Mexico City was the official host city of this
year’s United Nations’ World Environment Day on June 5. At the ceremony
marking the day that encourages political action for the planet,
Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon promised to reduce the country’s greenhouse
gas emissions by 50 million tons per year. His plans include an annual
planting of 200,000 hectares of trees, saving energy in the building and
transportation sectors, and protecting five new biodiverse areas.
While supporting these laudable and needed
endeavors, Supreme Master Ching Hai has shown a way to prioritize
climate change actions. The most urgent is a large-scale shift to an
organic vegan diet, which could significantly and quickly reduce
emissions.
This was once more emphasized in a video
greeting to the audience attending the live conference coinciding with
World Environment Day in Mexico. It was hosted by the Veracruz state
government, whohad cordially invited Supreme Master Ching Hai as the
honored guest and speaker.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
If everyone in the world would adopt this simple but most powerful
practice of an animal-free diet, then we could reverse the effect of
global warming in no time. We would then have time to actually be able
to adopt longer-term measures such as more green technology, to also
remove the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
In fact, if we neglect to
stop meat production, either all these green efforts will be cancelled
out in effect, or we may lose the planet before we even having a chance
to install any green technology such as the wind power or solar power,
or more hybrid cars, for that reason.
I truly appreciate your
sincerity and willingness to join with those who share the same goal,
for taking initiatives to inform the public, and for wanting to
implement prompt actions.
VOICE:
We thank President Calderon, the Veracruz government and Mexico for
your noble efforts to benefit fellow citizens and the planet. Our
grateful appreciation to Supreme Master Ching Hai whose insights guide
humanity on a safer course. May we focus on our first task of halting
global warming through the foremost lifestyle choice of being vegan.
Please tune in to Words of Wisdom for a full rebroadcast of this conference at a later date, with multi-language subtitles.