Today’s Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
will be presented
in Mongolian
with subtitles in Arabic,
Aulacese (Vietnamese),
Chinese, English,
French, German,
Indonesian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean,
Malay, Mongolian,
Persian, Portuguese,
Russian, Spanish
and Thai.
Mongolia undoubtedly
is one of the countries
most seriously affected
by global warming.
Over the past 60 years,
the average temperature
in Mongolia has risen
more than twice
as much as the
global mean temperature.
Approximately
85 percent of our land
surface in Mongolia
has been degraded,
mostly by wind
and by human activities,
including mining
and livestock.
Greetings,
green-living viewers,
to today’s episode of
Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
where we examine
how climate change is
endangering Mongolia.
Mongolia,
the world’s second-largest
landlocked country,
is particularly vulnerable
to climate change due to
its location and geography.
In the past 60 years
the nation’s average
temperature has risen
1.6 degrees Celsius.
The Gobi Desert,
the largest desert
in all of Asia, makes up
about 30% of its territory
and the rest is largely vast,
treeless, grassy plains,
called the steppes.
Annual precipitation is
around 50 millimeters
in the desert regions,
and 400 millimeters
in the northern provinces.
For the last 40 years,
climate change
has devastated
Mongolia’s ecosystems,
as expanding deserts,
extreme cold, heat waves,
flooding, forest fires,
sand storms, the melting
of high mountain glaciers
and permafrost degradation
have intensified.
Global warming and
its negative impacts have
become a real threat:
increased atmospheric
temperatures,
desertification,
increased occurrences
of natural disasters
such as typhoons,
drought and
extreme cold in winter.
These negative impacts
have become so violent
and are shaking the very
existence of humankind.
As a consequence
of human ignorance,
our world’s ecosystems
are deteriorating and
tens of thousands
of species are
facing extinction.
Desertification,
or the process by which
an area becomes a desert,
affects more than
two-billion people
living in arid regions
around the world
and in Mongolia
it has been progressing
at an alarming rate.
The Swiss Agency
for Development
and Cooperation
says 90% of the nation is
at risk for desertification
and cites both
ecologically damaging
human activities and
ever drier conditions from
the heating of the planet
as the primary reasons for
the encroaching deserts.
In particular,
overgrazing by livestock
has been identified
by many experts
as driving desertification
in Mongolia.
In response to the many
global warming effects that
are devastating his nation,
His Excellency
Batbold Sukhbaatar,
the prime minister of
Mongolia and his cabinet
held a meeting
on August 27, 2010
in the middle of
the Gobi Desert to
call attention to the issue
and to discuss a
climate change action plan
for the country.
During the meeting,
Minister of
Natural Environment
and Tourism
Gansukh Luumed stated,
“Global climate change
accelerates
the desertification process
in Mongolia.
Currently, 70% of
Mongolian land is affected
by desertification.”
It is no surprise that
Mongolia was
documented by the 2002
Johannesburg Summit
as one of the 11 countries
that is most severely
affected by desertification,
among 120 countries
suffering from
desertification.
From 1970-2007,
the average annual
precipitation
in the dry steppe region
decreased from
236 millimeters to
106 millimeters
and the average annual
temperature increased
from -0.3° Celsius
to +0.3° Celsius after
30 years of overgrazing.
This community of
plant species has degraded
to the point where it
has been replaced with
a different community of
Cleistogenes squarrosa-
Agropyron cristatum-
Leymus chinensis.
In the latter community,
overall plant productivity
decreased by 10 times, and
the vegetation coverage
severely thinned by
3 times, resulting
in a state that is
more similar to a desert
steppe plant community.
Seasonal temperatures
and weather patterns
in Mongolia
are being altered
by climate change.
In January 2010, “dzud,”
or severe summer drought
followed by heavy snow
and extremely low
winter temperatures
struck Mongolia.
Temperatures dropped
to minus 40, while
the daily seasonal range
is usually minus 15 to 35
degrees Celsius.
This period affected
over 750,000 people
and killed a staggering
8.5 million livestock.
In the summer of 2010,
an unusual heat wave
sparked wildfires
across central Mongolia.
As a direct and indirect
result of global warming
and desertification,
forest fires over the past
25 years destroyed
1.2-million hectares
of forest coverage.
Russian scientist
and professor
Dr.V. Yarmishko
and his team established
that the broadleaf forest
ecosystem affected by
fire disasters in the Khuvsgul
and Khangai mountains
can never be
naturally regenerated.
Reports indicate
between 1971 and 1997
there were approximately
2,700 incidences of
forest fires that destroyed
14-million hectares
of both forest
and steppe ecosystems.
Extensive solifluction,
another
negative contributor
to the forest ecosystem,
has also been observed
in the continuous
permafrost zone of
the Khuvsgul
and Khangai mountains,
at a minimum rate of
2 centimeters per year.
In July 2009
torrential rains
and hailstorms
pelted the nation’s capital
of Ulaanbaatar
and the southwestern
province of Govi-Altai,
causing the worst flooding
in Mongolia since 1966.
Twenty-six people perished,
2,000 were displaced
and hundreds of homes
were destroyed.
We had floods
in our khoroo (district).
For example,
in this khoroo (district), 150
households were in flood.
57 of them lost
their homes totally.
Six people passed away.
The percentage of
arable land in Mongolia
used for cultivation and
the agricultural productivity
of tilled land is dropping
due to global warming.
Until the mid-1990’s
the country produced
enough wheat for itself
and even exported the crop
when yields
were high enough.
In 2007, Mongolia could
supply less than a quarter
of its wheat needs
from domestic production.
The steady loss of
national water resources
is severely hindering
the planting of crops,
causing the harvest rate
to fluctuate yearly.
Official statistics in 2007
showed that
over the last few years
852 rivers and streams
out of 5,128,
2,277 springs
out of 9,306 and
1,181 lakes and ponds
out of 3,747
have dried up, resulting
in a major water crisis.
60% of the 70 lakes
in the Amar river basin,
which is a habitat to
swan geese populations,
reduced in water level
by 30-100% and some
have already dried up.
As a result,
the population of
the swan geese that
annually migrate and
reproduce in those lakes
reduced by
more than two times;
the present population
being less than 40%
as compared to that of the past.
Global warming
has degraded the
steppes, forests, rivers,
lakes and swamp
ecosystems and
more than 80% of
the vegetation coverage
is undergoing
degradation.
Mongolia has the highest
number of livestock
per capita in the world,
with over 30 million
animals and a population
of 2.5 million people.
In the paper “Livestock
and Climate Change,”
published in
World Watch Magazine
in 2009, it was estimated
that greater than 51%
of human-caused global
greenhouse gas emissions
are from a cycle of
producing and consuming
animal products.
Please,
eat less meat.
This is also one problem
in Mongolia,
because of the rise
of the number of cattle.
We have plenty of land to
plant more vegetables
in Mongolia.
For the sake of
producing meat,
we have destroyed
the tropical rainforest,
what we call
the “lungs of the Earth.”
Every minute of every day
the meat industry
is using forest land area
equivalent to
seven soccer fields
Once distributed
over half the planet,
forests now cover only
a quarter of the Earth’s
land surface.
30% of
the world’s land surface
and 70% of
agricultural land is used
for meat production.
Because of this, land is
degraded and pasture
lands have been depleted.
This is one of
the main factors
accelerating desertification.
The annual greenhouse
gas emissions caused
by livestock production
is about 100-million tons
of carbon dioxide.
Meat production-related
transportation and
energy consumption
is very high.
In the year 2007 alone,
the world produced
and consumed
275-million tons of meat.
Reports indicate that
by 2050 meat production
will double.
The energy and
the transportation cost
needed to freeze and
distribute 275-million
tons of meat is enormous.
Ending livestock raising
would lift a tremendous
burden from our planet.
Doctors Enkhbat
and Gurragchaa advocate
returning to a plant-based
diet as the solution
to climate change.
The Mongolian
government is spending
2.4-billion tugrugs
(US$1.6-2 million)
per year to artificially
lower the price of meat
being sold in major cities.
From the
historical records, we
can see that the Mongols
in the 13th century chose
to eat 4-5 times less food
than Europeans
at the time.
As per modern definitions,
we can call the Mongols
from the past
as vegetarians.
Modern research
indicates that
vegetarians have twice
as much endurance
as meat-eaters and
five times more
recreational ability
than meat-eaters,
which is also in accordance
with the past
Mongolians’ health
and endurance index.
Unfortunately,
the science of the
past Mongolian diet
is long lost and
has been replaced with
the standard theory of
the Western diet system.
We need to:
revive traditional
Mongolian cultural
values.
Mongolian people have
a tradition of respect
for nature and the use
of its resources, and
refrained from polluting
mountains, rivers,
the soil and forests.
From the analysis of the
causes of global warming,
we can see that
there is a way to stop it
within a short period
of time and without
a significant investment.
That is to strongly reduce
meat consumption.
Supreme Master Ching Hai
has highlighted
the importance
of the organic vegan diet
to halt climate change
in Mongolia and
all other nations on Earth.
Mongolia, as with
the rest of the world,
is experiencing
more severe weather,
a more fatal pattern
of climate change
due to the effects
of global warming.
So, you can see
in Mongolia droughts,
harsher winters,
more frequency of
dust storms and blizzards.
With livestock raising,
we deplete Mongolians’
already limited natural
resources and even
put Mongolia country
more in danger
of desertification.
Instead of grazing animals,
we can begin planting
the organic vegetable,
which is more healthy
to everyone.
We have to
choose a vegetarian diet
over animal breeding.
If more and more people
choose organic farming
as well,
we help each other
to the best possible
of our ability
and most gentle way for
all beings and the Earth.
From then,
we can share food since
we have so much food.
We have abundance of
food, more than enough
for everyone without
even having to buy it.
And we save time
and other resources
to go toward other things,
like ending disease and
helping those in need.
By not subsidizing
the meat diet, we save
trillions of US dollars
per year in tax.
We save a lot of suffering
from meat-related illness.
We save a lot of food to
share with all the hungry
in the world,
so our conscience will
never have to wake up
in the middle of the night
and bite us anymore.
Our deep thanks
Doctors Enkhbat
and Lhagva Gurragchaa
as well as
Professor Bold, and
Supreme Master Ching Hai
for informing the public
with tireless dedication
about global warming
and the environmental
destruction caused by
consuming animal products.
May all Mongolian
people, and everyone
around our world, soon
adopt the compassionate,
eco-friendly,
plant-based lifestyle.
Caring viewers,
thank you for joining us
on today’s Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
Coming up next is
Enlightening Entertainment
after Noteworthy News.
May your life be filled
with compassion
and abundant love
from Heaven.