A couple years ago I read “A Kids Book About Climate Change” and it blew me away. Yes, it's a kids book, and yes it will take you 10 mins to read! But let me share my thoughts.
The book gets good when it says climate change isn't fair to those who didn't cause it: kids. And it stole my heart when it said climate change hurts some people more than others. It emphasizes how people with less money or resources are hurt more by climate change. I don't know about you, but that's something my elementary school teachers never mentioned.
It also teaches that we all have a right to clean water, clean air, and to live on a healthy planet. Amen.
All this climate crisis talk has got me pumped to teach kids yoga with a climate crisis theme. You can catch one of our most popular kids yoga classes on Stopping Climate Change (for ages 4-12) here.
In this class we explore:
What is climate? And how can we tell that it’s changing?
Who is most impacted by a changing climate?
And what can we DO to stop climate change?
We often think of yoga as a practice that we do on a mat, moving our bodies. But yoga also gives us philosophical guidelines for how we can live OFF of our mats. And taking action to stop harm to people, creatures, and the planet, from the effects of climate change falls squarely under the box of ahimsa - a yogic principle that translates roughly to “non-harming” or “non-violence.”
Here are the three big new ways to help stop climate change that I learned from “A Kids Book About Climate Change:”
Protecting Indigenous People's rights - Indigenous people are less than 5% of the global population, and protect 80% of life on Earth! Fighting for them means fighting for Earth.
Educating women - this simple endeavour is one of the greatest and most effective way of solving the climate crisis! There are endless stories of women making ginormous positive impacts on Mama Earth.
Inventing new technologies that don't hurt the planet - countries all over the world are figuring out new ways to take CO2 out of the air! This is just one way to help our beautiful Earth.
What are some ways you can take your yoga practice out into the world to stop climate change? Remember, we all make a huge difference when we take small steps together.