Winter Storms: Effects of Climate Change, Part 2 of 2

Last week, we learned about the massive winter storm that became a bomb cyclone raging across the US and parts of Canada. It’s known that the world is interconnected in one way or another; therefore, extreme weather events powered by climate change will eventually be felt by Earth’s residents living in other areas.

On December 29, 2022, it was announced on the news that a “wall of snow as big as Britain” was making its way toward the UK. The report indicated that many places in the UK would be expected to have lots of cold wind and snow in early 2023. As projected in the news, on January 18, 2023, a series of new weather warnings were released in the UK, with snow blanketing parts of northern England. The heavy snowfall caused schools across the country to be closed.

On December 23, 2022, Japan was blanketed with thick layers of snow. Due to the blizzard, many flights were canceled – 59 flights by Japan Airlines and 41 flights by Nippon Airways. The fierce weather continued to impact Japan the following year. On January 24, 2023, a sea-effect snowstorm raged nationwide, breaking numerous wind, snow, and temperature records. Takafumi Umeda said, “These temperatures are some of the coldest we've seen in a decade.”

Also, in Korea, the winter storm relentlessly brought colder-than-normal weather conditions, snow, and sub-zero temperatures to various parts of the country from January 20, 2023, onward. The temperature in Seoul and the nearby vicinity fell to about -17 degrees Celsius.

In our last piece of news, we proceed to a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and South Asia. At the end of January 2023, the winter storm arrived in Afghanistan, claiming the lives of 170 people, including children and women. The icy weather also killed approximately 80,000 animal-people, including cow-, sheep- and goat-persons.

Our Most Beloved Supreme Master Ching Hai (vegan), shares with us the importance of addressing the climate crisis. “We are part of the whole planet, the whole community of worldly people, of Earthly people. Whatever affects our planet as a whole affects us as a person. So climate change is a most urgent case of this, as it affects our Earth, ourselves, and our loved ones. Climate change is becoming a very big problem, huge problem, and much sooner than we ever thought or expected.”

May all of Earth’s citizens soon adopt the vegan lifestyle to end climate change-induced disasters.