Focus on water and sustainable development.

 The annual Cannes Water Symposium is held every year at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès of Cannes, the World Water Capital, on France’s beautiful Azur Coast. It is a gathering of 3,000 decision-makers, scientists and professionals from 78 different countries and the United Nations. This year’s 10th Symposium placed a special focus on water and sustainable development in the face of climate change.

Mme Pascale-Vaillant, Delegate of the environnement in Cannes: The city of Cannes is totally convinced that the future of our children as well as the future of the planet, depend on the speed of the strong commitment towards the environment.

VOICE: A main topic discussed was agriculture, which is the world's largest consumer of water resources.

Mr. Khan: For people who like rice, it takes about 2,000 liters to produce a kilogram of rice. And if you are into foods like beef, then for 1 kilogram of beef is about 10,000 liters of water.

VOICE: Supreme Master Television’s correspondent asked participating experts about the impact of meat production on water consumption.

Dr. Janos J. Bogardi, Director of the United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security : The answer is yes, if we eat less meat, reducing those consumptions which are energy intensive or which are producing methane, the climate would honor it, of course on a long term.

VOICE: Supreme Master Ching Hai’s #1 international bestselling book “The Birds in My Life” was also presented to the Cannes Water Symposium’s founder, Dr. Raoul-Caruba.

Dr. Raoul-Caruba, Co-founder of the Cannes Water Symposium, Director of the Network Méditéranéen Unesco: Every time I see a bird, I tell myself, there they are a messenger of the future, a messenger of hope. So, let’s protect all species, it’s our mission, it’s our plight and it is, above all the heritage we have to leave for our children.

Dr. Raoul-Caruba: Every day, 30,000 children in the world die from diseases linked to
water. Dysentery, malaria, etc. So, every 10 days, there is a “tsunami” in the world and nobody talks about it. I think that the International Water Symposium has this mission, this mission of getting people together, getting people to discuss with each other. But also a very media-related role. The people, the citizens need to know all problems related to water which will be our problem of tomorrow.

VOICE: We thank all the participants of the 2008 Cannes Water Symposium for your genuine concern and efforts. May we all work together to conserve our Earth’s precious water, so that
everyone may live in good health, now and generations from today.

Coral reefs are in decline due to global warming.

A new report by US researchers, Dr. Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology and Dr. Richard Zeebe of the University of Hawaii, concludes that due to human activity releasing large amounts of CO2 into the air over the past 200 years, oceans worldwide have become more acidic as they have absorbed as much as 40 percent of this greenhouse gas.

This acidity prevents the formation of calciferous skeletons necessary for for coral reefs and shells of marine organisms. Without a rapid decrease of carbon emissions, the coral reefs could stop growing by 2050 which would be devastating to the millions of sea-dwelling species that depend on the reefs to live.

We thank Drs. Caldeira and Zeebe for this informative research. May we quickly act in cooperative endeavors to reduce our carbon footprint and stabilize our precious marine ecosystems.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080622/COLUMNIST13/806220649/-1/newssitemap, http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=81035

50 million more people hungry due to rising food prices.

Director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jacques Diouf has indicated that due to the global food crisis, 50 million more people became undernourished in 2007. Citing continued price increases along with a significant decline in agricultural assistance from 1980 to 2006, Mr. Diouf called for international efforts to assist developing nations with agricultural support.
Our deep thankfulness, Director-general Diouf, for your concern and awareness raising about the need to solve worldwide food shortage concerns.  Blessed be all nations in joining hands to help provide sufficient food and nourishment for all people.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/04/content_8485999.htm