Climatic cracks of doom threaten monastic fortress in Bhutan
For centuries the Punakha Dzong monastic fortress in Bhutan’s Himalayas has sheltered ancient Buddhist relics and scriptures from earthquakes, fires and Tibetan invasions. Now the lamas here may have met their match — global warming.
At least 53 million cubic metres of glacier melt is threatening to break the banks of a lake upstream in the Himalayan peaks and spark a “mountain tsunami” in Punakha valley.
The government is pressing the lamas, so far unsuccessfully, to transport relics to a nearby hilltop for safekeeping. Massive flooding could inundate these valleys, which hold about a tenth of Bhutan’s population, by 2015.
“Pollution has disturbed our deities,” Leki Dorji, a red-robed lama, said in a courtyard as monks chanted mantras. “It’s for that the rains have not come on time, that we have not had snow for five years.”
Christian Coalition joins hunting group in climate change fight
Remember the Christian Coalition of America?
Under the political operative Ralph Reed in the 1990s it was an electoral force to be reckoned with as it mobilized millions of conservative Christians to vote for mostly Republican Party candidates and causes.
It has since lost influence and political ground to other “religious right” groups such as the Family Research Council. But it remains a sizeable grassroots organization and is still unflinchingly conservative.
So it will no doubt surprise some to see that this week it has joined with the National Wildlife Federation – whose 4 million members and supporters includes 420,000 sportsmen and women – to run an ad urging the U.S. Senate to pass legislation that among other things addresses the pressing problem of climate change.
“Defending the status quo is no longer an option. We need swift action to ensure America is the world leader in clean energy technology. We can put Americans to work making and installing the clean, renewable energy technologies that reduce our dependency on foreign oil and address climate change. Senators should work together to move forward with a clean energy plan for America,” says the ad, which ran this week in Politico.
It comes as the U.S. Senate considers a bill to curb the greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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