Following a year’s investigation by 55
scientists in nine countries,the report “Public Health Benefits of
Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse-gas Emissions” was published in the
prestigious British medical journal the Lancet. It concluded that
reducing livestock production by consuming fewer animal products would
provide the greatest benefit for reducing emissions, improving health,
and containing climate change mitigation costs.
The new report,
which described the health benefits of various global warming mitigation
strategies, including lifestyle changes, was officially endorsed during
a launch event in the United Kingdom by United Nations Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon and leaders of the World Health Organization, the UK
Department of Health and Department of Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, and the US Department of Health.Supreme Master Television spoke
with lead author Professor Sir Andrew Haines, Director of the London
School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Professor Sir Andrew
Haines – Director of London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,
UK (M): You can't ignore the food and agricultural sector if you're
serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions quite dramatically,
which is what we know has to be done. So we look first of all at the
potential for technological change. Could it all be done just by
improving technology of farming? And we concluded that that would be not
sufficient.
VOICE: The report found that a 30% reduction in the
number of livestock animals had the benefit of reaching 50% greenhouse
gas reduction goals by 2030 and improving overall health. In particular,
heart disease rates alone would be reduced by 15%, saving 18,000 lives
in the UK per year from the country's #1 killer.
Professor Sir Andrew Haines (M): Since
we already consume sufficient nutritional content from the Western
diet, we can quite safely reduce our saturated fat consumption by let’s
say, 30%.
There's many people who don't consume very much animal
products and meat and other animal products, some who are purely
vegetarian and vegan, and all these different dietary patterns are
compatible with a healthy lifestyle.
VOICE: We thank the
dedicated world scientists and The Lancet medical journal for this very
important study integrating climate change and health. We also laud the
British government and United Nations officials for supporting this call
to global action in reducing meat production and consumption.
May
world citizens enjoy the multifold benefits of a plant-based diet
including longevity, vitality, and above all, a saved planetary
abode.Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently discussed the effective
role of governments in reducing global warming, as in an interview
published in the September 2009 edition of the British Parliament's The
House Magazine.
Supreme
Master Ching Hai: The government can support organic vegan
farming through subsidies. They can also redirect the funds away from
the meat industries and instead toward encouraging citizens to plant, to
buy and to choose organic vegan food. And when they do, we will soon
have a lot of healthy, happy, productive people, a restored green
environment, and minimum climate mitigation costs – something all
governments can look forward to and gain the enthusiastic support of all
citizens.