Cholera deaths in Kenya linked to climate change

Severe droughts and intense flooding are among the climate change-induced water woes that Kenya and other Eastern African countries have experienced in recent years.

Along with tolls from these disasters, many people have at times been forced to drink unclean water and thus become exposed to the water-borne pathogen, cholera.

At least 13 people have perished from the disease, with hundreds of cases confirmed, many requiring hospitalization. The government has also shut down schools as a preventive measure.

Cholera causes severe diarrhea and vomiting and can be fatal within 24 hours if left untreated. Kenyan health officials have been working to distribute clean drinking water door-to-door in the affected areas to stop the spread of the disease, and the United Nations Environment Program is calling for such measures as wetlands and coastal mangrove preservation to restore these natural water purification systems.

Our appreciation, health officials and United Nations Environment Program for your caring assistance in bringing relief to the people of Kenya.

Let us all become part of the solution to climate change through sustainable daily actions on our shared planetary home. During a May 2009 videoconference in the African country of Togo, Supreme Master Ching Hai expressed her concern for the global warming effects already threatening the lives of the African people, also highlighting what could be done to halt them.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Sadly, global warming is affecting African countries in all the severest and some of the most visible ways. Increased temperatures mean erratic rainfall – either too little or too much at a time – so we have ravaging floods that drown the crops and fires that burn the forest.

There are more frequent droughts, heat waves, floods, storms, frosts, freezes, and locusts than before. These impacts of climate change increase food insecurity and the food crisis in Africa. There is also increased risk of diseases. The United Nations is afraid that hundreds of millions of people in Africa are at risk.

This is just a handful of all the news reports coming out about global warming in your land. I’m sure there are more.

So let us try our best to help remind and encourage our leaders to do something. If the world becomes vegan as a group, we can remedy the disasters that affect us globally.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121392§ionid=351020506
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/289412
http://www.clubofmozambique.com/solutions1/sectionnews.php?secao=social...
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/-/1070/885016/-/8rc5bn/-/

Climate change is real and now

A report by Australia's top science bodies, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and the Bureau of Meteorology sounds the alarm about the imminent dangers of climate change.

Saying that temperatures have risen about 0.7 degrees Celsius in the last 50 years, the report also states that both CO2 and methane are at their highest levels in perhaps 20 million years.

As a result, every region of the country is warming during every season, and each decade surpasses the previous decades’ temperature records. Sea levels rising by 9 cm between 1993 and 2009 along with changes in precipitation represent other marked consequences of climate change, with rainfall in the north and central parts of the country increasing substantially while decreases in the south and east have led to severe droughts.

Scientists at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and the Bureau of Meteorology, we are grateful for this report which is also a call to action.

May we all unite in restoring harmony and balance to our Earth. In an October 2009 videoconference in Indonesia, Supreme Master Ching Hai referred to the experts’ increasingly serious reports on climate change, and reiterated the most urgently needed countermeasures.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Now, according to expert scientists, the atmospheric temperatures are rising so steeply that we do not have much time left to change. And that is just what they have predicted up to date.

The effects of climate change can be seen in so many ways, with increased flooding, droughts, fires and even earthquakes everywhere in the world.

How do we stop these alarming changes The greenhouse gases released from the animals, from their waste, agricultural runoff, and the activities related to these massive operations have been identified as the primary, the number one cause of global warming.

We have to halt the meat consumption and the livestock raising Instead, we should choose to buy organic vegetable and fruit products to save our lives and those of our families, save the animals and the planet.

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20101603-20714-2.html?...
http://www.france24.com/en/20100315-australia-07-degrees-warmer-over-past-50-years
http://www.gdacs.org/reports.asp?...

Loss of Arctic ice could cost trillions

The Pew Environmental Group in the USA has released a peer-reviewed report stating that damage from rising seas, floods and heat waves due to the loss of Arctic Sea ice will cost the sectors of agriculture, real estate and insurance up to US$24 trillion by 2050.

The report also estimates that heat waves, flooding and other factors are already resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars lost annually. Report author and resource economist Dr. Eban Goodstein stated, “The Arctic is the planet's air conditioner and it's starting to break down. Everybody around the world is going to bear these costs.”

During the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in Denmark, the Arctic Council announced new findings that the fastest way to halt the rapid melting of the Arctic is to reduce shorter-lived substances like methane, ground-level ozone and black carbon, and that the best way to ease ground-level ozone, the third most prevalent greenhouse gas, is to decrease methane.

Jonas Gahr Støre - Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway, Arctic Council Leader (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.

VOICE: With livestock accounting for 36% of human-caused methane, it is clear that decreasing animal agriculture is the fastest way to cool the planet and avoid catastrophe.

The Netherlands’ Environmental Assessment Agency has also calculated that global adoption of a vegan diet would reduce the costs of mitigating climate change a full 80% by 2050.

We appreciate this sobering report, Pew Environmental Group scientists. Let us all step toward the most rapid way to reduce costs and cool the Earth: the life-saving plant-based fare.

In a September 2009 videoconference in South Korea, Supreme Master Ching Hai highlighted as she has on previous occasions the need for quick action to restore Arctic ice and the planet as a whole.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: They call the Arctic ice the refrigerator of the planet, and without it, there will be more droughts and floods in other, even, faraway parts of the world.

The world’s leading climate scientists told us in television interviews that being vegetarian – meaning no animal products – is the single most effective thing an individual can do to stop global warming.

Meat is the number one cause of global warming. So, the number one solution is to stop producing it. So, we all have to be vegan. That is what the science is clearly telling us right now.

If the world’s people become vegan, one of the results is that the ice in the Arctic will be restored, and quickly, along with the repairing of nature in every corner of the planet

Isn’t that wonderful? This is the truth that I could promise you, but we all must act fast, like, yesterday.

http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/56999
http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Protecting_ocean_life...
http://www.pbl.nl/en/publications/2009/Climate-benefits-of-changing-diet.html

Climate change taking a toll in Âu Lạc (Vietnam)

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

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

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

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

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

Supreme Master Ching Hai: In Âu Lạc (Vietnam), you probably know of global warming related problems such as the untimely flooding and encroachment of the sea of the Mekong Delta region – both of which have caused havoc and further threat to the region’s vital rice and fruit crops.

This is due to a combination of sea levels rising, along with the effect of melting glaciers, which are now causing excessive floods but eventually will cause drought and vastly diminished water supplies as well.

So we must work quickly to avoid such unwanted outcomes.

And the most effective way is the organic vegan diet, organic vegetable farming. This is also the fastest way to reverse the increased warming climate to prevent further damage and disaster.

If everyone does this – be veg – the Earth will begin to cool and we will have more time to implement the measures to eliminate all the carbon emissions. So please, be veg,and tell everyone else of these benefits.

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

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

Bangkok, Thailand faced with serious threat of rising waters

This city of 10 million people, already prone to flooding, is one of 20 major urban regions named by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as being vulnerable to submergence from climate change caused rising sea levels.

Most recently, research conducted by the Asian Institute of Technology shows that Bangkok along with 30 other Thai provinces could be devastated in the next 50 years. Many families are already suffering from these effects and have been forced to relocate frequently.

Thai citizen Khamron Deedok, who has moved four times, said, "My original house was a few kilometers away from the sea. Each time we have to move, it's with great sadness but we are also happy that we are then safe from the storms. Then we move again. It is an endless cycle.”

Affirming the situation’s urgency, Professor Thanawat Jarupongsakul of Chulalongkom University stated, “The effects of climate change have come very close to our society, so there's no time to discuss whether it's real or not… It's time now to … act.”

We thank Professor Jarupongsakul, the Asian Institute of Technology and other researchers for this valuable information. Our prayers for the safety of the Thai people as well as other residents of the world’s threatened coastal regions. May we all protect ourselves from these changes by quickly adopting lifestyles in harmony with our ecosphere.

Supreme Master Ching Hai, who often reminds of the increasingly urgent state of our planet, spoke once more of the changes we must make to avoid disaster during an interview published in the September 2009 edition of The House Magazine.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It’s too serious. These are people forced from their homes and communities due to rising sea levels and a host of other natural disasters, so-called natural disasters, but in fact these are all man-made. Sea level rise, for example, threatens half of the world's population living within 200 kilometers of a coastline. These situations will only worsen, not improve, until we stop the cause. This means to halt the livestock production and meat consumption.

If humans switch to the vegan diet, the Earth will begin cooling immediately and many of these dilemmas can even be reversed. So please, be veg and do good, to save the planet and all the beings on it, including you and me.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8344311.stm
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-11-17-voa6.cfm
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/27596/rising-seas-threaten-nation http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=12844

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.

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.