Drought raises concerns in both Europe and Cuba. With some of the warmest temperatures and driest spring conditions in decades, concerns of European farmers are being raised as wheat, corn and other crops are threatened.
In France, the nation's Nuclear Safety Authority is studying plans to ensure that nuclear power plants depending upon the Loire and Rhône Rivers have adequate water to cool the plants' reactors.
Meanwhile, transport companies using the Rhine and the River Danube in both Austria and Germany have reduced ship cargo weights due to waters having dropped to their lowest levels in 100 years.
Meanwhile across the ocean in Cuba, a drought that is the worst in 50 years has left over 100,000 people in the city of Havana reliant on water being delivered by trucks, with access to running water allowed only for a few hours each day.
The eastern province of Las Tunas has also been severely affected, with over 220 communities requiring outside water sources as firefighters also cope with dozens of blazes that have ignited because of the drought.
We pray for easing of the dry conditions and the blessing of gentle rain across both Cuba and Europe. May such conditions be eased as we all join in caring more conscientiously for our shared Earthly abode.
Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai and Supreme Master Television staff
Los Angeles, California, USA – January 1, 2011
Supreme Master Ching Hai: As you know already from scientific news reports, we have tens of thousands of people hungry due to the Amazon drought. Also, such a severe, they call “mega-drought,” usually occurs only once in many decades, or century. Now, the latest one is only several years ago, five years ago, scientists say that droughts related to global warming are very different from normal droughts.
They are more permanent, more severe, and irreversible. Trees die, not only the oldest ones, but of all ages, even the young ones, and all sizes. Regions most vulnerable are the US Southwest, southeast Asia, eastern South America, Western Australia, southern Europe, southern Africa, and northern Africa. And if we continue to live our lives the way most people do right now, it will get worse and worse.
Karma (retribution) changes so fast because we create new patterns of karma (retribution) all the time and that, in turn, affects the weather, and the weather affects us, of course. And all this are due to the consequences of the way we live our lives. Not benevolent enough.
Extra NewsAn unseasonable heat wave in northern India is resulting in temperatures exceeding all previous record, with highs such as 45.1 degrees Celsius in the city of Allahabad and 42.2 in New Delhi, as officials warning of increased risk of heat strokes and other heat-related illnesses.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Maximum-temperature-breaches-45-deg-mark/articleshow/8242217.cmshttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Mercury-crosses-42-May-may-be-hotter-than-2010/articleshow/8227174.cmsUS youth participating in the iMatter campaign call for government action to halt climate change as they file legal actions in every state as well as the nation's capital, asking that the environment be considered a public trust requiring government protection.
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/22363?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SBGeneralNews+%28SustainableBusiness.com+General+News%29,
http://imattermarch.org/about-us/ Research from Iowa State University, USA is confirming that soil erosion is occurring much more than the US government had estimated, amplified by the more frequent and severe storms.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/business/13erosion.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss