At
a recent conference held in Amman, Jordan, experts gathered to discuss
the growing water crisis due to climate change. Organized by Jordan’s
Ministry of Agriculture along with the International Center for
Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and other partners,
participants spoke of how to counteract
the alarming decrease in water supply to the region.
More
than 150 villages were abandoned during 2007 and 2008 in Syria alone
due to climate-related drought, and the United Nations just announced
the nation’s worst dry spell in four decades, affecting some 1.3
million people.
In an effort to address the situation, the
Water and Livelihoods Initiative has been launched, a ten-year
collaborative project involving Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon,
Palestine, Syria and Yemen.
With an initial US$1 million in
funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), each
country is contributing plans for sustainable land and water
management.
Nations such as Morocco and Jordan have already
shown promise in implementing practices such as harvesting water from
rainfall runoff as well as supplemental irrigation.
Jordan’s
Ministry of Agriculture, International Center for Agricultural Research
in the Dry Areas, all other participating partners and countries, we
laud your resource-sustaining goals.
Wishing you every success
as we pray that all governments awaken to the ultimate water savings
found in the plant-based lifestyle. Concerned for the Earth's urgent
state, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often addressed the actions needed
to replenish our currently dwindling resources, as during a video
message for a June 2009
climate change conference in Mexico.
Supreme Master Ching Hai: We
can stop water shortage. While droughts are plaguing more populations,
we cannot afford to waste water. Meat production uses massive amounts
of water, as you know. It takes up to 1,200 gallons of fresh and good
clean water to produce just one serving of beef. In contrast, a full
vegan meal costs only 98 gallons of water. That is 90 plus percent
less. So, if we want to stop water shortage and to preserve precious
water we have to stop animal products.
Adopting a plant-based
diet can halt as much as 80% of global warming, eradicate world hunger,
stop war, promote peace, and it will free up the Earth’s water as well
as many other precious resources, offering a lifeline for the planet
and for humanity. In short, it will very quickly halt many of the
global problems facing us right now.
Therefore, it is vital
that we do our part to bring to the public’s attention the urgent
climate change issues and its solutions; the foremost being the vegan
diet, to safeguard our precious planet.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87991http://www.firstscience.com/home/news/agriculture/scientists-unite-to-combat-water-scarcity-solutions-yield-more-crop-per-drop-in-drylands_78493.htmlhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9714c514-10e3-11df-9a9e-00144feab49a,s01=1.html http://www.speedy-fit.co.uk/Climate-Change/Drought-Drives-Residents-from-160-Syrian-Villages.html