Warming climate causing drastic forest decline

In various regions of the world, huge tracts of trees are perishing. Scientists have observed that a common factor of their often sudden demise has been increased heat and drought.

Across western North America, for instance, forest die-off has been especially disastrous, with 70,000 square miles being lost in the Canadian and US Rocky Mountains to beetle infestation as warming temperatures cause the insects to move to higher and higher altitudes.

In Australia, a recent report stated that nearly a third of the trees had died in a 20,000 square-mile savanna area, while a study in Russia of 9,400 square miles of tree-covered land also observed significant losses, with hot, dry conditions in forested regions like Siberia bringing extreme wildfires in eight of the last 10 years.

In Africa, climate change is being identified as the cause of demise for local trees such as the quiver tree, camel-thorn, and the giant 30-foot-tall succulent known as euphorbia.

Although when alive, these wondrous lungs of our Earth are continuously absorbing carbon dioxide, US Geological Survey ecologist Dr. Craig Allen, who has studied forests around the world, warns that as the trees perish, they actually become a source of greenhouse gases. We thank Dr. Allen and all international researchers for this reminder that our own well-being is truly linked to the health of the world’s forests.

May we all attend now to their silent calls of distress through our own swift adoption of more life-sustaining ways. Supreme Master Ching Hai has long highlighted the need to care for the ecosphere, including the world’s trees, and shield them from the tolls of global warming, as during a videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan) in July 2008.

Everyone knows by now that protecting the environment, protecting the animals, are actually protecting ourselves. So we must protect the environment.

We should have more rules, more guidelines, to protect natural habitats. Because sometimes we overlook the long run effect. Then the consequence is very, very detrimental to ourselves and to the planet, just like what we are facing right now.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: People must be more aware of our dire situation and that everyone’s responsible action does help to minimize or stop global warming. We should act fast.

Be veg. Go green.

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2252
http://blog.climateandenergy.org/2010/03/16/forest-die-offs-in-the-rocky-mtns-and...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/16/forests-insects
http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2252
http://wildfiremag.com/tactics/russian_fire_season/

Widespread drought afflicts China

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s the vegan diet – no animal products.

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

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

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

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

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

Evidence of global warming mounts in Australia

New research indicates that the drought gripping the southwestern part of the nation since the 1970s is rooted in climate change. Drs. Tas van Ommen and Vin Morgan of the Australian Antarctic Division have discovered that the approximately 20% decline in winter rainfall is linked to higher snowfall in East Antarctica, found by viewing ice core samples that date back 750 years.

The scientists’ report showed a type of moisture oscillation that is occurring, with cool, dry air flowing northward toward southwest Australia, bringing very little rain; while warm, moist air flows toward East Antarctica, causing increased snowfall.

Previous research has already linked a rise in greenhouse gases to changes observed in the southern hemisphere’s atmospheric circulation.

Dr. van Ommen, Dr. Morgan and associates, many thanks for this insight into Australia’s troubling dry conditions. May we all quickly implement lifestyles that tread more lightly for the restoration of harmony and balance on our planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has long cautioned about the human disruptions to climate balance, as during a September 1994 lecture in Singapore where she also explained how our actions can help.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Recently, our world has a lot of disasters, like drought. And then dry climate and heated-up planet due to a lot of weather changing. And then the more it heats up, the more dry.

The more dry, the less trees.
The less trees, the less rain.
The less rain, the less trees, and this is the devil circle.
And every corner of the earth, affects the whole planet.

Therefore, if you yourself; your heart, your mind, your speech, your actions are pure, how much beneficial can it be to this planet?

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The vegan diet is good for you; it would purify your spirit, purify your aura, and make you clear, inner and outside, and protect you.

http://www.physorg.com/news184771509.html

Mid-east countries unite to find water solutions

At a recent conference held in Amman, Jordan, experts gathered to discuss the growing water crisis due to climate change. Organized by Jordan’s Ministry of Agriculture along with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and other partners, participants spoke of how to counteract the alarming decrease in water supply to the region.

More than 150 villages were abandoned during 2007 and 2008 in Syria alone due to climate-related drought, and the United Nations just announced the nation’s worst dry spell in four decades, affecting some 1.3 million people.

In an effort to address the situation, the Water and Livelihoods Initiative has been launched, a ten-year collaborative project involving Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen.

With an initial US$1 million in funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), each country is contributing plans for sustainable land and water management.

Nations such as Morocco and Jordan have already shown promise in implementing practices such as harvesting water from rainfall runoff as well as supplemental irrigation.

Jordan’s Ministry of Agriculture, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, all other participating partners and countries, we laud your resource-sustaining goals.

Wishing you every success as we pray that all governments awaken to the ultimate water savings found in the plant-based lifestyle. Concerned for the Earth's urgent state, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often addressed the actions needed to replenish our currently dwindling resources, as during a video message for a June 2009
climate change conference in Mexico.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We can stop water shortage. While droughts are plaguing more populations, we cannot afford to waste water. Meat production uses massive amounts of water, as you know. It takes up to 1,200 gallons of fresh and good clean water to produce just one serving of beef. In contrast, a full vegan meal costs only 98 gallons of water. That is 90 plus percent less. So, if we want to stop water shortage and to preserve precious water we have to stop animal products.

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.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87991
http://www.firstscience.com/home/news/agriculture/scientists-unite-to-combat-water-scarcity-solutions-yield-more-crop-per-drop-in-drylands_78493.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9714c514-10e3-11df-9a9e-00144feab49a,s01=1.html
http://www.speedy-fit.co.uk/Climate-Change/Drought-Drives-Residents-from-160-Syrian-Villages.html

Bolivian indigenous people at risk of extinction due to climate change.

The Uru Chipaya have survived throughout the years on the edges of a Bolivian salt desert because of water supplied by the Lauca River. Now, global warming-related drought has caused the river to dry up. Mr. Juan Condori of the Uru Chipaya said, “The Chipaya could cease to exist within the next 50 years. The most important thing is water. If there is no water the Chipaya have no life.” Bolivian President Evo Morales has stated that his government will partner with indigenous peoples at this year’s upcoming climate change summit in Denmark to advocate more strongly for developed countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

We pray for the protection of the Uru Chipaya and other indigenous peoples through these urgent times. Let us work together in adopting truly sustainable lifestyles to ensure the survival of all humankind.

In an international seminar on August 20, 2008, Supreme Master Ching Hai once again expressed her concern and explained how a global shift to a vegan diet could actually restore fresh water supplies and other natural resources to the Earth.

International Seminar
August 20, 2008

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Meat consumption is the one that takes away all things. Water, cereals, and the vegetable protein, up to 85 percent of it. So, it’s taking away a lot of the world resources. And water, 70 percent of it. So even if we don’t shower, we don’t brush teeth, it amounts to nothing when they don’t stop eating meat. We’re going to damage this planet. The resources will be running out. It’s already running out.

Drought-stressed trees sensitized to rising temperatures.

A study at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 in the USA showed that piñon pine trees would lose their lives five times faster from an atmospheric 4 degree Celsius increase in temperature. This was the first time that scientists isolated and studied heat as a factor in trees’ fatalities during drought. Professor David Bresheers of the school’s Natural Resources department said, "The Biosphere 2 experiment is a critical next step to understanding how global climate change can trigger large-scale vegetation changes in dramatically short timescales."

Thank you Professor Bresheers and University of Arizona Biosphere 2 lab researchers, for these significant findings on the potential impacts of climate change. Let us act now in preserving the life-giving trees to restore our verdant ecosphere.

During a January 2009 international global warming videoconference in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Supreme Master Ching Hai highlighted the importance of the choosing the noble way of life in order to save the Earth from the detrimental consequences of global warming.


Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai Global Warming – SOS International Conference
January 27, 2009 – Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Only now, when the planet starts heating up, then we begin to do research about the harmful effect of a meat diet. So, we all know that it’s hard to quit this, but it’s harder to lose our planet. It’s harder to lose this only home for our children. If we have a choice, exchange that piece of meat for the whole planet, and all the lives and everything else on the planet, all the comfort and the inventions, all the life that we’re having, it is worth it. But people must know why, they must be informed. If people know what it is, why they should stop eating meat, I think they will stop right away, if they know.

Maldives: water shortage hits 12 islands, one family spending 85% of income on bottled water

12 islands in the Maldives face extreme water shortage. With islanders largely dependent on rainwater to meet their water needs, scarcity caused by recent droughts has brought response from the country’s National Disaster Management Center (NDMC), a government agency established after the devastating 2004 tsunami. Thus far, 763 tons of water has been delivered to eight of the drought-affected islands, with the other four still in need. Deputy Director-general of the NDMC Moosa Ali Kaleyfaan stated that the agency is installing desalination facilities on a boat that can travel from island to island, but that more permanent remedies are needed.

Many thanks, National Disaster Management Center and Maldives for your timely care that is helping safeguard the lives of affected fellow citizens. May we all be reminded to appreciate the precious resource of clear water, one of Mother Earth’s many gifts of life.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has emphasized that the only permanent remedy and certain refuge we all have in the face of global warming is our own virtuous lifestyle. The following comes from a discussion during an international seminar in Europe with our Association members in August 2008.

Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai International Seminar, Europe August 22, 2008

Supreme Master Ching Hai: But nowadays the disasters are more frequent than ever. If it’s not earthquake, then it is storm, typhoon, drought. This is even more permanent disaster than just earthquake, which lasts not long. Anyway, the bad karma has to be paid. If the people turn to noble lifestyle, just even be vegetarian to save the planet, to save the animals, that’s enough to save them also. But they have to listen.

Even if you pray for the earthquake not to happen, something else will happen to those people who have to experience this kind of thing unless they turn their heart around and take refuge in their own loving great power, compassionate nature; that’s their only refuge. On one hand, we feel very sorry for the people; on the other hand, it’s not much help we can do for them. We can pray for world peace, we can pray for the planet as a whole, but people have to change.

China is facing more and more severe weather challenges Haze

China affected by severe climate-related weather patterns. Prolonged drought this past winter with precipitation levels at 70-90 percent below normal has resulted in loss of vital crops for at least 12 provinces. The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters estimates that 44 percent of the country’s winter wheat crop has been damaged, with other crops threatened as well. A state of emergency was already declared once this year in Beijing due to the crop failures and water shortage, which has affected more than 4.3 million residents overall. The nation has promised some US$13 billion in drought relief to be paid mostly to farmers who have suffered loss.

Another climate-related condition is desertification, brought about primarily by earlier deforestation. The desert area, which is said to be encroaching at a rate of 1,300 square miles per year, has already submerged some northern villages. Furthermore, winds sweeping across the desertified regions send huge amounts of sand blowing across the country to places such as Beijing, where the first “yellow dust storm” of the year just arrived. Even citizens in more distant South Korea have been purchasing extra air purifiers to cope with the forecast of multiple storms of windborne sand and accompanying pollutants.

We pray for the safety of those affected by these disturbing global warming conditions. May this trend quickly subside as we aid the environment by offering animals their rightful co-existence through our adoption of the plant-based diet.

During a June 2008 videoconference with our Association members in the United Kingdom, Supreme Master Ching Hai highlighted, as she has done on other occasions, the clear link between humans’ moral actions and nature’s destabilization.


Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai Surrey Center United Kingdom
June 12, 2008

Supreme Master Ching Hai: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” “Like attracts like.” Scientifically speaking, spiritually speaking, we have been warned. So, all the disasters that have happened around the world, of course, are connected with the human unkindness to the co-inhabitants. That was the price we have to pay for what we have done to the innocents who have done us no harm, who are also the children of God, who have been sent to Earth to help us and to cheer our days. Because, generally, humans also have very good merit before they came to Earth.

And that’s why they became human, because of their good merit. So, from their good merit, there has been give and take and deductions and additions. Otherwise, if these things have not been canceling out some of the bad retribution then it would have been worse. Or the Earth might have been disappeared all together already, but luckily the humans also do have some good merit and it has not run out yet.

Acidity kills fish as rivers dry up

Aquatic life in danger due to drying rivers. As the region continues to face extreme drought, data shows that water levels in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin linger at just 16% of capacity, nearing record lows. Meanwhile, the water’s acidity is on the rise, causing countless fish to lose their lives in the shallow rivers off the Murray. People have also been affected, with the loss of crop irrigation causing growers sacrifice businesses and homes. Even drinking water is at risk, with dry conditions increasing the chance of algal blooms that would contaminate this key resource of many small towns.

We pray for the resiliency of the Australian people as they endure these difficult times. May the balance of Mother Nature return as we all step in unison to adopt sustainable and planet-friendly lifestyles.



During an August 2008 videoconference with our Association members in Sydney, Australia, Supreme Master Ching Hai once again expressed her concern for the fragile state of our ecosphere and, as in other occasions, reminded of the government and media’s role in helping address the root cause and only solution for global warming.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The governments of the world already are aware of the dire situation of our planet. So I hope they will act as soon as possible and on time, to save themselves, as well as the people.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Especially it’s up to the government and the media to help to alleviate the situation. If they don’t turn into the compassionate way of life, then I don’t know what else to do.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The law of cause and retribution has to take place, no matter we like it or not. There is no escape from that. And we are trying to let people know this, to remind them the law of universe. To remind them of their true great compassionate, loving Self, and now it’s up to people. I wish I have a magic wand and wave it around and hoop-la, everybody become vegetarian, planet is saved. But it’s not like that. They have to awaken themselves. They have to practice compassion. Then the compassion will beget compassion; love will beget love.

Climate change accelerates water hunt in U.S. West

California facing steep losses due to drought. With global climate change causing increased water scarcity, farmers in California, USA suffered losses of at least US$300 million last year. Last month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency due to the extreme water shortages, and the city of Los Angeles is now planning to ration water for the first time in 15 years.

Most recently, Kern County in southern California announced the likelihood of another US$300 million in losses this year, with some 40,000 acres of crops that will be under-irrigated and another 40,000 acres that won’t be planted at all. The state has called for emergency measures to cope with the shortages, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is suggesting more focused recovery measures such as groundwater cleanup and storm water harvesting.

We appreciate the efforts of the Natural Resources Defense Council and all others working to alleviate this dire situation. Let us all join together in adopting new levels of sustainable living that support all life on our Earth.

Drastic changes in water policy needed, says World Water Forum chief

Water Forum in Turkey focuses on vital resource. The 5th World Water Forum, a conference held every three years to coordinate the management of global water resources, is being held this year in Istanbul. The conference, which began Monday and goes through March 22, welcomed over 20,000 international participants from governments, education and the private sector. Its primary goal is to achieve a framework that create processes to more effectively manage water as a resource, with this year’s participants also placing specific focus on the urgent problems of drought and climate change.

We laud your concerned commitment, worldwide attendees! With Heaven’s grace, may the accords reached at this week’s 5th World Water Forum help ensure the precious blessing of sufficient water for all.

Threat from global warming escalated.

Serious consequences from global warming such as droughts, flooding and mass extinctions will occur with less warming than previously predicted. This was a key message put forth in a report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working with the US-based environmental research company Stratus Consulting. The report states that, with a warming of just 0.22 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1990s, the damaging and often fatal effects of climate change are already being seen through such extreme events as hurricanes, flooding, droughts and heat waves. This means that increased devastation is in our future if greenhouse gas emissions continue, raising temperatures even more.

Our sincere thanks, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Stratus Consulting. Let us quicken our steps in acting now to save all lives on our shared planetary abode.

To help us better understand the grave urgency of possible scenarios for our planet, Supreme Master Ching Hai drew from the case of neighboring Mars, where tens of millions of years ago, global warming had built up past the point of no return. She shared these insights during a videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff on January 18, 2009.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It happened so fast in the last two months that they had no time to prepare nothing. They never believed it’s going to happen, because it’s too fast. They know something may be going wrong, but they do not listen to the wise people, to the spiritual people who can see the future and who can know the cause and the effect of actions and reactions. Even then, they thought they have a lot of time, but they didn’t. In the past five years they have been warned, but they did not listen, they did not change. And then the last two months it happened just so fast, so fast, nobody even has time to even think. Ninety percent of the beings on Mars died just like that.