Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 2017)
Street Roots • July 28-August 3, 2017 News Page 4 A compassionate approach to climate change - ....... -.... v I J t W ’l Itf/w ä ■Í Sir lili 'V \ Sailesh Rao says global veganism would reverse global warming H ■ ■ SSaíSSgííSí j S fa O t * Ï 11 •’ T r a l I L I C ■ B Y EM ILY GREEN h, ISM STAFF WRITER hen he saw a public-access broadcast of A1 Gore’s presentation on climate change in 2005, Sailesh Rao was working as an internet communications developer. An electrical engineer by training, Rao had emigrated from India to study at Stony Brook University in New York, later earning a Ph.D. at Stanford University. In the late 1990s, he helped develop the Gigabit Ethernet on copper standard, which serves as the backbone of today’s internet. But learning about the urgency of global warming not how our set him on a new course. It’s w o r ld le a d e r s a re W I III! I i*- / í - 1 V j ii. » m I®® IB® a p ro b lem , and h e w a n te d to h e l p s o l v e it. They are net lo e ld stf at the e a s iiH th e j are only tryin g to address the fe w r w hile the caaeer heeps growing Soon after, R ao fo u n d ed a nonprofit called Climate Healers. It partners with schools, tribes and other organizations to implement climate change solutions and promote reforestation. It’s distributed thousands of metal grates for wood SAILESH «AO burning stoves to women in India and Africa, helping to cut down on fuel use and smoke inhalation. In 2008, he was awarded the Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureate, a national citizen social justice and action award in India. Rao also studied the climate problem, Sailesh Rao, author of. “Carbon Yoga, ” says the coming to the conclusion that a globally adopted vegan diet makes sense from both a scientific and a spiritual perspective. He’s S ailesh Rao: When we were doing the written two books on the subject, "Carbon internet originally, it was a collegial group Dharma” in 2011 and "Carbon Yoga” in working together, and we were idealistic - 2016. we were trying to do something that would He’s also contributed to three popular connect the whole world. By the time I was documentaries about climate, diet and working on 10-Gigabit Ethernet, it was all toxins: “The Human Experiment” with Sean about money. How much money could we Penn (2013), “Cowspiracy: The make, and how much money is being Sustainability Secret” (2014) and “What the invested in this and that? It’s a huge Health” (2017). They’re all available on business. I was disillusioned with the whole Netflix. A fourth film, “The Compassion process. Project,” is in production. I happened to see A1 Gore’s presentation This summer, he’s touring with stops in on TV. I was so shocked with what he was the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica, giving a saying. If half of what he is saying is true, series of free lectures and advocating for a what are we doing? Why isn’t everybody ’ vegan lifestyle as a solution to climate working on this? So I decided to study the change. problem, and within a few months I realized Street Roots sat down with Rao when he it was far worse than what he was saying, stopped in Portland in June to talk about his because he was only talking about one ideas on climate change. aspect. I told my wife, “I have to start E m ily Green: How does an engineer working on this.” She said, “If that’s what working in internet communications become a you want to do, go for it.” Of course I didn’t director o f a climate-based nonprofit? know what to do, so I wrote to him (A1 way the climate problem has been fram ed is “a m ° T° “all wrong. ” Gore) and said, “How can I help you?” And I got trained by him on how to give his presentation. It was in November of 2006; I was in the second batch who were trained. Then I went around for a year, talking about this. And I realized we can’t just talk about this; we have to do something. In 2007,1 started Climate Healers. I felt that the way the problem was being ramed in mainstream circles was all wrong and it was being framed in a way I thought ’ was absurd. Because if you think about it if you had a fever, let’s say 1 degree centigrade fever, and you have the lump the size of a coconut on the side of your head mo ’’T J f h 0 ! d° CtOr and y° U Said’ “Heal m he d° CtOr examines y°u and says, hat fever is caused by your lump. The est I can do is to make sure that the fever does not go over 2 degrees Celsius, and I’ll S gX 0^ en O lT ,th a t’ YOUW0Uldn’^ saying, Give me Tylenol that makes it not See RAO, page 5 M BR° WN
