It’s SHOWTIME For Climate Change

Less than 40 years from now, a 16-inch rise in sea level precipitated by global warming will swallow a sizable chunk of Sausalito’s historic waterfront, according to scientifically rendered climate simulation models.

So I’ve been working for the past few months in this pint-sized piece of paradise designing a community education ‘template’ which integrates the practices and teachings of Yoga and Mindfulness with learning basic principles about climate change and how to adapt and take action.  My ‘lab’ is Yoga of Sausalito and earlier this month we kicked off our project with a community screening of Let Fury Have the Hour.

Next month, Dr. Peter Joseph, leader of the Marin Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby and an early graduate of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, will present Preventing Climate Chaos: Civilization’s Greatest Challenge.

And in May, we collaborate with 350Marin, presenting an interactive evening which restorative and beginner yoga poses and inspirational passages with video shorts and story telling.

But all this is Lilliputian.

THE BIG NEWS HERE is, at long last, just two days after Dr. Joseph’s appearance, climate change hits the mass media market bigtime as  Showtime premieres Season 1, Episode 1 of Years of Living Dangerously. The April 13 10pm episode is part one in an eight part series which "explores the human impact of climate change. "

Hallelujah!

This potential blockbuster, produced and designed to kindle a connection to the reality of climate change, is pulling out all the stops and sending celebrities and well known journalists – think Harrison Ford, Matt Damon, Chris Hayes, Tom Friedman, Lesley Stahl, Don Cheadle, The Governator — journeying the world to climate ‘hotspots’ to ‘humanize’ the story and connect a huge audience with the "the biggest story of our time."

Can’t see the trailer and want to – click here.

By comparison, my village-based project appears insignificant.

But consider this.

Yoga is the ‘yoke’ with which the practitioner connects the mind and the body to ‘prana’, the universal life force.

"Prana is not merely a philosophical concept," writes Swami Satyananda Saraswati. "… it is in every sense a physical substance. Just as radioactive or electromagnetic waves exist even though we can’t see them, in the same way, in this physical body, there are pranic waves and a pranic field."

The  Ujjayi Pranayama   breathing technique practiced in Astanga Yoga claims to empower the practitioner with unlimited energy, sufficient to melt snow.

Ahhhh. Indeed,  perhaps I am being a tad whimsical here.  But dream with me for just this moment, can you?

Envision communities breathing as one,  grounding through tree and mountain pose, connecting with other species through asanas such as cobra and pigeon and seal. Then moving into the challenges of the warrior poses. Our kids and their teachers. Our clerks and firemen and seniors. Our clergy. Each and every one a fearless warrior tasked with the divine mission of holding firm in their commitment to do the next right thing right in their own backyard.

Imagine then the power we might generate if yoga studios around the world joined together to practice pramayama as a tool by which to transform consciousness, to clear the earth’s chakras, to rebalance our planet and its people. To right our course.

Now that would be Showtime!