Veg trend on the rise in Australia. Just weeks after the country launched Meatless Mondays, a campaign encouraging at least one meat-free meal a week, Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach was the site of the country’s biggest vegetarian barbecue for the recent celebration of Australia Day.
Sponsored by Fry’s Vegetarian brand and hosted by spokesperson and Australian comedian Simon Kennovich, the veg event raised funds for the Bondi Surf Life Saving Club while advocating a healthy, environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Supreme Master Television’s correspondent reports.
Australian Correspondent (F): We’re here on Australia’s famous Bondi Beach at Australia’s biggest vegetarian barbeque where Simon Kennovich is telling Australians not to eat lamb on Australia Day but to instead try a Fry’s burger and to try being veg for the planet and for our beautiful Australia.
Simon Kennovich – Comedian (M): Hallo everyone, people of the world. Come to Australia. Get down here, have a vegetarian barbeque with us. We’ll all have a good time.
VOICE: Served fresh off the grill were vegan alternatives to the meat often eaten on holidays, with a crowd of people showing their interest in tasting more.
Attendee/Citizen (M): It’s good.
Attendee (M): Mouth-watering, really.
VOICE: The barbeque also raised awareness on vital veg benefits for one’s health and the planet.
Volunteer (F): That’s obviously helping with the cutting down of methane gases that are produced by animals. And also just having a different protein source, it’s a great way of benefiting your diet.
Attendee (M): Anyone that loves this planet and loves the blue sky and the conditions we have at the moment really should get behind a vegetarian diet for the planet. If we get enough people behind this, we could change this global warming phenomenon.
VOICE: Many thanks, Fry’s Vegetarian, Simon Kennovich and Bondi Beach for your celebration and support of the Earth-protecting plant-based diet. May the compassionate lifestyle soon be adopted by all countries for a vibrantly sustainable world.
Commercial fishing endangers dolphins, porpoises and whales. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has released a report cautioning of the significant risk to these marine mammals especially by large-scale fishing operations.
The study stated that 86% of all toothed-whale cetaceans are seriously threatened by entanglement or capture in gillnets, driftnets, trawls and other types of fishing gear.
As an example, the scientists cited China’s Baiji River Dolphin, which has not been sighted for many years in the Yangtze River, as well as the Vaquita porpoise residing in the northern Gulf of California, whose population has diminished to only 150 remaining in the wild. Both of these species have perished in high numbers due to entanglements in fishing gear.
UNEP Executive Secretary Elizabeth Mrema stated that governments need to increase their efforts to implement protective policies for the survival of the cetacean species.
Our earnest appreciation United Nations Environment Program for revealing the impact of fishing’s detrimental practices on our unique marine mammal friends. May all countries join in acting now to protect the lives of these and all precious fellow beings.
In her tireless endeavors to ensure the welfare of the Earth’s inhabitants, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often emphasized the need to halt fishing, as during a November 2008 interview with Ireland’s East Coast Radio FM.
Supreme Master Ching Hai: We have to stop it. Just stop the fishing. The government has to forbid fishing because it’s too important to our survival to delay any further.
Not only is there overfishing and depleting of marine life, but there is also side killing. Like when the commercial long liners go fishing,
they’re killing tens of thousands of sea turtles, by the way, and hundreds of thousands of sea birds and millions of sharks every year.
To stop this destructive practice of fishing, the solution is the vegan diet, no fishy stuff in our meals. The sea offers us plenty of better food choices; the wide varieties of super healthy and nutritious sea plants.
We can even live on it forever. We must protect a living and healthy sea, as it relates to our living and healthy self.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33677&Cr=unep&Cr1= http://www.physorg.com/news184500664.htmlhttp://www.cms.int/reports/small_cetaceans/general_summary.htm http://www.answers.com/topic/odontocetesExtra NewsAt the 13th Punjab Science Congress in Chandigarh, India, climate experts forecast that for each degree rise in temperature, the region will lose 750 kilograms of wheat per cultivated hectare.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100208/main5.htmSaying that the Middle East is the region most challenged in the world for water resources, Switzerland-based Global Institute for Water Environment Health commends cooperative management efforts of nations such as Egypt as well as the water institute founded by Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2054492&Language=en http://www.giweh.ch/giweh.html http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=136183The US-based National Wildlife Federation points out that recent cold temperatures and increased snow are in fact completely consistent with documented effects of global warming, saying that the need to reduce greenhouse gases is more urgent than ever.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/28/AR2010012800041.htmlA new study finds that increased temperatures from climate change are threatening the survival of sea turtles as their eggs do not survive in very hot sand.
http://news.discovery.com/animals/sea-turtles-global-warming.html