Yesterday’s free Townsville newspaper, Sun community Newspapers, has a 3/4 page full colour ad from Supreme Master Ching Hai; ‘world-renowned Humanitarian, Artist and Spiritual teacher’ (her words). We’ve seen the Go Veg Be Green Save the Planet! ads during prime viewing time on SBS television over the last 6 months, but in the newspaper ad, she’s had enough space to thoroughly shoot herself in the foot. (Her website slogan is also ‘Be Veg Be Green Save Our Planet, SOS Climate Change’.) No doubt the same newspaper advertisement appeared in many other newspapers around Australia, this week. The best way to explain what a pack of complete bollocks this is, is to quote a slab of the ad, word-for-word. I don’t think our primary school age kids would even be convinced by this:
‘We have to save this planet, so that we’ll be able to stay, first. Because if the ice all melts, if the poles all melt away, and then if the sea is warm, then the gas might be released from the ocean, and we might be poisoned. If you see the Singapore lecture (January 10, 1995), I already warned that we have to change the way we live; otherwise it’s too late. That was 10 or 15 years ago {actually, it’s 14 years ago this year, and 12 years since the date of the Paris seminar, maths evidently isn’t one of her strong points}. Or before that; I always talked about how we deforest our planet. Meat eating and all that contributes to a lot of damage to our Earth planet. Scientists say many things. They are listening now, but I just hope they do it fast. It just takes action. All the governments in the world really take is seriously now. It’s just that I’m worried the action might be too slow. Because the ice is reflecting the sun, you see, so it sends it back into space, but the ice is melting so fast now that there’s not enough reflection and because the sea is already warm, it melts the ice. And because the ice melts, the sea is warmer. You see what I mean, the cycle? The way it is going, if they don’t fix it, in 4 or 5 years time, finito. No more. It’s really that urgent.’ Supreme Master Ching Hai, December 25 2007 – Paris Seminar
The advertisement continues on with selective mentions of particular scientists, in order to build credibility – predictions from a NASA scientist Dr H. J. Zwally, quotes from Dr. Henning-Stienfeld, UN-FAO, and Chief of the UN’s Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr Rajendra Pachauri, and Chairman of the Australian Conservation Council, Professor Ian Lowe.
Most people would agree that human beings should look after the planet because it’s the morally correct thing to do, and most would also believe that we must look after the planet in order for future generations to live happy and healthy lives. But the simplistic drivel full of ‘mights’ and selective quotes from scientists, without quotes from all the scientists who have differing views (and there’s a lot of them) is completely unconvincing. Master Ching Hai runs a vegetarian organisation. She has a particular agenda – she doesn’t want us to eat meat. So Ching Hai has cast around for whatever information she can find that will support her real aim. She’s taking out 3/4 page newspaper ads exhorting us to change our ways to reduce deforestation – apparently completely overlooking the fact that newspaper comes from trees. Master Ching Hai is telling us not to eat meat, because it ‘is a main driver of deforestation’ (quote from a UN Report ‘Meat & Dairy Consumption: Major cause of global warming’) , yet completely ignoring the fact that apparently it’s cropping that is the main reason why Amazon clearing continues (in particular, land is being cleared for soya bean crops – which most of the world’s vegetarians are dependent on – for soy milk, tofu, etc.) In Australia, these days the vast majority of land clearing, and certainly land-clearing that causes the most environmental change, is urban-related (industrial and residential buildings, roads etc – primarily in coastal areas). Few northern and inland Australian cattle stations have ever cleared land because it’s simply uneconomic to do so. And vast tracts of inland Australia, were huge numbers of cattle are extensively grazed, such as parts of central Australia and the blacksoil downs country, are naturally treeless (most of these residents would love to be able to grow larger, shadier trees around their homes, but in many areas they’re flat out getting anything to grow above house roof height, due to harsh climatic conditions or heavy cracking clay soil). She also quotes that livestock are the ‘major cause of human health problems including antibiotic resistance’. Australian intensive livestock industries (poultry, pork and cattle feedlots) use antibiotics (with safeguards – withholding periods and testing for residues), however extensive livestock industries rarely do. The major cause of antibiotic resistance in Australia is actually over-subscription by the medical profession, and patients who fail to complete the course of antibiotics subscribed.
Another quote re livestock – ‘ leading source of water pollution – heavy contributor to oceanic ‘dead zones’, chemical pollution and coral reef die-off’. The largest coral reef in the world is the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Queensland. Rightly or wrongly, it is cane farming that has been accused of causing damaging runoff (topsoil from ploughed cane paddocks, washed into creeks and rivers, and nitrogenous fertilisers and herbicides) – not livestock industries, at all. (Urban runoff has not been targeted however it’s undoubtedly a danger to coral reef health.) Livestock are a ‘Key player in water shortage’ – that idiotic statement has been dealt with on an earlier blog page (it’s actually crop growing that uses large amounts of water, not livestock). Master Ching Hai simply has no idea about Australia – she does not know what she’s talking about.
‘Livestock are one of the significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation,’ Dr Henning Steinfeld, UN-FAO. What a load of rubbish – it is industry-related pollution and overpopulation that is the primary threat to the world’s future. If Master Ching Hai had any sense at all, she’d be spending the reported $400,000 wasted on advertising this rubbish, on family planning clinics and contraception in countries where population growth (and thus, environmental and social problems) are out of control.
I do completely agree with Dr Rajendra Pachauri’s quote in the ad. to ‘be a frugal shopper’. I.e., consume less. I absolutely agree that this would help improve the health of the world’s environment immensely. A vast amount of the world’s resources and energy is squandered on rubbish that ends up as landfill a short time later. I recommend that we start by not buying any of Ching Hai’s consumer goods, which can be found on her website for the ‘Quan Ying Method of Meditation with Inner Light and Sound’, called ‘God’s direct contact’. These retail items include books, DVDS, paintings, jewellery, celestial clothes and sleeping mattresses for dogs, lamps and assorted decorative gee-gaws. None of which is necessary for human beings to live, so a complete waste of the earth’s resources. As are Supreme Master Ching Hai’s advertisements.
Tags: Veganism & Vegetarianism, Conservation and the environment, Image of the bush