As intense flooding
continues to spread
across the southern
continent, the death toll
has climbed to 30
with tens of thousands
of people still unable
to return to their homes
and damage to crops
that could exceed
AUS$1 billion.
With other globally
reported calamities
such as the 2010 fires
in Russia and Pakistan's
devastating floods,
as well as more recent
extreme flooding in Brazil,
where fatalities have
reached 700 and 15,000
are thus far rendered
homeless, discussions
have become more
frequent on the disasters'
links of to climate change.
In an interview
with Supreme Master
Television,
Dr. Matthew England
of the University of
New South Wales'
Climate Change
Research Center
highlighted the recent
calamity in Australia
as an example
of how warming due to
greenhouse gases is
adversely energizing the
atmosphere-ocean system
to produce extreme
weather patterns
on a global scale.
Dr. Matthew England - University of New South Wales' Climate Change Research Center, Australia (M):
For these Queensland rains,
the events themselves can
be linked to the La Niña,
but the intensity is
unlikely to have reached
where it has reached
without global warming.
People will remember
the bush fires in Victoria
only a couple years ago.
A very senior weather
expert in Australia said
that is a climate change
event - categorically.
That was an event that
caused untold damage,
again lives were lost,
whole towns
were burnt down.
We've always had
bush fires in Australia,
we've always had floods;
these events
are familiar to us.
But it's the progression
of these events,
it's the increased number
of extreme events,
the increased severity of
bush fires in the subtropics,
very heavy rain events
in the tropics.
And we're seeing this
not just in Australia,
we're seeing this
occur globally.
VOICE:
Expressing his sense of
duty to alert the public
about these and other
such troubling findings
on climate change impacts,
Dr. England urged for
investing in mitigating
measures before
we must pay in lives
and larger damages.
Dr. Matthew England (M):
I hold some sort of fear,
in some sense,
that the problem's going
to get much deeper
before we solve it.
It's good to see people
fighting on after these
events and rebuilding
their lives, and that's
a very important thing to do,
but we need to also think
about how we can
change our emissions
of greenhouse gases,
because that will see
the number of
these events not ramp up
at such a rapid rate.
VOICE:
Our appreciation,
Dr. England
for pointing to this truly
alarming reality of
increasing devastation
already being faced
by people in Australia
and across the globe.
With prayers for
the disaster-affected,
especially those
who have lost loved ones,
may governments and
citizens join in striving
for the shared goal of
halting global warming
through wise, rapid actions.
During
a 2008 videoconference
in Australia with our
Association members,
Supreme Master Ching Hai
cautioned, as she has
long been doing, that
climate change-related
disasters could intensify
to a point of no return,
unless humankind switches
to a planet-protecting
lifestyle.
Supreme Master Ching Hai
: The world is not
completely destroyed
yet quickly, but
the disaster still continues.
It's just that it's not
the point of no return yet.
At the point of no return
that would be rolling
downhill then.
No change can be
taken place anymore.
As more
vegetarian people join in
and a little bit of saving
from the planetary
environmental protection,
we earn more than that
now already.
But we cannot
keep extending forever.
Because even as we are
extending our deadline
to change the problem
of the planet, the planet
will also continue
to take its course with
the disaster that is coming.
Let's hope we will change
the course of the disaster.
Not only in Australia that
we will avoid disaster,
but everywhere
in the world.
http://theweek.com/article/index/211154/is-climate-change-to-blame-for-the-brisbane-floodshttp://www.examiner.com/natural-disasters-in-national/death-toll-from-floods-and-mudslides-brazil-approaches-700http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/138539-al-gore-lauds-abc-news-for-climate-flooding-link
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