

In a March 2009 videoconference with government dignitaries and the public in Mexico, Supreme Master Ching Hai once more highlighted the exceptional government measures required to address the current crisis of global warming.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I suggest all world leaders and governments to please promote the animal-free lifestyle and quick so that we can save our planet. We have not too much time left. This is no longer even about politics.

It’s about the survival of ourselves and our children. If all governments encourage people toward the healthy, animal-free diet, the planet could be saved in no time.
And the activities that are good for our Earth can also gener ate livelihoods. We have a shortage of food, so the government can easily support organic vegan farmers and the advancement of other green practices.
This will help greatly. The government must make a priority, saving the planet, organic vegan farming subsidies.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/carteret-islands/6771651/The-sea-is-killing-our-island-paradise.html
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49630
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http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5BA29S20091211?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/11524/1/

At Copenhagen, a focus on the immediate veg solution

As the climate change conference in Denmark gains momentum, European Union delegates have been working to reach agreement on the matter of assistance to developing nations for adapting to current and future onslaughts of global warming.

From prolonged droughts and water scarcity to increased floods and food shortages, disasters have already begun striking the regions with the least infrastructure and resources to cope with them.
Organizations like the World Bank have estimated mitigation costs at up to hundreds of billions of US dollars each year. However, one solution being advocated by groups in Copenhagen that would reduce both climate cost mitigation and global warming itself is the organic vegan diet.

With that, let's go to our corrrespondent in Copenhagen. With livestock production now known to account for more than 50% of global warming, one of its primary greenhouse gases, methane, leaves the atmosphere in about a decade.

Moreover, as a previously published report from the Netherlands has stated, 80% of environmental stabilization costs could be saved if everyone adopts an animal-free diet. Thus, the vegan solution would rapidly lead to a cooler planet, while dramatically lessening both costs and the need for adaptation in all countries.

We have been working in Copenhagen to spread awareness of the crucial importance of the vegan diet, handing out tens of thousands of SOS and Alternative Living flyers along with other informative materials.
The flyers and prominent banners have received a great amount of attention and positive feedback, including from international journalists, radio and television groups as well as public officials at Copenhagen.

In European Union media coverage of the wide range of activities taking place in and around the conference venue, officials such as European Environment Agency Deputy Director Gordon McInnes showed they were also supportive of the need to address livestock industry impacts on the climate.

We asked Deputy Director McInnes for his thoughts on livestock's impact to the environment.
Gordon McInnes – Deputy Director, European Environment Agency (M): Cattle and other animals, there is a lot of methane produced, which also contributes to global warming.
So less meat production, less meat eating will help reduce impact. This is Supreme Master Television reporting from Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: We thank Deputy Director McInnes, European Union delegates, and all participants of this historic summit. Our prayers that the organic vegan diet will be considered a vital part of the climate agreement and wishing world leaders Godspeed in arriving at the most enlightened planet-saving strategies for all.
In a speech addressing government magistrates and judges of Mexico City, Mexico, Supreme Master Ching Hai called upon their leadership to instate the highly beneficial vegan policy to halt further human suffering and save the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If all tillable land were turned into organic vegetable farmland, not only would people be fully fed, but up to 40% of all the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could be absorbed.
This is in addition to the elimination of over 50% of emissions caused by livestock raising. Therefore, in sum,we eliminate most of the human-made greenhouse gases by simply adopting the animal-free vegan organic lifestyle.

This also leads to considerable financial savings for world governments. At this most urgent time for the planet, I beseech your honorable graces to please help your country and our world spare lives from the impending global warming calamity. If you don’t, there will be too massive a catastrophe, too immense a suffering upon people, families, the children, that our conscience might never be able to bear it. We must become vegan to save our planet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8407112.stm
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/environment/Billionaire-Soros--Finance-Gap-Climate-Talks-10DEC09--78983462.html
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9TuMrvrknh-ZXwqmZ2N-48kff3wD9CGJKJO1
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/only-5050-chance-that-2c-climate-target-will-be-met-1837373.html
http://www.spa.gov.sa/English/details.php?id=726449

Groups advocate the “Copenvegan” solution

During the two-week climate change conference in Denmark, the organization Veg Climate Alliance, a coalition of environmental, vegetarian, animal rights, health and other groups, has been working to raise awareness that a global shift to the veg lifestyle is essential to avoid an unprecedented global climate catastrophe.

Joining the call as he cited the devastating tolls of meat and dairy to our planet, Peter Melchett, policy director of the UK-based Soil Association, also asked that global decision-makers at Copenhagen adopt organic farming practices to begin replacing meat and dairy production.

Patrick Holden, Director of the British Soil Association: Organic food is now the preferred choice of more and more people who feel reassured that after all the recent food scares, from BSE (Mad Cow Disease) to genetic engineering, that organic farming best meets their needs as consumers. And as a membership charity, the Soil Association is committed to upholding the principles and standards of organic agriculture.

VOICE: Many thanks, Veg Climate Alliance and all organizations working to bring recognition of the planet-cooling vegan solution. Blessed be all efforts to finalize an international agreement that supports truly sustainable living to preserve lives and our Earth. This urgent call for a swift transition to a plant-based diet has been frequently highlighted by Supreme Master Ching Hai, who, during an October 2009 video conference in Germany, again expressed the dire need for a vegan decision at the Copenhagen summit.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I hope the Copenhagen leaders understand where to put their finger. Not just talking around the subject and try to avoid the burning spot, which is livestock raising.
Animal industry is number one killer of all killers on this planet. Meat industry is the number one killer, is the number one murderer, an illegal murderer, and we endorse it.

We must stop the livestock industry. I hope the leaders of the Copenhagen conference will do this. Otherwise I don’t know what else to say anymore. Stop the livestock industry; that would be the most effective way to halt global warming and restore our planet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8403745.stm

Climate change’s most vulnerable nations call for urgent action

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced that climate change is already forcing large-scale human movement, mostly to other regions within the same country or to neighboring countries.

For instance, migrations due to drought have become common in places such as Ethiopia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal and even Syria. The IOM predicts that at least one billion people will be forced from their homes due to global warming by 2050.

At the Cop15, the United Nations’ Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, negotiators for the small island nation of Tuvalu warned that the current emission reduction goal of stabilizing CO2 at 450 parts per billion is too high to assure the survival of island nations, which in some cases have become uninhabitable and in others are experiencing the adverse effects of rising sea levels. Representatives from other island states also presented their call for urgent mitigation as well as adaptation assistance.

Jacky Bryant – Secretary-General, Ecology Party of Tahiti (M): All water and the land, the taste is very salty, trees dead. All people must migrate to find a new island. We need to say to all the world it is a very very big problem.

VOICE: Without effective action, all countries will sooner or later be impacted by the ravages of global warming. According to the American Medical Association, more than half the US population alone will be at risk of increased hospitalizations for climate change-induced diseases such as pneumonia, asthma and other lung diseases, with potentially worsening health of people already weakened by illness.

International Organization for Migration, island nation leaders and American Medical Association, we are grateful for your concerned voice and endeavors to protect fellow citizens. Our prayers that all climate change negotiators and leaders choose wisely for the sake of ourselves and future generations on Earth. Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently spoken with concern about the need for leadership to focus on saving human lives made fragile due to global warming, as in a videoconference with our Association’s New Zealand Center in August 2008.

Q (f): What encouragement can we give [government leaders] to stand up and spread the message to the people to be vegetarian?

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I think they will have to, in time. And I hope they do it soon, so that we still have a chance to save millions, billions of people or the whole planet. What is the use of having economy or political power when everybody is dead? Even if the leaderis still alive, whom would he or she rule if there’s no citizen left? I am worried about your country; it’s a small island surrounded by water.

And if the water level rise then… I don’t want to talk about it. But I’m sure your leader will realize it sooner or later, that survival is number one. Political position, economic power is number ten, very low, low, low, low down there. First we have to survive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8403745.stm
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33175&Cr=copenhagen&Cr1=
http://interdiscussion.blogspot.com/2009/12/future-of-humanity-hinges-on-copenhagen.html
http://unfccc.int/2860.php
http://www.france24.com/en/node/4943273
http://www.france24.com/en/node/4943525
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6745203/Copenhagen-climate-summit-
Nearly-half-the-world-will-suffer-from-water-shortages-within-30-years.html

US EPA to regulate greenhouse gases

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson formally announced on Monday, December 7 that greenhouse gases such as CO2, methane and nitrous oxide pose a threat to the public health and welfare of the American people and are thus subject to regulation. The EPA based this finding of endangerment on extensively evaluated scientific data, which supports a 2007 US Supreme Court decision that greenhouse gases are air pollutants.

Coinciding with the opening of the climate negotiations in Copenhagen, the announcement was heralded by the European Commission and other members of the international community, including Chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, who said he welcomed the determination and leadership of the United States being demonstrated through this decision.

Administrator Johnson, Environmental Protection Agency and United States, we respectfully laud your commitment to protecting the health of humanity and the planet. May all world leaders in Copenhagen vote similarly for the most effective measures to reduce dangerous greenhouse gases while we still have time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8400323.stm
http://www.euronews.net/2009/12/08/us-carbon-ruling-raises-hopes-at-copenhagen/
http://english.cctv.com/20091208/101043.shtml

World leaders gather in Denmark for historic climate change conference

The much-anticipated Copenhagen summit was launched on Monday, December 7. The meeting represents the culmination of years of negotiations to create a successor to the Kyoto protocol, in which 192 countries across the planet are being asked to come to a legally binding agreement that will reduce emissions quickly and efficiently enough to save the world.

Supreme Master Television’s correspondent reports from Copenhagen.
Correspondent in Denmark (M): This year’s conference is expected to be one of the most important in history, a turning point where firm decisions will be made to prevent runaway climate change.
Yvo de Boer – Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (M): I believe that negotiators now have the clearest signal ever from world leaders to craft a solid set of proposals to implement rapid action.

Correspondent (M): Scientists from all around the globe have been warning that the Earth is approaching dangerous tipping points.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri – Chair, United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (M): There are viable adaptations options that can be implemented in several sectors at low cost and with high benefits costs.

Correspondent (M): It is hoped that the negotiators and world leaders who are gathering here in the Danish capital will provide strong and unifying decisions.

Connie Hedegaard – Danish Minister for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (F): So ladies and gentleman, let's get it done. The time has come to set the right cause for our world while we still can.

Correspondent (M): This is Supreme Master Television reporting from the COP 15 here in Copenhagen, Denmark.

VOICE: In addition to government and civil efforts, 55 newspapers from 45 countries acted in unison by publishing an editorial that called upon all global leaders to take action in determining the direction if not the fate of life on Earth.

Our full support and salute, leading decision-makers, participants and all others involved for your caring determination and courage. We pray for an outcome of the most effective and practical solutions, including a policy for the essential and planet-cooling organic vegan diet. Blessed be the wise collective efforts made in this crucial period.

Leading up to this key summit, Supreme Master Ching Hai has been unreservedly urging the world’s governments in particular to mobilize rapid and necessary efforts to address the livestock emissions, as in this August 2009 videoconference with dignitaries and the public in Thailand.

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. Spread information, encourage everyone, inform everyone to be vegan.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/06/copenhagen-editorial
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/dec/04/copenhagen-climate-change-conference-liveblog

Animal agriculture affects global hunger

With the numbers of people facing hunger worldwide having risen to more a billion for the first time in history, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) released a white paper calling for reduced reliance on industrial animal agriculture and greater support instead for plant-based foods to provide nutrition for more people.

The report points out that with over 80% of all soy and up to 50% of corn already being fed to livestock, forecasts of animal product consumption doubling by 2050 means that livestock animals may soon be in competition with humans for food. Worse yet, livestock production is a major factor in global warming, which if continued will only intensify problems such as drought and extreme storms that are already threatening food security worldwide.

Our appreciation, Humane Society of the United States for this wise reminder that global hunger can be alleviated by the simple choice of plant-based foods.

May such research as yours lead us to swiftly adopt lifestyles that optimize the food supply for all.
In her dedication to ensure humanity’s wellbeing, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often warned of the major role of the livestock industry in world hunger, as during a January 2009 videoconference in Mongolia.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Actually, we should not have to worry about food because we have it abundantly on our planet. It’s just that we have to use it wisely. Instead of using it to feed the animals, we use it to feed humans and that will be fine. We should remind everyone to be veg to invoke the mercy of the Buddhas, and we will be better protected.

Studies have shown that if the grain currently going to livestock animals for feed, if we feed it to humans, then all the hunger in the world will disappear and the reversal of global warming from a vegan diet will result in more plentiful growing conditions. So, we even have more food than now if we turn to vegan diet.

http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/farm/hsus-the-impact-of-industrialized-animal-agriculture-on-world-hunger.pdf
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=50669
http://www.humanesociety.org/news/publications/whitepapers/farm_animal_welfare.html

European livestock raising exceeds carbon storage of trees and soils

In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry found that although farms in Europe have the capacity to store some 125 million tons of CO2 equivalent through absorption by trees, grass and soil, these numbers did not take into account emissions from livestock and fertilizers. Lead author and Institute Director Dr. Detlef Schulze stated that the numbers changed drastically when factoring in the methane generated by livestock as well as the nitrous oxide produced by animal manure.

In fact, the beneficial absorption number was removed altogether and was replaced instead by 34 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions. Commenting on the current method of ignoring these livestock-related greenhouse gases, Dr. Schulze said, “That’s definitely not acceptable.” Dr. Schulze and colleagues, our heartfelt thanks for this further documentation of the harmful effects of farmed animal raising. Our prayers that climate negotiators act on such clear data by ensuring that livestock production is accounted for and regulated under all new emission reduction agreements and goals.

In her endeavors to safeguard life on our planet, Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently highlighted the need to stop the meat industry and its intense global warming effects, as during an interview published in the July 2009 edition of the Irish Sunday Independent newspaper.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If we are vegan we don’t even need to worry about CO2 yet. CO2 by transportation and all that is not the grave urgency like methane gas and nitrous oxide and all the gases that are produced out of animal industry.

From my inside knowledge, and also scientifically speaking, 80% of global warming would be stopped if we stopped the animal industry. As the top climatologist Dr. James Hansen said, being veg is the single most effective thing a person can do to stop global warming.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=nw20091122222410940C386700
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aceiR0hNQrcA

“Meat strike” by French VIPs during Copenhagen summit

Starting just ahead of the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, ten distinguished personages from France have issued a declaration titled “The Call of the 10.” The members include French film director Jean-Paul Jaud, distinguished journalists, respected environmental organization heads, and three Members of
the European Parliament.

Their document demands recognition of the impacts of meat on the environment, human health, and animal suffering. Specifically, the public is being invited to boycott the meat industry, and to press for a moratorium on intensive livestock farms as well as strong policy measures to reduce animal agriculture.

The declaration states that rising levels of meat consumption are causing global warming, resource waste, pollution, deforestation, soil degradation, hunger of over one billion human beings and the slaughter of billions of land and aquatic animals.

Supreme Master Television spoke with leading activist Fabrice Nicolino, French journalist and author of the book, “Bidoche, the Meat Industry Threatens the World.” “Bidoche” refers to a cheap form of meat.

Fabrice Nicolino – French journalist, author of “Bidoche, the Meat Industry Threatens the World” (M): I am looking forward to the governments, and political leaders talking about this issue, as well as the NGOs and individuals, to finally open this debate, which is an essential discussion that concerns us all.
We must stand up; we must have the courage to say that these threats are so important, so disturbing, that it is time to react in a clear, decisive and determined way. I think that if a new consumer movement comes to life, and if this movement has as a priority to make the livestock industry disappear, then maybe we will have a chance to stop this infernal machine …before everything explodes.

VOICE: We are grateful, Mr. Nicolino and all government and civil leaders for your urgent clarion call to eliminate the unsustainable meat habit. May world citizens and leaders everywhere act swiftly for a healthy, green, survived planet. Supreme Master Ching Hai has reiterated on many occasions that indeed, only an immediate halt to animal agriculture could ensure a stable planetary future, as during the following September 2009 videoconference with various experts in South Korea.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: As for what I wish the Copenhagen conference to accomplish, I wish what you wish. I wish what everyone who cares about the planet wishes – that all the leaders come together for the highest benefit to all humanity and animals, and the environment. To be honest, as the plans are going right now, we can’t save the planet, I am so sorry. Not in time, not in time. It will be too late the way we are doing now. So we have to be veg first.

We cut down the number one cause of global warming. We have to eliminate animal products because we want to save the planet. And if it goes like this, we will have a saved world in no time. No animal products means having the planet.

http://www.viande.info/sommet-copenhague-greve-viande
http://www.france24.com/en/node/4939253
http://suprememastertv.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=killers&wr_id=117&goto_url=&sca=killer_1&url=&

Copenhagen Diagnosis Report reveals dire planetary state

Released this past week just ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference, the report is authored by a group of 26 climate scientists, including 14 members of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Their prognosis is that climate destabilization is much worse and precipitously more rapid than previously thought.
The scientists observe that greenhouse gas emissions are still skyrocketing even as Arctic sea is melting 40% faster than had been forecast, and sea levels are already rising 80% more than previously predicted.

The scientists say that without a significant change in course, the planet is set to warm 7 degrees Celsius by 2100. Eminent scientists, we appreciate this important message to the international community.

Let us all take steps now to stabilize the ecosphere during this precious window of opportunity that is still available to us.Ever-concerned for our global welfare, Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently called for the swiftest actions to reverse climate change, as during an October 2008 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We must let people know it’s urgent now and it’s time to stop global crisis. Time is short and we must all act as one to save our world from disappearing, to save our lives, and all the lives on the planet. Everything else takes too long.

So the fastest and easiest way is to stop animal products and to stop consumption of it. The result will be almost immediate, within a few weeks. It’s just the meat industry that causes the most pollution for the planet, that the planet is overloaded, nature is overloaded, the ocean is overloaded. So everything warms up because of meat and animal products.

If we change into vegan diet, this planet will become a paradise, will be plentiful, will be peaceful, will be very happy for everybody to live on.

http://www.casavaria.com/cafesentido/2009/12/01/5205/climate-scientists-say-destabilization-much-worse-than-ipcc-reporting/

The House Magazine features effective dietary climate solution in special Copenhagen conference edition

Following an interview with Supreme Master Ching Hai published in its September 2009 issue, The House Magazine, based in the United Kingdom, is featuring a report summarizing planet-saving strategies, with a highlight on the effective vegan lifestyle solution as consistently advocated by Supreme Master Ching Hai.
This special edition of The House Magazine will be distributed to its main readership of British Parliament members starting on Monday, December 7, the first day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Considered a key resource for policymakers, The House Magazine is also read by private citizens, businesses, academia and local governments, and is available to interested subscribers. The two-page article, titled “The Greatest Climate Chance: Copenhagen,” focuses on the climate-healing shift to organic vegan farming and diet, and includes calls for meat reduction made recently by esteemed scientists, government and United Nations leaders.

Readers will find reference to such supportive studies as “Livestock and Climate Change,” published by the World Watch Institute magazine in November 2009, which reveals through updated calculations that livestock emissions account for more than 50% of global warming.

Also included is the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency’s report on the savings garnered from a global transition to less and no meat. Finally, readers can see highlights of The Lancet medical journal’s special series, “Health Benefits of Tackling Climate Change,” which advocates a 30% reduction in meat consumption to save lives and curb global warming.

From Supreme Master Ching Hai are condensed, highly relevant facts and words of guidance that decision makers and the public alike may find useful, as in the following:

“The Rodale Institute calls organic vegan farming a powerful strategy to reduce global warming.”
~ Supreme Master Ching Hai, Interview in The House Magazine, September 2009

“We should also show our children that we care about their future and their health. And the best way to do this is through the example of a compassionate, loving lifestyle through a vegan diet.” ~ Supreme Master Ching Hai, “Global Unity: Together in Saving Lives” Climate Change Conference, Hong Kong, 2009.

“If meat eating were halted, then we still have time to handle the carbon dioxide.”
~ Supreme Master Ching Hai,

Interview in The House Magazine, September 2009 Our appreciation, The House Magazine, for highlighting the most relevant climate solutions for respected Members of Parliament and other readers during this crucial conference period.

We also convey our gratitude to Supreme Master Ching Hai for her tireless efforts to assist humanity in making the most beneficial decisions. May the world leaders at the Copenhagen summit wisely and courageously incorporate a vegan food policy for the survival of the planet and her inhabitants.

European Parliament Members discuss reducing meat and climate change

The European Parliament organized a hearing on Thursday, December 3 titled “Climate Change and Food Policy: Less Meat = Less Heat,” opening the floor for a discussion about ways that reducing meat consumption would mitigate global warming. Invited as guest panelists were former Beatles artist Sir Paul McCartney, known for his Meat-Free Mondays campaign, and Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, esteemed Chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who is also a vegetarian.

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri – Chair, United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Vegetarian (M): I think we have to use every means to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases, and I’d submit to you once again that cutting down on meat consumption would be an extremely effective way of doing so.

VOICE: Dr. Alan Dangour, co-author of a recent report published in the esteemed medical journal The Lancet that recommended reductions in meat consumption to save lives, also joined Sir Paul and Dr. Pachauri in the lively discussion.

Dr. Alan Dangour – London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK (M): A greater awareness of the climate costs of all of our actions, including our choice about what we eat, is urgently needed. Surely cooling our love affair with animal source foods is a very small price to pay.

VOICE: During this session, Sir Paul and Dr. Pachauri fielded questions from international journalists, including one from our Supreme Master Television correspondent.

Supreme Master Television correspondent: How do you think we can encourage people to change their eating habits, education-wise, and also in the compassion issue?

Sir Paul McCartney – Former Beatles musician, Vegetarian (M): I think what needs to be done is to point out the dangers of not changing our eating habits. There are a lot of facts available. I think we just have to encourage people, to guide them, to help them make the transition. But I think it’s doable, it’s very possible.

VOICE: We send our gratitude, European Parliament members, Sir Paul McCartney, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri and other participants, for your efforts to address this most urgent matter of our time.

May all people quickly make the shift to the vegan diet for the safe continuation of life on Earth. As one who has been dedicated to safeguarding humanity's course on the planet, Supreme Master Ching Hai again called for adoption of the life-giving plant-based lifestyle during an April 2009 videoconference in South Korea.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We really need to stop global warming now, like yesterday, because I’m sorry to say that while all these green changes are good, there is still one action that must be on the top of the list, the most important one, which, once again, is the vegan diet.

The greenest of all the green policy, the greenest of all the green action, the most compassionate, the most heroic, the lifesaving action, the vegan diet. It will eliminate methane, one of the most heat-trapping greenhouse gases. And this will cool the planet the fastest and give us more time to exercise our green policy or finding better technology. This is the most valuable step, the vegan step, that the governments could make, could encourage, could pass into law, could inform the people at large.

This is the realistic way, the only way that I know, the only way that I see that we can save the planet right now.

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

European Parliament Members welcome hearing from veg advocate Sir Paul McCartney

An animal-free vegan diet could save up to 94% greenhouse gas emissions, while also greatly solving issues of land degradation, biodiversity loss, and ever-intensifying food and water shortages. These were some of the aspects highlighted in Thursday’s European Parliament hearing that specially invited Sir Paul McCartney, former Beatles artist and vegetarian who has been promoting a Meat-Free Mondays campaign since June 2009.

Sir Paul McCartney – Former Beatles member, Vegetarian (M): What can the European Parliament do, and the governments of the world? I suggest that they could encourage and guide people to reduce meat consumption.It's no longer a personal choice. This is something that’s going to affect the whole of the planet.

VOICE: The hearing titled “Climate Change and Food Policy: Less Meat = Less Heat” was chaired by European Parliament Vice President Edward McMillan-Scott, an open vegetarian advocate, and comes on the eve of the key Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.

Edward McMillan-Scott – European Parliament Vice President, Vegetarian (M): We can decide for ourselves now how to slow climate change. Less Meat = Less Heat.

VOICE: Also lending their supportive voices was European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, among other officials.

Jerzy Buzek – President of European Parliament (M): Everybody can give up meat for one day, at least one day a week.

Chris Davies – European Parliament Member (M): I think this is a matter that is serious. I think diet needs to be addressed.

Caroline Lucas – European Parliament Member, VEGAN (F): We’re going to have to have a much less meat-based diet, because it’s simply an incredibly inefficient way of using grain resources in a constrained world.

VOICE: Our gratefulness, Sir Paul McCartney and leaders of the European Parliament and United Nations for your concern and noble initiatives on the vital issue of diet change to address global warming.
Let us all quickly make the necessary transition to the planet-saving veg lifestyle. In her dedicated efforts to help humanity avoid a dire planetary outcome, Supreme Master Ching Hai once more emphasized the immediate and powerful effects of organic vegan fare, in an interview published in the July 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. It is better if we concentrate on the solution to save the Earth. We can still do it.

If everyone becomes part of the solution, which is the organic life-saving vegan diet, it's so simple really, it's so simple. It's no sacrifice, it's even better for health, better for everything!

Organic vegan diet, that's all we need to do, for the time being. And any other green technology, we can slowly develop.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jzc3oulh3mmDKPGEEZKrSXK08gBA
http://www.kentucky.com/512/story/1044284.html
http://www.examiner.com/x-29556-Cleveland-Vegetarian-Food-Examiner~y2009m12d3-Paul-McCartney-promoting-Meat-Free-Mondays-to-EU
http://europa.eu/eucalendar/event.shtml?eventId=1241128

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

Renowned biologist cites tragic biodiversity loss

Harvard University Professor and two-time Pulitzer Prize winning biologist and ecologist Edward Wilson warns that biodiversity on Earth is suffering from drastic loss. With just under two million species currently catalogued, an estimated 30 million exist. And although 183 species have been formally declared extinct
since the beginning of the last century, Dr. Wilson states that this number is a vast underestimate, with annual extinctions more likely in the neighborhood of 20-30,000 species.

Saying that climate change has focused more on physical than living losses, Dr. Wilson is urging for the creation of an international group of experts to oversee biodiversity, similar to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Our many thanks, Dr.Wilson for your comprehensive approach and caring reminder to include all treasured co-inhabitants in addressing our planetary crisis.

May world leaders and citizens heed the call to urgent action to save these diverse and irreplaceable lives.
Concerned for our welfare, Supreme Master Ching Hai has also often emphasized the need for adopting the most considerate, eco-conscious lifestyles, as during a March 2009 videoconference in Mexico.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Just return to compassion and respect for all life. That is the principle we must uphold to ensure that the animals do not disappear, because, that would be tragic for us humans, too. Imagine our planet without animals at all. All the dogs gone, cats gone, birds gone, fish gone, buffalos gone,elephants gone; imagine, none of the animals survive; how would we live? So, if we respect all life, then we also don’t take any life. We don’t need to take in a way that hurts or harms any other being. If all humanity lives with the animal-free diet, and lives in respect to nature and other life, then we will have a Heaven on Earth.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/20/biodiversity-loss-darwin-edward-wilson
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=114878
http://www.well.com/~davidu/amnh.htmlhttp://roboconsumer.wordpress.com/2007/09/23/extinct-mammals/

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

Evidence of life on Mars grows stronger

US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists have looked again at a meteorite that struck Antarctica 13,000 years ago. They believe the rock, which was found in Antarctica in 1984, formed part of Mars’ crust during a time that the planet contained water and theorize that it left the Martian surface due to an asteroid or comet blast and reached Earth only after floating through space for millions of years.

Thanks to refined electron microscope imaging, more recent findings in the rock of elongated shapes resembling certain bacterial microbes reveal what researchers are calling “strong evidence” that life once existed on Mars.

Further evidence was also suggested when another team of US scientists reported that new, more detailed maps of Mars indicated the planet long ago contained a large ocean in the northern hemisphere, expansive valleys around the equator, and a climate similar to drier regions of planet Earth.

We are most appreciative, all scientists and agencies for sharing these detailed discoveries about Mars’ past characteristics and similarities with Earth. We look forward to learning even more about our neighboring planet and the understanding it offers of our own precious home.

During a January 2009 videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai shared further insights about a climate disaster in Mars’ distant past, as an aid for us in caring for our Earthly ecosphere.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: They have discovered that Mars is all barren and uninhabitable, but they also discovered that, long ago, there was water there. Water means life supporting. What has happened to all these bodies of water? That is a very, very important question for us. So from Mars, we can learn to prevent such disaster, that it might not ever happen to our planet.

Don’t forget that we have a very beautiful home here for us and for our children.

So we have to protect this beautiful place we call Earth, because this is the home of not just us, but many other species; and the environment, beautiful flora and fauna. All we do is just be vegan. Nothing else is really important anymore. Just being vegan, you can save the planet overnight, just like that!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/6699886/Nasa-compelling-evidence-of-life-on-Mars.html
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Tech/Story/A1Story20091124-181805.htm
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/11/24/huge-ocean-found-on-mars-115875-21845313/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/6637302/Mars-was-covered-by-huge-ocean-say-experts.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6637274/Huge-ocean-once-covered-much-of-northern-half-of-Mars.html

UK launches poster campaign for climate change

Timed for release in the days leading up to the Copenhagen climate summit, the British government has begun a new Act on CO2 poster initiative to raise awareness about the danger of global warming. Graphically depicted climate change messages are being placed on 900 billboards throughout the country. The campaign comes also in response to a recent survey, which found that over 50% of the British population did not think they would be affected by climate change, with less than 20% believing it would start having an impact during the lifetime of their children.

The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change stated, “Climate change is not just a problem affecting distant countries into the future; it is here, it is happening and it affects each and every one of us.
Our new Act on CO2 campaign shows how serious it is, but it also shows that we can all do something about it.” Regarding the upcoming global climate change summit, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, “I am committed to doing everything in my power to secure an agreement that marks the decisive global shift towards combating climate change. I believe all leaders have a responsibility to come together at Copenhagen to do this. We cannot afford to fail.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown: If we do not reach a climate change deal at Copenhagen, if we miss this great opportunity to agree together to protect out planet, we can not hope for a second easy chance some time in the future. There will be no retrospective global agreement to undo the damage that we have caused.

Our gratitude Prime Minister Brown, Department of Energy and Climate Change and the UK government for your commitment to increasing awareness regarding our environment’s precarious state.

Blessed be such commitment in bringing the needed changes to stabilize our Earth. As on many occasions, including the following 2008 videoconference with our Association members in Germany, Supreme Master Ching Hai has encouraged bold government and media initiatives to help awaken the public toward action to alleviate our planetary crisis.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: That’s why I say if the government and the media join hands together and inform people day after day, because information is a lot and people’s brains take some time to ingest it.
They rely on the government to inform them everything that is good for them. They rely on the newspaper to give them all the news that is necessary and important to their life.

That’s the power of media and the government. I hope they use it for the best cause right now and the noble cause right now. I hope they do use it. I hope only that the human beings wake up, heed the warning, and save themselves, save their souls. Save the planet means save their souls, because if they listen and become vegan with the intention to save the beings on the planet, then they’re noble enough to be saved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jDJo9INuWJtFvErxJuvWmnIpoaNA
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=arBLcicoSkNc
http://www.decc.gov.uk/
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5976BO20091008

Journalists remark on videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai

Held on November 8 in Washington DC, USA, “Humanity’s Leap into the Golden Era” united concerned participants to discuss the urgent matter of climate change in an exciting new light that included the constructive vision of overcoming the planet’s crisis through a vegan solution that would lead to an even brighter future.

The event had invited Supreme Master Ching Hai as the honored guest to share her thoughts on questions raised by a group of distinguished questioners, one of whom was US vegetarian journalist Marysol Varela of the Orlando Vegetarian Restaurants’ Examiner.

She later wrote an article sharing her impressions of the conference discussions. “The audience was given staggering facts about the harm that is being done to the world’s environment with our current destructive practices. …The most anticipated speaker of the evening was the Supreme Master Ching Hai. Her words of wisdom reached across the audience spreading hope and solutions to this impending global disaster.
Supreme Master suggested that by simply adopting a vegan diet, we can dramatically reduce our carbon footprint. Because meat eating is a major contributor of global warming, vegetarianism will reduce the demand for livestock.

She also speaks up for those animals which suffer and die every day in the hands of farmers by promoting a peaceful coexistence between all beings in the animal kingdom…. Once humanity has learned to work together to save our planet, then we will have advanced a step closer to the Golden Era.”

VOICE: In fact, as Supreme Master Ching Hai explained during the conference, it is humanity’s innate tendency to lead a noble, harmonious lifestyle.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: A compassionate vegan diet is the basic way of a higher being, a mark of a true human being. A true human being would never kill. A true being would never harm another, even if his own life is threatened. A real gentleman steps wisely, understanding that all beings are connected, and that by taking a life, he is compromising his own human spirit and bringing the bad retribution of killing upon him.
We must all work together to bring Heaven closer to Earth.

VOICE: Our appreciation, journalist Marysol Varela, “Examiner” and all other media reporting on our planetary crisis. We are grateful to Supreme Master Ching Hai for her efforts to encourage humanity toward a quick transition to the planet-saving organic vegan lifestyle. Let us all join this caring trend to secure our world’s welfare and to herald an Eden on Earth.
http://www.examiner.com/x-14525-Orlando-Vegetarian-Restaurants-Examiner

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

Prestigious vegan scientist sets out to transform the food industry

Concluding that the planet cannot sustain humanity if consumption of animal products continues to increase, Stanford University professor and US National Academy of Sciences member Dr. Patrick Brown decided to set aside his normal scientific work for 18 months and instead seek to eliminate animal farming across the globe.

His plans include helping people change their diets by showing companies how to create and market tasty vegetarian foods.

For the next six months, he will be working with scientists on models demonstrating that the economic and environmental costs of animal foods are too high to sustain, followed by a year of working with famous chefs and food researchers developing savory vegetarian dishes and a program to overcome food security issues.
Saying that he wants to approach our planetary crisis as a solvable problem, Dr. Brown offered a simple summary of the solution: “Eliminate animal farming on planet Earth.”

Our accolades and admiration, Dr. Brown! May Heaven bless your lofty ideals in speeding our world toward adoption of the lifesaving plant-based fare. As part of her tireless work to aid humanity in facing our precarious global situation, Supreme Master Ching Hai has advocated an urgent transition to the organic vegan diet, as via a video message for a June 2009 conference in Mexico.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Adopting a plant-based diet can halt as much as 80% of global warming, eradicate world hunger, stop war, promote peace, and it will free up the Earth’s water as well as many other precious resources, offering a lifeline for the planet and for humanity. In short, it will very quickly halt many of the global problems facing us right now. Therefore, it is vital that we do our part to bring to the public’s attention the urgent climate change issues and its solutions; the foremost being the vegan diet, to safeguard our precious planet.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1130/thought-leaders-mcdonalds-global-warming-drop-that-burger.html

Commonwealth meeting reaffirms call for strong climate agreement and financial assistance

At the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) summit in the Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday, November 28, government leaders representing the group’s 53 nations reached a consensus in calling for an ambitious and binding agreement on climate change at the crucial December conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Kevin Rudd PM of Australia: Progress is being made. You see, as each day passes, a large number of states coming forward with their own national commitments.

Ban Ki-Moon: There must be a deal in Copenhagen, for the future of humanity.

Queen Elizabeth II: And on this, the eve of the UN Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change, the commonwealth has an opportunity to lead once more. The threat to our environment is not a new concern but it is now a global challenge which will continue to affect the security and stability of millions for years to come. Many of those affected are among the most vulnerable and many of the people least wellable to withstand the adverse affects of climate change live in the commonwealth.

The successful 3-day CHOGM meeting, led by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, brought together dignitaries and heads of state that included UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, as well as the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

At the summit’s conclusion, a joint statement was issued, recommending a legally binding treaty to be adopted within the next year along with the decision to create a US$10 billion annual fund to assist developing countries in addressing climate change, especially vulnerable island and low-lying coastal nations.
Our gratitude Your Majesty and other dedicated world leaders for your firm commitment to an accord in Copenhagen to save our planet. We pray that all nations come together for a caring and effective plan to ensure the survival of all inhabitants on Earth.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=&objectid=10612249
http://www.euronews.net/2009/11/28/new-diplomatic-push-for-un-climate-deal/
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/11/2009112802312202844.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/6667627/Commonwealth-summit-in-Trinidad-seeks-climate-change-agreement.html
http://chogm2009.org/home/node/32 http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1141442/Rudd-shrugs-off-climate-woes-at-CHOGM,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/11/2009112910461454712.html

French organization calls for a vegetarian Copenhagen Conference

In a letter to Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen regarding the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Vegetarian Association of France said “…We would like to propose that you arrange for meals with the lowest possible carbon imprint to be served for everyone throughout the summit, namely vegetarian meals or, even better, vegan ones.

This would be a very strong symbolic gesture underlining the willingness of participants to curb the increasing pace of climate degradation.” As the Association stated, “If ever there was a time to give a strong signal, it is now.” Within France, government leaders are well aware of livestock’s enormous share of greenhouse gas emissions.

In an interview during a recent public event titled “Paris en route to Copenhagen,” the city’s Deputy Mayor Mr. Denis Baupin affirmed the city’s climate plan to promote an increase in organic fruits and vegetables in schools, government and other institutions.

The Honorable Denis Baupin - Deputy Mayor of Paris for Sustainable Development, Environment and Climate Plan (M): We must necessarily reduce the meat in our diet. With regard to livestock, there are greenhouse gas emissions associated with not only livestock occupying the land, but also the processes in the passage from feeding the livestock to consuming the meat, plus all the transportation that is involved. But it's also a lot of methane. And methane is a greenhouse gas that is widely underestimated.
So there really are many reasons today to reduce our consumption of meat, and therefore encourage people to do.

VOICE: Our gratitude Deputy Mayor Baupin and the Paris government for your acknowledgment of the need to stop livestock’s excessive emissions. We also thank the Vegetarian Association of France for raising consciousness among world leaders about the Earth-saving veg diet. We pray that the December Climate Change Conference in Denmark yields results that will rescue our planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has been steadfastly calling for the veg-promoting endeavors of governments, organizations, and individuals at this crucial time, as in an August 2009 climate change videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: To sum up, to all the leaders I call on them once more to put their love first for their countrymen and women, and for all the children to accept with courage the deed that must be done, to use the mighty power in their hand entrusted by people to save the world. The global livestock industry is now contributing almost about as much to global warming as the energy sector, or even more.

And I know it contributes at least 80% of it. To the organizations of the world, including the media who understand the strength of a social movement, thank you for your work to inform and encourage people to the exciting and humane, beneficial, chic, animal-free – the vegan way of life. To the individuals, thank you for doing your part to save our planet, but please to make it in time, we have more to do and we have little time. Just be vegan. And please, be quick. Our days are numbered.

http://www.vegetarisme.fr
http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=50628

Chinese and US leaders to attend Copenhagen summit

US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have affirmed that they will both be going to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Denmark in December. In addition, the US has pledged a 17% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared to levels in 2005 and further decreases toward a goal of an 83% reduction by 2050.

China has also announced a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 by up to 45% compared with 2005 levels. Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Yvo de Boer optimistically stated, “The US commitment to specific, mid-term emission cut targets and China's commitment to specific action on energy efficiency can unlock two of the last doors to a comprehensive agreement.”

Our respectful appreciation Your Excellencies for your commitment to helping safeguard the planet. We pray for the conference’s fruitful outcome of a comprehensive agreement to benefit all beings in our world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8378890.stm
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/25/obama.copenhagen.climate/index.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/26/content_12543659.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/26/content_12544181.htm
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/26/china.climate.emissions/index.html

Informing ourselves of true carbon meat costs.

A landmark report has been officially supported by the British Departments of Health as well as Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the United Nations World Health Organization, and others.

Published in the esteemed medical journal, The Lancet, the report advises that both meat production and consumption be reduced by one-third, as the only way to meet the country’s ambitious carbon emission reduction goals. Furthermore, citizens would be more than compensated by direct and favorable effects on health. Dr. Alan Dangour - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK: The policy is reduced production, because our primary aim is to reduce carbon emissions, and we’re saying, in our series of papers, look at the health co-benefits. I think it is important for people to become much more aware about the true carbon costs of food production. Meat and meat products and dairy have an enormous carbon cost.

Today, the climate savings of plant-based eating are abundantly known, such as findings that a vegetarian diet saves more greenhouse gases than a hybrid car, or that an animal-free vegan diet reduces emissions by 94% compared to one with meat-based fare.

Regarding health savings, co-author Dr. Alan Dangour of the UK’s London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine stated that these could be even greater than the 18,000 lives forecast to be saved from heart disease alone if other meat-related diseases, such as colorectal cancer and obesity, were included. The hope is that knowing the true health costs will prompt the public to voluntarily shift away from harmful animal products. Dr. Alan Dangour: That information and the knowledge of the risks of climate change combined should allow them to make decisions about their future consumption patterns.

Our thanks Dr. Dangour and all researchers involved, as well as the British and United Nations officials who are prudently weighing the climate costs of livestock raising and meat consumption. May we all choose the plant-based diet to save our lives and the planet. In addressing the impacts of meat on all areas of our lives, Supreme Master Ching Hai has for decades urged the remedy of the vegan diet as in a May 2008 videoconference in South Korea.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: You see the meat diet not only causes the greatest emission of poisonous gas into the planet atmosphere but many other costs. There is the transportation energy cost, the electricity energy cost, there’s water wasting cost, there’s a land resource occupation cost, there’s a deforestation cost and there’s a related illness medical cost and there’s the grievance, sorrow of the people who lost loved ones due to disease related to meat diet cost.

And because we use food to feed livestock for human consumption instead of feeding directly to humans, therefore there is the cost of war and famine due to shortage of food and resources. Add them together, then we will see the real answer. So, right now, what’s good for our planet – vegan diet - we do it. We try as best as we can.

Reference:
http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/11/25/Brit-official-backs-meat-reduction-report/UPI-81791259183429/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6933045.ece

Chinese and US leaders to attend Copenhagen summit

US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have affirmed that they will both be going to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Denmark in December. In addition, the US has pledged a 17% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared to levels in 2005 and further decreases toward a goal of an 83% reduction by 2050.

China has also announced a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 by up to 45% compared with 2005 levels. Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Yvo de Boer optimistically stated, “The US commitment to specific, mid-term emission cut targets and China's commitment to specific action on energy efficiency can unlock two of the last doors to a comprehensive agreement.”

Our respectful appreciation Your Excellencies for your commitment to helping safeguard the planet. We pray for the conference’s fruitful outcome of a comprehensive agreement to benefit all beings in our world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8378890.stm
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/25/obama.copenhagen.climate/index.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/26/content_12543659.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/26/content_12544181.htm
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/26/china.climate.emissions/index.html