On Christmas in 1914, just a few months after the start of World War I, German and British troops along the Western Front held an unofficial cease-fire, meeting each other in No Man’s Land, exchanging gifts, burying their dead, singing Christmas songs and playing ball together. This incredibly moving story has inspired many articles, a song and a movie, Joyeux Noel, a French film nominated for Best Foreign Language film in the 78th Academy awards. David G. Stratman wrote about it in his book, We Can Change the World. Here is an article from the London News in 1915, along with an illustration of the event.

Tom Morgan writes, “The image of opposing soldiers, shaking hands with each other on one day and then deliberately trying to kill each other the next, is a powerful one, and one which is part and parcel of remembrance of the Great War. It was, perhaps, a last example of open-handed chivalry before the squalor and horror of the next three years changed the old world for ever.” His site also includes remembrances from soldiers who were there.

As much as war is an obvious moneymaking racket for so many rich and powerful people, one cannot help but think, how much power is in the hands of those who do the actual fighting, and that the possibility of peace may be closer than we realize – all it would take is the softening of hearts.

“He who is centered in the Tao
can go where he wishes, without danger.
He perceives the universal harmony,
even amid great pain,
because he has found peace in his heart.” –Tao Te Ching, #35

Thanks to Wanttoknow.info.

This week, an article in The Independent entitled “Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island”  seems to confirm for the first time that an inhabited island has been officially washed off the face of the Earth by rising seas.   “The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.” Refugees fled to neighbor islands which are doomed to similar fates; a total of 70,000 people will soon become homeless due to global warming.

 

The Independent also reported eight years ago when the first uninhabited islands, in the Pacific nation of Kiribati, “vanished beneath the waves.”  One may remember when the tiny island nation of Tuvalu was evacuated in 2001.  Another article from 2002, “Global Warming & Rising Oceans” by Florida State University oceanographer Jeffrey Chanton, Ph.D., explains that rising oceans are eroding coastal areas and submerging low-lying islands.  He suggests the “near future could see millions of ‘climate refugees’”, and recommends alternative fuel sources to alleviate the problem.  His references include great links to scientific studies, online maps of sea levels, and a personal carbon counter to estimate your own CO2 emissions.

 

By now most people have seen or at least heard about Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth, about global warming.  What have we done to our planet, and can it be saved?

 

“The world is sacred.  It can’t be improved.  If you tamper with it, you’ll ruin it.  If you treat it like an object, you’ll lose it.” –Tao Te Ching #29

 

Thanks to www.wanttoknow.info