Street Roots • July 28-August 3, 2017
News
Page 4
A compassionate
approach to
climate change
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Sailesh Rao says global veganism
would reverse global warming
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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
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a p ro b lem , and h e w a n te d to
h e l p s o l v e it.
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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
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