Scientists say extreme winter weather fits global warming

According to the assessment of both US and European researchers, the frigidly cold weather and massive storm systems that occurred this past winter throughout the US and Europe were all part of a warming climate.

Frank Boettcher, Director of the German Institute for Weather and Climate Communication, stated, “Right now, temperatures in Greenland are 15 degrees Celsius above the season's long-term average.”

He went on to say that even with the cold temperatures in Central and Northern Europe, German weather statistics reveal an average temperature that is at least one degree Celsius higher than 100 years ago.

Moreover, a 2009 US Climate Impacts Report stated that global warming has caused large cold weather systems to move northward, with mid-latitude storms decreasing in frequency but rising in intensity as the hotter air retains more moisture, resulting in the release of enormous amounts of snowfall.

Satellite data in fact showed that the two large winter storms that recently impacted the US occurred during the warmest winter on record for the region. Director Boettcher and other European and US scientists, we are grateful for your insights that remind us of the perilous state of our ecosphere.

Let us all do our utmost to restore planetary stability by acting now in united and Earth-supporting ways.

As during a January 2009 videoconference in Mongolia, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often emphasized the real urgency of global warming and our actions that can quickly counter it.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We are already facing so many untold natural disasters on a daily basis such as earthquakes, severe storms never seen before, volcanoes, ice melting and many island nations that have sunk under the water already and many are sinking.

And the climate has become very, very strange, like it became warm where it should be cold and it became cold where it should be hot. And this can only be alleviated through a return to the ancient ways of our wiser elders, one that exists in harmony with nature and respect of other beings, a true brotherhood of love with all.

We can still do that; it’s not too late.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We should remind everyone to be veg, to invoke the mercy of the Buddhas, and we will be better protected.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ips/...
http://www.whitefieldconsulting.com/wordpress/?p=2463
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1962294,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/science/earth/11climate.html
http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts/full...

Pakistan adversely affected by climate change

A new report by the UK-based charity Oxfam has found that although Pakistan emits only a small fraction of the world’s total greenhouse gases, it is being significantly impacted by global warming.

Noting more frequent and intense extreme weather events along with hotter summers and warmer winters, the report stated that some 40% of residents have become increasingly vulnerable to coastal rainfall, increased cyclones, flooding in some areas and drought in others.

Besides the property devastation caused by extreme weather events, farmers report that many crops are also destroyed by floods or diminished by shortened agricultural cycles overall. The resulting losses are causing poverty levels to rise.

We are deeply saddened to learn of the suffering of Pakistan’s gracious people. Let us unite in protecting our planet for the sake of all cherished inhabitants.

In these urgent times, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often reminded of the actions that we can take to alleviate the tolls of global warming, as during a June 2008 videoconference with our Association members in London, England.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It's just getting worse nowadays, more obvious. You just have to tune in to any TV channels, any radio, read any newspapers; they are full of reports, almost daily, about world hunger, and the shortage of food, unaffordable food prices, unaffordable daily necessities, basic necessities.

And unprecedented frequent disasters. And crop failures due to bad weathers. And the non-stoppable sea rising levels, high priced fuels, shortages, incurable or strange new diseases... all of these are happening now!

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Veganism is the only solution. It's the best, the fastest solution.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I pray that people in the world wake up on time and just forsake that piece of meat; then everything will be just fine. Everything will be beautiful, nice, peaceful.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/13+climate-change-affecting-crop-output,-says-oxfam-610-za-04

Heat wave claims numerous lives in Australia.

According to a recently released report by Victoria state’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Carnie, the state experienced a 62 percent increase in fatalities between January 26 and February 1 of this year. Within that one week, as many as 347 people are believed to have lost their lives to the unusual 15 degree Celsius above average temperatures during that period, with the highest temperature topping 45.1 degrees Celsius. The majority of the victims were elderly or chronically ill who were less capable of adapting to such sudden variations in weather. In response, the Victoria state government has announced expansion of a registry program to monitor and help ensure the well-being of the elderly living on their own.

We are sorrowed to hear of the lives lost due to the extreme climatic conditions of global warming. Our prayers for humanity’s caring stewardship of the planet to restore nature’s gentle stability.

In a videoconference with our Association members in Australia on August 17, 2008, Supreme Master Ching Hai conveyed once again the importance of an animal-free diet as a solution to global warming along with her optimism about its widespread adoption in time to save our planet.

Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai
Sydney Center Australia August 17, 2008

Supreme Master Ching Hai: At the point of no return that would be rolling downhill then. No change can be taken place anymore. Nothing can help anymore at that time. And there may be nobody survives, or maybe very little, a handful of people survive because of their spiritual merit. But then will be also difficult for them to continue in this kind of condition. I don’t wish to have to teach you this. There is no need to talk about this right now because we still have time. Let’s hope we will change the course of the disaster. I really am hopeful. I’m feeling positive about it, I feel positive that people will change. Not only in Australia that we will avoid disaster, but everywhere in the world. That’s what I am positive about. I feel people will change; the majority of people will change. And I only need 2/3 of the population of the planet that change, then we can save the world and repair the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: And the vegetarian people will live happily on the world full of abundance, loving and kind.