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.