LET'S SAVE OUR MOTHER EARTH...!
Christians and Buddhists Share Concern for Planet
Vatican Sends Note for Festival of Vesakh
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 29, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Christians and Buddhists share a common concern for the environment and can do more to protect the planet that is home for us all, says the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran, president of the council, and Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, secretary, affirmed this in a note sent to Buddhists for their festival of Vesakh.
Vesakh is celebrated on different days depending on the calendars used by various Buddhist groups. It marks the birth, enlightenment and passing away of Buddha.
"It gives me much joy to recall the positive relationships that Catholics and Buddhists have enjoyed for many years," the Vatican note said. "I am confident that this foundation will serve to strengthen and deepen our understanding of each other as we continue to work together to build a better world not only for ourselves but also for the entire human family."
The pontifical council officials noted that Benedict XVI's message for this year's World Day of Peace said, "For the human family, this home is the earth, the environment that God the Creator has given us to inhabit with creativity and responsibility. We need to care for the environment: it has been entrusted to men and women to be protected and cultivated with responsible freedom, with the good of all as a constant guiding criterion."
Noting that the U.N. general assembly declared 2008 as the International Year of Planet Earth, Cardinal Tauran and Archbishop Celata affirmed that "Christians and Buddhists respect the same creation and have a common concern to promote care for the environment which we all share."
"Christianity and Buddhism have always upheld a great respect for nature and taught that we should be grateful stewards of the earth," the note continued. "Indeed it is only through a profound reflection on the relationship between the divine Creator, creation and creatures that attempts to address environmental concerns will not be marred by individual greed or hampered by the interests of particular groups."
The pontifical council message asked if more could be done on a practical level, and proposed: "Recycling, energy conservation, the prevention of indiscriminate destruction of plant and animal life, and the protection of waterways all speak of careful stewardship and indeed foster goodwill and promote cordial relations among peoples."
"In this way," the note concluded, "Christians and Buddhists together can be harbingers of hope for a clean, safe and harmonious world."
A regional nuclear war would leave the world in havoc
Analysis
WASHINGTON (AP) — American scientists have determined that a regional nuclear war would put the world in havoc for at least a decade by shredding large areas of Earth’s protective ozone layer.
The countries involved would be devastated as well as fall victim to the ozone disaster, the scientists’ analysis says.
Massive fires resulting from even a limited conflict would blast enough soot into the atmosphere to create an ozone hole over heavily populated areas, the researchers warned in a paper published Monday in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A region of depleted ozone over the Antarctic, known as an ozone hole, has been a worry to scientists for years as it allows damaging ultraviolet radiation from the sun to reach Earth’s surface. Some chemicals have been banned from use to help eliminate that hole.
Unlike the Antarctic, a nuclear-induced ozone hole would affect much of the world, causing damage to plants and animals and adding to skin cancer, eye damage and other effects in millions of people, according to researchers led by Michael J. Mills of the University of Colorado.
Mills’ team used complex computer programs to model what would happen in the atmosphere in the event of a war between India and Pakistan in which each detonated 50 Hiroshima-sized nuclear explosives.
They calculated that the blasts would send as much as five million metric tons of soot as high as 50 miles into the atmosphere.
The soot and the heat from solar radiation would cause a series of chemical reactions that would break down the stratospheric ozone layer that protects Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation, they said.
"We would see a dramatic drop in ozone levels that would persist for many years," Mills said in a statement. "At mid-latitudes the ozone decrease would be up to 40 percent, which could have huge effects on human health and on terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems."
They calculated that a 40 percent ozone decrease would result in a 132 percent increase in light damage to plants and a 213 percent increase in DNA damage associated with skin cancer.
The mid-latitudes are the regions between the tropics and the Arctic and are home to the largest numbers of people.
(Pasted from: http://www.mb.com.ph/OPED20080409121426.html)
Poor nations fear trailing on global-warming talks
BANGKOK: Outraged poor nations bearing the brunt of global warming have become increasingly bold in UN-led climate talks, but some worry that recent meetings of large countries are sidelining their voices.
A grouping of 192 countries under the United Nations is leading the way in negotiating a groundbreaking climate change treaty, and most of its members are currently in Bangkok to try to hammer out a two-year work plan.
The meeting comes soon after the United States chaired a meeting of 16 nations most responsible for global warming, and ahead of a special climate summit on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit of rich nations.
“We haven’t been invited to either of those processes,” Espen Ronneberg, a Samoa-based climate change advisor to the Association of Small Island States, said on the sidelines of the Bangkok talks. “We need to have a global consensus on climate change, so to have a separate process that is not completely inclusive is not that helpful.”
While major developing nations such as China and India are part of the big initiatives, the Group of 77, a bloc of developing nations, said it has not been invited.
“The balance has to come from everybody, all the representative groups, being around the table, not specialized specific groups which have almost the same purpose—that’s a problem,” said Byron Blake, deputy representative to the United Nations of current G77 chair Antigua and Barbuda.
The world has until 2009 to draft a new pact on battling global warming, which should come into force by 2012, when current Kyoto Protocol targets for rich nations to slash greenhouse gas emissions expire.
A report by the world’s leading climate scientists last year warned that drought, floods and storms will increase as global temperatures rise, hitting poor countries hardest.
As they see climate change begin to affect their environments and economies, impoverished nations are becoming more vocal, said Antonio Hill, policy adviser to development group Oxfam.
“There is a very dramatic difference between this year and last year in the negotiations versus 10 years ago or even five years ago,” he said.
Developing countries want the rich world to commit to ambitious cuts in greenhouse gas emissions—which trap the sun’s heat and cause global warming—and pledge to transfer “green” technologies and fund climate change-battling initiatives in poorer countries.
(pasted from: http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/apr/02/yehey/world/20080402wor4.html)
Negotiators gather to push new UN climate treaty
BANGKOK -- Negotiators from up to 180 countries gather here on Sunday for talks aimed at reaching the most ambitious treaty yet for sparing the Earth from the worst ravages of global warming.
The five-day talks, starting Monday, follow marathon negotiations in December on the Indonesian island of Bali where the world agreed to reach a new climate pact by the end of 2009.
The Bangkok meeting is the first step toward reaching that new agreement, which would replace the existing Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.
Even the United States, which never ratified the Kyoto deal, is taking part despite its reputation as a naysayer in efforts to cut emissions of carbon gas, which traps the sun's heat and warms the planet through the greenhouse effect.
The talks "are critical in the sense that the conference in Bali last year formally agreed to launch negotiations, which have to be concluded at the end of 2009," said Yvo de Boer, head of the UN climate body tasked with thrashing out the treaty.
"I don't expect many sticking points at this meeting. What this meeting has to do is agree a work program and agree what is going to be discussed so that we know that we can meet the deadline in a year-and-a-half's time," de Boer told Agence France-Presse.
Talks in Bali almost fell apart as nations fought over who was historically responsible for climate change, who should foot the bill, and whether both rich and poor nations should have binding targets on cutting carbon emissions.
Europe and developing countries want rich nations to set a binding target for 2020, requiring them to slash greenhouse gas emissions to 25 to 40 percent below their levels in 1990.
Under US pressure the final Bali Roadmap did not include explicit goals. Frustration with the US stance grew so great in Bali that American delegates were booed during the conference's closing hours.
However, with the US presidential elections later this year, President George W. Bush's administration may not want to leave the White House with a legacy as holdouts against environmental progress, activists said.
"There is a kind of a legacy issue at play here for the Bush administration, I think they want to be viewed as constructive in its last year," said Angela Anderson, director of the global warming program at the Washington-based Pew Environment Group.
No one expects a major breakthrough at the Bangkok talks, which are designed to allow countries to stake their starting positions in negotiations that will continue through next year.
But activists around the world have kept up the pressure by keeping the issue in the spotlight, sometimes by turning the spotlight off.
At least 26 cities across the globe joined an "Earth Hour" campaign on Saturday evening, dimming their lights for one hour to demonstrate how the planet can save energy.
The human risks of climate change were also highlighted Friday when the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution declaring the problem a human rights issue, noting that the poor are more vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
Global scientists last year delivered their starkest warning yet -- that without action, global warming could have an irreversible impact on the world, bringing hunger, floods, drought and the extinction of many plants and animals.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is holding the Bangkok talks, currently has 192 member nations. Government negotiators from up to 180 countries are expected to join the negotiations.
(pasted from: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080330-127307/Negotiators-gather-to-push-new-UN-climate-treaty)
Holy See: Planet Is Everyone's Responsibility
Archbishop Notes Pontiff's Efforts on Behalf of Environment
NEW YORK, FEB. 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's personal commitment to safeguarding the planet, shown in part by his numerous public appeals, has inspired a change in lifestyles in favor of the environment, the Holy See noted.
Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, affirmed this Wednesday during the 62nd session of the U.N. General Assembly titled “Addressing Climate Change: The United Nations and the World at Work.”
"The ongoing debate on climate change has helped put into focus the inescapable responsibility of one and all to care for the environment, thereby building consensus around the common objective of promoting a healthy environment for present and future generations," he noted.
In this effort, he affirmed, "the Holy See assures of its collaboration."
In particular, Archbishop Migliore noted the work done personally by the Holy Father.
"The personal commitment and numerous public appeals of Pope Benedict XVI have generated awareness campaigns for a renewed sense of respect for and the need to safeguard God’s creation," he stated. "Individuals and communities have started to change their lifestyles, aware that personal and collective behavior impacts climate and the overall health of the environment.
"While such lifestyle changes at times may seem irrelevant, every small initiative to reduce or offset one’s carbon footprint, be it the avoidance of the unnecessary use of transport or the daily effort to reduce energy consumption, contributes to mitigating environmental decay and concretely shows commitment to environmental care."
The prelate also noted the Holy See's practical steps to participate in safeguarding the environment. He mentioned the solar panels scheduled to be installed at Vatican City State. One project will be finished this year and will provide all the energy needed for Paul VI hall. Surplus will be used at other locations.
And the archbishop noted participation in a tree planting project in Hungary, which will "will provide environmental benefits to the host country, assist in the recovery of an environmentally degraded tract of land, and provide local jobs."
Archbishop Migliore highlighted the shared responsibility of individuals and nations in protecting the planet.
"It is incumbent upon every individual and nation to seriously assume one’s share of the responsibility to find and implement the most balanced approach possible to this challenge," he said. "Sustainable development provides the key to a strategy that harmoniously takes into account the demands of environmental preservation, climate change, economic development and basic human needs."
Clean and green
The Holy See representative encouraged the use of "clean technologies," saying they are an "important component of sustainable development."
And he recommended that developing countries be helped to learn from the mistakes made by their highly-industrialized counterparts.
"The pooling of resources makes initiatives of mitigation and adaptation economically accessible to most, thus assisting those less equipped to pursue development while safeguarding the environment," he said.
Archbishop Migliore further urged that markets patronize "green economies" and not to "sustain demand for goods whose very production causes environmental degradation."
"Consumers must be aware that their consumption patterns have direct impact on the health of the environment," he stated. "Thus through interdependence, solidarity and accountability, individuals and nations together will be more able to balance the needs of sustainable development with those of good stewardship at every level.
"Indeed, the challenge of climate change is at once individual, local, national and global. Accordingly, it urges a multilevel coordinated response, with mitigation and adaptation programs simultaneously individual, local, national and global in their vision and scope."
Filipina, 18, addresses UN meet on global development
By Cynthia Balana
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:18:00 02/18/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- An 18-year-old Filipino student showed them how.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said Hannah-Lyn Creencia, a mass communications junior at Silliman University, took part in last week’s high-level discussion on the challenges of global sustainable development held at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) headquarters in Paris, France.
She joined some of the world’s top policymakers, business leaders and the international geoscientific community at the meet.
Creencia had won an international essay-writing contest in connection with Unesco’s launch of “International Year of Planet Earth.” She began the panel discussion on the theme “Earth Resources: Threat or Treat?” by reading an excerpt from her essay on the continuing deterioration of the planet’s water resources.
Creencia, who one day hopes to work in the United Nations system, argued for greater initiative in creating educational and sustainable resource-use programs among coastal communities.
She said Unesco had a leading role to play on issues of sustainable development, including climate change. Thus, it should raise its visibility to engender greater environmental awareness, especially among young people worldwide.
She expressed hope for the future, dreaming of the day “when our country’s surrounding bodies of water become clean enough to support life which can only be found here,” and “when every person will stand up for the protection of that which brings life to us.”
Joining Creencia on the panel were the chair of French petroleum giant Total, the director of the US Geological Survey and the Chinese vice minister for land and resources.
UN General Assembly Resolution 60/192 declared 2008 the International Year of Planet Earth, designating Unesco as the lead international agency in collaboration with the International Union of Geological Sciences, with the support of the UN Environment Program.
Unesco Director General Koïchiro Matsuura said the event provided a unique opportunity for the geoscientific community to contribute to the UN’s sustainable development goals by promoting the wise use of the planet’s resources and encouraging better planning and management to reduce risks, particularly by encouraging political leaders to use available knowledge to shape national policies.
The DFA said that about 1,000 select guests, including ministers, heads of geoscientific institutes and organizations, leaders of industry and renowned scientists attended the event.