Download
 
Humanity's Leap to the Golden Era - Washington DC Climate Change Conference P3/10 November 8, 2009 - USA    
email to friend  E-mail this to a Friend   If you want to add this video in your blog or on your personal home page, Please click the fallowing link to copy source code  Copy source code     Download:    WMV (103MB)    MP4(197MB)  
MC(m): Dr. Michael Greger is a medical doctor and the Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture for the Humane Society of the United States. He is a foremost authority on swine flu and many other types of disease. Dr. Greger is the author of the book, “Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching." He is also a vegan. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Michael Greger.

Dr Greger(m): Thank you. Good afternoon. According to the Director-General of the World Health Organization, the three greatest threats facing humanity: Number one is the global food crisis; climate change is number two; and pandemic influenza is number three- all of which have to do with our food choices.

The current pandemic has killed thousands of people,but in a world in which millions continue to die of diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis,malaria, why is there so much concern about the so-called swine flu? Because apparently, the last time a nearly entirely new flu virus jumped species and caused a pandemic, it went on to become the deadliest plague in human history - the influenza pandemic of 1918. Most flu-strains tend to spare young healthy adults,the 1918 virus killed people in the prime of life. In 1918,more than a quarter of all Americans fell ill. This is a chart of percent of population dying here in the States. In 1918,as many as 50 to 100 million people lost their lives.

A similar virus today could kill many,many more. What started for millions around the globe as muscle aches and a fever, ended days or even hours later. Homeless orphans, their parents gone, wandered the empty streets. One agonized official in the stricken East sent an urgent warning West: “Hunt up your woodworkers and set them to making coffins,then take your street laborers and set them to digging graves.” This is a clipping from the New York Times, at the time,“Victims of Plague Everywhere. Great pyres of bodies consumed by the flames.” That 1918 flu virus killed more people in 25 weeks than AIDS has killed in 25 years.

No war,no plague, no famine,has ever killed so many people in so short a time as the 1918 pandemic. Where did it come from? The conventional wisdom is that the 1918 pandemic was triggered when an H1N1 bird virus in its entirety- all 8 gene segments - jumped into human beings, who then apparently passed it along to pigs, sickening millions of them as well.

Now,after the pandemic when our immune systems got used to the new virus, it turned into the regular seasonal flu, and in pigs,it turned into what we call classic or classical swine flu. Before 1918,we have no reports ever of any pigs coming down with the flu at all. So,throughout the roaring '20s, people got the regular flu every year,and pigs got the swine flu. Same thing with the '30s. And the same with the '40s. The important thing to notice though is that swine flu remained stable throughout,unchanging through the 1950's, the 1960's,the 1970's in North America, and stable throughout the 1980's.

But then by 1999, everything changed. A never before described triple-species flu virus arose. The classic swine flu virus,after being stable for 80 years straight, picked up 3 gene segments from the circulating human flu virus and then 2 gene segments from a bird flu virus,to create the first triple animal re-assortment virus ever described. Our first hybrid, a human-pig viral mutant was discovered on an industrial pig operation in Newton Grove, North Carolina in August 1998, owned by a massive pork conglomerate by the name of Hog Slat.

The virus mutated further,and then spread within months throughout the United States. Soon it spread into Canada,and by 2003 the majority of animals tested in industrial pig operations in Mexico also showed evidence of exposure to our triple-hybrid strain. We then exported it to Asia,and apparently the favor has been returned. After re-shuffling with the classic swine flu, our “made in the USA” triple re-assortment virus picked up two gene segments from a Eurasian swine flu lineage to create the flu pandemic of 2009.

The primary progenitor, the main ancestor,of our current pandemic flu virus, as shown in orange here, is the triple-hybrid mutant that emerged and spread throughout factory farms in the United States more than a decade ago. Six out of the eight gene segments,three quarters of our current pandemic virus,straight from our triple-hybrid. And this diagram, these data,are from the most comprehensive genetic analysis of this virus to date. Now,influenza experts had been warning about this triple-hybrid mutant for years,what they call “an extremely promiscuous mammalian- adapted virus.”

Flu scientists used to only worry about Southeast Asia,but given the appearance of that triple-hybrid mutant, now we need to look in our own backyard for where the next pandemic may appear. And six years later, it indeed did. After eight decades of stability,what happened in the 1990's that led to these unprecedented changes in swine flu?

And the same question with bird flu: no human deaths from avian influenza for eight decades until 1997,when H5N1 started killing people in Hong Kong. And then H7N7 bird flu emerged in the Netherlands which went on to infect a thousand people and ended up being transmitted efficiently from person to person - just two examples of new bird flu viruses infecting people. Now,in poultry, the number of outbreaks of highly pathogenic,highly disease-causing strains - the first few years of this century has already exceeded the total number of outbreaks recorded for the entire 20th century.

As one leading flu scientist told Science:
“We've gone from a few snowflakes to an avalanche.” What has been happening in recent years to trigger these kinds of unprecedented changes in both swine and chicken flu viruses?

Let's ask the world's leading expert,Dr. Robert Webster,as did the senior correspondent of News Hour with Jim Lehrer: “Was there something qualitatively different about this last decade that made it possible for this disease to do something it's never done before, some kind of changing conditions that suddenly lit a match to the tinder?” Webster replied,he says:
“Farming practices have changed.” He talks about growing up on a farm. He says,“Now we put millions of chickens into a chicken factory, next door to a pig factory. And this virus has the opportunity get into one of these chicken factories and make billions and billions of mutations continuously. And so,what we've changed is the way we raise animals.”

Five years ago, the world's three leading authorities got together for a joint consultation - the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,and the World Organization for Animal Health, the world's leading veterinary authority - and their job was to uncover the key underlying causes of all these new animal-to-human diseases. Number one on their list, in themes of risk factors, was this increasing demand for animal protein the world over. Animals were domesticated 10,000 years ago, but never before like this, especially pigs and poultry.

Chickens used to peck around the barnyard, but now chickens raised for meat are typically warehoused in sheds containing tens of thousands of birds. Half of the egg-laying hens on our planet are now confined in what are called battery cages, these small barren wire enclosures extending down long rows in windowless sheds- can be up to a million birds on a single farm. About half of the world's pig population is currently confined in these industrial confinement operations. These intensive systems represent the most profound alteration of the human-animal relationship in 10,000 years.

Now,the industry is slowly waking up to the growing realization that viruses previously innocuous to natural host species have in all probability become more virulent,by passes through these large commercial populations. This is from an international trade journal. This is not,arguably, how animals were meant to live. So,how does the poultry industry feel about the possibility of its own so-called factory farms leading to a pandemic that could kill millions of people?

Well,the executive editor of Poultry Magazine wrote an editorial on just that topic. “The prospect of a virulent flu to which we have absolutely no resistance is frightening. However,to me, the threat is much greater to the poultry industry. I'm not as worried about the US human population dying from bird flu as I am that there will be no chicken to eat,” said the executive editor of Poultry Magazine. There are at least ten reasons why industrial pork production can present such a breeding ground for disease.

The operation in Newton Grove,North Carolina, where the ancestor of the current pandemic virus was first detected, was a breeding facility in which thousands of sows where confined in what are called “gestation crates,” also known as sow stalls. These are kind of veal-crate-like barren metal cages about 2 feet wide. These highly intelligent, social creatures, basically being kept in a box week after week, month after month,for nearly their entire lives.

They can develop crippling joint formities, lameness. I mean, if we did this to a dog, you'd get thrown in jail. Not only can these pregnant pigs not turn around,they can really barely move at all. Now,the rise in stress hormone levels in these so-called “crated sows” is thought to be because of the interference with natural maternal behaviors like nest building,which they can't do in a cage. And this frustration of maternal behavior has been shown experimentally to result in impaired immunity.

Now,the national livestock and meat board defends intensive confinement in a pamphlet called “Facts from the Meat Board”: “Confinement rearing has its precedence. Schools are an example of confinement rearing of children,” they say. Not that different from how they described veal crates as being similar to a baby's crib. The fact that the industry feels the need to mislead consumers by conjuring images of classrooms and baby cribs speaks to how far out of step animal agriculture has gone from just mainstream basic decency towards animals and,interestingly, they know it.

As Professor Emeritus of Animal Science wrote in one of his college textbooks, “One of the best things modern animal agriculture has going for it is that most people haven't a clue how animals are raised. For modern animal agriculture,the less the consumer knows the better.” What can we do to prevent this kind of thing in the future? Which is why we're all here today.

The United Nations has urged all governments, local authorities, international agencies “need to take a greatly increased role in combating the role of factory farming,which combined with these live bird markets that can provide,” in their words, “ideal conditions for the flu virus to spread and mutate into a more dangerous form. These factory farms can be thought of as the original incubators for dangerous strains of the flu.” More than five years ago the American Public Health Association, the largest and oldest association of public health professionals in the world, called for a moratorium on factory farming.

No more factory farms. In 2007,the journal of the APHA published an editorial that went beyond just calling for de-intensification of the industry,of the pork and poultry industries. The editorial questioned the prudence of raising so many animals for slaughter in the first place. They said: “It is curious that changing the way humans treat animals, most basically ceasing to eat them,or at the very least radically limiting the quantity of them that is eaten, is largely off the radar as a significant preventive measure.

But such a change, if sufficiently adopted or enforced,could still reduce the chances of the much feared influenza pandemic. It would even more likely prevent unknown future diseases that, in the absence of the change,may result from farming animals intensively and killing animals for food. Yet humanity,” it goes on to say, “doesn't even apparently consider this option. We don't tend to shore up the levies until after the disaster strikes.” The editorial concludes, “Those who consume animals not only harm those animals and endanger themselves, but they also threaten the wellbeing of future generations. It is time for humans to remove their heads from the sand,” they say, “and recognize the risk to themselves that can arise from the maltreatment of other species.”

How we treat animals can have global public health implications. Let me end with a quote from the World Health Organization, “The bottom line is that people have to think about how they treat their animals… Basically,the whole relationship between the animal kingdom and the human kingdom is coming under stress. In this age of emerging diseases, we now have billions of curly-tailed and feathered test tubes for viruses to incubate and mutate within billions more spins at pandemic roulette. But,along with human culpability,comes hope. If changes in human behavior can cause new plagues,well, then changes in human behavior may prevent them in the future.” Thank you.

MC(f): Thank you, Dr. Michael Greger. The information you have given us is truly thought provoking.

MC(m): I think it's time for some inspiration. The piano is one of the musical instruments originally designed to reproduce higher universal frequencies. Let's listen to some piano music now that will lift our spirits.

MC(f): Our next performer was born in Saigon, Âu Lạc (Vietnam). Ms. Uyên Phương showed musical talent very early. When she was only seven,she won a scholarship to study to at the prestigious Saigon Conservatory. She has won seven gold medals at piano and organ contests,and recently became the first Aulacese (Vietnamese) student to receive a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston. She will be playing “My Favorite Things.” Please give a warm welcome to Ms. Uyên Phương.

MC(m): Thank you, Ms. Uyên Phương, for sharing your uplifting music with us.

MC(f): Yes,it was truly uplifting. Next,we will hear from Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, and author of the bestselling book, “The China Study.” Let's hear from him now.

Campbell(m): My name is T. Colin Campbell. I'm a long time professor at Cornell University, presently a Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry. I have been working in the field as a researcher, as a lecturer,as a teacher for many,many years- more than 50 years- in the field of food and health. We learned, when we gathered all the information from the laboratory on one hand, from the human studies in the other,that this information rather substantially pointed to the idea that consuming anything other than whole plant-based foods could create health problems.

We learned that nutrition is a major factor in keeping us healthy, and by nutrition I mean consuming whole plant-based foods and eliminating, as much as possible, animal based foods: dairy,eggs and meat. And one of the outcomes of this idea is not only that do we restore health, but now we're learning that this can have a major effect on the environment. I know there's a conference coming up in Washington,D.C. on the question concerning global warming and livestock production and animal food consumption, and I would extend my best wishes for that conference. I think it's an important conference,a very important conference, and I'm delighted to pass along a message that what is being done here is about as important a topic as anything that I can consider. I extend my best wishes to the conference.

MC(m): Thank you, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, for your insight into the relationship of diet and health.

MC(f): So,if we unite for a kinder,animal-free lifestyle,it will be better for our health and for our planet. I wonder how aware today's children are of the benefits from switching to a plant-based diet?

MC(m): Well,let's hear what Wyntergrace Williams, the daughter of famous American talk show host, Montel Williams, has to say.

Miss Williams (f): Some of us don't eat right - fast food,junk food. Sometimes even our school lunches have too much fat and cholesterol. I'm Wyntergrace Williams, you know my dad, Montel. And I'd like your help in bringing healthy foods into schools. A lot of us hate to see this. Others hate to see this. And nobody wants to see this. The answer's this: veggie chili, veggie burgers, healthy foods. Sign our petition today at healthyschoollunches.org

MC(f): Now that was to the point. To elaborate on this topic,we bring to you our next speaker, Dr. Ruby Lathon. Dr. Lathon currently serves as the Nutrition Policy Manager for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Also,she has been inducted into the Inc. Hall of Fame as one of the outstanding Women in Science,Technology, and Engineering. A vegan herself, Dr. Lathon is the driving force behind proposed legislation for the Healthy School Lunch Program. Please welcome Dr. Ruby Lathon.

Dr Lathon (f): Well,good afternoon, it's really a pleasure to be here this afternoon. And I just want to first thank the organizers of this conference, as well as the renowned leaders and speakers who are participating here. And we're going to take a little bit of a shift and talk about the role of diet and climate change and focus a little bit on children and child health. And they've asked me to talk a little bit about the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and give you a little insight on what we do.

We are a non-profit organization,based here in Washington,D.C., made up of tens of thousands of physicians,dieticians,and healthcare professionals, as well as lay people who promote health through preventative medicine, through good nutrition and ethical standards of research. So,this is definitely an area that fits within our scope. So,the role of diet and climate change is very critical. And we know,based on the many reports that we've heard here today, including one entitled “Climate Change, Sustainable Diet,Health, the Connection and the Solution,” that we know that our food choices, which are a contributory factor to many major chronic diseases, are also dramatically impacting our climate.

So,we know that children's health reflects the society in which they live and we're going to focus on that for a moment. Research shows that the risk of chronic disease increases with the increase in meat and dairy consumption. And this graph shows the increase in meat consumption per capita between 1909 and 2005. And we can see that this increase was about 50 pounds. It was 148 pounds per person in meat consumption, and in 2005 it rose to 202 pounds per person for meat consumption.

And for cheese consumption, the difference is even more striking. We went from about 3.8 pounds of cheese consumption in 1909 to about 31 pounds in 2005. So it makes you wonder where's all that extra cheese going? And somebody else is having mine because I'm not having any. So when we look at this, we're wondering: What impact does this have on our health in general when we see these kinds of increases?

Consequently,the increase in child health and the prevalence of overweight has also increased. If we look at this graph, what it shows is in 1963 the prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents was about 4-5%, and it has steadily increased until 2002, where the prevalence of overweight among children was at 16%. And if we continue to plot this data, it rises in 2006 to 17% and on and on. And when we get the current data,I'm sure it's even more than that.

So,we can see that as we're increasing these things,such as meat and cheese consumption, our weight is going along with that,and as we know that when we have a higher weight,that many chronic diseases are related to that. So we wonder: If we have this increase in weight of children,what impacts them the most?

And one of those things is the school lunch program. We have about 100,000 schools participate in the National School Lunch Program, and that's feeding over 30 million children each school day. Initially,this program was designed so that the most disadvantaged children would have adequate nourishment for learning and other things that they needed to do. All too often we have high fat-,high cholesterol- laden foods that show up as staples in the lunch line. We often see pepperoni pizza, macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets as the traditional staple that you can go in almost any public school in America and it's on the menu.

And so,we know that some of the risks associated with this are: diabetes,hypertension, cancer,and heart disease as well. And so,I want to take a moment to focus on diabetes because that's one of the major diseases that shows up when you have chronic overweight and obesity in our society. And if we look at obesity,diabetes, over the last decade,the last ten to twelve years, the data is astonishing.

So,in 1994 this shows the prevalence of diabetes. So,we had the darker blue color show the prevalence of diabetes in that state if it's above about 4 or 5%. So,if we're looking at the dark blue color, in '94 and '95 it increases. In '96 we're getting a little bit more; '97,again showing the increase in diabetes in each state; '98, '99,2000, 2001,2002 - 3,4. And in 2005,we had to change the scale to add another color because the amount of diabetes outgrew the current scale of about 5%. So,we went from about 4% per state to at least 8% of the population or more having diabetes. And so,we're seeing as the shift in our dietary patterns have changed, so is our weight and so is our health. And consequently, so is our environment.

And so,when we make these links,then we can talk about what we can do about that. So,as it's wreaking havoc on our diet,on our health, on our planet, you know it's also just having a devastating effect as cited,in that we've often heard about - as cited here today in the United Nations report “Livestock's Long Shadow” - that an estimated 18% of greenhouse gas emissions were related to livestock and its production.

However,the 2009 report “Livestock and Climate Change” by researchers at the Worldwatch Institute estimated that that number was a bit higher,producing about 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. So,that's about 51% of greenhouse gas emissions, which is astonishing. This is from the report by Food Watch,a study that was commissioned in 2008.

And what this shows is, in comparison to a meat diet versus a non-meat diet,the amount of greenhouse gases for a car driven. For example, a meat-based diet would be equivalent to driving a car over 4700 kilometers, or 3000 miles, over a one year period. But,if you switch to a vegetarian diet,which is the second one there, it reduces that by half. And if you then switch to a vegan diet,it only takes about one-seventh… produces less than one-seventh of the greenhouse gas emissions of a meat based diet. So,that's quite astonishing. So,we wonder: What can we do about that?

Dr. Kujur (m): I have attended many national and international conventions,workshops, on topics ranging from conflict and peace to environment,ecology, indigenous peoples, human rights and so on, but I thought this was a unique experience for me,and I myself learnt a lot from this.

Gregory Himbey (m): I was getting stuff that was educating me and really hit me hard, provoking my mind. I'm 57 years old, and a few health issues, and what I've been hearing is: This could save my life! I'm calling it a spiritual awakening for the world, because I do want the universe to go on as it has been going on. It can't go on like it is right now because everything is suffering. The climate affects everything! Today is a reawakening because the tofu I enjoyed today, I thought it was steak! It was so delicious. I have to learn the menu; it's a whole new language now. This is a whole new culture here. It's not about race,it's a whole new spirituality and I'm just so privileged that God has put me in an environment that He has opened up my eyes to a wider horizon, and I'm just grateful.

Sam (m): I definitely learned a lot about just the mass amount of awareness that this issue has. As soon as I got here and I realized that all these people were here pretty much because they are vegan, it was a different… it was almost like I'd walked into something that was bigger than myself.

Francesca (f): I found her (Supreme Master Ching Hai) message overall pretty appealing to the audience. I mean,she really got down to a level that I can relate to as a college student. Unlike grand philosophers who seem to be on this great pedestal,like knowledge and whatnot, she was more at our level. Really she could joke and she had this kind of view on the world that we can all share, younger generations.

Be veg! Go green! Save the planet!

Supreme Master Ching Hai: One small step from everyone in the right direction can result in a big leap in our evolution as a human race. And that small step is very simple. It's just: no killing. Abiding by the principle of “live and let live,” adhering to the universal law where we grant life to beget life.

Join us on Supreme Master Television this Friday,February 12, for part 5 of the rebroadcast of the live videoconference with Guest of Honor, Supreme Master Ching Hai,entitled “Humanity's Leap to the Golden Era: Washington,D.C., Climate Change Conference” on Words of Wisdom.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for the rebroadcast of the live videoconference “Humanity's Leap to the Golden Era: Washington,D.C., Climate Change Conference” with Guest of Honor, Supreme Master Ching Hai, on Words of Wisdom.

trackback : http://www.suprememastertv.tv/bbs/tb.php/download/7152

 
 

   Download by Subtitle
 
  Scrolls Download
  MP3 Download
 
Listen Mp3Listen  Words of Wisdom
Listen Mp3Listen  Between Master and Disciples
  MP4 download for iPhone(iPod )
  Download Non Subtitle Videos
  Download by Program
 
A Journey through Aesthetic Realms
Animal World
Between Master and Disciples
Enlightening Entertainment
Good People Good Works
Noteworthy News
Vegetarian Elite
Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living
Words of Wisdom
  Download by Date
March . 2024

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31