On
Tuesday, September 7, Sri Lankan-based International Water Management
Institute (IWMI) presented a report to an international gathering of
scientists at World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.
Warning that
climate change is bringing more erratic rainfall, the report stated that
the unreliable timing and variable amounts of rain are having
increasingly noticeable effects on food security and economic growth.
This
is due in part to the fact that approximately 66% of crops in Asia are
rain-fed only, rather than irrigated, while in Africa a full 94% are
rain-fed. Highlighting the very recent examples of extremely dry
conditions leading to this summer’s devastating Russian fires and the
opposite in the calamitous Pakistani floods, Sunita Narain, head of the
Center for Science and Environment (CSE) in India, stated, “We are
getting to a point where we are getting more water, more rainy days, but
it's more variable, so it leads to droughts and it leads to floods.”
The scientists recommended more investment in water storage options as well as water management.
We
thank the International Water Management Institute, Ms. Narain and
other international scientists for reminding of the connection between
climate and water imbalances that affect urgent food supplies.
Let
us all work to restore natural harmony through sustainable daily
actions that ensure our planetary survival. During a September 2009
videoconference in Peru, Supreme Master Ching Hai expressed her concern
for humanity in light of the growing global food crisis, while also
emphasizing the most comprehensive solution.
Supreme Master Ching Hai: We
can see everywhere reflections of a planet in trouble, with monsoons
and flooding in one location and people losing their harvests and
drinking water to drought in another.
One way that our world can
be preserved and stabilized is through everyone’s change to a
compassionate lifestyle, choosing organic vegan diet, which not only
eliminates methane and other toxic, heat-trapping greenhouse gases
emissions from the livestock industry, but the organic part takes care
of harmful fertilizer chemicals and allows the soil to absorb a huge
amount of atmospheric CO2.
http://www.france24.com/en/20100907-erratic-global-weather-threatens-food-security