With diverse flora and fauna, magnificent natural landscapes, and an ecological biosphere that supports life, this wondrous planet is our earthly home. From our animal co-inhabitants to the lush rainforests and life-giving soil, we cherish all these as gifts from the Creator. It is a common theme in the world’s major faiths that during our temporary stay here, we should be good stewards of Mother Earth.

Throughout the years, Supreme Master Ching Hai has shared the message of leading a balanced life while following a spiritual path. Not only must we nourish our spirits, but we share the responsibility to care for nature and our fellow beings. In light of recent scientific evidence which pinpoint the raising of livestock as the number one contributor to climate change, Supreme Master Ching Hai affirms the important message she has noted for over the past two decades: we must be vegan and practice sustainable living. We invite you to listen to a compilation of excerpts from Supreme Master Ching Hai’s lectures entitled “The True Solution for a Carbon-free Society.”

We appreciate your company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples here on Supreme Master Television. Join us again tomorrow for part 2 of “The True Solution for a Carbon-free Society.”

And now, Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants is coming up next, right after Noteworthy News. Please stay tuned. We bid you adieu for now.

It’s been a pleasure to have your company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Part 3 of “The True Solution for a Carbon-free Society” will continue next Friday. Up next is Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants right after Noteworthy News here on Supreme Master Television. Please stay tuned. May Heavens bless you with much love and light.

Thank you, for your company for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Join us again tomorrow for part 4 of “The True Solution for a Carbon-free Society.” Up next is Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants right after Noteworthy News here on Supreme Master Television. Please stay tuned. May you be guided by wisdom and kindness in your everyday life.

Thank you, compassionate viewers, for your company for the “The True Solution for a Carbon-free Society” series, a compilation of Supreme Master Ching Hai’s lectures, on Between Master and Disciples. Up next is Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants right after Noteworthy News here on Supreme Master Television. We bid you adieu and wish you many joyous moments.

The only way to avoid the “point of no return” climate catastrophe is to take action on the most climatically disastrous course of all – that is, meat production. By now we have all the evidence, all the information to safely say so. The livestock industry is the top greenhouse gas generator. The last published findings from the United Nations in 2006 told us that the livestock industry causes greenhouse gas emissions more than all the world’s transportation sectors combined - airplanes, trains, cars, motorcycles, etc., altogether. Updated calculations tell us that the livestock industry is responsible for at least 50% of the global warming.

There are three reasons why the livestock industry is the first cause of global warming that we should focus on. First, 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.

We have to tackle the most important of emitters. Next, the pollutant known as aerosols, you already know, or particles released along with CO2 from burning fossil fuels, actually have a cooling effect. Some scientists say it is roughly canceling out the warming effect of CO2. Therefore, much of the warming we are seeing may actually be due to methane. In fact, it is due to methane, and its number one source, that is, animal raising. Third, NASA scientists are paying increasing attention to another very serious source of global warming – that is, black carbon. I’m sure you know that.

This is the particulate matter known as soot, S-O-O-T, and it is 680 times more heat-trapping than CO2. Black carbon is landing on the ice in Antarctica, absorbing the sun’s heat and accelerating the ice melt. The majority of the black carbon particles in Antarctica are coming from where? – South American rainforests that are burned for the livestock industry. Now we’re going somewhere! We must urgently address methane and black carbon, both outcomes of the meat industry. Immediately we have to tackle it. I pray all wise leaders will halt the lethal meat practice, which is the main force driving us to the point of no return right now. Otherwise, all other efforts to de-carbonize our economies may be cancelled out, or never have a chance to materialize in the first place.

Is there any way in which we could reduce the amount of carbon within the atmosphere? Yes, there is a way: vegetarian diet. Immediately reduce. What is in the atmosphere, if we do not continue the way we are living our life right now and we will not continue to overload the atmosphere, then it will decrease with time, maybe long time, but it will decrease. And what is important is not to create any more, or not so overwhelmingly that nature cannot handle. Nature can help to absorb some of the carbon dioxide but we overload nature, so we have a problem right now and we’ll continue to have a problem if we are not doing anything to prevent further destruction of the planet.

There is already some advanced science to capture CO2 and mix it with sea water to create cement. That will reduce CO2 used by other cement- producing methods as well, and also reduce new CO2 from polluting the air. It’s in the making still and I hope it will be beneficial and on time so that we have enough time to prevent the global warming. But still, any new technology takes so long to develop and to be in the market. The best solution, the quickest, the most benevolent that can change everything from black to white immediately is the vegetarian diet, because compassion begets compassion.

What can people in the aviation industry do to help reduce and prevent carbon emissions from aircraft? Thank you very much.

If we stop eating animals and be kind to all beings as well as our environment, then we still can keep the existing aviation industry the way it is until some better invention. We still have time for that. If we change to vegetarian diet, we can keep everything, not just airplane but everything else – transportation, car, ship – until we have better ones. Even if we don’t have a better one, this is just a very minimum CO2 and nature can absorb and dilute it for us. It’s just the meat industry that causes the most pollution for the planet, that the planet is overloaded, nature is overloaded, the ocean is overloaded. So, everything warms up because of meat and animal products.

So, airplane is a very small thing. If we stop the meat production, if we stop eating meat and harming the animals, the good benevolent atmosphere will change everything into a beneficial planet for us. Even before, our planet was good, but if we change to the vegetarian diet, this planet will become a paradise, will be plentiful, will be peaceful, will be very happy for everybody to live on. So, we stop the meat first, not the flight. But anyway, of course it would be good if we have time to invent something new to stop the CO2 from the plane or from other transportation. But that is not urgent.

That is not urgent at all because the pollution from transportation, including airplanes, is minimal compared to the pollution that’s produced by meat. But for your information, in New Zealand, Air New Zealand is retrofitting its planes with a wingtip device so that they can reduce the drag and, therefore, saving a lot of fuel and reducing carbon dioxide as well. So, other industry, other flight, other air, can profit from this information from Air New Zealand. But it will take some time, all this, and meanwhile, I don’t know if we have enough time to wait for the new invention. So, the best, the fastest is vegetarian diet.

Supreme Master, about the issue of global warming, because I believe this is certainly an area that is quite close to your heart, I think what we are asking is what that means for the fate of ourselves and indeed our planet is one that more and more people are becoming aware of. And many of us are about...the burning of fossil fuels and how that increases greenhouse gases. Now, although we do our best to recycle and change our light bulbs and drive hybrid cars and eat organically, locally grown food and so on.

But according to the UN report, Livestock’s Long Shadow from November 2006, that’s actually not the #1 cause of greenhouse gases. But, in fact, the report found that 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the livestock industry which is more than all forms of transportation put together. For example, scientists have shown that, say the average car produces 3 kilograms a day of CO2 gases, while clearing rainforest to produce beef for maybe 1 hamburger produces 75 kilograms of CO2 gases. That’s a huge difference of 2,500%. So, for anyone wanting to reduce our carbon footprint, this clearly shows that eating meat has a much bigger impact on the environment than, say, driving your car.

Would you be in agreement with what the scientists are saying? Yes, ma’am. 18% pollution is just part of the estimate. Actually, there are other hidden side causes of global warming because it’s not included, like people get sick and the price we have to pay for the hospital and the taking care and to develop medicine and research, etc., etc., and the cost of the sorrow of people who lost loved ones due to meat-related illness. And all the change that we advocated up till now by society is helping, but it’s very little as you can calculate it yourself. Only vegetarian diet can truly help. And as every action provokes another action and like attracts like, so if we save lives, ours will be spared. Everything else is just secondary.

Dear Master, greetings to you. Greetings. Honored to have you there. By your initiative, this significant conference is based upon the ideal of changing human consciousness to tackle climate change. The question is, how much is the possible calculated carbon imprint cut by a single person being on a vegetarian lifestyle?

Dear Master, greetings to you.

The question: How much possibly is the calculated carbon imprint cut by a single person being vegetarian?

Yes, how much? Very, very much. The carbon reduction is immense by just being vegetarian. We don’t even need to cut down on cars and transportation yet; just being vegetarian, having animal-free diet, we will cut a huge amount of carbon dioxide to stop the global warming. For example, in just one year, if a person is having a meat-based diet, he would produce the carbon equivalent of driving a car almost 5000 kilometers. A vegetarian diet would cut the carbon in half, 50% less, to the equivalent of 2427 kilometers. And if that person adopts a vegan diet, meaning absolutely no animal products, either used or eaten, then the equivalent is further reduced to just 629 kilometers, which is 87% less than that of a meat-based diet.

And best still, for an organic vegan diet, the most sustainable choice for our planet, that would be the equivalent of 281 kilometers. That is a 94% reduction in carbon emission if the person takes the organic vegan diet. This is the statistic from the Institute for Ecological Economy Research in Germany – and this is just carbon alone! We did not mention even the reduction of methane, which has 72 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over an average of 20 years time span. So, you can see clearly how a vegetarian diet can reduce at least 80% of global warming. Thank you, and I hope everybody takes a vegetarian diet, and best: organic vegan diet.

Most people would like to reduce their carbon footprint. What difference would it make if they change to a vegetarian or a vegan diet? A very big difference, Ben, big difference.

One 6-ounce beefsteak costs 16 times as much gasoline, or fossil fuel energy, as one vegan meal: one cup of broccoli, one cup of eggplant, 4 ounces of cauliflower and eight ounces of rice, to be exact, according to research. Sixteen times — 6 ounce beefsteak only, costs 16 times more than that whole vegan meal. Now, many scientists would thus describe meat as being hugely carbon intensive, including Dr. Pachauri, the chief of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). If all the people in the world became veg, vegan, we would eliminate at least 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. Fifty percent, Ben, greenhouse gas emissions! But I know it’s more than that, karmically speaking as well. It would be significantly more than removing all the world’s transportation which is only 13.5 %. Really?

Yes. So, if we are vegan we don’t even need to worry about CO2 yet. We do worry – it’s better to have cleaner air – but CO2 by transportation and all that is not the grave urgency like methane gas and nitrous oxide and all the gases that are produced out of animal industry. From my calculations, from my inside knowledge, and also scientifically speaking, 80% of global warming would be stopped if we stopped the animal industry. The well-known study by Eshel and Martin at the University of Chicago found that being vegan saves more in emissions than switching to a hybrid car. Scientists from Japan calculated that not eating one kilogram of beef saved the equivalent of driving an average European car for 250 kilometers.

Can you imagine one kilogram of beef is equivalent to driving 250 kilometers and burning a 100-watt light bulb for 20 days non-stop?! So we should know where our problem lies. Now, a study by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research in Germany found that emissions from an animal-free vegan diet are 87% less than those of a meat-based diet, while emissions from an organic vegan diet are reduced by 94%. Again, as the top climatologist Dr. James Hansen said being veg is the single most effective thing a person can do to stop global warming; that’s without government even, without ado, without protocol, without any trouble.

If the goal is to be a truly carbon-free society, we should consider all the major sources of greenhouse gases emissions. You see, we are emitting greenhouse gases not just through the fumes from factories, houses, and cars, but also through the products that we choose to consume. Besides, CO2 is cancelled out by aerosols, which are released at the same time from burning fossil fuels. So it means that even though we have CO2, the CO2 also has been cancelled out by the aerosols at the same time. Even though aerosols are very detrimental to our health, they actually have a cooling effect that cancels out the CO2 heat in the atmosphere. So up to now, the climate warming heat is not from CO2 – is not from CO2. The warming climate problem is not from CO2, is not from carbon dioxide. I repeat, it’s not from carbon dioxide. It is from other sources, mainly methane.

At least 50% of total greenhouse gas emissions are coming from animal meat and dairy products. And it’s not I who said this; it’s all proven, researched, confirmed and published by the top scientists of the whole world.

If we only focus on the green energies, like solar panel, wind power, etc., it won’t have much of an effect, I’m so sorry to say. I have to tell you the truth because this is also my planet. Your island could be my residence at any time in the future. I might love your island, I might want to go there. So, I want to protect your island, I want to protect my planet, so I have to tell you everything, although I might offend somebody or I might not be very popular for doing this, but I have to tell you the truth because green energy is not an urgent task for us to handle right now, because green energy only tackles the effect of, maybe, aerosol or CO2, which is not the urgent issue of global warming, the producer.

The global warming effect comes from raising livestock, from animals. So if we continue on the green energy, then we don’t have much of an effect to stop global warming. Because their effectiveness will be cancelled out by the large amounts of greenhouse gases that we generate by consuming meat, and the meat industry. Besides the livestock methane that is responsible for a portion of 50% of greenhouse gas emissions – but 50% is still a low estimate, I would say 80% – there is also the burning of forests to make pasture land, to grow food for the animals, and making the chemical fertilizer and pollution to grow the feed, the transportation involved, the constant refrigeration involved, etc., etc. And all the medical effects, all the costs of the sickness of the people – billions, trillions of dollars goes into the treatment of the people for meat-related diseases.

And it’s not always even effective, it doesn’t always even cure people permanently or perfectly even. Even we spend so much money and people have to go through so much suffering, the diseases are not always completely cured, or in many cases, not at all. So people suffer, people die for nothing, also, because of the meat diet. So, to produce the meat for consumption, it costs us too much: it costs sorrow, it costs suffering, it costs trillions of dollars. All these add up to many more times greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transportation combined, and apparently, more than all the heavy industries and fossil fuel power stations combined even.

So, in order to call ourselves a low-carbon or carbon-free society, we must eliminate our meat consumption because that is the number one cause, we could say that is the only cause, for our climate change – that is, our meat consumption. This is in line with the recommendation of the world’s leading climate experts, like the Chair of the IPCC, Dr. Pachauri, who is a vegetarian himself for the environment’s sake. In fact, if we focus on shifting people to be vegetarian or vegan, it will save us much more money than green technology, and of course it’s much more effective. And I urge you, the government leaders, because our time is running out, we have to act on this now.

Please explain to your co-citizens this important truth and tell them we must work together to become animal-free consumers. We have a very short time to save our planet. We have a great planet to save. We have a great precious treasure – that is, our children – to save. And besides, the government and the people have nothing to lose by being vegan. For the environment, the absence of livestock will bring about much less pollution and less waste of water and food resources. For the citizens, there are perfectly nutritious, delicious alternatives to animal products nowadays, and, as we heard in the doctors’ lectures, the vegan diet is also the best for our children. It’s a win-win solution as stated by Dr. Pachauri, and necessary to save the planet.

Saving the world’s tropical forests, the lungs of the Earth, is one of the very important priorities, because when the tropical rainforests are destroyed, there are many frightening side effects. It’s not just the permanent changes to the world’s temperature, rainfall, and weather patterns which the forests regulate. It’s not just about the millions of people who might lose their livelihoods that depend on the forests. There is more to it than that. There is the extinction of plant and animal species that is 100 times faster than what is natural, and it ruins our ecosystems. And there’s also the rainforests themselves; this is important.

The rainforests themselves normally are our protectors, but as the climate gets warmer, instead of absorbing CO2 to protect our planet’s climate, they will be emitting back CO2 as well, and that will be harmful to us. By harming the rainforest, by destroying the planet by raising animals, we are turning our protector, which is the rainforest, into a harmful agent.

They will not be helping us, the rainforests. They will not be helping us, if the climate gets warmer, but instead, they will be worsening the global warming problem because they cannot absorb the CO2, but they will release all the CO2 that is already contained in their kingdom. Now, we need to look at the main reason why there is deforestation. Yes, we all know. There is a whole industry behind it in most of the cases, namely the livestock industry. For example, 91% of the Amazon deforested since 1970 was used for what? For grazing pasture, meaning that the number one reason for the deforestation of the Amazon – which is the greatest lung of our planet – is to raise cattle.

And the second biggest reason, also for cattle: they grow the soy to feed the cattle and, of course, other animals as well, by the way. NASA reported that once the forest is cleared for pasture or feed crops, the soil itself becomes a large source of emitting carbon – the soil itself even. So not only that, the fires that burn down the trees also release a lot of carbon dioxide, CO2. The Amazon rainforest alone contains more carbon dioxide than 10 years worth of all human-produced greenhouse gases. Plus, when we burn the forests, we release black carbon, which are particles of soot that trap 680 times the heat of the same amount of CO2. Now, blame whom? Don’t bother blaming CO2. (Yes.)

Especially because they are black – these soot from the burnt rainforest – they hold a lot of heat. According to researchers in Brazil, 60% of the black carbon measured at the Antarctic Peninsula came from burning the rainforest in Brazil for livestock raising. So, we have to put the blame, the finger on the right spot. I hope the leaders understand where to put their finger, not just talking around the subject and trying to avoid the burning spot, which is livestock raising, which is animal production.

How is the sun beneficial to our meditation practice?

If you sit in the sun to meditate, it's very, very, very good for your spiritual progress. It could increase hundreds of thousands or millions of spiritual points if you concentrate well, if you deserve it. But cover yourself, or you sit in the shade and with the sun nearby, is shining in, also good enough. Tune in to Supreme Master Television Tuesday, November 30 for the videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai titled “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Any denomination – Catholic, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Islam, Buddhist – if they just sit in the sun and pray, they will get also the same, more or less 200,000 spiritual points per hour.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television Monday, December 6 for the videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai titled “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe,” on Between Master and Disciples.

During the videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff on October 3, 2010, Supreme Master Ching Hai revealed the practical function of wormholes.

It's like a portal that connects between different dimensions. If UFOs go, it's quicker through this way, like a universal highway, okay? – for material means only. For spiritual portal, we have to practice the Light and Sound.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television Monday, December 13 for the videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai titled “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe,” on Between Master and Disciples.

There are parallel universes, so that we can choose our action and choose the outcome. If we choose this, then it’s a different outcome, different future, for you. And if you choose that, then it’s a different future for you.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television Monday, December 20 for the videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai titled “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe,” on Between Master and Disciples.

How could we improve our techniques to travel further and discover more parts of universe?

Improve first moral standard and spiritual levels and then all will come. Just like in the Bible, it says, “Seek you first the Kingdom of God and all the things shall be added unto you.”

Tune in to Supreme Master Television Monday, December 27 for the videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai titled “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe,” on Between Master and Disciples.

If we practice spiritually, if we change our life into more morally fit, if we are more virtuous and more selfless, more spiritually elevated, then our destiny changes, even if it’s fixed.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television Monday, January 3 for the videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai titled “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe,” on Between Master and Disciples.

If we keep breaking Spiritual Blessing Lines and not making new ones, or lengthen or widen them, I don’t know if we have hope. We all have to work together to tell people, to let people know that it’s time to change.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television Monday, January 10 for the videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai titled “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Revelations on the Magnanimous Sun and the Universe,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Animal industries are the number one killer of all killers on this planet. Forget about the war, forget terrorism, they are just small numbers compared to the meat industry. The meat industry is the number one killer, is the number one murderer, and a legal murderer – and we endorse it! We accept it!

This is all our wrongdoing, it’s all our fault. If the planet is to be gone forever, we cannot blame anything else, anyone else, except ourselves if we don’t do anything at all to change this. Furthermore, it’s not only the Amazon. NASA states that the single biggest direct cause of tropical deforestation is livestock grazing land.

The livestock sector is the single largest human use of land. We have only 30% of land that covers the Earth. The rest is 70% –it’s water, it’s ocean. We have only 30% of land, and of that precious 30%, one-third of it is used, not for our true survival, but for livestock pasture or growing tons of grains for animal feed – all to produce a few pieces of meat. And you swallow it in two seconds. And that few seconds will bring you tons of sicknesses, diseases and suffering, sorrow, for yourself also. Even if we don’t have compassion for the animals, please do have compassion for ourselves. Do not eat poison and continue to suffer more in the hospital with all kinds of treatment related to it. In fact, we are losing 55 square meters of rainforest for every beef hamburger patty. Every little beef hamburger patty, that costs 55 square meters. This is a pity, because we have better, more delicious, more nutritious, more healthy, and safer alternatives to hamburgers to nourish ourselves anyway. How can we, as very intelligent human beings, do this to ourselves? Not to talk about the cruelty that we committed to animals which degrades us to this level. I’m so sorry to have offended you, but I also take responsibility as a human being here on this planet for this – for all the things that I have not known before, for all the things that I’m doing with you, I have been doing with you, in this respect. So, please do forgive me for being straight, honest, and “just the facts.”

Supreme Master, is it true that there are links between industrial farming of animals and global warming? And what are the actual effects of climate change? Yes, yes, absolutely, Louise. The link from the livestock industry to global warming has been clearly established. In fact, earlier this year the Irish government even considered creating a cow tax in order to meet the European Union’s new strict climate goals. Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stated in a report that the agricultural sector is the largest producer of greenhouse gases in the country. With livestock production accounting for 93% of Ireland's agriculture sector, Louise – livestock production in your country accounting for 93% of Ireland's agriculture sector – it is crucial that the animal-raising sector is addressed to stop global warming.

The world’s scientists fear that if we pass certain tipping points, the next stages of climate change would not only be fast but irreversible and catastrophic, Louise. So, there are already signs of this dangerous time approaching, through observations of lakes and elsewhere bubbling with methane gas that used to be stored safely below a frozen layer of the Earth.

No one knows when the day might be that enormous amounts are uncontrollably released, causing a sudden spike in temperature that could then catalyze runaway warming. That would be catastrophic for us, Louise. Over-devastating effects of climate change have already been occurring: the heat-reflecting Arctic ice is on its way to completely vanishing in a very near summer; rising sea levels and dozens of submerged or threatened islands;

oceanic regions that are lifeless with dead zones are becoming too acidic to be livable due to excessive levels of CO2; more frequent deadly wildfire; entire wildlife species going extinct 100 times faster than normal; more intense and destructive storms; disease-carrying mosquitoes spread by warming regions; disappearance of the world’s glaciers; drying or disappeared lakes and rivers by the tens of thousands and the spreading of deserts.

And as a consequence of these environmental impacts, 2 billion people are facing water shortages and 20 million people are in a desperate state – like refugees except with no official protection. Very sad things. All these situations are getting worse and worse and won't stop until we really change the way we live our life. So, what's to be done? The solution is quite easy: simply stop eating meat. Simply stop eating meat – that is the best solution. This is imperative now because of the perilous state of our planet and our limited time.

Stopping meat production will lower greenhouse gas emissions in the fastest possible way and halt the unspeakable environmental damages, ranging from climate change to land and water misuse, pollution, loss of wildlife and threats to human health. Each new scientific study finds that livestock production, this killing of animals for meat, bears increasingly more responsibility for the climate change crisis of our planet. In fact, the most recent calculations have concluded that livestock emits at least 51% of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. And soon after this new report, researchers from NASA just announced that methane, the potent, greenhouse gas whose largest human-created source is the livestock industry, traps a hundred times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

This is an astonishing increased update from the previous number of 72 times. Until now, most studies used the fact that methane is 23 times more heat trapping than CO2, over 100 years, which gives a less accurate picture about methane in its actual life span. Therefore, the powerful methane is actually a greater cause of the warming than previously estimated. The good news is that methane dissipates from the atmosphere in approximately 12 years, whereas it takes carbon dioxide thousands of years to disappear.

So, if we want to make a rapid, effective difference now, we must stop the methane generation at its largest, original source - that is, the livestock industry. The livestock industry is also the top source of another, major greenhouse gas – nitrous oxide. Sixty-five percent of all human-made nitrous oxide is found in the manure and fertilizer for feed crops, which traps a hugely damaging 289 times more heat over a 20-year period. Next, the livestock sector is the single largest human use of land, and the top driving force behind rainforest destruction. In the Amazon alone, over 90% of the deforested land since 1970 was for livestock.

Trees are vital to help absorb greenhouse gases, but trees, when they are burned, also release, rather than absorb, greenhouse gases, thus making the problem worse. Forest burning for making pasture is also a major source of black carbon, which is soot, particles capable of trapping 2,000 times more heat than CO2. Oh, God! Believe this? The super hot particles end up on the world’s ice caps and accelerate their melting.

The livestock industry causes a large part of the world’s soil erosion. It is a leading driver of desertification, biodiversity loss, and water waste, and water pollution – despite water becoming scarcer each day due to global warming.

Moreover, the livestock sector inefficiently drains our fossil fuel and food grain resources. In short, we throw away 12 times more grain, at least 10 times more water, and 8 times more fossil fuel energy to produce a portion of beef compared to a nutritionally similar or even greater amount of vegan food. By the way, fishing is also horrendously wasteful and murderous. A major study predicts that all fished animals will be 90% gone by 2050 due to overfishing and over-wasting bycatch.

It means those fish and other marine lives that they don’t need, but while catching other fish, they kill them as well, by the billions. Moreover, it is such an alarming picture when we think about the billions of animals killed each year for so-called food: 55 billion, which is not even counting fish and other species! That is 8 times more innocent beings murdered each year than there are people on the Earth.

How can our planet and our conscience support such unsustainable, damaging, and criminal practice? And all for a piece of dead flesh every day, which we now know isn’t even healthy and, in fact, kills us. I pray that our world’s leaders will take swift actions to ban the destructive meat production and, instead, use subsidies for organic vegan farming which helps absorb emissions. Then, we can have an immediate effect on climate change and have more time to develop and perfect our green technology to address CO2. I call upon the media to help as well, and thank you and the Irish Dog Journal for their part.

And, most important, individuals must turn to the planet-saving, organic vegan lifestyle, because the dangers are mounting and time is urgent. If every one of us would only switch now, we would ensure a future for our children and generations to come.

: Supreme Master, here in Ireland, we are very concerned about our beautiful world and sincerely strive to do our bit to conserve it, and indeed to preserve the planet. What do you feel are the best ways that we can go about doing this, on an individual basis?

It’s like everywhere, Louise. But first of all, I commend Ireland for her leadership in improving our world, as the first country in Europe to implement a smoking ban in workplaces, and the Irish government is working hard to promote organic farming. Bravo. A lot of work must be done still to have a beautiful and healthy planet. We have to stop the planetary climate change, stop depleting our water supplies, stop deforestation, desertification, ocean pollution, river pollution, species extinction, etc., etc.

But all these can be accomplished to a vast degree and very quickly by individuals changing to an organic vegan diet. And the leading voices in global warming, like former US Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mr. Al Gore and UK climate expert and economist Lord Nicholas Stern have also made statements that being vegetarian for the environment is important. As an individual, by choosing the organic vegan diet, we will save 1.5 tons of carbon emissions per year, which is more than the savings from driving a hybrid car for the whole year; we will save 5 to 10 times the amount of grains; and by not eating just one pound of beef, we save more water than by not showering daily for 6 months to a whole year!

Imagine! Yes. So, as a whole, we can shift our food system to organic – not to an “organic” animal system. My God! They use “organic” for everything. We have to switch to organic vegan diet because the “organic” animal system could even cause more emissions than the conventional way. For example, the Rodale Institute has found that 40% of the CO2 in the air can be absorbed if all the tillable land on the planet were organic vegan. So, in fact, one study calculated that the organic vegan diet saves 94%, Louise, of the greenhouse gas emissions per person per year!

That’s all we have to do, switch to organic vegan, 94% is saved per person and the little 6% nature can eat it up in no time. Because nature is also made to protect us, but we just overload nature. Moreover, if all the people in the world are veg, it would preserve the lives of over a billion fellow human beings suffering from hunger. There would be no more climate refugees, Louise. The Earth would heal itself and there would be more than enough for all the children to grow in health and safety. I am sure that this day will come Louise, very soon, as humankind joins hands to make it happen, just like we do now. Please have hope, Louise, and pray. (I do.)

I will ask the next question on behalf of Mr. Danyo Koami Hagbalé who is Chief Division Supervisor of Prefectures and Regions at the Ministry of Territorial Administration, and the question is: Charcoal is an energy source regularly used in Africa, mostly in household activities because it is cheaper compared to gas. However, its use has caused many parks to be deforested and not reforested, while the burning of charcoal also increases air pollution. Please, Master, could you give us advice about other energy sources that would be affordable and could help us avoid deforestation and air pollution?

Hallo, Monsieur Chief Danyo. Yes, I understand, and I am glad people such as yourself are concerned about preserving our forests. We must protect the trees as much as we can. According to the environmental organization Greenpeace, 8% of the Earth's forest-related carbon is stored in the vast rainforests of the Congo River Basin in Central Africa. Scientists predict that continued deforestation of the Congo will release the same amount of CO2 as the United Kingdom emitted over the last 60 years! Imagine that. So, it is important to preserve the forest while we still can because it helps in addressing global warming.

Another alternative that could be used to avoid deforestation is something called green charcoal, or biochar, which has been introduced in Senegal. This is made from agricultural waste products, is affordable and prevents deforestation. It also absorbs CO2 as well, which is why climate scientists support the use of it. It absorbs the CO2 very well. So this is one alternative. And, of course, if possible you can use a sustainable energy alternative such as a solar oven cooker, which is safer and causes no air pollution at all. So, these are just some examples of affordable energy sources we can try and share with one another. I’m sure there are more. You can do some internet research to see any better solution up to date.

But the most important and most urgent, once again, is the veg diet. V-E-G diet. This is the good deed that you can do to help save the planet as a whole, because this will most quickly reduce global warming. And it’s not just that. Truly, being veg is not just about reducing greenhouse gases, it is about stopping the suffering of the animals and their cruel inhuman mistreatment. We have to be a noble species. We have to be noble human beings. This is what it is all about. We have to stop inhumane treatment of animals.

And if we, in Africa, join together to be veg, we will be blessed by all the Heavens. I’m totally in support of the compassionate vegetarian solution that you lovingly propose. Could you explain further: is the organic vegan lifestyle the most effective solution to save the planet, and also a vision of a noble lifestyle in the future, when Earth merges with other enlightened beings in the galaxy? I’m glad to hear that you support the vegan solution. It is a true solution, yes, and it is the most effective way to save the planet. The reason is based on the significant planet-cooling effect of removing methane from the atmosphere, which happens when we switch to the organic vegan diet. And, besides removing the harmful methane emissions, organic tilling methods can actually store 40% of the carbon back into the soil. So to be veg is a way to not only eliminate significant emissions, but to absorb even more carbon from the atmosphere. The organic approach also does not apply harmful chemicals like the ones used for conventional farming. This is very reassuring for anyone who has children, especially as a recent study showed that young persons are particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of pesticides. So, the organic vegan diet is multifold beneficial. Forests also play a tremendous role in absorbing CO2. For example, the forests in the Pacific Northwest region of the US are able to absorb half of all the emissions of the state of Oregon, USA. So we should protect our forests as well, especially from clearing for cattle grazing and for animal-feed growing, because these activities even add back many times more greenhouse gases. Most of the deforestation in our world is due to animal raising, taking up a staggering one-third of the entire land area on the globe! Now, you ask about a vision of Earth merging with others in the galaxy – that’s a big vision. We only need to look at our own neighboring planets, Mars and Venus, to see that the vision is bleak, is disastrous, ##if we don’t make the right choice, the right change now. Any planetary scientist knows that Mars and Venus went through dramatic atmospheric changes in the past, similar to what we have begun to experience right now. Long ago, Mars and Venus were once a lot like our planet – they had water, life, and people similar to us - but the inhabitants of Mars and Venus destroyed their respective planetary homes because they raised too much livestock, and the gases released triggered an irreversible greenhouse gas effect, plus poisonous hydrogen sulfide in the case of Mars. So, that’s why we see only the traces of the landforms and oceans that once used to be there. And on Venus, the atmosphere is so heated and choked up with CO2 – carbon dioxide – scientists thus called it “runaway global warming” and say this is what the future of Earth might be like. So, let’s not end up like either Mars or Venus, our neighboring planets. Also, once we stop the killing, then we will generate a more loving, kind, and inviting atmosphere for other noble beings in the galaxy to perhaps join us or be in contact with us. But, regardless of the contact with other beings, humanity must uphold a gentler, higher standard for the Earth to continue supporting life. This greater virtue is absolutely necessary for the conscience to be at peace. So, beyond the physical consideration of things like methane gas and toxic chemicals, there is also the spiritual consequence of killing. Killing is stealing life, the most precious gift to any physical being. Animals are killed for meat consumption in the cruelest ways imaginable. That makes us humans the cruelest beings on the planet. We are the cruelest beings on the planet. I don’t know if we should call ourselves civilized, great beings. The degrading practice of killing must stop. The killing must stop and we replace it by virtuous ways of life that are also peaceful and kind. If all of humanity turns to such a standard, this world will be transformed indeed, heralding a true Golden Age of harmony and happiness for all beings. Let’s pray that it will be so.