SAVE OUR PLANET -- Scientists say soot a key factor in warming

SAVE OUR PLANET... Reducing black carbon could significantly slow polar ice melt. Research by US-based Stanford University Professor Mark Jacobson has found that black carbon, or soot, which is generated from the incomplete burning of fuels and biomass such as felled trees, is one of the most significant factors in melting Arctic ice. As the black carbon particles can be carried in the air for thousands of kilometers, they have been found deposited on glaciers and polar ice caps, where their heat-absorbing dark color speeds melt-rate. In a study of the subject, Professor Heitor Evangelista and colleagues of Rio de Janeiro State University in Brazil found that around 50% of the black carbon in the most rapidly warming areas of Antarctica originates from biomass burning in the Amazon. Environmental advocacy organizations Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth estimate that 80% of deforestation in Brazil is directly linked to the livestock industry, indicating that 40% of black carbon in Antarctica originates from activities supporting meat production. Professor Jacobson meanwhile has called for reductions in black carbon, affirming that it may be one of the best approaches for quickly helping halt ice melt. He stated, "We have to start taking its effects into account in planning our mitigation efforts, and the sooner we start making changes, the better."

Thank you Drs. Jacobson and Evangelista as well as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth for these insights into yet another aspect of the dire effects of global warming. Let us act swiftly on such new understanding to most effectively protect the Earth for ourselves and our children.

In her concerned endeavors to safeguard our planetary welfare, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed the need to eliminate such grave dangers as those posed by the meat industry during an interview published in the July 12, 2009 edition of the Irish Sunday Independent.

Interview with Supreme Master Ching Hai
Published in Irish Sunday Independent
July 12, 2009 edition

Supreme Master Ching Hai: As for black carbon, which is the particulate matter also known as soot, NASA scientists found that it has a serious impact on climate change. Black carbon is 680 times more heat trapping than CO2 -- can you imagine that? So CO2 is not our foremost and urgent problem. The soot's 680 times heat trapping more than CO2 is accelerating the melting of Antarctic ice, which raises the world sea level. Scientists found that 60% of the black carbon particles in Antarctica were carried there by the wind from South American forests that are burned to clear land for livestock production. You see the connection?
Supreme Master Ching Hai: So, this pollutant is yet another damaging byproduct of the meat industry again. We will destroy the world if we do not stop eating and producing meat and other animal products. So, the organic vegan diet is the fastest, easiest, and most effective solution for a life-sustaining planet.

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