FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Two activists from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) painted themselves green and carried signs of "GO GREEN, GO VEGAN" in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin - in an effort to get Malaysians to Save the Planet from climate change due to the raising of livestock for food.

Over 600 million animals are slaughtered every year in Malaysia for food.....

(Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/6/8/nation/20110608112104&sec=nation)

The following observations are adapted from Chapter 3 of "FROM CRISIS TO PEACE", authored by The Supreme Master Ching Hai in regard to the VEGAN DIET... quickest solution to solve current environmental issues...

BE VEGAN : THE GREENEST LIFESTYLE
**(Stopping meat production) saves 80% of the total cost of US40 trillion for reducing global warming;

**uses 4.5 times less land to grow food;

**conserves up to 70% clean water;

**saves 80% of the cleared Amazonian rainforest from animal grazing;

**frees up to 3.4 billion hectares of land;

**frees up to 760 million tns of grain every year (that is half the world's grain supply);

**conserves one-third fossil fuel used for meat production;

**reduces air pollution from untreated animal wastes; maintains cleaner air;

**saves 4.5 tons of emissions per household per year;

**stops 80% of global warming or more.

"So, with the Vegan diet, we eat what's best for our health, for the animals, for the environment, and nature will do the rest to restore the balance and save our world."
- The Supreme Master Ching Hai

(Therefore,) the greenest of all green policy, the greenest of all the green actions, the most compassionate, the most heroic, the lifesaving action, is the VEGAN DIET.
- The Supreme Master Ching Hai

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The Hidden Costs from the Effects of Global Warming

Written by The Supreme Master Ching Hai, "FROM CRISIS TO PEACE" boldly addresses the causes and effects of climate change and offers the quickest solution to mitigate global warming. In Chapter 2, She points out some of the hidden costs which have been mostly observed but which many are not aware of....check out the following quotes and excerpts for a better understanding of the crisis facing us and what we can do to abate it.

*** LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY
Leading ecologists say that the decline of wildlife due to species extinction is so rapid that there is no modern comparison. Scientists also now predicts that the Earth's 16,000 endangered species may become extinct 100 times faster than previously thought.

"20% - 40% of the species of organism on Earth are likely to go extinct during the present century on the basis of global warming alone, without even the other factors coming into it." - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

***WATER SHORTAGE
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.

One billion people have no access to clean, safe water. And 1.8 billion children die every year due to sickness from contaminated water.

*** FOOD SHORTAGE
The United Nations announced that as of 2009 the world is now seeing the highest number of hungry people in four decades. There are 1.02 billion people with not enough food in the world.

In Peru, due to excessive heat and droughts over the last 12 years, 140,000 hectares of potatoes and corn have been ruined - equal to food that could feed 11 million people.

***HUMAN HEALTH
According to Swiss-based research, climate change is already responsible for some 315,000 deaths a year, with another 325 million people who are severly affected. This comes in addition to an economic loss of US125 billion every year. The worst affected are developing nations in Africa, with other very threatened areas being in South Asia and small island nations.


***STOP THE GREATEST CONTRIBUTOR TO OUR ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS...
Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems. Urgant action is required to remedy the situation."- Dr Henning Steinfield, Chief of Livestock Information and Policy Branch, FAO,UN

*** Stop blaming the CO2 for every problem of global warming on our planet. We are to be blamed. The meat industry is to be blamed. The meat industry is the one we have to focus on to stop, to abolish. To stop the climate change and to stop the waste of the forests and land, stop talking around the subject. Talk to the point: Meat Industry must stop.
- The Supreme Master Ching Hai (From Crisis To Peace)***

THE BEST SOLUTION : BE VEGAN TO HEAL THE PLANET
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. Without this main, most time-effective change, no matter what we try to do, it won't be enough to repel the worst consequences that we have accumulated.
- The Supreme Master Ching Hai (From Crisis to Peace)

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Taiwanese Schools Offer Vegetarian Meals

FOCUS TAIWAN - News Channel published the following news on 7 November, 2010. According to a survey carried out by the nation's Education Ministry, at least 85% of public schools are offering veggie meals to their students in an effort to promote healthy eating habits and to save the environment.

Leaders and educators of countries can take a lesson from them and help do the same... read the full report here:
>Over 85 percent of schools offer vegetarian meals: MOE
2010/11/07 19:32:42

Taipei, Nov. 7 (CNA) Around 86 percent of elementary, junior and senior high schools in Taiwan have provided vegetarian lunches to students to promote healthy lifestyles and help reduce global warming, according to the results of a survey released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on Sunday.

The survey, conducted in mid-October, shows that 2,328 out of 3,517 public schools around the country have offered vegetarian meals, with 676 schools providing a vegetarian diet at least once every two weeks or once every month.

Forty-six schools have offered vegetarian menus twice per week, and three schools polled have followed the vegetarian diet more than three days in a week, the survey revealed.

The latest figures show that promotion of vegetarian meals has been well accepted in comparison with an earlier survey conducted in February, when only 1,201 schools, or 34 percent of the total, offered vegetarian diets.

Deputy Minister of Education Lin Tsong-ming said that global warming is threatening human survival, and over-consumption of meat has also caused significant health problems for many people.

Contrary to public perception, vegetables provide more nutrition for the human body than animal products, Lin said.

For example, he said, dried bean curd contains more protein than shrimps, the iron content of the seaweed is nine times more than that of liver, and black sesame seeds contain 10 times the calcium quantity of goat milk.

Yunlin County has the largest number of schools providing vegetarian dishes as the county started to promote a healthy diet in 2009. It has received a warm response and strong support from students' parents.

(By Lin Szu-yu and Maia Huang) enditem/MH

ORGANIC VEGANISM TO HEAL THE PLANET

The TRUTH is often very inconvenient, especially where it hurts the most. Heads of States, scientists and environmentalists have confronted each other and debated on climate issues in the last couple of years. Yet, till today, no one has yet to point out the most crucial factor that is causing the problem. Global warming is now gaining ground with each passing day yet our leaders (whom we look up to make appropriate and prudent decisions and who have the onus to do so) are still passing the 'hot potato' of global warming in a merry-go-round.

LIVESTOCK raised for human consumption is one of the main factors that is accelerating climate changes on a global scale.

The following are some excerpts, observations and quotes from Chapter 3 of "FROM CRISIS TO PEACE" written by the respected and compassionate Supreme Master Ching Hai, who takes it upon Herself to say outright what many others who know the TRUTH, but sadly, lack the courage to articulate it and to do something about it... ... ...

**Carbon dioxide is not our worst threat; METHANE is. And methane comes from livestock raising.

**Methane heats the Earth 100 times more than CO2 in five years time. A ton of methane emitted today will exert more warming in one year than a ton of CO2 emitted today would exert until 2057." - Dr Kirk Smith, Professor of Global Environmental Health, Univrsity of California, Berkeley

**Methane gas can cause headaches, respiratory system and heart malfunctions, and in more concentrated doses, death by suffocation. It is similar to cabon monoxide poisoning. It is 23 times more deadly than CO2.

** (Livestock) is the largest source at 65% (emission) of global nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas with approximatley 300 times more warming potential of CO2. It emits also 64% of all ammonia, which causes acid rain and hydrogen sulfide, a fatal gas.

**Black carbon is a greenhouse particle that is 680 times as heat-trapping as CO2, and it causes the ice sheets and glaciers around the world to melt even faster. Up to 40% of black carbon emissions come from burning forests for livestock (commercial farms and growing of animal feed). Scientists found that 60% of the black carbon particles in Antartica were carried there by the wind from South American forests that are burned to clear land for livestock production.

** (Research shows) that within just a few years the dissipation rate of methane overtakes CO2 and it's nearly completely gone within a decade, but CO2, will stay around warming the planet for thousands of years! So, if we want a quicker cooling of the planet we have to eliminate those that leave the atmosphere quickly.

** Scientists say many things. They are listening now, but I just hope they do it fast. It just takes action. All the governments in the world really take it now seriously. It's just I'm worried the action might be too slow, that's all. - The Supreme Master Ching Hai**

VEGANISM will save our world. 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. - The Supreme Master Ching Hai

**Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances of survival on Earth as much as the evolution of a vegetarian diet" - Albert Einstein, scientist

NOTES :
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WARNING SIGNS TO AWAKEN HUMANITY (Part 2)

FROM CRISIS TO PEACE.... The Organic Vegan Way is the Answer
Author : The Supreme Master Ching Hai (November, 2010)

The following excerpts and quotes are taken from Chapter 2...

"Because of the critical state of the planet, if we don't act quickly there may be nothing left at all for us to even want to protect. At that time it might be too late. We cannot continue the trend like this forever and stop whenever (if) we want to save the planet. I'm sorry to say we have a limited time."
-The Supreme Master Ching Hai

GLACIAL RETREATS AND WATER SHORTAGES
Most of the planet's glaciers will be gone withing a few decades, jeopardizing the survival of more than two billion people.One billion of these people will suffer the effects of the Himalayan glacier retreats, which have been occuring at a pace more rapid than anywhere in the world, with two-thirds of the region's more than 18,000 glaciers receding. The initial effects of glacier melt are destructive floods and lanslides. As trhe glacial ice retreat continues, reduced rainfall, devastating droughts and water shortages are the results.

OVERFISHING, DEAD ZONES AND OCEAN ACIDIFICATION
The US-based Pew Commission found that overfishing is the greatest threat to marine ecosystems, followed by agricultural runoff, including livestock manure and fertilizers used on animal feed crops.

Climate change is creating areas of sea known as DEAD ZONES, which now number more than 400. These (dead zones) arise due to fertilizers runoff largely from livestock, contributing to the lack of oxygen which is necessary to support life.

EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS
The past decade has twice, at least, seen the hottest average annual temperatures ever recorded in our planet's history. In 2003, a record hit wave hit Europe, claiming tens of thousands of lives. Heat waves also preceded the worst wildfires ever in Australia's history.

In the past 5 years (2003-2007), PERU had at least three extreme temperature events and floods affecting more than 500,000 people. Within just 30 years, floods increased by more than 60% and mudflows increased by 400%.

INCREASED FREQUENCY OF NATURAL DISASTERS
Drought, Desertification and Wildfires

According to the United Nations, desertification, which often results from felling too many trees and damage that occurs from such activities as catlle grazing, is affecting the well-being of more than 1.2 billion people in more than 100 countries at risk.

Precious fresh water supplies are also drying up, such as acquifers under the major cities of Beijing, Delhi, Bangkok and dozens of other regions in Midwestern United States, while the River Ganges, Jordan, Nile and Yangtze have been reduced to a trickle for much of the year.

In 2009, Nepal and Australia, wildfires were severly intensified by drought conditions. In Africa, people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan have been crippled by droughts.

INCREASING FREQUENCY OF STORMS AND FLOODS
The intensity and duration of hurricanes and tropical storms have been noted to increase by 100% over the past 30 years, which scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)in the United States say is likely due to climate-related increases in ocean temperature.

EARTHQUAKES
Scientists have discovered that earthquakes are linked to global warming because the ice melts at the Poles and beneath Greenland, pressure shifts on the Earth's plates that could trigger movement to cause earthquakes.

"We have passed tipping points. We have not passed a point of no return. We can still roll things back, but it is going to require a quick turn in direction.
-Dr James Hansen, Head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

"The way it is going, if they don't fix it, (in) four or five years' time, infinito. No more. It's really that urgent"
-The Supreme Master Ching Hai


NOTES:
(a) For full details and more information, please read FROM CRISIS TO PEACE, log on to: www.crisis2peace.org

(b) For a FREE copy of the book or more, please call 016-388 2373 OR just post in your request with your comment

WARNING SIGNS TO AWAKEN HUMANITY (Part 1)

"FROM CRISIS TO PEACE...The Organic Vegan Way is the Answer"
(by The Supreme Master Ching Hai , November 2010)

Following are excerpts taken from Chapter 2

"Our current course of climate change is worse than the worst case scenario projected by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), with the damaging and often fatal effects already being seen through such extreme events as hurricanes, flooding, droughts and heat waves.

Even if the world reduces greenhouse gas emissions, the planet will take time to recover from the gases already in the atmosphere."


ARCTIC MELTDOWN
"The Arctic, or North Pole, may be ice free by 2012, 70 years ahead of IPCC estimations. Without the protective ice to reflect sunglight, 90% of the sun's heat can enter the open water, thus accelerating global warming."

GREENLAND AND THE ANTARCTIC ICE MELTS
"As the massive ice sheets of Greenland and the Antarctic continue to melt as well, catastrophic sea-level rise and stronger storms are expected to follow. If the entire West Antarctic sheet melts, global average sea levels would rise at least 3.3, 3.5 meters (10.8 - 11.8 feet), affecting over 3.2 billion people - that is half the world's population - who live within 200 miles of coastlines."

SINKING LAND AND CLIMATE REFUGEES
"A Report from the International Organization for Migration stated that there may be 200 million, or even up to one billion people who will be climate refugees by 2050, or within our lifetime. These are people who must leave their island or coastal homes due to rising sea levels or permafrost melts that cause entire communities or nations to sink and collapse."

METHANE HYDRATE: A TICKING TIME BOMB
"Another Arctic change is the thawing of the permafrost, a normally frozen layer of earth containing methane stores (methane hydrate). The thawing of this layer in recent years has caused methane to be released, with atmospheric levels that have risen sharply since 2004."

"Further global warming beyond a two-degree Celcius rise could cause billions of tons more of methane (hydrate from the bottom of the ocean) to be released into the atmosphere, leading to mass extinction of life on this planet."

QUOTE:
"A temperature increase of merely a few degrees would cause these gases to volatilize and 'burp' into the atmosphere, which would further increase temperatures, which would release yet more methane, heating the Earth and seas further, and so on. There's 400 gigatons of methane locked in the frozen arctic tundra - enough to start this chain reaction... Once triggered, this cycle could result in runaway global warming." -John Atcheson, geologist"

"The quicker we change, the better, and then we can halt the climate change. and we can restore the planet very quickly, in no time, but if we don't, then the planet will also be destroyed quickly and in no time."

"Once the planet is destroyed, it will look like Mars, un-inhabitable. And it takes millions of years, sometimes hundreds of million years until any planet recovers, if it recovers at all."

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FROM CRISIS TO PEACE

Here are some excerpts and quotes from Supreme Master Ching Hai's latest book :
"FROM CRISIS TO PEACE... The Organic Vegan Way is the Answer". Similar such postings will follow to facilitate a quick read for those on the run and don't have time to sit through the whole book online. If you would like to have a FREE hard copy for yourself or more to give away to friends and interested parties, please call 016-388 2373 OR just post in your request with your comment and we will be happy to send you any quantity you ask for. To read the book, simply click on it (at the right of page) or go to :
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A PLANETARY EMERGENCY : THE TIME IS URGENT
"The hour is late; it's time to decide. I'm quite confident that you will make the choice wisely. In addressing global warming issues, the scientists have made it quite clear." - Ban Ki- Moon, UNITED NATIONS

"We have a climate crisis that is a planetary emergency"
- AL Gore , AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

"Our analysis shows that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32,64 million tons of CO2 per year, or 51% of annual worldwide GHG emissions."
-WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE

"Unless we change our food choices, nothing else matters because it is meat that is destroying most of our forests. It is meat that pollutes the waters. It is meat that is creating diseases, which leads to all our money being diverted to hospitals. So it's a first choice for anybody who wants to save the Earth."
-Maneka Gandhi, politician and environmentalist

"Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to the population growth increasing consumption of animal products. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change away from animal products."
-UNITED NATIONS , June 2010

"Action to replace livestock products not only can achieve quick reductions in atmospheric GHGs, but can also reverse the ongoing world food and water crisis."
-Worldwatch Institute

"Climate is defined not simply as avergae temperature and precipitation but also by the type, frequency and intensity of weather events. Human-induced climate change has the potential to alter the prevalence and severity of extremes such as heat waves, cold waves, storms, floods and droughts."
-The United States Environmental Protection Agency

"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation."
-Dr Henning Steinfield, Chief of Livestock Information & Policy Branch, FAO, UN<

"Don't eat meat. This is something that the IPCC was afraid to say earlier, but now we have said it: Please eat less meat - meat is a very carbon intensive commodity."
-Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, Head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

"Livestock is the main driver of deforestation. Livestock is the largest single source of water pollution. Livestock produces more greenhouse gasses than all the worldwide transportation combined."
- Livestock Long Shadow, UN

"LIVESTOCK is the primary human-caused emitter of methane, and methane not only has 72 times the heat-trapping ability, it is a shorter-lived gas. This means that it will leave the atmosphere much faster than CO2, within just a decade as opposed to thousands of years for CO2. Therefore, eliminating methane by eliminating livestock breeding is the fastest way to cool the planet."
-Supreme Master Ching Hai, From Crisis to Peace

"VEGANISM will save our world. 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."
-Supreme Master Ching Hai, From Crisis to Peace

"We have the energy to change everything, we have the power to dictate what happens around us, but we must use it. We must use it for the sake of all. We must use it for the benefit of every being on this planet. Our thinking, our action, has to send out a message to the universal energy that we want a better planet, we want a safer life, we want a saved world. Then this universal energy will do just that.
But we have to act in resonance with this energy, you see? If we want good things then we have to do good. If we want life, we have to spare lives.So the good energy we create can do these things, and more wonders. The compassionate, loving atmosphere that we, as the whole world generate, can, and will do more miracles for us."
-Supreme Master Ching Hai, From Crisis to Peace

"I'm positive that our EARTH will reach a higher level of consciousness and miracles will happen under Heaven's mercy."
-Supreme Master Ching Hai, From Crisis to Peace