COMMENT FROM SATSANG WEEKEND WITH GITEN, 10-12 August, 2018, in Stockholm
“It is fantastic that satsang with Giten is available in Sweden. The satsang weekend with Giten made it so easy to be in contact with the inner being, the silence and emptiness within, existence within. It awoke the feeling of life as a wonderful mystery that I had as a child.”
– Deva Emanuel
“We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.” ―Albert Einstein
“We are running out of time.” ― The Environmental Forum
”Global warming is no longer a philosophical threat, no longer a future threat, no longer a threat at all. It’s our reality.” ―Bill McKibben
“Preservation of our environment is not a liberal or conservative challenge, it’s common sense.” ―Ronald Reagan
”In my view, after fifty years of service in the United National system, I perceive the utmost urgency and absolute necessity for proper Earth government. There is no shadow of a doubt that the present political and economic systems are no longer appropriate and will lead to the end of life evolution on this planet. We must therefore absolutely and urgently look for new ways.” ― Robert Muller, former UN Assistant Secretary General
“I used to be skeptical of global warming, but now I’m absolutely convinced that the world is spiraling out of control. CO2 is like a bushfire that gets bigger and bigger every year. All of us who are in a position to do something about it must do something about it. Because Virgin is involved with planes and trains, we have even more responsibility. So we’ve put aside quite a lot of money to invest in alternative fuels. Over the next four years, we’ll invest something like $1 billion in alternative fuels. The money is going into a whole series of different things like building ethanol plants. We’re looking into wind power. We’re looking into solar. And we’re also actually working on developing a new kind of fuel, which I can’t say much about but which is quite exciting.” ―Richard Branson
“To Be or Not to Be: In Nature all life is a question of the minutest, but extremely precisely graduated differences in the particular thermal motion within every single body, which continually changes in rhythm with the processes of pulsation. This unique law, which manifests itself throughout Nature’s vastness and unity and expresses itself in every creature and organism, is the “law of ceaseless cycles” that in every organism is linked to a certain time span and a particular tempo. The slightest disturbance of this harmony can lead to the most disastrous consequences for the major life forms. In order to preserve this state of equilibrium, it is vital that the characteristic inner temperature of each of the millions of micro-organisms contained in the macro-organisms be maintained.” ―Viktor Schauberger
“Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, and it is the world’s most vulnerable populations who are most immediately at risk. The actions of the wealthiest nations—those generating the vast majority of greenhouse gases—have tangible consequences for people in the rest of the world, especially in the poorest nations.” ―Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of New York
“We have a responsibility to protect the rights of generations, of all species, that cannot speak for themselves today. The global challenge of climate changerequires that we ask no less of our leaders, or ourselves.” ―Wangari Maathai
“The danger is that global warming may become self-sustaining, if it has not done so already. The melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps reduces the fraction of solar energy reflected back into space, and so increases the temperature further. Climate change may kill off the Amazon and other rain forests, and so eliminate once one of the main ways in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. The rise in sea temperature may trigger the release of large quantities of carbon dioxide, trapped as hydrides on the ocean floor. Both these phenomena would increase the greenhouse effect, and so global warming further. We have to reverse global warming urgently, if we still can.” ―Professor Stephen Hawking
“Coal makes us sick. Oil makes us sick. It’s global warming. It’s ruining our country. It’s ruining our world.” ―Harry Reid, Democrat, U.S. Senate majority leader
. “The facts are there that we have created, man has, a self-inflicted wound that man has created through global warming.” ―Arnold Schwarzenegger, Attorney General for California on suing America’s six largest car-makers for their contribution to global warming
“More than any other time in history, the 1990s will be a turning point for human civilization.” ―David Suzuki
“Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun.” ―Paul Ehrlich, professor, Stanford University
“The danger posed by war to all of humanity – and to our planet – is at least matched by the climate crisis and global warming. I believe that the world has reached a critical stage in its efforts to exercise responsible environmental stewardship.” ― Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General
“All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it’s here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.” ―Barack Obama
“A change in our climate however is taking place very sensibly. Both heats and colds are become much more moderate within the memory even of the middle-aged. Snows are less frequent and less deep. They do not often lie, below the mountains, more than one, two, or three days, and very rarely a week. They are remembered to have been formerly frequent, deep, and of long continuance. The elderly inform me the earth used to be covered with snow about three months in every year. The rivers, which then seldom failed to freeze over in the course of the winter, scarcely ever do so now. This change has produced an unfortunate fluctuation between heat and cold, in the spring of the year, which is very fatal to fruits. From the year 1741 to 1769, an interval of twenty-eight years, there was no instance of fruit killed by the frost in the neighborhood of Monticello. An intense cold, produced by constant snows, kept the buds locked up till the sun could obtain, in the spring of the year, so fixed an ascendency as to dissolve those snows, and protect the buds, during their development, from every danger of returning cold. The accumulated snows of the winter remaining to be dissolved all together in the spring, produced those overflowings of our rivers, so frequent then, and so rare now.” ―Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1785
“If global warming continues as expected, it is estimated that almost a third of all flora and fauna species worldwide could become extinct. Scientists … discovered that the proportion of actual biodiversity loss should quite clearly be revised upwards: by 2080, more than 80% of genetic diversity within species may disappear in certain groups of organisms, according to researchers in the title story of the journal Nature Climate Change. The study is the first world-wide to quantify the loss of biological diversity on the basis of genetic diversity.” ―Nature Climate Change study
“While human-induced global warming is not going to turn present-day Earth into present-day Mars, global warming is dire enough that our most distinguished scientists recently concluded that as many as 1 million species on the planet could be extinct by 2050 if affairs do not change.” ―Jay Inslee
“I have not been one who believed in the global warming. But I tell you, they are making a convert out of me as these blistering summers. They have broken heat records in a number of cities already this year and broken all-time records and it is getting hotter and the ice caps are melting and there is a build up of carbon dioxide in the air. We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels.” ―Pat Robertson, 700 Club
“[W]hen we look at the graphs of rising ocean temperatures, rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and so on, we know that they are climbing far more steeply than can be accounted for by the natural oscillation of the weather … What people (must) do is to change their behavior and their attitudes … If we do care about our grandchildren then we have to do something, and we have to demand that our governments do something.” ―David Attenborough, naturalist
“Global warming is causing significant harm to California’s environment, economy, agriculture and public health. It is time to hold these companies responsible for their contribution to this crisis.” ―Bill Lockyer
“At its core, global climate change is not about economic theory or political platforms, nor about partisan advantage or interest group pressures. It is about the future of God’s creation and the one human family. It is about protecting both `the human environment’ and the natural environment.” ― United States Conference of Catholic Bishops statement
“Global warming threatens our health, our economy, our natural resources, and our children’s future. It is clear we must act.” ―Eliot Spitzer
“There will be no polar ice by 2060…Somewhere along that path, the polar bear drops out.” ―Larry Schweiger, President, National Wildlife Federation, 2006
“The data don’t matter. We’re not basing our recommendations [for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions] upon the data. We’re basing them upon the climate models.” ―Chris Folland of UK Meteorological Office
“My biggest objection to Marxism has been the presumption that industry should exist at all. I think the unstoppable juggernaut which is global warming demonstrates that processing natural materials on an industrial scale is a suicidal practice.” ―David David Katzman
“All they do is warm their seats for their long tenures and eventually even their seats get dilapidated with the amount of money they hog in illegally and the only way it comes out is by tilting their huge pot-bellied frames to one side and emitting poisonous gases that not only depreciate their beloved seats but also the nation as a whole and then they shout ‘Global Warming.’ Hallelujah!” ―Faraaz Kazi
“Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming.” ―Al Gore
“A global climate treaty must be implemented even if there is no scientific evidence to back the greenhouse effect. ―Richard Benedik, former U.S./UN Bureaucrat
“Humankind has suddenly entered into a brand new relationship with our planet. Unless we quickly and profoundly change the course of our civilization, we face an immediate and grave danger of destroying the worldwide ecological system that sustains life as we know it.” ―Al Gore
“All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it’s here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.” ―Barack Obama
“There is unequivocal evidence that Earth’s lower atmosphere, ocean, and land surface are warming; sea level is rising; and snow cover, mountain glaciers, and Arctic sea ice are shrinking. The dominant cause of the warming since the 1950s is human activities. This scientific finding is based on a large and persuasive body of research. The observed warming will be irreversible for many years into the future, and even larger temperature increases will occur as greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere. Avoiding this future warming will require a large and rapid reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. The ongoing warming will increase risks and stresses to human societies, economies, ecosystems, and wildlife through the 21st century and beyond, making it imperative that society respond to a changing climate. Prudence dictates extreme care in accounting for our relationship with the only planet known to be capable of sustaining human life.” ―American Meteorological Society
“Climate change — human-made global warming — is happening. It is already having noticeable impacts…. If we stay on with business as usual, the southern U.S. will become almost uninhabitable.” ―James Hansen, World Renowned Climatologist, Director NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
“Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day … If present trends continue, this century may well witness extraordinary climate change and an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for all of us.” —Pope Francis
“We have to hear the cry of the earth and the poor” ―Pope Francis
“Science shows that climate change will affect human health across the world. From diminished air quality and degradation of food and water supplies to increasing levels of allergens and catastrophic weather events, we will experience a number of worsening health threats during our lifetimes.” —NRDC
“Nobody is suggesting a return to the Stone Age, but we do need to slow down and look at reality in a different way.” ―Pope Francis
“A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. … A number of scientific studies indicate that most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and others) released mainly as a result of human activity.” ―Pope Francis
“Obama is already setting a new historic course by reorienting the economy from private consumption to public investments…free-market pundits bemoan the evident intention of Obama and team to ‘tell us what kind of car to drive’. Yet that is exactly what they intend to do…and rightly so. Free-market ideology is an anachronism in an era of climate change.” Jeffery Sachs, Columbia University, Director of The Earth Institute
“In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and changeis sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.” ―Carl Sagan (1987)
“The current state of affairs is unacceptable precisely because we have a responsibility and a golden opportunity to act. Energy-related CO2 emissions are at historic highs, and under current policies, we estimate that energy use and CO2 emissions would increase by a third by 2020, and almost double by 2050. This would be likely to send global temperatures at least 6C higher within this century.” ―Ms. Maria van der Hoeven, Executive Director, International Energy Agency
“Scientists say Hurricane Sandy likely linked to record Artic Sea Ice loss this year but f**k them they’re just scientists. What does the bible say?” ―Bill Maher
“In fact, when you burn coal, you emit more aid rain pollution; more air pollution, more smog and more global warming pollution which threatens the entire planet.”―Dan Becker
“Global warming is real. It is happening today. It is being charted by our satellites. It is being charted by our scientists. It is being charted by those of us in this body, and I think the real key is if we are ready to admit that fact and take the action to make the necessary conversion.” ―Diane Feinstein
“I’m often asked whether I believe in global warming. I now just reply with the question: Do you believe in gravity?” ―Neil DeGrasse Tyson
“The warnings about global warming have been extremely clear for a long time. We are facing a global climate crisis. It is deepening. We are entering a period of consequences.” ―Al Gore
“To be clear, climate change is a true 800 pound gorilla in the room. The effects of global warming threaten global environment upheaval over the coming century. But for South Florida and the Everglades, it could be our death knell if urgent action is not taken.” ―Debbie Wasserman Schultz
“Global warming isn’t real because I was cold today! Also great news: world hunger is over because I just ate.” ―Stephen Colbert
“1 in 4 americans are skeptical on climate change… Who gives a shit? That doesn’t matter. You don’t need peoples oppinions on a fact. You might as well have a poll asking: Which is bigger 5 or 15? Do owls exist? Are there hats?” ―John Oliver
“You can’t pray away global warming, and that’s the difference between religious people and sane people.” ―Bill Maher
“We shall need a substantially new way of thinking if humanity is to survive.” ―Albert Einstein, 1954
“If you really think the environment is less important than the economy, try holding your breath while you count your money.” ―Dr. Guy McPherson
“Some may still deny the overwhelming judgement of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms.” ―Barack Obama
“Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet.” —Carl Sagan
“We should stop the non-scientific, pseudo-scientific, and anti-scientific nonsense emanating from the right wing, and start demanding immediate action to reduce global warming and prevent catastrophic climate change that may be on our horizon now. We must not let the [Bush] Administration distort science and rewrite and manipulate scientific reports in other areas. We must not let it turn the Environmental Protection Agency into the Environmental Pollution Agency.” —Ted Kennedy
“Once the forest has been removed and the swamp starts being drained, that organic matter begins to oxidise and give off continuing emissions. It’s sort of like the goose that keeps on giving.” —Frances Seymour
“Many climate sceptics seem to review scientific data and studies not as scientists but as attorneys, magnifying doubts and treating incomplete explanations as falsehoods rather than signs of progress towards the truth.” —Nature Journal
“It is scientists, not skeptics, who are most willing to consider explanations that conflict with their own. And far from quashing dissent, it is the scientists, not the sceptics, who do most to acknowledge gaps in their studies and point out the limitations of their data—which is where sceptics get much of the mud they fling at the scientists. By contrast, the [sceptics] are not trying to build a theory of anything. They have set the bar much lower, and are happy muddying the waters.” —Nature Journal
“NC passed law against global warming science, therefore it’s not happening. So I’m ignoring Twitter’s 140-character limit, so it’s not happ” ―Stephen Colbert
“The size of our global warming problem requires a large-scale solution. To meet that challenge, a small group of scientists and entrepreneurs is pursuing what they call geoengineering…. Ideas include seeding the oceans in order to increase algae uptake of CO2, injecting chemicals into the upper atmosphere to cool the poles, blocking sunlight by making clouds more reflective, and stationing heat-deflecting mirrors in space. These schemes, however, are the scientific equivalent of a Hail Mary pass–to be pursued only after all other earth-bound solutions have failed. After all, tinkering with a complex system such as the biosphere can generate unintended consequences, and not necessarily positive ones.” ―Brian Dumaine, The Plot to Save the Planet
“I find it very sad that by the time corporate science realizes the value of nature, that it may be too late” ― Steven Magee
“In fact, the thickness of the Earth’s atmosphere, compared with the size of the Earth, is in about the same ratio as the thickness of a coat of shellac on a schoolroom globe is to the diameter of the globe. That’s the air that nurtures us and almost all other life on Earth, that protects us from deadly ultraviolet light from the sun, that through the greenhouse effect brings the surface temperature above the freezing point. (Without the greenhouse effect, the entire Earth would plunge below the freezing point of water and we’d all be dead.) Now that atmosphere, so thin and fragile, is under assault by our technology. We are pumping all kinds of stuff into it. You know about the concern that chlorofluorocarbons are depleting the ozone layer; and that carbon dioxide and methane and other greenhouse gases are producing global warming, a steady trend amidst fluctuations produced by volcanic eruptions and other sources. Who knows what other challenges we are posing to this vulnerable layer of air that we haven’t been wise enough to foresee?” —Carl Sagan
“Finally, we might decide that civilization itself is worth preserving. In that case we have to work out what to save and which people would be needed in a drastically reduced population – weighing the value of scientists and musicians against that of politicians, for example. There will always be those who challenge disturbing facts no matter how good the science. Many Americans don’t believe in evolution; some geologists don’t accept plate tectonics, and some think the NASA Moon missions were a hoax. Self-interest can also create cogitative dissonance between what one wants to believe and what is. Some smokers kept insisting smoking doesn’t cause cancer or heart disease after the Surgeon General’s Report. An African leader who perhaps can’t afford proper drugs holds that the HIV virus doesn’t cause AIDS. Should people die from disinformation and delusions? So what if some don’t believe in global warming? They’re wrong. Survival of high tech civilization is at stake. Time to stop dithering and get serious about policies that could make a difference.” ―Susan Blakemore, a UK Guardian science journalist
“We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is not one of them. Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, or the precise timeline of global warming, we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring. We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge.” ―John McCain
“Global warming must be seen as an economic and security threat.” ―Kofi Annan
“The current climate change is an outer mirror of our inner consciousness. It is an outer mirror of our attitude to try to conquer nature, instead of being in harmony with nature, but in the end the part can never conquer the whole.” ―Swami Dhyan Giten
“As best as can be determined, the world is now warmer than it has been at any point in the last two millennia, and, if current trends continue, by the end of the century it will likely be hotter than at any point in the last two million years.”―Elizabeth Kolbert
“You know who they’re blaming for global warming now? This is true. Fat people.”―Craig Ferguson
“I don’t mean to imply that we are in imminent danger of being wiped off the face of the earth – at least, not on account of global warming. But climate changedoes confront us with profound new realities. We face these new realities as a nation, as members of the world community, as consumers, as producers, and as investors. And unless we do a better job of adjusting to these new realities, we will pay a heavy price. We may not suffer the fate of the dinosaurs. But there will be a toll on our environment and on our economy, and the toll will rise higher with each new generation.” ―Eileen Claussen
“First, I worry about climate change. It’s the only thing that I believe has the power to fundamentally end the march of civilization as we know it, and make a lot of the other efforts that we’re making irrelevant and impossible.” ―Bill Clinton
“We should not be drilling for oil anywhere because burning oil and coal and natural gas is what’s destroying our environment, our climate. And we need the climate if we’re going to eat.” ―Paul Ehrlich
“Global Sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty, reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control.” ―Maurice King, well known UK professor
Satyama Padma in samadhi, in bliss, during satsang with Giten
Satsang with Giten: When the Drop becomes the Ocean
“Man is like a river on his way towards the ocean, towards the divine.
The drop has a thirst, a longing. The drop knows nothing of the ocean, but the drop longs to become one with the ocean.
The drop cannot find fulfillment until it becomes on with the ocean, the divine.
This satsang series is a journey to the ocean, to the divine.”
– Swami Dhyan Giten
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