Water scarcities emerge in Middle East, southwestern USA and northern Mexico

With a combination of over-use and growing climate change effects causing the Jordan River to dwindle to a trickle, people in Syria, Israel and Jordan are suffering as their governments debate water rights.

Residents of Jordan often have the resource available only twice a week. Director of environmental organization Friends of the Earth Middle East, Gidon Bromberg, stated, “The river's almost been destroyed because of the ...competition.”

Meanwhile, Lake Mead, which provides water to northern Mexico and the southwestern US states of Arizona, Nevada and California, has declined to 40% of capacity, the lowest since the reservoir was created in the 1930s.

Having just endured an 11-year drought, the lake dropped another 15 feet in the past five months. US scientist and Lake Mead expert Dr. Tim Barnett, who forecast two years ago that the giant reservoir could run dry by 2021, stated, "It's a clear warning." Our appreciation, Mr. Bromberg, Dr. Barnett and colleagues for your work in alerting us to alarming scarcity of water across the globe. Let us join in quickly adopting more conserving and considerate practices as we also strive for planet-cooling measures to reverse climate change.

During an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand, Supreme Master China Hai spoke with concern over such crises, highlighting the importance of more conscientious stewardship of our world’s limited resources.

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://rt.com/Top_News/2010-08-14/water-feud-middle-east.html
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/08/12/12greenwire-lake-meads-water-level-plunges-as-11-year-drou-29594.html

Global spread of dengue linked to climate change

With warming temperatures extending the northward range of tropical organisms, World Health Organization experts have also been forecasting the spread of disease such as mosquito-borne dengue fever, saying that some 2.5 billion people are currently at risk.

This severely painful disease is characterized by high fever, headaches and muscle and joint pains, and can be fatal. There is currently no vaccination or effective treatment that offers a cure.

In the Philippines, the Department of Health has reported a 48% increase in dengue cases this year, which now total nearly 41,000, with 328 fatalities. Cases now exceed 35,000 in Sri Lanka, and the government has warned that the entire population could become affected.

In Thailand, 45,000 people have been diagnosed, with 43 fatalities, leading the government to recommend that youth avoid black leggings, stating the mosquitoes carrying dengue are more attracted to dark clothing. The incidence in Yemen is currently so high that it is being called an epidemic, with the disease having spread to 100,000 people, causing over 200 deaths.

And with some 60,000 confirmed illnesses on the small French Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, the epidemic there now affects around 4000 persons per week on each island.

Meanwhile, scientists such as Dr. Franco G. Teves in the Philippines are evaluating whether the actual life cycle of the dengue-carrying mosquito is changing as temperatures continue to rise.

He stated, "We are trying to substantiate whether temperature increase hastens the completion of the mosquito’s life cycle, leading to a … population explosion."

Our appreciation, Dr. Teves, World Health Organization and scientists around the world for these findings that raise the alert to the accelerating risk of dengue fever.

We are deeply saddened to know of the suffering endured by so many and pray that everyone quickly joins in planet-cooling actions to reverse climate change and protect all lives.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often reminded of acting preventively to address the imbalances of global warming, as in the following March 2009 videoconference in California, USA.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: How can we take measures to protect, not from rising sea levels, but also all the similar consequences of global warming? See?

When the sea level rises, there will be more mosquitoes and diseases.

Being vegan is our top priority because this provides the most immediate cooling through actions that can be taken by individuals because we are a big group on the planet, you see. Carbon removal is also good and acts fairly quickly, but being veg is something that every single person in the world can do and immediately.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100816-287167/Dengue-cases-48-higher-than-09DOH
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35620&Cr=Mosquito&Cr1=
http://www.france24.com/en/20100809-thailand-issues-health-warning-black-leggings

Award-winning film shows the world’s oceans overwhelmed by plastic

French documentary "The Mermaids´ Tears: Oceans of Plastic" takes the viewer into the "plastic soup" that our global seas have become. In particular, the film focuses on the pollution that is affecting countless marine animals.

In the Netherlands, for example, scientists who were looking into the decline of the nation’s fulmar bird discovered plastic in 95% of the deceased birds’ stomachs, while in California, USA, dolphins and whales have been found to have died in extreme agony, with their digestive tracts completely blocked by plastic debris.

The phrase "mermaid tears" refers to the small pellets of plastic resembling fish eggs or even smaller that have been spilled in the transport of raw plastic materials, or have been broken down as granules of waste over the years.

With every square kilometer of ocean now containing an average of 74,000 pieces of plastic, these so-called mermaid’s tears are nearly impossible to clean up.

Directed by Sandrine Fevdel of France, the film’s thoughtful look at the destructive effects of plastic pollution has earned it numerous awards, including Best Environmental Film at the Prague Festival and the Greek Public Television Broadcasting Award at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2010.

Our heartfelt thanks, Ms. Feydel for this documentary, which makes clear the plight of marine animals in the face of human contamination of the oceans. May we all move rapidly to reverse these harmful effects and restore the health of our planet and oceans.

Ever-concerned for the balance of life on Earth, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often spoken of ways that humanity can show more care for the beings that depend on our actions for their survival, as during a May ２００８ videoconference in South Korea.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: In many places there are already bans on the use of plastic bags. So I think that’s a very good start, and maybe we should impose a little stricter ban on these harmful substances.

Maybe we can use a carton instead, something more disposable, something more eco-friendly. And then we have to change.

The root of the problem is the cause of global warming, and that root is our unkindness to our co-inhabitants.

So, in order to solve the problem that we are facing right now, we have to reverse our actions. We have to be kind to our co-inhabitants. Instead of killing them, massacring them, sacrificing them, we have to take care of them.

Just become vegetarian, refuse all the animal products, then nobody will raise animals anymore, nobody will kill them anymore. Then we stop the physical harmful effect of animal stock raising.

http://www.viadeCOuvertes.fr/pages/fr/reference.php?id=86
http://www.javafilms.fr/spip.php?article268
http://www.indiewire.com/article/eyes_takes_thessaloniki_doc_fests_top_prize/#

China’s top scientists note increasing extreme weather due to global warming

In a recent statement, Mr. Ren Fumin, chief instructor of the China Meteorological Administration, cited climate change as the reason for such extreme weather this year across the country, saying that the relentless rainstorms and hot temperatures were due to increased heat and its abnormal circulation over the northern hemisphere.

Other scientists, such as Dr. Zong Yongqiang of the University of Hong Kong, agree that the region’s overall temperature rise is part of human-caused global warming.

Zong Yongqiang - Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Hong Kong (M): In the last few thousand years, the global climate actually has been cooling, so temperature has been falling, particularly on the northern hemisphere, China or East Asia included.

But if you look at the climate record in the last 200 years, this falling trend actually has been reversed. So in the last 200 years, we saw the temperature was rising. So that basically changed the long-term climate trajectory, which is very, very strong evidence for the sort of argument that recent climate warming is due to human-made impact.

VOICE: China has recorded nearly two full days of additional hot weather than previous years on average, while satellite-monitoring data on July 25 showed that the surface temperature in some regions of Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces had reached a sweltering 45 degrees Celsius.

Moreover, since March, storms and floods across 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have claimed nearly 1,000 lives with hundreds of people still missing.

According to the most recent information released by the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, the total economic loss is estimated at US$27 billion.

Dr. Zong Yongqiang (M): The climate warming in the last 10, 20 years has significantly changed the weather patterns in China. We’ve seen more and more warm winters. We also recorded quite a lot of really hot summers, and summer is much warmer. This is noticeable I think, to most Chinese people in the last 20 years. Such changes have caused lots of problems, including increased snowfall in the last two years.

VOICE: We thank Mr. Ren Fumin and Dr. Zong Yongqiang for sharing their expert knowledge on the current effects of global warming. With sorrow for the suffering caused by such extreme weather patterns, we pray that citizens everywhere will join hands to protect our planet from further calamities through our caring lifestyle choices.

During an October 2009 videoconference in Indonesia, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed as on many previous occasions the urgency of global warming as well the fastest way to reverse its life-threatening impacts.

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://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-07/31/c_13423747.htm
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/7088020.html
http://www.china.org.cn/china/2010-04/08/content_19768875.htm

US endures record high temperatures

According to new data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the year 2010 is turning out to be the hottest in the country's recorded history.

Each month so far this year, from March through June, has seen record-setting heat. NOAA experts stated that the warm El Nino pattern for 2010 is amplifying the influence of climate change.

In mid-August, the US National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings in nine states along the Mississippi River, and a heat advisory for seven others as temperatures soared above 90 degrees Fahrenheit on most days and exceeded 100 degrees in some areas.

Such unusually hot weather over the past few months, which was seen throughout the US and other notable regions such as Russia, poses a significantly higher health risk especially to the frail elderly and others who are vulnerable.

Indeed, it has claimed numerous lives across the US this summer, with 10 people who were reported to have succumbed to a Missouri heat wave in one week alone.

We thank the US National Weather Service and other officials for your efforts to inform the public of these increasingly dire conditions. Let us act now as a global community to restore more harmonious patterns through our united steps toward sustainable living.

Regarding the unrelenting climb in temperatures due to global warming, Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently discussed a rapid way to relieve the planet of the human-caused atmospheric heat, as in this March 2009 videoconference in Mexico.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The past decade has twice, at least, seen the hottest average annual temperatures ever recorded in our planet’s history. So, we must cool the planet, first and foremost. And one of the most effective and fastest ways to reduce the heat in the atmosphere is to eliminate methane production.

Methane not only traps up to 72 times more heat than carbon, it also goes away from the atmosphere much faster than CO2. We can start by cutting down on the biggest methane producer in the world, that is, animal raising. So, to cool the planet most quickly, we have to stop consuming meat in order to stop the livestock raising industry. If everyone in the world would adopt this simple but most powerful practice of an animal-free diet, then we could reverse the effect of global warming in no time.

http://views.washingtonpost.com/climate-change/post-carbon/2010/08
/noaa_this_year_warmest_on_record_so_far.html

Accounting for nitrogen in food sustainability

In a recent study, University of Pittsburg environmental scientists Dr. Xue Xiaobo and Professor Amy Landis in Pennsylvania, USA calculated the “nitrogen footprints” of various foods.

They then compared this measure of environmental impact with the same foods’ carbon footprint. Nitrogen pollution is created from nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizer runoff as well as nitrogen contained in livestock manure, both of which are washed by rain into rivers and out to bays and the ocean, where they spur the growth of algae, which dies and is then consumed by bacteria.

The oxygen-depriving effects of the bacteria create the often-massive dead zones such as the 8,000-square-mile area near the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.

Of all the foods measured by the scientists, meat and dairy products topped the list as the most nitrogen-damaging to the ecosystem, while plant-based foods had the lowest impact.

Our appreciation, Drs. Landis and Xue for helping us to understand the environmental damage caused by nitrogen and its primary source in animal products.

May such insights motivate us all to adopt the truly eco-friendly plant-based lifestyle. During a November 2009 videoconference in Washington, DC, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai explained the harms of livestock waste to both the environment and lives while suggesting the simplest way to reverse the problem.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Livestock produces 130 times as much waste as the human population in the US. Can you imagine that? In Virginia State, even the poultry farms are producing 1.5 times polluting nitrogen, more than all the people living in the same area. We are killing ourselves.

One time, an 8-acre large,such pig manure lagoon burst in North Carolina, spilling 25 million gallons of this poisonous waste, twice the volume of the notorious Exxon-Valdez oil spill.

Hundreds of millions of fish in the state’s New River were killed instantly due to the nitrates in the waste, with further harmful effects once the contamination reached the ocean.

Not only that, we have the enormous dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the size of New Jersey, which suffocates all marine life there. And this is overwhelmingly due to the nitrogen runoff from the Midwest, from the animal wastes and the fertilizers for the animal feed crops. This waste is toxic.

It contains antibiotics, hormones and pesticides, and 10 to 100 times the concentration of deadly pathogens like E. coli and salmonella compared to human waste.

There is a very good reason to abolish meat, fish, eggs and dairy – all the animal products al together. We must stop animal production now and at all cost if we want to keep this planet.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/88/i32/8832news6.html?utm_source=feedburner ...
https://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/08/06/how-does-your-diet-affect-gulfs-dead-zone

Global warming is reflected in food scarcity and rising prices

Recent research from a team of US scientists studying rice yields across six major rice exporting regions in Asia found that rising night-time temperatures have caused rice production to decline by 10 to 20% over the past 25 years. This temperature effect has overshadowed improvements in growing techniques that would otherwise lead to higher yields.

In a related Philippine study, rice yields were found to drop by 10% for every 1 degree Celsius rise in night-time temperature. More recently, farmers in some parts of India are facing too much water due to flooding, while others are experiencing droughts, and many have not planted even half of what would normally be needed out of fear that there will not be enough water to grow the rice.

Mohammed Ansari, Farmer (in Hindi): Even if it starts to rain now, we will not get any crop. There is a deadline for the rice to start growing – that is till the middle of August. And that time has now passed. So we will not have any crop this year.

Jugari Paswan, Indian labourer (e): We are poor people and are desperate for food to eat. Our children go to sleep hungry. What can we do?

Rita, Indian villager (F): My hungry child cries all the time, there is no food to feed him. How can we survive like this?

And this summer’s extreme weather in Russia as well as Ukraine, which has been attributed to climate change, has led the governments to decrease forecasted wheat yields and place a ban on exports.

This in turn has even affected other grains such as barley, which has doubled in price in the last six weeks due to a combination of lower wheat yields in Russia and reduced barley yields in Europe and Canada due to unfavorable weather.

With prolonged drought and hunger being endured by millions in countries such as Africa, the scientists warn that these declines are just some of the indications of an emerging global food crisis as extreme conditions continue due to unchecked climate change.

We thank the scientists for these factual insights into the current and ongoing threats to food security due to global warming. Let us all quickly shift to lifestyles that complement the balance of nature for the sustenance and survival of all people on the planet.

Speaking with concern for the welfare of people across the globe, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed the matter of food shortages as well as the most efficient solution during an April 2009 videoconference in South Korea.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: All this is important because if humans are in shortage of food or of water, then conflicts, of course, will break out. When our family members are in danger of hunger or thirst, maybe we would do anything to bring food to them.

So reluctantly, some virtuous or good people might even go astray and cause conflict between neighbors and then, on a larger scale, it will cause conflict between nations.

Scientists have documented that one serving of beef takes more than a thousand gallons of water to produce. By contrast, the vegan diet uses about one-tenth of that amount.

So, the best way to prepare for conflict is to take complete prevention. The vegan diet will help us to achieve that goal, and almost immediately.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138106§ionid=3510212
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10918591
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Water-crisis-hits-paddy-farmers/articleshow/6284326.cms
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/08/08/drought.barley.russia.ft
/index.html?iref=24hours#fbid=yEdbQYgywkT&wom=false
http://www.physorg.com/news200559841.html
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100809/160131934.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10915754
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0808-hance_russia_asia.html