Bolivia hosts international climate summit. Throughout this week, the Bolivian government is hosting a large grassroots climate change meeting in Cochabamba to call for greater environmental responsibility in addressing climate change.
First proposed by Bolivian President Evo Morales, known as a leader of the world’s indigenous people, the summit brings together thousands of diverse representatives from government, science, environmental advocacy, indigenous communities and other members of civil society to find ways to ensure the protection of those most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming.
Supreme Master Television’s correspondent reports from Bolivia.
Correspondent in Bolivia (M): We are here at the opening day of the “People’s World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth” in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
This conference is bringing together concerned citizens from all over the world in a joint effort to discuss how global warming can be kept to within 1 degree rise.
Nurah Amat’ullah – PetroBronx US-based community service organization, USA (F): We’re proposing that as we are moving forward into this green economy that we be mindful that we bring all of the communities in and the people have a voice.
Indigenous participant (M): Our ancestors had intimate knowledge of communion with nature.
Correspondent (M): This initiative is supported by up to 100 government representatives, many of whom are from the most vulnerable nations affected by climate change.
Jorge Dalberto Aguilar Chinche – Indigenous participant from Bolivia (M): Before we had plenty of rain. Now, it has practically changed: There is hail, wind, there is drought, there is much heat.
VOICE: The conference also seeks to raise governments’ awareness of the plight of indigenous communities
such as those in the South American Andes Mountains, where ice caps are melting at alarming rates.
Delegates expressed their concern for the floods and drying of rivers that in turn jeopardize water supplies needed by the communities to survive.
Jorge Dalberto Aguilar Chinche (M): Something is happening in the world and it’s a big concern. And I want to welcome all the brethren in the world that we will surely handle this issue to resolve the future of our living beings.
Correspondent (M): The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association members are participating by attending discussion work groups where policies can be presented.
Flyers highlighting the importance and urgency of mitigating climate change through the plant-based diet are also being distributed.
Indigenous participant from Peru (M): We are all committed to not pollute more our planet Earth, our Pacha (Earth). That is, to take care of our flora, fauna, our animals.
Participant from Peru – Vegetarian (M): Meat is a poison, not a food. It’s becoming increasingly more poisonous because of the way animals are grown.
Correspondent (M): Supreme Master Television reporting from Cochabamba, Bolivia.
VOICE: We send our congratulations and best wishes to all participants of this unique summit that gives voice to those already experiencing unfavorable climatic change.
May this be an opportunity to boldly choose the most effective course of action, that is, the organic vegan diet that benefits all world citizens and our Earth.
During a September 2009 videoconference in Peru, Supreme Master Ching Hai emphasized, as she often has, the necessity of a global shift to a plant-based diet for the planet to survive.
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.
Now we need 100% of the world population to be veg to save our world. We have to change before it is too late to change. Because if we don’t change now, later when we want to change, it won’t be helpful anymore.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8629155.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8629379.stm http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=180775&Itemid=21 Goldman Environmental Prize awarded. On Monday, April 19, six winners of the US-based Goldman Environmental Prize, sponsored by the Goldman Environmental Foundation, were announced, with each person being awarded US$150,000.
Thuli Makama of Swaziland, an environmental attorney and head of the environment group Yonge Nawer, was recognized for her courtroom accomplishments in winning the public’s right to participate in environmental decision-making in Swaziland.
Cambodian Tuy Sereivathana was awarded for his work in protecting Asian elephants and for helping farmers safeguard their food and the elephants at the same time.
Poland’s Malgorzata Gorska was recognized for winning a legal case to protect a precious national ecosystem known as Rospuda Valley from highway construction.
Cuban scientist and biodiversity researcher Humberto Rios Labrada was recognized for his promotion of sustainable agriculture.
US farmer and environmentalist Lynn Henning was honored for raising eco-concerns about regional factory farms, while Costa Rican Randall Arauz was awarded for his campaign to protect sharks and halt the cruel practice of finning.
Goldman Environmental Prize recipients, we laud your devoted efforts and well-deserved distinctions.
May many others be inspired toward similar eco-activism to more swiftly restore our planet to sustainability.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2011643031_apusfoodandfarmfactoryfarms.html http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jOSwZyxEm1qMETUL57H3_GtNK-HQD9F6008G1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8630021.stm http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jKho_oqiJM-uKVU4c5g1KASZ9F9gD9F5VVBO0Scientists in India find that a combination of drought, lack of green cover and encroaching urbanization have increased atmospheric dust to levels that are now damaging treasured Indian monuments, including the iconic Taj Mahal.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/dust-vanishing-greenery-threaten-taj_100350044.htmlResearch conducted at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada finds that solar power harnessed from selected rooftops and barren land could sustainably supply nearly all the electrical needs of the province.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100414122643.htm Representatives from the 28 countries bordering the Indian Ocean agree to form a joint tsunami alert network that will initially complement and eventually replace the current warning systems operated by the United States and Japan.
http://indonesiathisday.blogspot.com/2010/04/joint-tsunami-alert-system-to-be-ready.htmlhttp://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/04/16/joint-tsunami-alert-system-be-ready-2011.htmlMore than 250,000 Slovenians participate in “Let's Clean Slovenia in One Day,” a campaign that successfully removed over 60,000 cubic meters of litter.
http://www.france24.com/en/20100417-slovenians-join-nationwide-cleanup-campaign http://www.sta.si/en/vest.php?s=a&id=1503586 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hDbTnUc5Ow1KLXQhw6aZszButPGA