Citizens and youth join in calling for climate action. As negotiations of the United Nations Climate Change Conference are being launched this week in Durban, South Africa, tens of thousands of citizens and activists are also speaking up about both their interest and expectations.
South African citizen (F): I’m desperately hoping that maybe for once some solutions can come out of this conference.
VOICE: Many are participating in events that coincide with the summit, voicing concerns that are based on recent scientific reports of an imminent global warming catastrophe.
Lemuel Vega – Mexican youth activist (M): I’m here because I really care about the climate change, and I will be really involved with the youth movement.
VOICE: Supreme Master Television’s correspondent brings some more details.
Correspondent (M): We’re here at the International Convention Center in Durban. This meeting is seen as the best chance for participating nations to agree on at least a renewed commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, set to expire in just one year.
Severink Apedjagbo – Togolese youth activist (M): We want change because actually, people in Africa are suffering the disasters relative to climate change. Our aim is to claim climate justice and a binding, legal deal for this COP 17 in Africa.
VOICE: The enthusiastic presence of youth is especially apparent in Durban as young people arrive from throughout vulnerable regions of Africa, with hopes that their collective voice could bring tangible results from world leaders.
Mwasu Mghamed Ninga – Tanzanian youth activist (F): What I need is leaders to be as one and take actions. It’s not a time of just making stories and talking and talking. It’s a matter of them to make actions.
Correspondent (M): Members of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association are also present to support the organic vegan solution to climate change, which studies have found to be the most effective and rapid way to reduce global temperatures. Our Association members spoke with delegates, distributing SOS flyers on the veg solution to climate change along with tasty, eco-friendly vegan lunchboxes.
David Wainaina Kuria – Youth activist, Kenya (M): What we eat really contributes to emitting a lot of greenhouse gases, especially methane. And we were just at the Conference of Youth where we got a presentation on how much we contribute in terms of when we eat meat.
And all of us decided that we can’t be advocating for climate justice while even our lifestyles is totally contrary to what we’re advocating for. Some of us said that while travelling back to Nairobi, no meat! So we’ll just eat something that is more environment-friendly.
Landry Mayigane, PhD - African Youth Initiative of Climate Change, Rwanda (M): Wow! You know, it was very good. I didn’t know that it was vegetarian until someone just told me. Really, please, if all the world could turn veg, it would be very good.
Correspondent (M): Supreme Master Television in Durban, South Africa.Our best wishes, government leaders and all participants of COP 17, for your meaningful discussions. We pray for a fruitful outcome that will ensure
the most effective measures to halt planetary warming, especially the Earth-saving organic vegan diet.
Group of youths (M&F): We are at COP 17. Be Veg, Go Green 2 Save the Planet!
VOICE: During an April 2011 videoconference in Mongolia, Supreme Master Ching Hai called upon both the world’s leaders and people to address the most pressing cause of climate change.
Supreme Master Ching Hai : I know well that we must join together before it’s too late, yes, and that includes the governments and citizens alike. You ask me what we should do first and foremost – it is very simple: a timely vegan diet, because that will bring the benevolent atmosphere to protect our planet. Without being veg first, no other solution is guaranteed to work, really.
But by being vegan alone, we are assured of preserving the planet and, of course, human lives thereon. Because raising animals for meat is, as we know already through all the reports and scientific evidence, that it’s the number one cause of global warming and a major cause of desertification and deforestation.
So, the number one thing to counter this number one cause is to do the opposite, to be vegan.
Extra NewsA November 22, 2011 report by US scientists at Oregon State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) find that ocean acidification from greenhouse gas absorption is spreading from the deep sea to coastal areas, where young oysters have been dying in massive numbers as the acidity prevents the formation of their vital shells.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/massive_oyster_die-offs_show_ocean_acidification_has_arrived/2466/http://daily.sightline.org/2011/11/07/report-northwest-ocean-acidification/ http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/22/idUS99946799720111122Officials report that as of November 26, 2011, extreme drought in Texas, USA has affected the entire Brazos River Basin, with one lake that is 16 feet (4.9 meters) below normal and seven out of 11 reservoirs reduced to the lowest levels in recorded history.
Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature warns in a November 2011 report that a high percentage of aquatic life, mammals and reptiles as well as 467 species of vascular plant species in Europe are at risk of extinction, with ecosystems in urgent need of conservation.
In Kerala state, India, a new study released November 24, 2011 describes human activities that have adversely impacted the Chalakudy River, including the discharge of industrial waste as well as sand mining, with officials recommending sanctuary status for a portion of the river to preserve the region's aquatic life such as the region's 104 species of native fish.