Research
by US-based Stanford University Professor Mark Jacobson has found that
black carbon, or soot, which is generated from the incomplete burning of
fuels and biomass such as felled trees, is one of the most significant
factors in melting Arctic ice.
As the black carbon particles can
be carried in the air for thousands of kilometers, they have been found
deposited on glaciers and polar ice caps, where their heat-absorbing
dark color speeds melt-rate.
In a study of the subject, Professor
Heitor Evangelista and colleagues of Rio de Janeiro State University in
Brazil found that around 50% of the black carbon in the most rapidly
warming areas of Antarctica originates from biomass burning in the
Amazon.
Environmental advocacy organizations Greenpeace and
Friends of the Earth (Amigos da Terra) estimate that 80% of
deforestation in Brazil is directly linked to the livestock industry,
indicating that 40% of black carbon in Antarctica originates from
activities supporting meat production.
Professor Jacobson
meanwhile has called for reductions in black carbon, affirming that it
may be one of the best approaches for quickly helping halt ice melt.
He
stated, “We have to start taking its effects into account in planning
our mitigation efforts, and the sooner we start making changes, the
better.” Thank you Drs. Jacobson and Evangelista as well as Greenpeace
and Friends of the Earth for these insights into yet another aspect of
the dire effects of global warming.
Let us act swiftly on such
new understanding to most effectively protect the Earth for ourselves
and our children. In her concerned endeavors to safeguard our planetary
welfare, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed the need to eliminate such
grave dangers as those posed by the meat industry during an interview
published in the July 12, 2009 edition of the Irish Sunday Independent.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
As for black carbon, which is the particulate matter also known as
soot, NASA scientists found that it has a serious impact on climate
change. Black carbon is 680 times more heat trapping than CO2 – can you
imagine that. So CO2 is not our foremost and urgent problem. The soot’s
680 times heat trapping more than CO2 is accelerating the melting of
Antarctic ice, which raises the world sea level.
Scientists
found that 60% of the black carbon particles in Antarctica were carried
there by the wind from South American forests that are burned to clear
land for livestock production. You see the connection.
So, this
pollutant is yet another damaging byproduct of the meat industry again.
We will destroy the world if we do not stop eating and producing meat
and other animal products. So, the organic vegan diet is the fastest,
easiest, and most effective solution for a life-sustaining planet.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Soot+second+leading+cause+climate+change+study/3349011/story.html.cid=megadrop_story#ixzz0vekfEf8shttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm.id=cutting-soot-emissions-may-slow-climate-change-in-the-arctic