 Hello everyone. Welcome to a new episode of Change Podcasts. I'm here with Gabby and today we're going to be talking about earth citizens. Now, if you've been keeping up with my 10 minute routine videos, I always say in the beginning, welcome earth citizens. And maybe you're wondering what is an earth citizen? Right. So we took this podcast to talk about the earth citizen term and the earth citizen spirit. So let's just get right into it. What is an earth citizen? So Ilchi Lee, the founder of Brain Education, talks about earth citizens. And he says that before we are citizens of a nation or members of an ethnic group, we belong to the earth. Realizing this is the only way we can move beyond the pettiness that keeps us divided and disconnected. So in Ilchi Lee's view, in order to make a better world, we must view ourselves first and foremost as earth citizens. So what does that mean to you? An earth citizen to me is someone like Ilchi Lee said who looks beyond race, gender, ethnicity, all those labels that we have as humans and just looks at it as someone who is just a person that lives on the earth. So with that, you know, you take away all those labels, all those things and you look at, you know, your life on earth in a different way and the responsibility you have to take care of the earth and also all the dividedness that kind of all goes away. So to me, it's someone who lives to take care of the earth and to create a good community with themselves and around them. I think so many politicians and nonprofits and world leaders, we work so hard to get rid of the many divisions that we have on earth. We still talk about problems with race, with problems with gender, problems with different countries fighting each other, different religious groups fighting for dominance. You know, there's so many reasons why we fight each other and many world leaders come together to think of solutions to bring people together to get rid of this division. And so for me, earth citizenship, earth citizens is common sense. Because if you think about it, as you mentioned, Gaby, if you take away the label of I'm a woman, I'm Korean, I'm American, I'm from Los Angeles, if you take away those divisions, you know, like if we only consider that you and I have so many differences, you know, like her name's Gaby, she's from Lithuania, she grew up in Dallas, like she's not Asian, like, you know, we have so many differences. And if we focus on those differences, we have many reasons to fight. Like I can say, Oh, Korea is better than Lithuania. Or like, you know, argue on those terms. But underneath it all, we are both people who live on earth. Beyond our surface differences, we are people who live on earth. And if we can focus more on that, rather than how we're different, then now we're on the same team. You know, we have a co like bond, like something that we can reunite and unite each other with. So I think that is the beauty of earth citizens. And I think maybe that's why it'll truly advocates for people to take on this term of earth citizens. Yes. Yeah. And I have a t-shirt that says I'm an earth citizen. Yes. So what do you think is the earth citizen spirit? So you might think earth citizens and earth citizen spirits are exactly the same thing, but there's a slight difference between an earth citizen and the earth citizen spirit. So what could that be? Well, I think the earth citizen spirit is probably that spirit you have inside of you as a person that lives on earth to take care of the earth and to like take that extra step past just living here and letting other people deal with the problems of the earth that don't really affect you. You know, like how many people say that kind of stuff, but actually taking the step to fix the problems that we have on earth. And I think the earth citizen spirit is the spirit of earth citizens. So if you also really resonate with the idea that we can bond and we can get together with each other on the common grounds of people who just live on earth, carrying that spirit of like, okay, then you and I are on the same team. So despite our different backgrounds, despite all that else, because we're on the same team, we're actually one earth family living together on the same planet. So how silly is it that we are fighting each other over small ideological differences like, Oh, I believe in this religion while you believe in that religion. Let me tell you why mine is better. You know, that's so silly. And while we fight over these ideologies, the world is being polluted. And people are destroying the earth. And so we miss the point. You know, if we don't live with that earth citizen spirit to wake up, take back your brain and realize that we're all on the same team. And we're fighting over stupid little things. Then we just, you know, argue over that while we watch the world crumble. So I think it's really important that people understand that beyond all of our external manmade preconceptions, ideas and labels, we are all the same. And there was one really powerful image I saw on social media of like different people's x-rays. And you know, when you x-ray somebody, we all look the same. The skeleton, different x-rays. And it said, this is what a lesbian looks like. This is what a American looks like. This is what a racist looks like. And it's like underneath all of that, it was all just bones, the same looking bones. Yeah. So that's kind of it. It's common sense, really. And I don't know how like, how we could just go on and live without this kind of idea, the spirit. And if you're someone who wants to see oneness, you know, a lot of spiritual entities, a lot of even religion and a lot of different nations, we talk about oneness, we talk about unity, we talk about coexistence. But that isn't possible, in my opinion, without the Earth, citizen spirit, without the fundamental knowing that we are all the same as people living on this Earth together, beyond race, beyond nationality, beyond gender, beyond social class, beyond all of those things. And that is the Earth's citizen spirit. Yes. So why do you think we need this, Gabby? Why do people need to adapt the Earth's citizen spirit? Well, if you tune into the news once in a while, you can see lately, there's been so many news about like all the plastic in the oceans, that one video with the turtle with the plastic coming out of the nose, you know, all the whales that that like they open up and then there's all plastic like things like that that you may think you're sitting in your office that has nothing to do with you, but you're you may be the person contributing to that kind of stuff. And you could be the person helping that kind of stuff. And if we all work together, we can really save the Earth. So I have some statistics on the plastic in the oceans that are really am I ready for this? I don't know. So roughly speaking, humans dump 8 million tons of plastic waste into the oceans each year, 8 million tons and commune cumulatively, that is about 350 million tons of that plastic waste in the oceans. Every minute of every day, the equivalent of a truckload of plastic enters the world's oceans. And waste such as bottles and beer holders can last for up to 450 years in that environment. And some last for over 1000 years in the ocean. That is terrible. Yes. And I've seen some news articles that say there's like a plastic floating mass, twice the size of Texas. Floating Texas is really big. She would know she's from Texas. Floating between New Zealand and Los Angeles. That's crazy. Wow. And you see more instances of like beaches being like contaminated all over the world with plastic that gets washed up shore. And you know, we have the amazing fortune of being in the United States and not really being exposed to that. Right. But just because we don't see it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. So these are shocking facts. Yeah. And that's all contributing to other environmental issues like, you know, the ice caps and all this like pollution, everything that's all contributing to it. Yeah. And it's killing the coral reefs, which is a very important part of the oceanic ecosystem. And we think that, oh, what does that have to do with anything but so much of living things are connected to each other. If the coral reefs die, then fish that live in the coral reefs, they also die. And if those die, then the animals that eat those fish die, like it's a chain reaction. All life, not just human beings, all life, we're so interconnected. But it's so difficult to see that if we live in a technologically advanced world in the urban jungle, watching you to having no idea what's going on in the outside world. Yeah. So the next question then is, can we really fix this? And what does this have to do with people's problems? As I briefly mentioned, if you do sit at home and you're living in an urban environment, it might seem like these world problems are kind of isolated from your own problems. Like, what does this have to do with me kind of mentality? So let's talk about how these things are really connected to us and how the Earth citizen spirit and the idea of seeing myself as an Earth citizen can really help solve my personal problems and global problems. Let's talk about that. So I mean, if nothing is possible, if we don't have an Earth to live on amen, sister. Amen. So if we keep going at this pace of not taking care of the Earth, that's gonna affect us and the future generations, the kids like all that. So we have to really, I know, as you said, we're in our urban jungles, we don't really see this every single day how it's impacting us firsthand. But if we don't take action, it can definitely impact us in the future. So I want to ask those listening to this podcast, what is the most important thing in your life? Think about that. Some people might say their family. Some people might say their job. You know, some people might say their status. So whatever it is that's most important to you think about that. Let me know in the comments below. And now let me ask you whatever your answer was to that question, what is the most important thing to you? Let's say family, let's say you said family, a lot of people I think would say family. So if your family is the most important thing to you, is your family able to be healthy, happy and peaceful if they didn't breathe clean air? If they didn't drink clean water? If they didn't have good food, good healthy food to eat? No, if they if they breathed in contaminated air, drink contaminated water, eat poisoned food, there's no way that your family that you love so much could survive. So beyond that if you whatever you really care about whether it's family, money, success, your job, if you get down to the root of it, none of that is possible. If we don't have a healthy earth that we can live on, that we can breathe healthy air, get wholesome sunshine, drink clean water and eat healthy food, none of what you think is important can be possible. And I think that's why Il-Chili, he really, really emphasizes that people need to get out of this selfish viewpoint of, Oh, I don't care if there's plastic in the ocean, I'm living healthy, I'm living a good life, I have lots of money, my family is well off, who gives, right? But if you think about it, it's all connected back to, it really is our problem. It's not a problem that's separate from me, separate from other people. Having a contaminated earth really is my problem and my family's problem, because it affects us every single day. Yeah, imagine if the earth's atmosphere got so bad that you felt like you were breathing in your cars, carbon monoxide, every breath. Wow. And it's like that in some countries. Yeah, it's already like that. Yeah, you have some pictures in like China. They have to wear those masks, like all that stuff. And I heard a really sad story from from China that just really broke my heart. So you know, when you ask the kids in China to, to, to draw a sky, you know what they draw? They draw gray. Wow. You know, we draw blue with white fluffy clouds as a shine and yellow and yeah. But recently these kids in China, you asked them to draw the sky and they colored it gray. Wow. Because that's all they know. Right. That they think that's normal. So I mean, I'm not that old. And if I know to draw a blue sky and and clouds and the kids who are maybe like 20 years younger than me or a little bit younger than me, now they're drawing gray skies. What will happen to their kids 20 years after that? Wow. Are they going to know what a sky is? No, just in the story books. Right. Wow, that is crazy. So that's the rate at that we're going because so many people are only focused on me, me, me, me, my family, my happiness, my health. And I don't care at what cost that it brings to other people. So I think that's a really important thing about our citizenship is expanding your awareness to go beyond me, go beyond my family, go beyond my citizens, you know, to really think about everybody. Because no matter if you're a Muslim or Christian, black or white, everybody wants and deserves clean air, every water, yes, and fresh food. That is a basic human right, no matter what background you are from. And if we can't provide that for each other, then we have truly, truly failed ourselves and failed each other. And we cannot be happy if so many other people are suffering and the world is dying. That's common sense. It's basic knowledge. You know, it's not I'm not saying this because I'm a spiritual person, it has nothing to do with spirituality. It's just pure, common science, facts, and common sense. What do you think, Gabby? I think I definitely agree. And if I were you, you know, I think of ways how I can live up to the Earth's citizen spirit. So there's actually the Earth's citizen organization that promotes this, everything we talked about today, like really, you know, finding yourself and finding that bigger picture than just yourself, caring about the Earth and then doing things to promote a better environment and climate. So that's also another thing that it'll cheat, it'll cheat we promote Earth citizens organization. Yeah. So if you are really inspired by this, and you're wondering how you can become an Earth citizen, as Gabby mentioned, you can go on the Earth citizens website, which is earthcitizensplural.org. And then read up and then also you can make a donation to the nonprofit organization that helps to bring more awareness and create leaders who care about the earth. So you can get involved that way. But also another thing that you can do right now is in a single day, we make so many choices. And ask yourself at each choice, is this something that is harming to the earth, or not harming to the earth? So for example, think about the next time you just mindlessly pick up a single waste single use plastic water bottle, and just mindlessly dump it away and then pick up another plastic water bottle and drink like five plastic water bottles in one day. Is that really necessary? Or can you you know, the best would be if you have a reusable bottle, and you don't have to use a plastic water bottle. But if you don't have one, can you just use that one plastic water bottle and keep refilling it throughout the day. So you only use one instead of 10 in one day. Right. So little things like that. How is this action going to pan out for the earth pan out for myself? And that's a really good way to practice expanding your consciousness and awareness to be just beyond my comfort beyond my luxurious lifestyle. So Mashable recently wrote an article about the top ways to reduce plastic waste. So they mentioned things like buying stainless steel straws and getting reusable shopping bags and reusable water bottles. Those are the top three ways. So that's not only like money saving tips, but also saving the earth as well. Yes, I love them. Yeah, I think if there's one way that you can help the earth, it's definitely plastic. Yes. Yes, if you can go beyond plastic to other things, great. But if you don't know where to start, and you're having trouble, the first place we should start is reducing plastic. I think that's so easy to do. Yes. So what do you think about earth citizenship? And what do you think about the earth citizen spirit? I want to know your thoughts. So please let us know down in the comments below what you think. And I want to ask you, are you an earth citizen? Think about it. If I do I want to be an earth citizen? What does that mean? And how can I change my actions to be something that's more loving to the earth? Because ultimately more loving for the earth means more loving to other people, which translates to more love for myself. It's all connected. They are not separate. So if you want to practice self love, which I know a lot of people want to do self love self care. There's no self love or self care without self love self care for each other and the earth. And I truly believe that. So one more thing I'd like to mention before we close is something called the earth citizen movement, which was created by Ilchi Lee. And in essence, that earth citizen movement is a call to invite more people, more more earth citizens like you and I to come together who have this expanded awareness and the sense of responsibility to take care of each other and the earth. And the more people who can have that kind of awareness and mentality, the more hope there is of saving this earth. Because it's not something that just I can do or she can do or just a small group of people can do to really create a massive change on earth. We need you. We need everybody who can think of themselves beyond their labels and work and come together to create an earth that brings health, happiness and peace for everybody. So that is the earth citizen movement that I would love to invite every single person to be a part of because you matter, no matter how small you think you are, you matter. And especially if it's something related to the earth, every single person counts. Doesn't matter what background doesn't matter anything that you went through in life. You are a citizen of the earth. If this inspired you in any way, definitely we invite you to join and become an earth citizen with us because this is not something as she said that we can do by ourselves. We need to all do this together to save the earth together. So are you an earth citizen? Let me know in the comments below any of your responses to the questions we ask what you think about earth citizenship. If you like it, if you want to adapt it, any thoughts that you have about anything that we mentioned in the podcast, please let us know in the comments below. We'd love to read them. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time on another episode of Change Podcast. Bye.