10th Day — Climate Change Conference
Yesterday our delegation began to break up as Sister Jayanti, BK Carmen, and Usha left for Merida. Early this morning S Jayanti went to the University of Merida to meet with the alumni of business administration. She spoke on the theme of Administration for the 21st Century: Leading with Love. 200 business people attended. After the program she had a live interview on national radio station called Radio Formula which was also broadcast in twenty-five cities across the US.
For lunch she visited Carmen’s sister Christina Barbacahano and her partner Fernado Ponce, who is also a COTT participant. That evening a program on our same theme of Consciousness and Climate Change was held at the Daniel Ayala Theatre, in the heart of the City. Sister Jayanti shared a platform with Eduardo Batliori, Minister of Environment for the State of Yucatan, Tomas Gonzales, Minister for the Council of Technology for the State of Yucatan, and our youth representative, Paulina Monforte.
Four hundred people attended and it was a great success, there was a lot of interaction between the panelist and the audience. After the program members of the state and city government came to the stage to greet sister Jayanti.
Cancun
Morning Meditation with group from Mexican Ministry
At 7:00am Valeriane met with the participants of the same group from the Mexican Ministry of Environment with whom she had been the previous evening. As a way of going into silence and experiencing nature Valeriane invited them to walk in silence and to become aware of a value which they would like to communicate through their bodies to the earth as they walked towards the beach.
At the beach the participants sat together in a circle as Valeriane led them in mediation. The early morning sun began to warm the sand as Valeriane’s words made them aware of the power of thoughts and feelings and our responsibility towards nature. She spoke to them of connecting to God to become instruments to channel God’s energy towards nature, As the meditation drew to a close she invited them all to share their feelings and what was really essential to them in their lives.
Three indigenous leaders were also in this gathering and shared how important it was to learn from each other. Everyone enjoyed it very much and one of them specifically asked Valeriane how to keep these vibrations of peace in her heart and mind as she lived in the boarder town Chihuahua where there is a lot of violence due to the battles of the drug lords. Valeriane connected her to the Brahma Kumaris in Mexico who would be able to help her on an on-going basis
KlimaForum
As there were few people at the KlimaForum the three panels of the day decided to join forces and do one program so that everyone could join in. This worked very well. The panel then consisted of a specialist on coral reefs from Mexico, two young Canadians who were specialists on the Antarctic, and BK Valeriane who spoke on how climate change demands inner change. We also had a young representative Paulina Monforte, from Youth Environmental Network, Mexico.
The specialists on the coral reefs spoke of the demise of the reefs; how they are very affected by contamination, global warming and poorly treated swage. By the time Valeriane spoke all questions were directed towards how we make a change – how can people change!
Valeriane started to answer this question by sharing the vision of the Brahma Kumaris on how we can empower ourselves and bring change in our own lives. To change ones own lifestyle, to make a difference at the level of environment we have to begin with self awareness. We have to have the power to consume less, change our diets and live more simply. By being aware of our own inner power and inner capacities we are able to change the quality of our life. Valeriane ended by conducting mediation.
Paulina described her own experience of the youth movement and how youth have created networks in order to advance the situation of climate change locally and globally as they didn’t feel that the governments could not do this by themselves
Cancun Messe COP16
There was an opportunity to attend two interesting panels in the Brazilian pavilion, and meet some of the BK contacts. These two panels were: Low Emission Agriculture- Plan from Brazilian Government and Rio 2012 – The Brazilian Protagonism and Incentives towards a low-carbon economy.- By the Brazilian Association of Carbon Market Companies. BK Luciana also gave the meditation CD called Lotus Heart – meditation commentaries for balancing the self with nature, prepared by Valeriane to Mr. Nelton from Itaipu Hydroeletric.
In the afternoon Luciana attended a panel :
GREEN BUILDINGS: The low hanging fruit organized by the Department of Commerce of USA in the US pavilion and came to know the wonderful possibilities of existing technology in green building, related to energy, including lighting and reduction of consumption of water.
The Secretary-General of UN Ban Ki-Moon, presented his report on the High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing. On the 7th December when addressing COP he spoke saying “Nature will not wait while we negotiate. Science warns that the window of opportunity to prevent uncontrolled climate change will soon close. The time for waiting, while keeping one eye on everyone else, is over.
The world – particularly the poor and vulnerable – cannot afford the luxury of waiting for the perfect agreement.” Today following the Secretary General was the First Minister of Ethiopia and then Norway. The floor was then opened for discussion. A very dynamic interaction ensued addressing the main issue of the report – how to get the 100 billion dollars by 2020, to control the emissions of Carbon.
- For more news and resources,
please visit: www.environment.brahmakumaris.org
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