82: “It’s the greatest transformation in human history… Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?” – Dr. Sailesh Rao of Climate Healers – Sentientist Conversations

We discuss the biggest questions: "what's real?", "who matters?" and "how to make a better world?" with scientists, celebrities, activists, writers and philosophers. The Sentientism worldview is "evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings." It's a simple, yet radical, philosophy that's grounded in reality (naturalistic epistemology) and has compassion for all sentient beings (mostly human and non-human animals). Naturalism & sentiocentrism combined.

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Dr. Sailesh Rao (climatehealers.org) is Founder & Exec Dir of Climate Healers, a non-profit working to heal the climate. After a glittering career in tech he switched to focus on solving our environmental crises. Dr. Rao is the author of two books, Carbon Dharma & Carbon Yoga, & is an Exec Producer of several documentaries including, The Human Experiment (2013), Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014), What The Health (2017), A Prayer for Compassion (2019) & They’re Trying to Kill Us (2021).

In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”

Sentientism is “evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.

We discuss:

0:00 Welcome

01:14 Dr. Rao’s Intro – from India to the US, from tech to saving the world!

– Growing up in a Hindu family in Chennai, India

– “God is in charge & you are just an instrument” vs. the materialism of engineering training

– Being inspired by the moon landing

– Landing his dream job at Bell Labs

– Starting a consulting firm creating the high-speed internet

– “I had achieved, but I wasn’t happy”

– Frustrations with commercialisation & cut-throat competition

– Seeing Al Gore talk about climate change… “If half of what he’s saying is true I’m wasting my time”

– Jumping to work on climate change “the biggest systems change around”

– Being trained by Al Gore to take the message out

– Asking Al Gore “If we take all the land we’re currently using for raising animals & turn it back to forest can we not reverse climate change?” but he didn’t want to talk about it

– Starting Climate Healers

07:23 What’s Real?

– Becoming disillusioned with religion “This is poor work if God’s in charge”

– “We’re the only species that’s a mistake on this planet”

– Visiting a sanctuary forest “I felt this sense of perfection”… “We did nothing… we gave it back to the animals… make sure no human being comes inside”

– “My granddaughter was born… I felt as if I was holding humanity in my arms”… “I belong exactly as I am… you are a fool!”

– Writing “Carbon Dharma” & “Carbon Yoga”

– “Any 5 year old can tell you… be kind to all life”

– Transforming from caterpillar to butterfly

– “We are the climate regulating species”

– Fire, weapons, partnerships with animals… then fossil fuels

– Be a caretaker species, not a predator species

– “If you insist on being a narcissistic predator species you’re going to die”

– “My granddaughter brought me back to faith”

– “We’re here to serve the animals not to eat them”

– “The evidence… is that the Bhavadgita is actually correct”

…and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our “I’m a Sentientist” wall via this simple form.

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Thanks Graham.