 the health of our planet on the think tech live streaming network series. I'm your host, Dr. Grace O'Neill. Joining me today is Dr. Silesh Rao, founder of Climate Healers. Today we're going to talk about climate change. So Silesh, tell us about climate healers and how you became interested in climate change. Well, thank you, Grace, for having me on the show. I started working on climate change back in 2005, when I saw Al Gore's presentation on TV and I was so shocked. I said, if half of what he's saying is true, I'm wasting my time working on making the internet go 10 times faster. So that's how I started you know, and the more I looked into it, the more I realized it's actually a far worse problem than than even what Mr. Gore was saying. Because it's it impacts all of us, it impacts our lifestyles impacts our entire system, the way we organize ourselves. So it's a complete system transformation is what it's called for. So I started Climate Healers in 2007, in order to figure out how to heal the climate, as opposed to, you know, maintaining it in the current state of disrepair that it's in. So, so it's think of it, think of it as, you know, patient with a chronic disease or fever and a cancer and heart disease and so on. Going to a doctor and the, you know, asking, what is it that I need to do in order to completely heal myself? Right? It requires you to change your lifestyle. Yeah, yeah, what's your proposal of how we heal climate change? Well, you can heal the climate by basically using, I mean, getting nature to be on our side as opposed to fighting nature. So it's a it's a rather simple idea. Because it's being in harmony with nature and using nature harnessing nature's power to actually reverse climate change. And I think it can be done. You know, but it requires us to transform our lifestyles to get there. So how do we propose that we do that, I guess? No, how do we propose that we transform our lifestyles? It's actually, it's driven by the grassroots. So if the grass, you know, it turns out that the food system is one of the most powerful labors we have on transforming lifestyles. So when we change our food system, or when we start demanding the right kinds of foods, the system has no choice but to follow us. Okay, so it's really up to us. It's up to each individual. Yeah, we all have the power to heal the climate. I say that the planet has 8 billion potential climate healers, or climate heaters. It's up to us to choose whether you want to be a climate heater or a climate healer. And how do you propose what kind of food you propose that people should seek to heal the planet? Yeah, it turns out that the food that heals our body is also the food that heals the climate. It's so beautiful, right? So nature is such a perfect system design, actually. And so if you all, if we all start consuming whole food plant-based vegan meals, then literally the planet will start healing as well. As we heal our bodies, the planet will start healing as well. So in that sense, you know, everything is in perfect alignment. So how does a plant-based diet heal the planet better than an animal-based or just, you know, standard American diet, I guess I should say? Yeah, so right now, you know, 85% of the food we eat is already plant-based. Okay, it's making it close to 100%. That's what's going to heal the planet. And the way it does that is for the remaining 15% of the food that we get from animal sources today, we are literally using 80% of the Earth's surface. So for 12% of the food, which comes from land animals, we are using 37% of the land area of the planet just to graze the animals, and another 6% to grow the crops to feed those animals. And then for the remaining 3% of the food we eat, we are literally destroying the entire ocean. I mean, it's amazing, you know, what we do to the ocean just to get 3% of our food. So this is why if we go 100% plant-based, and then you will release not only about 40% of the land area of the planet back to nature, you'll also release the entire ocean back to nature. And so when you leave things alone, nature starts healing. Okay, in fact, you can just calculate based on how much vegetation is currently being eaten by animals, you know, and you say if that vegetation had been left alone, how much CO2 would have been sequestered by land, you know, by nature alone. And that itself tells us that going vegan, or going whole food plant-based especially, will basically has the potential to reverse climate change. So how about when you say 3% of the food we get, are you saying the 3% of the food we're getting is seafood or what kind of, how is that, what exactly is impacting the ocean when you say 3% of our food? So 3% of our food by dry weight. So the UN, you know, basically, when it calculates how much of the food is coming from different sources, they take out all the water from the food and just weigh the dry food. And so based on the dry weight of the food we consume, 3% is coming from the ocean, which is basically seafood, you know, fish and shrimp and things like that. And for that 3%, we are actually dredging the bottom of the ocean over like 4 billion acres of the ocean floor every year. And it's becoming harder and harder to catch the fish. So we now use big data software and GPS hardware technologies to find the last remaining fish in the ocean. And then all the ships go on congregate over there and drag it from the ocean floor. I mean, it's, it's, I mean, we are really destroying the ocean. That's what I mean, you know, for just that 3% of the food, because we have a tendency to think that once someone starts eating something, they have a right to keep eating that. And then the corporations have a right to do whatever they need to get that food to the person who wants it, right? There is no education. There is, I mean, we don't even tell people, look, it's really hurting you. It's hurting the planet. It's of course, hurting the fish. And, you know, once you wipe out all the fishes in the ocean, we are going to be dead too. So it's that it's a suicidal act that we are pursuing right now. You know, this, this idea that whatever is demanded by human beings have to be somehow met. So how do I mean, how does someone like you convince the rest of the world that they should not be eating fish or, you know, they don't have a right to chop down all the trees in Brazil or more, right, you know, cows. I mean, they see that as their right. Well, they, they may see that as their right, but there are a lot of young people who are beginning to see through this and they are already waking up. The rate at which young people are going vegan is astronomical right now. You know, so you can do a survey of cafeterias in universities and colleges and you will see that the rise of veganism is almost unprecedented how fast it's happening. And so we don't have to get 100% of the people to go vegan for the entire industry to collapse. Okay, so the collab I'm looking for, you know, what we need, what we need to do to get the system that is currently destroying the planet to actually fold itself down, you know, so that then people look for alternatives and something like that happens, right. So and the alternatives of there. So this is why we have a new initiative called food healers. We are trying to educate people on how food heals our bodies and heals the climate. And, and then we are saying, you know, we will, we will start handing out free healthy food to people. Okay. As part of this education process. So this way, we can spread the word quicker. So your organization is essentially funding the food healers or do you get sponsors that provide the food or how is it working? Are there volunteers that cook the food? Right, so we have volunteers that cook the food we have, we basically appeal to communities to come together and do this on their own. So it's not like we are, you know, collecting funds and giving it to people and saying go do it, you know, because people already have that motivation of healing themselves and healing their communities. Right. So, so it becomes a distributed, decentralized, localized food service enterprise. So, so we are, we are basically giving them the materials that they need, the information that they need to understand why they should be doing this. So they can go and talk to their friends and family and their neighbors and start this process off. Right. So I see that, you know, I see the parallel with what Gandhi was trying to do with the clothing movement in India, in the early 20th century, when he convinced the people of India to change their clothes from, you know, industrially milled clothes in England to hand woven clothes in India. And by doing that, he put enough pressure on the textile industry in England that it collapsed, you know, within 12 years. And that was then, you know, it was at that point that the British government came and negotiated with Gandhi. Right. And the second round, the first round table conference, the second round table conference and all that happened because of that clothing movement, the Kadi movement that he started. I see this food healers as a similar undertaking, where we have to put pressure on these people who have the power, who are actually subsidizing these fishing industries to go and destroy the ocean, who are subsidizing the animal agriculture industry to go and destroy the planet. And we need to put pressure on them to stop it. Because they're literally killing us with this undertaking. And so how do you do that? Well, we need to start handing out free food to people, healthy food to people. And it's, you know, it's basically embracing people with love. Right. And that will allow, I mean, as people buy less and less of the animal products, then that industry will collapse. Right. And people, I mean, the governments will then got start getting pressure from citizens saying, why are you subsidizing that? We should be subsidizing our health as opposed to our diseases. Yeah. So it's kind of getting the word out about educating people about climate change, getting the word out about how animal products cause disease that will help people, you know, and then from people not supporting the industry and people writing to their legislator, hopefully change will happen. So have you at all been in contact with legislators or that's not really what the angle you're going at? I'm focusing more on on grassroots approaches. And I mean, we do talk to local governments and getting them on board and churches, you know, temples, getting them on board. So temples have been very, very responsive. You know, so we just finished World Food Dealers Day. That was Saturday. And so yeah, we had people participating from all over the world. And we had from Ghana to Peru to, you know, Perth, Australia to India. In fact, Delhi, we had almost 100,000 meals served in Delhi. So the idea is to, you know, give out healthy food. And people feel good when they eat healthy food, right? And, and give it away for free. And they ask you, why are you giving it away for free? And then you tell them, you know, we need a food system in which healthy food is free. No, it should be a basic human right to have healthy food. Whereas right now we have a food system in which animal foods which are unhealthy foods that are being subsidized by our governments. And it's being pushed into our school children. You know, and which I think is child abuse, really. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's not fair that children aren't given options, better options that are better for their health, because when you're a child that kind of, what kind of food you're given when you're a child kind of solidifies your tastes. And then when you're, you know, when you grow up, you're used to that kind of food. So it's a tragedy that people aren't given healthy food when they're a child. And they have all these dairy products and everything. And so it is. And it's just unfortunate. So especially dairy products, I think is a is a travesty because a lot of people of color can't even digest it. So children of color are being systematically discriminated against in the school system, you know, by by the industry and by the government pushing daily products on school children. Yeah, that's dietary racism. Yeah. Have you and your family always been vegan? Or was it after you read about climate change that you decided to go vegan? Yeah, I went vegan in 2008, when I saw the impact on the environment. I mean, that was my clincher. Because I was already working on the environment, I had started climate healers in 2007. And I was at that point a lacto vegetarian. And I thought that I was not doing much harm because I looked up the scientific papers on impact of dairy. And it basically said it's only about, you know, 10% or 15% worse than going vegan. And I bought into that analysis, initially. And then I went to this forest in Rajasthan, India, and I realized that actually they're doing what is known as a local sensitivity analysis. And if you do a global sensitivity analysis, dairy turns out to be the worst. So as soon as I realized it's the absolute worst thing you could be doing, I went vegan on this spot. Yeah. How about your family? Was it easy to convince them to become vegan? Or how did that go? Well, it was initially, I said, I'm going vegan. And they said, okay, you can cook for us and I'll be lead it, right? So that's how it started. And I started cooking for my family. And and then as a result, everyone was vegan at home. But then when we go out, people, you know, my wife was eating and you know, but she also soon realized that it is in everyone's best interest to go vegan. So she did that a couple of years later, I think, after I did it. And then my children went vegan and they saw a conspiracy. So I had, so I've been pouring in our resources into documentaries. So we did, we funded conspiracy, we gave Oh, yeah, that was a wonderful documentary. Yeah, thank you. That was our second documentary that we were executive producers of we had the first one was called the Human Experiment, which is about, yeah, well, it is, it's actually the foundation because of human experiment is about the chemical pollution of the planet and how these legislative process was subverted in the 50s. So that chemical pollution of the planet could be done without any liability by the corporations. So they basically changed it around so that the corporations can do whatever they wanted. And the consumer, or the person who got affected by that pollution has to prove that that particular chemical caused them that particular disease. And only then the corporation becomes liable. So anyway, that was one of the first laws that have passed that brought us down this path of destroying the planet, you know. So where can we find that human experiment? I mean, Casper is all over obviously, but the human experiment, where do we find that? Oh, it's available for viewing on Unchained TV, which is Jane Willis Mitchell has this new TV channel called Unchained TV. It's an app you can download on your Android, you can download our Roku or, you know, so you can watch it on TV. And that has exclusively exclusive access to the human experiment. Oh, that's great. Is it a free app or like? It's a free app. Yeah, everything on it is free. Unchained TV. And do they have other interesting educational documentaries? Over, I think they have over a thousand videos now. It's all it's all free. And it's basically has its own. So they have Unchained TV has its own series TV series as well. So I had no big little lies. It's called Pig Little Lies. I think I've heard of that before, but you know, I don't watch a lot of TV. So did you guys also fund Seaspiracy? That was quite good as well. Yeah, Seaspiracy, we didn't need to fund because Netflix funded it. So it was Netflix original documentary. Yeah, we did What the Health. So we were executing it for What the Health. And then we did the Prayer for Compassion. I think I have over 10 documentaries now that are Oh, really? I haven't seen that one either. Where can you find Prayer for Compassion? Prayer for Compassion can be found on Vimeo for free. I can send you a link to that. You can also find it on Amazon Prime and yeah. Yeah, Oh, Prayer for Compassion is on Amazon Prime. I have Amazon Prime. Okay, that's great. I mean, Seaspiracy, I think a lot of people who eat fish, you know, when I first became vegetarian, I became vegetarian when I was a teenager. You know, I thought, Oh, I'll just eat fish. But I stopped eating fish because I got so sick of it because that was all my mother was feeding me. She was so concerned I wasn't getting enough protein. So every day it was fish, fish, fish. I was like, I'm not eating this anymore. You know, but, you know, a lot of people they think that they're doing less harm because they are eating fish. But, you know, there's a lot of, you know, or they think fish is healthier, but I thought Seaspiracy was a very good documentary about. Right. Yeah. So that was great. But I'm glad you pointed out that, you know, what your mother thought that you're not getting enough protein, right? That's the foundational myth from which all this destruction happens, because they have convinced all of us that protein is only found in animal products. You know, that's an absolute lie. And they have been lying to children about this. And to me, lying to children should be considered a crime against humanity. And those who are writing textbooks with lies like that ought to be prosecuted for that. You know, yeah, I mean, people seem to think, Oh, the best source of protein is in, you know, in meat, and you can only get complete, complete proteins that have this new term, complete proteins, where it has all the amino acids, you can only get that from meat. But it's actually not true at all. So, right, you know, right, all the essential amino acids that you know, right. It's I think it's a carefully built myth in order to promote the industry and therefore promote diseases, and therefore promote pharmaceutical industry, promote hospitals. I mean, there's an entire ecosystem of economic activity that depends on us getting sick. And, and so they're sort of playing us, you know, so we've been played for centuries. Yeah. So tell me more about the other documentaries. I'm really interested. Now you said you have about 10. So I want to go and see all of them. So like the first few that I've seen, so you said prayer for compassion, what the health which I've seen, cow spiracy, and then what other ones have you? The human experiment, I told you, right, human experience. And then there was milk, which is about the milk industry in there in New Zealand. Oh, gosh, I have to see that too. Yeah, milk. And then there is the end of medicine, which is, which is also an Amazon Prime, which is about pandemics and and how medicine has this practice today needs to change. Yes. Then there's one, it's called that they are trying to kill us. This is about social justice. Yeah, I like that. I like that title. Yeah. So social justice, it shows that, you know, how people of color are being systematically discriminated against in the food system. Then we did one called Animals of Parallel History. It's about the history of animals and how animals have been used by human beings. Okay, and then the latest one is called the Land of Ahimsa, which is about India. And it is on YouTube right now on the Planet Based News channel. It got released on Thursday and is doing very well. So yeah, it appeals to Indians to to reclaim our role. Yeah, it's so pop. I mean, it's almost as populate is going to take over China. The population is going to be bigger than China. So I think that's great. If all those people because I know there's, you know, a lot of India is vegetarian, but, you know, they're not vegan. And actually, I a long time ago, when I was in medical school, not that long, but you know, when I was in medical school, I went to do an elective in India and went to Gujarat, they're vegetarian state. But no, actually, they eat a lot of cheese, you know, ghee and everything. So, and the food is fried and everything. So they actually have a very high rate of heart attacks and everything. I mean, I was kind of surprised that they even have that because being vegetarian and everything. But that's when I sort of learned that, you know, but being vegetarian is not enough, you really have to keep out the high fatty foods and the dairy from your diet. So that was actually just an experience I had. But you know, if you could influence all the people in India, my gosh, that would be great. Right. India is a perfect country to to embrace veganism quickly, because Indians eat a lot of dairy, but they don't eat a lot of meat. Yeah. So which means that they, they fundamentally have that compassion in them. They're trying to minimize their harm to the animals. But they think by doing dairy, they're minimizing harm. And then we point out to Indians that actually are maximizing harm by consuming dairy, they get shocked, you know, and and a lot of them are willing to change. So this is what we're hoping will happen because we're appealing to Indians to to take the lead in this transformation. Yeah, because it's a spiritual and cultural transformation that needs to happen. And who better to lead the spiritual transformation than India? Absolutely. And then you think, I mean, if, you know, so many people in India did it, then the other people would be looking there and think, well, you know, eventually it would, I think it would make a difference in the health of everybody. So they would look at Indians say, Oh, you know, everybody's health is better there. Maybe we need to change something. Although I will say that even with the China study and everything, nothing's really changed about our diet here. But I think people are starting to realize that we can use lifestyle medicine and improve our health. But it's still it's still not ingrained here yet, because we're still doing a lot of fixing people up after the fact that they already have a disease. That's that's our pattern. But you know, it's unfortunate, you know, eventually, I think people are realizing because now even lifestyle medicine, there's more and more people getting boarded and everything. So things are going to change. It's just takes some time, takes some time, you know, well, change can happen very quickly, too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I hope so. I hope so. I mean, I think they were the work you're doing is great. So if you could show us the website, Michael, and his website. Yeah. And there's a lot of information on the website actually about climate change. And there's also you have all your movies there. Yeah, we have links to those movies. And there's one movie I didn't mention, which is Countdown Dear Zero, which is I wasn't an executive producer of that, but I'm the protagonist. Jane Welles Mitchell and Unchained TV did that movie. Oh, wow. Yes. Yeah. I would I would love to have her on my show. Maybe if you could hook me up. Yeah, sure. I definitely would be happy to say to think we would like to have we would definitely like to have her as a speaker. I mean, but, you know, we're out of time. But thank you so much. I really, really enjoyed having you as a guest. So we have to wrap it up now. This is Dr. Grace O'Neill. This is Healthy Planet on the ThinkTech live streaming network series. We've been talking to Dr. Silesh Silesh Rao of Climate Healers. Thanks to Michael, our broadcast engineer, and the rest of the crew at ThinkTech for hosting our show. And thanks to you, our listeners for listening. I'll see you in two weeks for more of Healthy Planet on ThinkTech, the show for people who care about their health and the health of our planet. My next guest will be Dr. Neil Barnard, the founder of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. If you have ideas for the show or questions for my future show guests, please contact me at Healthy Planet ThinkTech at gmail.com. Check out my website at graceandhawai.com or Instagram at Graceful Living 365 for more information on my projects, including future show guests. I'm Dr. Grace O'Neill. Aloha, everyone. Thank you so much for watching ThinkTech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Mahalo.