Recent unseasonal ups and downs of temperatures have caused significant increase in produce prices, along with a later bloom of Spring flowers. The rapid weather changes are so dramatic as to give the appearance of different seasons on different days, with cities like Tokyo recording a high of 22.4 degrees Celsius on one day in April, followed by a drop to 6.7 degrees the next day, only to rise again to 18.2 degrees the day after.

Heavy rains and reduced hours of sunshine have also affected northern and western Japan, while other locales like Ashinoko Lake in Kanagawa Prefecture are witnessing unlikely snowfalls of 10 centimeters.

The colder temperatures are hampering vegetable harvests and shipments, with some markets even doubling their prices, while cherry blossoms that typically bloom in time for events and festivals have been delayed in their flowering due to the unexpected colder weather.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency attributes these weather pattern irregularities to the El Nino phenomenon, whose effect has worsened according to climatologists due to global warming.

Blessed be the gentle Japanese people in enduring such extremities that are affecting both the economy and the country’s cultural traditions. We pray that the balance of nature and livelihoods are restored through the greater consideration by all humanity of our co-inhabitants and Earthly abode.

In an October 2009 videoconference in Germany, Supreme Master Ching Hai conveyed as she has many time previously her concern for the environment’s perilous state, encouraging harmonious ways of life to restore its stability.


http://article.wn.com/view/2010/04/17/Cold_affects_business_farming_Unseasonable_weather_ups_veget/
http://moyanagijapan.thoseinmedia.com/2010/04/17/how-the-recent-weather-instability-affecting-us-part-1/