Accelerated glacial melt causing water sources to dwindle

As home to 70% of the Earth’s tropical glaciers, Peru has witnessed a 30% loss of glacial mass in the last 30 years due to climate change. Catholic University Research Center Director Bernex Nicol expressed his concern about the matter in a talk given on the radio station Radio Programs of Peru.

With shortages already threatening cities like Lima, where 1.5 million people are currently without water, further reductions are anticipated from factors such as the disappearance of freshwater springs in the northern Andes, where over 50% have dried due to deforestation.

Moreover, Peru’s National University of Engineering Director Julio Kuroiwa has stated that further shortages are expected in Lima, where water supplies could decrease by another 25% over the next decade.

Meanwhile, demands on this fragile resource are further complicated by metal contamination coming from mines in the country’s highlands.

Our appreciation Directors Nicol, Kuroiwa and colleagues for your evaluation and voiced concern about the vanishing Peruvian glaciers and their effect on people’s lives.

Let us act in unison now to stabilize the security and survival of the Peruvian people and all inhabitants of our shared Earthly home. As on previous occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke during a September 2009 conference in Peru about the country’s water crisis and how to bring relief to this global problem.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: In Peru, the loss to glaciers is equivalent to 10 whole years of water supply for Lima city.

With 8 of the country’s water basins already noted as being insufficient to meet people’s needs, Peru’s President Garcia announced in 2008 the construction of two desalination plants to try to address the water scarcity. It’s that urgent already in Peru.

Dwindling water supplies have caused escalating tensions and even conflicts to erupt as many people, including disadvantaged farmers, don’t have enough water, or are struggling for their share.

So please, before the situation gets any more out of hand – let’s choose the vegan diet. The future effects will be greatly eased. Only then will we have a manageable situation.

Be veg, go green, so we can all save the planet.

http://www.peruviantimes.com/limas-water-supply-to-decrease-by-25-percent-over-next...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-03/28/c_13227756.htm
http://www.peruviantimes.com/brack-limas-water-supply-secure-over-next-years/285418

Drought strikes across global continents

In Latin America, Bolivian authorities in seven municipalities have declared states of emergency due to dry conditions damaging 80% of crops. Municipalities like Lagunillas that rarely ever experienced droughts in the past now have lost all their crops.

Honduras also declared a state of emergency on March 23 due to drought and famine, and across the world the Philippines has also witnessed crop failure from drought that impacted 23 provinces.

In China, prolonged lack of rain has stricken at least five the southwestern provinces, with the nation’s State Forestry Administration reporting that the persistent drought has damaged young saplings and animal habitats, as well as increasing the risk of forest fires.

To help counter these effects, the Chinese government allocated US$586 million for emergency relief to supply water to over 19 million affected people.

Meanwhile, in South Sudan, drought and conflict has caused sudden alarming increased rates of malnutrition.

Aid agencies warn of a food shortage crisis, where nearly half of the children under five are malnourished.

Finally, in the United States, California’s director of the Department of Water Resources, Mark Cowin expressed concern of this year’s expected water shortages.

However, in a brief respite from such conditions, California welcomed the blessing of rains over the Easter weekend in early April that have helped replenish some main water reservoirs.

And in central Âu Lạc (Vietnam), several months of hot dry weather have been relieved by a rain that has provided much-needed moisture for thousands of hectares of coffee and other crops.

We thank all the governments for their efforts to relieve the suffering from these acute drought conditions as we pray that the dry spells being endured by many countries is alleviated with our better care for the planet and each other.

In an October 2009 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan), Supreme Master Ching Hai once again expressed her deep concern and sympathy for the drought-afflicted, urging for actions to curb its impact.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: People are dying from droughts, people are leaving their villages, their hometowns because they don’t have any more water to drink.

Some die on the road because of starvation; some die on the road looking for water. This is very, very tragic. I hope we all wake up and wake up quick to save our people, to save our home.

Because many of our world co-citizens are not aware that many of our other co-citizens are dying because of lack of water, and lack of water means lack of food, lack of security.

Water means everything to our existence. We must conserve the water; we must do everything we can. And the first step to begin is to be vegan. Because animal industry uses 70 more percent of the clean water of our planet!

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World Water Day observed across the globe

With experts increasingly aware of a looming shortage, this year’s theme of the United Nations’- sponsored event was “Clean Water for a Healthy World.”

Held on March 22, participants worldwide gathered to raise awareness and call for action in protecting both quality and quantities of the precious resource.

As acknowledged by many environmentalists, addressing the massive consumption and pollution of both the meat and dairy industries could effectively eliminate the Earth’s water crises, as this farmer in California, USA shares.

Grape farmer located near dairy factory farms, California, USA (M): The ones that have been doing all these nuts, grapes, vegetables, fruits; we’ve been doing that for the last hundred years. We had a lot of water. The central valley of California feeds America, and also other countries. Ever since the dairy moved in, the water level in my well went dry.

My neighbors’ well went dry. One, two, three, four of our wells are dry. Our water level was really high before. Now our water level is so low, the farmers that are doing all the vegetable and fruits are hurting for water, because we got the dairy here.

VOICE: The United Nations Environment Program also held a three-day event in Nairobi, Kenya, where policy makers and scientist participants released a report revealing that more lives are lost to contaminated water than to wars or other conflicts.

In fact, every 20 seconds, one child less than age 5 succumbs to water-related disease. Highlighting once again a livestock-based source of the majority of the world’s water problems was Mr. Rick Dove of Waterkeepers Alliance in North Carolina, USA.

Rick Dove – Southeastern representative for Waterkeeper Alliance (M): In eastern North Carolina there are about ten million hogs producing more fecal waste each and every day than all the people in the states of North Carolina, California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Dakota combined.

On some of our rivers like the Neuse, we’ve lost over a billion fish, dead fish since 1991, and just this year we’ve lost about 200 million on the Neuse River.

VOICE: We thank Mr. Rick Dove and all the concerned participants of World Water Day 2010 for helping raise awareness of our need to preserve this life-giving resource.

As more and more people awaken to the link between water scarcity and livestock, may we soon herald a meat-free world of lush abundance for all.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often addressed the need for action to reverse these planet-wide tolls, as during an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Many tens of thousands of rivers and great lakes are dying, dead, gone or going. And I don’t know how many more we must wait for to die in order for us to wake up.

The leaders of the nations must do something. The people of all nations must do something.

We have to do something to avoid the tragedy that is already happening to billions of other people. There are one billion people hungry already because of climate change, and short of water and food.

And three billion people are short of water.

Just be veg. Stop the meat, dairy, fish industry. Be benevolent. Create a merciful energy that will envelop our world, that will emit mercy, love, protection for us and our children on this planet. Please take action now.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1593806/world-water-day
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-deane/reflecting-on-world-water_b_508036.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/0322/World-Water-Day-Dirty-water-kills...
http://yubanet.com/world/World-Water-Day-2010-Highlights-Solutions-and-Calls-for...

Western Australia receives wake up call on dwindling water supply.

A report from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) forecasts that the capital city of Perth in Western Australia state could see water supplies reduced by 50% in two decades.

This is due in part to less groundwater availability, including the Gnangara Aquifer that supplies Perth's drinking water, which is expected to decline 33% by 2030.

Perth and surrounding areas have already experienced a 50% reduction in water supplies since the mid-1970s, which has been attributed to global warming.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong stated that the recent CSIRO report and its forecast of further reduced resources brings significant concern for the region.

Your Excellency, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization researchers and Australia, we appreciate your work and cautionary concern.

Let us swiftly adopt lifestyles to reverse these adverse effects and restore our planet for future generations.

In an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand, Supreme Master Ching Hai urged as she has in previous times for immediate action to counter the world’s fast dwindling water supplies.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We have over six billion people in this world and the sources of groundwater for wells, which supports half of our world population, are dying, drying up. And the top ten global river systems, drying or ebbing away.

And three billion people are short of water. How many more, I don’t know, how many more of suffering people are we waiting before we take action? Please do it now! Just be veg. Stop the meat, dairy, fish industry. Be benevolent.

Create a merciful energy that will envelop our world, that will emit mercy, love, protection for us and our children on this planet. Please take action now. Very simple. Just be veg.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/water-supplies-could-halve-in-two...
http://www.conservationwa.asn.au/

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...

Global warming to necessitate land use changes

According to a new report by Britain’s Government Office for Science, increasingly hotter, drier summers could cause extreme water shortages as river flows are reduced by 80% even as a rise in population of 9 million people is expected by 2031.

Scenarios in the report, written by 300 contributing scientists, economists and planners, include a future in which greenhouse gas emissions would be controlled by carbon rationing and state-mandated reductions in the space allocated to livestock as well as forced migration of citizens from places like the crowded southeast to more northern towns.

Chief UK scientific adviser and director of the research, Professor John Beddington warned, “Over the next 50 years we cannot manage land in the way we’ve done…

The effects of climate change and new pressures… could escalate, seriously eroding quality of life.” Professor Beddington, Government Office for Science and all report contributors, we are thankful for your objective report informing of outcomes we would wish to avoid. Let us join in making choices today that allow a harmonious and plentiful future for all on our planet.

During an August 2008 interview by Ireland’s East Coast FM Radio, Supreme Master Ching Hai highlighted as she has on previous occasions our need to act upon the factual information provided by scientific experts.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: According to the scientists, whatever they have predicted or prescribed about our critical situation is accurate up to 99%. They want us to change the way we live our lives, to protect our fragile ecosystem, by cutting down CO2 emissions. And the fastest way that individuals can do, without a lot of protocol and ado, is to be veg.

It’s truly critical now, as we have witnessed increasing disaster worldwide, due to climate change.

We still have time, we still have a little time to change the course of destiny, thanks to the vegetarian population, old and new members that reduce the most karmic retribution in the shortest span of time.

But it’s not much. We must change fast to avoid much more damage to the Earth as well as loss of more lives and resources.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7041857.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/26/uk-land-management
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7317864/Land-management-in-UK-must-change-to-cope-with-climate-change.html

The Philippines drastically impacted by drought

The Department of Agriculture’s Central Action Center (DACAC) has reported that El Niño-induced drought has caused the loss of more than 144,000 tons of corn and 56,000 tons of rice across 14 affected provinces.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered water conservation measures as well as infrastructure improvements, while the Department of Agriculture is setting aside an aid package of US$19.1 million to assist farmers.

Moreover, due to low water levels of some hydroelectric dams, power shortages are also a concern. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go to all in the Philippines affected by these extreme conditions.

We pray for sustaining rains and a restored climate through humanity’s soon adoption of eco-friendly and compassionate lifestyles. As on many occasions, in a September 2009 climate change videoconference in Peru, Supreme Master Ching Hai reminded of the most effective way to return even dangerous conditions as these to balance.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Some countries and communities have to cope with worsened drought situations. There is not enough water to raise crops or even to drink. So how can we handle the mass migration of tens of millions of people all at once due to desertification, the rising sea levels or the permanent loss of crop fields?

The smartest way would be to stop the worsening of global warming by being vegan. It sounds very simple but it is the best solution, the most effective and the effect of it will be felt almost immediately.

The warming atmosphere, water shortage, food scarcity, desertification - we can quickly eliminate by stopping meat production. Stop it now, no further!

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100219-254002/Isabela-farms-worst-hit-of-14-provinces
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/244192/save-water-gma-orders
http://www.tribune.net.ph/nation/20100219nat1.html
http://www.silobreaker.com/northwest-farmers-feel-the-drought-5_2263241930831822884

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
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http://www.speedy-fit.co.uk/Climate-Change/Drought-Drives-Residents-from-160-Syrian-Villages.html

Climate change already jeopardizing food security

During the recent three-day United Nations World Food Summit from November 17 to 19, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization announced that over 1.2 billion people, or one-sixth of the global human population, are starving due to regional conflict, global financial crisis, rising energy prices and food costs.

Addressing the assembly, UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon emphasized that food security depends on reversing global warming, and that water shortages are already becoming one of its earliest and most visible consequences. Along with Africa, Asia, and Latin America, which are expected to see agricultural declines of up to 40% as temperatures rise above 2 degrees Celsius, the Yangtze River Basin, which supports a third of China’s total population, is also likely to experience more extreme weather.

In addition, it is estimated that over 20 million East Africans are already in desperate need of emergency food following conflict and droughts. Secretary General Ban warned, “In many parts of the world, water supplies are declining, agricultural land is drying out. We must make significant changes to feed ourselves, and most especially to safeguard the poorest and most vulnerable.”
Ban Ki-Moon: There can be no food security without climate security. That is why next month in Copenhagen we need a comprehensive agreement that will provide a firm foundation for a legally binding treaty on climate change.

Pope Benedict XVI: The preservation of the environment is a modern challenge to guarantee a harmonious development that respects the plan of God the Creator and hence can preserve the planet.
If all of humankind is called to be conscious of its own responsibilities towards future generations, it's also true that the duty to protect the environment is the responsibility of states and international organizations.

Secretary General Ban, United Nations and all participating leaders, we are thankful for your concern for the welfare of people around the world. Indeed, may all of humanity quickly adopt the most sustainable solution to world hunger and climate change alike: the organic vegan diet. Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently
highlighted meat production as the aggravating factor behind both resource scarcity and global warming, as in a July 2008 videoconference with climate and other experts in California, USA.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: For the grain that we use for livestock, we can feed 2 billion people.
what kind of world we are living in and what kind of policy we are following and what kind of kindness we are doing to ourselves and our fellow beings, not to talk about animals yet.

God has created enough water for us, enough food for us to last even forever, if we but know how to stop abusing the Earth’s resources and her sustenance. We should not kill our fellow beings to satisfy our greed. This is the main point of planetary problems right now – our over spending of our moral merit and world resources. And stop meat eating is the main solution to save the planet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8361770.stm,
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2009/world/news-food-security-and-climate-change-are-deeply-
interconnected-un-secretary-general-says/
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http://www.france24.com/en/node/4927502
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Water use by factory farms threatens local community

Numerous confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) on and near the Yakama Reservation in Washington, USA have left the Native American community chronically short of water.

With decreased water supplies an ever-growing threat in a warming world, many organizations, including the Stockholm International Water Institute and Waterfootprint.org have reported that animal products require significant water stores, while a plant-based diet is highly water efficient.
During a visit with Supreme Master Television, a member of the Yakama tribe shared her community’s experiences and concerns.

Resident of Yakama Reservation, Washington, USA (F): We also know that one of the local dairies, who has 12-14,000 cows, uses approximately 33,000 gallons of drinking water a day. And these often, in our area, don’t have permits to do it.

They’re getting the waterfor free. And what we’re saying is that our water is not here for these factory farms to come in to destroy.

These factory farms are ruining our air, our water, and consuming the water that’s here, with total disregard to the people or the animals involved.

We’ve been told by one of the local experts along the hills south of here, the water table has dropped a hundred feet.

If we have no water, I would like to quote one of the Yakama elders; he said, “With no water there will be no Yakama people.”

VOICE: Understanding the enormous water requirements of meat production is just one way of grasping the comprehensive societal costs of consuming animal products, including pork. Pig factory farms have been linked to the current swine flu outbreak, which represents another social cost. The swine flu has now caused a total of about 36,000 illnesses across 81 countries, with more than 170 fatalities.

First-ever cases have just been announced in Sri Lanka, Yemen, Jordan, and Qatar. So far, the most vulnerable groups have been overweight individuals, expectant mothers and those with underlying asthma or diabetic conditions.We thank those community members who have courageously spoken about the impact of factory farms on their quality of life.

Our sorrow for the victims of the swine flu and their loved ones, as we pray that all humans join in the humane action of choosing a plant-based diet for the good of public health and sustainability of countless communities.

References
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124502116646013713.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_06_15/en/index.html

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.

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.

Hundreds of Millions of South Asians Face Increasing Water Stress

South Asian water resources increasingly vulnerable. A report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand have concluded that freshwater resources in three major river basins in South Asia are threatened due to climate change and over-use. The report states that the severe water shortages predicted in all three basins would jeopardize the lives of some 750 million people. With two-thirds of the Himalayan glaciers now receding, intense pumping at lower elevations has led to groundwater levels declining rapidly in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Indus basins, resulting in contamination by saltwater intrusion.

United Nations Environment Programme and Asian Institute of Technology, we appreciate your work in providing this valuable report. With Heaven’s grace, may we all tread more gently on the Earth to save precious water resources and sustain lives.

In a videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff on November 26, 2008, in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai explained the seriousness of water loss in systems such as that of the Ganges River.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Many are concerned, but little is done to avert this tragedy and I cannot imagine what happens if all the glaciers in Himalayas are all melted. I cannot imagine how people will live. The Ganges River, which feeds millions of people, depending on the glacier of the Himalaya, and if it melted all, then first of all, we’ll have a lot of floods and then we will have drought and dryness afterwards.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Because water will not be distributed evenly like it has been done for centuries. The glacier is there to feed the Ganges water and it melted slowly, slowly as per using. As the human use it, it will melt out, just evenly distributing day by day like this. But if it’s all melted at one time, then cities will be drowned, people will die and flood will be everywhere and later we will have no water even. No reservoir any more. So either way, either a lot of flood or drought, it’s very dangerous for the people, especially the people who depend on the Ganges River and the glacier to survive. I am really worried, but I just pray and hope that the people who are in power will do something.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The only solution is vegetarian diet for everybody.