Take care of environment like your own home: Dalai Lama

“Taking care of our planet, environment, is something like taking care of our own home,” he told at Crisler Arena.

“This blue planet is our only home.”

During the lecture, ‘Earth Day Reflections,’ the Dalai Lama said he has learned about the need for environmental responsibility from meetings with scientists and other experts.

Outside the arena, hundreds of pro-China demonstrators held signs and waved Chinese flags. Many wore T-shirts that read “Support Beijing 2008,” a reference to the upcoming summer Olympics, and a small airplane flew overhead pulling a banner that read “Dalai Lama Please Stop Attacking Olympic Flame.”

That protest led to heated verbal exchanges between pro-Chinese and pro-Tibetan demonstrators, who traded shouts of “One China” with “Open the door! Let’s see what’s happening inside Tibet.”

Pro-Tibet demonstrators have disrupted Olympic torch runs in protest of China’s treatment of the Dalai Lama’s followers. He has denied Chinese claims that he and his followers have used the Olympics to foment unrest.