In
an Illinois, USA region that is home to the world’s largest wastewater
treatment plant and three of the largest in the country, the
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago serves five
million residents and receives visitors from around the world as a model
in water management.
However, the increasing frequency and
severity of storms due primarily to global warming is presenting costly
challenges unlike any seen before. Commissioner Frank Avila of the
District’s Board of Commissioners shared his observations with Supreme
Master Television about the impact of these weather changes on the city.
Frank Avila – Board of Commissioners, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, USA; vegan (M):
The climate change, I have seen a frequency of storms here in the
Chicago land area, and the intensity of the rain in a shorter period of
time coming down, which inundate our local sewers.
In the month of
June here in Cook County, we had three storms within about a
week-and-a-half period to two weeks, and this last storm we had winds
about 80 miles (129 km) an hour. And after that, we had a large storm
come in in a shorter period of time and the systems could not handle it,
and a lot of basements got flooded because of it, causing a lot of
damage with each homeowner.
VOICE: Commissioner Avila also stated
that global warming has heightened the need for conservation of limited
water supplies worldwide. According to the US Geological Survey, more
than 80% of the consumptive use of fresh water in the country goes to
agriculture, with the majority to industrial factory farms.
One
cattle farm with 30,000 cows can withdraw nearly one million gallons per
day from an underground aquifer, resulting in wells running dry and
threatening local vegetable and fruit production. A committed vegan and
producer and host of a TV program on environmental protection and public
health, Commissioner Avila shared his thoughts on the vegan diet
solution to environmental and health protection.
Frank Avila (M):
I’m a vegan, and I understand that by going vegan, we would save a lot
of water that is scarce. They’re saying, “Well, we have a shortage of
water.” Well, the reason why you have a shortage of water is because
you’re using that for other resources. You’re using that probably to
raise cattle to eat meat. And you’re using more water in that respect.
But by going vegan, you use less water, you don’t harm the climate, and
also you stay healthier.
VOICE: Our appreciation and admiration
Commissioner Frank Avila for your concerned eco-efforts and advocacy of
the vegan way to conserve water and halt climate change. Through this
simple lifestyle change, may we all act to ease such extreme weather
events while protecting our precious natural resources.
In a
March 2009 videoconference in the United States, Supreme Master Ching
Hai discussed the worrying misuse of water in our increasingly
precarious environment while highlighting the most effective area of
action.
Supreme Master Ching Hai:
The experts also calculate that 1 kilogram of beef takes 5,000 to
20,000 liters of water to produce. But 1 kilogram of wheat takes only
500 to 2,000 liters of water. That is 10% of the amount of water for
meat.
At a time when we have water shortage and all the
reservoirs are dwindling at such an alarming rate, we are truly afraid
that even if we don’t take shower at all,it will not do much help
because all the human uses and everything together is only 30% of water
around the world. Everything else is mostly used for meat industry.
So
if we really want to save the water for the world to be able to use for
our daily necessity, not to talk about future generations, then we have
to change to a vegetarian diet, animal-free diet.