Get Your Green On

Environmental crisis got you down? Let yoga inspire you to make life better for yourself and the whole wide world.

By Allison Wellner

It took two years of yoga practice, one trip to the supermarket, and an amazing organic dinner to transform Ashley Currie from a person who never thought much about green issues to a budding environmentalist. It started in New York City, just after Currie's regular Wednesday evening yoga class. She and a classmate decided to make dinner together and headed to the supermarket to gather ingredients. Currie, a 23-year-old professional actress and dancer, felt the way she always does after practice: peaceful, centered, happy. She'd started yoga for the workout but cherished the blissed-out feelings it brought and the life view it was helping her develop. "When you have a strong practice and you do yoga long enough, it's hard to not start seeing the philosophy behind it," she says. Indeed, after practice, she says, she'd come to appreciate how "everything is connected."

Currie's friend started piling organic food into their shopping cart—a move that Currie, who lives on a tight budget, hadn't previously considered. But the dinner they prepared was delicious, and Currie had a revelation: Organic food was not only very tasty but was also probably better for the environment—in other words, for the "everything" here on the planet that she felt so connected to in yoga class. She realized that she could extend her postpractice feeling of interconnection by living greener—and that she could start with the food she put on her table each day.

For Currie, respecting the link between her own actions and the health of the planet primarily means eating organic food as much as possible—organic farming emits far fewer greenhouse gases than conventional farming, so it's a great place to start. Currie now regularly hits the Internet to get better informed on environmental issues, so she can figure out how else she can help. "We're killing the planet," she says. "We've got to do something about it."

These days, just about everyone with a pulse is starting to get this message—the ominous signs are all around us. Climate change, most scientists agree, is a reality. The average global temperature has climbed sharply in the past 30 years. If the current warming trend continues, the earth's temperature in the coming decades could reach heights not experienced since the time of the dinosaurs. In just one year, the Arctic Ocean has lost an area of year-round ice cover the size of Texas. The results of all this warming could be cataclysmic, experts warn. Coastlines will shift as polar ice caps melt; storms, droughts, and floods will increase; massive human migrations could take place. The world is in danger.

But what does this have to do with yoga? Quite a bit, it turns out. The essence of yoga is balance, and that means not only balance in our bodies or our emotional lives, but also balance in our relationship to the world. Yoga's core principles can motivate you to take meaningful actions that are good for the planet and also appropriate for you, whatever your circumstances. And while your yoga practice is deepening your commitment to living green, it can also help you to cope with the anxiety that the state of our world can provoke.
First, Do No Harm

While concerns about making greener lifestyle choices are fairly new, caring about the planet and all of its inhabitants has been a part of yoga philosophy for thousands of years. Many of yoga's yamas, or principles, are relevant, explains Georg Feuerstein, founder of the Yoga Research and Education Foundation in Middletown, California. First among these is ahimsa, or nonviolence. "Genuine yoga is impossible without it," he writes in The Deeper Dimension of Yoga. Indeed, Jainism, which shares its roots with yoga, is based on what some would consider a deep concern for the environment. Strict adherents don't dig in soil, mold lumps of clay, disturb a puddle, or do anything else that might affect another living organism negatively. They even wear masks over their noses and mouths to avoid inhaling tiny bugs.

Obviously, not everyone will go to such extremes. But the general principle of nonharming can influence daily choices. Some people choose not to eat meat, to eat lower on the food chain. By doing this they not only spare animals' lives but also help the environment by reducing emissions. A recent University of Chicago study found that a person who eats a typical American diet, which includes meat, contributes 3,274 pounds more greenhouse gas emissions to the environment each year than a person who eats food that comes only from plant sources.

Food choices are just one way that yogis practice caring for the environment. Julie Roddham, 41, the wardrobe manager for Cirque du Soleil's O show in Las Vegas, experiences a sense of interconnection with the natural world when she practices yoga several times a week and says, "The biggest challenge is to take that intention and feeling and to live it off the mat."

One way she tries to do this is by being a good steward of the land around her home. When she bought her house in the desert seven years ago, there was a lawn in the front yard. She realized she had a choice: She could water, mow, and distribute chemicals on grass that would struggle to survive there, or she could replace the grass with native plants that would thrive. "I chose to take the grass out, and I planted cactus and desert herbs," Roddham says. As a bonus, she's learned to use some of the herbs as household cleaners—which allows her to avoid the standard commercial versions she believes will harm the water supply.

The more closely you look at yoga principles, the more clearly they point toward taking action to care for the earth. One of the yamas, astyea, or nonstealing, is a good example. Adopting astyea means not using more than you need and making good use of the surplus. By focusing on what you really need, you can help counteract the thousands of consumerist messages you're exposed to each day. Another principle, aparigraha, or greedlessness—sometimes referred to as nongrasping—reminds us to respect others' rights to share a clean environment.

Recycling, a long-standing cornerstone of a green lifestyle, is an excellent application of both nonstealing and greedlessness. Roddham, for example, has taken over responsibility for the recycling program at her workplace—she asks her co-workers to drop off recyclables in her office, and "when the sack gets so big that I can't get in my door," she totes them home and puts them out with her own recycling. She's currently working to expand recycling options at Cirque du Soleil's other properties.

Just as people at all fitness levels benefit from the physical practice of yoga, so yoga principles can help you become greener, whatever your starting point.

For some practitioners, like Currie, yoga is the entry point to greener living. For others, green living is already so much a part of their daily routine that it simply goes without saying. But even people who are well on their way toward living a green lifestyle often find that their yoga practice deepens their commitment to the earth.

This is the case for Brian Raszka, a Reno, Nevada, artist. His ecological awareness began in high school, when he made his first donation to Greenpeace. He and his wife follow an array of earth-friendly practices, including riding their bikes to work; when they must drive, they batch errands to use their car less often.

"Yoga is about balancing all aspects of your life," he says. "If we balance our lives, it's easier to think outside our immediate experience. This opens us up to consider, for instance, green issues."

Linda Mason Hunter, 60, an author and home design consultant in Des Moines, Iowa, has been practicing yoga and steadily moving toward a greener lifestyle for the past 25 years. She too sees a strong connection between the two. "You can certainly live a green and sustainable life without practicing yoga," she says. "But I don't see how you can do yoga and not be interested in a green and sustainable life."

For her, the link between the two is mindfulness—she practices mindfulness during her asana practice, which reminds her to bring that attention to the rest of her life. So as not to get overwhelmed and paralyzed by all the choices before her, she has systematically directed her gaze onto different areas of her life, taking the greening one step at a time. For a while, she focused on reducing the amount of chemicals she used. Now, she's focused on cutting her energy consumption. She's planning to purchase a fuel-efficient car and has taken the big step of spending part of the year in Vancouver, in order to reduce her use of air conditioning during the hot summers in Des Moines.

The work, she says, will never be done—but she's in it for the long haul. "I see a lot of things that I still have to do, but I don't get uptight about it. It has to be an evolution," she says. "It's a process, and it's going to take time."
That Inconvenient Truth

But time is the one thing we don't have, says Emily Figdor, a clean air and energy advocate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington, D.C. "The scientific community tells us that we have a 10-year window of opportunity to act to prevent the worst impacts of global warming and to stabilize our emissions of global warming pollutants," Figdor says. She adds, "That's a very narrow window, and we're past the point of taking the modest first step. We can't just put a Band-Aid on the problem."

Figdor also says that while individual actions—such as eating organic foods, recycling, and watching our energy usage at home—are commendable, there's a danger of deciding you've done your part and don't need to do more. Indeed, Matthew Kotchen, an environmental economist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, recently published a study suggesting that consumers who buy premium green goods (rainforest-friendly shade-grown coffee, for instance) may be less likely to donate money to environmental causes. That's bad news, because pooling your money with others helps fund large-scale change. It's great to vote with your dollar in the marketplace, but if it causes you to scale back your charitable contributions, you may actually have a net negative effect on the environment.

"This is where honesty comes in," says Bo Forbes, a Boston yoga teacher and clinical psychologist. "You have to get informed about the changes that are possible for you to make, and to ask yourself whether you're doing as much as you can." While you're asking yourself this question, be sure that you're not giving yourself a pass for taking only the green actions that benefit you in other ways—for instance, are you eating organic food for the environment, or for your health? Are you buying a fuel-efficient car for the environment or, as gas prices climb, for your wallet?

Of course, it's not wrong to take positive actions on behalf of your health or pocketbook. But Forbes would urge you to remember the importance of selflessness and altruism in yoga. If you find you're only taking the green steps that benefit you directly—and scaling back on other selfless actions—you may want to consider where your motives lie and whether there's more you can do.
Get Active

It so happens that Figdor has an idea about how all of us can do more on behalf of the environment: "Get involved politically," she urges. Our most significant global warming problems are most likely to be solved not by individuals taking action on their own, but by federal, state, and local governments creating policies that regulate industrial emissions and provide funding to develop long-term, widespread clean energy sources. Many changes that will really help the environment can only come at the policy level, she says.

The idea of political activism might seem problematic for yoga practitioners—one of the limbs of yoga, after all, asks us to keep our gaze focused inward and accept the world as it is. Can we do this and take action on behalf of the environment? Absolutely, says Forbes. "Sustainable living is an issue of nonviolence toward the earth and the environment all around us, and ahimsa trumps everything else in yoga philosophy," she says. "It's the primary principle."

Entrepreneur Jonathan Fields, 41, owns several companies, including Sonic Yoga in New York City. He doesn't really consider himself an activist, although he's long been interested in environmental issues. Last year, he saw the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. "My mind immediately went to my daughter, Jesse—she's five," he says. "What kind of a world will I be leaving her?"

So Fields started taking action at his yoga studio as well as in his personal life, including switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, signing up for wind- and water-generated power, and offering his students a $10 credit for buying compact fluorescent bulbs or switching to green power at their homes.

"You could say that since yoga emphasizes accepting yourself and your circumstances as they are, without your being compelled to change them, you should say, "That's just the way it is; deal with it.' But I don't think that's yoga's larger message," Fields says. "I'm very attached to the desire to create the healthiest planet possible for my daughter."

Where there is attachment, anxiety is sure to follow. Since most of us are doubtless quite attached to life on earth as we know it, in this era of distressing headlines, a certain amount of anxiety about environmental issues is quite normal, says Larina Kase, a Philadelphia psychologist who frequently works with patients on anxiety and fear issues. In this case, a bit of fear is a healthy thing, she says, because it can propel us to make changes. The trick is to keep the anxiety at a manageable level.

"If someone reacts with intense fear and anxiety, they're likely to feel helpless," she says. Yoga practice can help with this, too—for instance, Fields calms his anxiety on this and other issues with a regular practice of meditation and pranayama. Focusing on the present is also beneficial, says Forbes. "Stay within the reasonable present, and focus on the small steps you can take," she says—whether those steps are personal or political.

Of course, all of those small steps can feel like just that—small—in the face of such a large environmental threat. Caroline MacDougall, 54, of Santa Barbara, California, has spent years practicing yoga and living green. These practices have touched many parts of her life: Her car is a hybrid, and the tea company she runs, Teeccino, helps protect rainforest trees by purchasing and using the nuts of the ramon tree—a relative of the fig—in some of its products. And yet, she says, "I always worry that I'm not doing enough."

MacDougall finds an encouraging metaphor in her yoga practice, however. "What I love in class is that we're all practicing together. I can feel everyone breathing and moving through the postures. There are people in my class I may never talk to, but I feel bonded to them," she says. "I realize that if I do my part, and everyone else does their part, then together we can create change."
Alison Stein Wellner lives in New York City. She wrote "Kind Ambition" in the April 2006 issue.

Union: Muslim Workers Reach Deal for Prayer Break

OMAHA, Nebraska — A meatpacking plant has agreed to accommodate Muslim workers' request for prayer time during Ramadan, union officials said Wednesday.

Earlier this week 300 Muslim JBS Swift & Co. workers, most of Somali background, walked off the job in protest of the prayer dispute. No one was fired after the protest.

Dan Hoppes, president of the local United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said management at the plant has agreed to temporarily change the timing of the second-shift lunch break to accommodate workers wanting time to pray during the Muslim observance of Ramadan.

Workers previously took the 30-minute break in shifts. The change will force the entire line to break at once. The arrangement will be in effect the next nine working days, which will cover the remainder of Ramadan, Hoppes said.

A phone message left with company officials was not immediately returned Wednesday.

The plant employs about 2,500 people, not including management, Hoppes said. He estimates about 500 of the plant's workforce is Muslim.

More than 100 workers at a Greeley, Colorado, Swift plant were fired last week because the company said they walked away from work before their shifts ended. The workers blamed the company's refusal to allow their breaks to coincide with sunset so they could pray.

Nano car factory row 'to resume'
Protests outside the Nano plant
Work at the plant has been suspended indefinitely

An oposition group in India's West Bengal state says it will resume protests that led to the suspension of work at a Tata Motors plant.

This follows the collapse of an agreement between the group and the state government over the plant.

Under the accord, the state government promised to return some land at the plant site to local farmers.

Tata Motors stopped work this month on the plant where it plans to build the Nano, the world's cheapest car.

Separately, the government in the southern Indian state of Karnataka has offered 1,000 acres of land to Tata Motors to relocate the Nano car factory there.

Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant told reporters that the firm had taken no decision yet on the offer.

Under a recent agreement, the West Bengal government had agreed to return as much land as possible within the plant site outside Calcutta to "unwilling farmers" who were against the acquisition of their farms.

'Agitation'

The opposition groups, led by the Trinamul Congress party, agreed to the government's proposal to provide the rest from around the plant site.

Under the agreement, Tata Motors, India's biggest vehicle makers, would retain 650 acres of land for the plant. The ancillary factories for the plant will get the 290 acres allotted to them.

The agreement broke down on Thursday after the Trinamul Congress party said the government should return at least 300 acres of land to farmers from within the plant area.


Nano car

Exclusive look at the Tata Nano

But the state government said it could return only 70 acres from within the plant site. The rest, it says, has to be provided from outside it.

"We will resume our agitation for getting back land for the farmers who lost it to the plant and want it back," said Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

Tata Motors have not yet commented on the latest development.

The West Bengal chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharyya said the protesters were "failing to understand the integrated nature" of the car plant.

Economic zones

The state government has also announced a package to compensate farmers who have lost their land.

Tata had faced violent protests and political opposition over the acquisition of farmland for the factory in Singur in the state of West Bengal.

Tata's owner, Ratan Tata, has said he will consider moving production of the Nano out of West Bengal if unrest around the plant continues.

Tata plans to launch the Nano later this year, priced at about $2,500 (£1,370) from the plant in West Bengal.

India's rapid industrialisation in recent years has been the backbone of the country's strong economic growth.

But this process has provoked a backlash since the majority of Indians still earn their living off the land.

The policy of creating special economic zones to attract new investment has provided a focal point for the anger of poorer, rural families who rely on their land for food and income.

Double trouble for Nepal's tigers

By Navin Singh Khadka BBC Nepali Service

Big cats have been poached for their pelt and bones

Conservationists in Nepal say efforts to save the nation's dwindling tiger populations are facing a twin attack.

They have recorded a significant decrease in the number of the endangered species in some of the protected areas of the country.

The bad news comes just as concern is growing over the immigration of traditional hunting and poaching communities from neighbouring India.

During the 10-year Maoist conflict, which ended two years ago, poachers were already active in some conserved areas, cashing in on the absence of army personnel who were otherwise engaged in the conflict with the then rebels. Some of these poachers had been identified as Nepalese nationals.

The recent decline in tiger population, however, has coincided with the arrival of the Indian hunting tribes.

New threat

A recent count in the western Nepalese Shuklaphanta wildlife reserve, which shares an open border with India, has shown a decrease of about 50% in tiger numbers from just three years ago.

The 10-year Maoist conflict took troops away from wildlife protection patrols

Initial results of a tiger count in another nearby protected area, the Bardiya National Park, are not good either.

"It is very disturbing news," says Diwakar Chapagain of conservation group WWF, which supported the government in the tiger count.

"More so when there are indications that the tigers did not die natural deaths," he added.

Following the tiger count in Shuklaphanta wildlife reserve, the report submitted by the tiger task force concluded that there had not been a noticeable decline in the tigers' key prey species.

"(Therefore) tiger mortality due to natural deaths and through poaching is worth exploring," it recommended.

But conservationists closely monitoring poaching and illegal trading of wildlife believe they have some explanation for the observed decreases.

They say members of Indian traditional hunting communities - Bawariyas and Beheliyas - have been increasingly moving in after being hounded out by authorities in India.

Indian officials with the border security force told us that they had noticed some movement of these hunting tribes in border areas Hem Aryal, Banke district forest officer

"From our informers on the ground, we have information that more than 50 Bawariyas and Beheliyas families have entered Nepal and they are now in Nepalese-protected areas and jungles," says Prasanna Yonjan of Wildlife Conservation Nepal, which has helped officials catch illegal wildlife traders and traffickers.

Hem Aryal, the forest officer in Banke district (where the Bardiya National park is located), says he has been tipped off about the arrival of the hunting communities by Indian authorities.

"In one of our recent bilateral meetings, Indian officials with the border security force told us that they had noticed some movement of these hunting tribes in border areas," he said. "We are therefore on high alert."

After arresting an illegal wildlife trafficker recently, Aryal's team is even more convinced that the hunters and poachers are already active in the Nepalese side.

"This trafficker revealed to us that the leopard skin he was carrying was given to him by Indian hunters; their description perfectly matched with what the Indian officials have told us," he said.

Crossing borders

Some conservationists in India share the same opinion as their Nepalese counterparts about the recent tiger poaching and the arrival of traditional Indian hunters.

Traffickers use devices like double-sided number plates to evade detection

"I believe there is a definite connection between the arrival of gangs of Bawariyas and Beheliyas in Nepal and the decline in tiger numbers there," says Belinda Wright, executive director of Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), a non-governmental organisation.

Although none of the members of these communities have been arrested in Nepal so far, some of them were detained in India last December.

According to WPSI, which took part in the police operation, 12 of the 16 people arrested with three tiger skins and skeletons in Allahabad of Uttar Pradesh, were from the Beheliyas community.

After years of being chased by Indian authorities, members of the Bawariyas and Beheliyas communities have now come across into the Nepali territory in search of safe haven, conservationists believe.

"At least five of them are on the wanted list of the CBI (one of the Indian intelligence agencies)," says Ms Wright.

"Members of these nomadic communities travel in small groups often with women and children. They usually set up camp 5-10km from a protected area with good wildlife populations.

"Men do the poaching, often assisted by local contacts, while women act as couriers carrying the skins and bones to their home base or to a known buyer."

The tiger population in India has halved within a matter of a few years - from 3,000 just a couple of years ago to 1,500 today.

In Nepal, previous estimations showed the number of tigers to be about 350.

But conservationists say the recent count in some of the protected areas suggests that the number must have dwindled drastically.

Skins and bones of tigers and leopards are among the most frequently seized illegal wildlife goods in Nepal.

Wildlife officials say at least three such contrabands are seized across the country every month.

The biggest seizure to date took place in 2005, in Langtang National Park, north of Kathmandu.

An army patrol had then found more than 240 tiger and leopard skins in a truck heading towards Tibet.

Security officials and conservationists said most of the tiger products either originated in Nepal or were smuggled in from other countries like India, Bangladesh and Bhutan, and were often destined for China.

While the illegal trade continues to be a serious threat to Nepal's conservation efforts, the arrival of the Indian traditional hunters and poachers canis sure to add up to its challenge.

Get Your Green On

Environmental crisis got you down? Let yoga inspire you to make life better for yourself and the whole wide world.

By Allison Wellner

It took two years of yoga practice, one trip to the supermarket, and an amazing organic dinner to transform Ashley Currie from a person who never thought much about green issues to a budding environmentalist. It started in New York City, just after Currie's regular Wednesday evening yoga class. She and a classmate decided to make dinner together and headed to the supermarket to gather ingredients. Currie, a 23-year-old professional actress and dancer, felt the way she always does after practice: peaceful, centered, happy. She'd started yoga for the workout but cherished the blissed-out feelings it brought and the life view it was helping her develop. "When you have a strong practice and you do yoga long enough, it's hard to not start seeing the philosophy behind it," she says. Indeed, after practice, she says, she'd come to appreciate how "everything is connected."

Currie's friend started piling organic food into their shopping cart—a move that Currie, who lives on a tight budget, hadn't previously considered. But the dinner they prepared was delicious, and Currie had a revelation: Organic food was not only very tasty but was also probably better for the environment—in other words, for the "everything" here on the planet that she felt so connected to in yoga class. She realized that she could extend her postpractice feeling of interconnection by living greener—and that she could start with the food she put on her table each day.

For Currie, respecting the link between her own actions and the health of the planet primarily means eating organic food as much as possible—organic farming emits far fewer greenhouse gases than conventional farming, so it's a great place to start. Currie now regularly hits the Internet to get better informed on environmental issues, so she can figure out how else she can help. "We're killing the planet," she says. "We've got to do something about it."

These days, just about everyone with a pulse is starting to get this message—the ominous signs are all around us. Climate change, most scientists agree, is a reality. The average global temperature has climbed sharply in the past 30 years. If the current warming trend continues, the earth's temperature in the coming decades could reach heights not experienced since the time of the dinosaurs. In just one year, the Arctic Ocean has lost an area of year-round ice cover the size of Texas. The results of all this warming could be cataclysmic, experts warn. Coastlines will shift as polar ice caps melt; storms, droughts, and floods will increase; massive human migrations could take place. The world is in danger.

But what does this have to do with yoga? Quite a bit, it turns out. The essence of yoga is balance, and that means not only balance in our bodies or our emotional lives, but also balance in our relationship to the world. Yoga's core principles can motivate you to take meaningful actions that are good for the planet and also appropriate for you, whatever your circumstances. And while your yoga practice is deepening your commitment to living green, it can also help you to cope with the anxiety that the state of our world can provoke.

First, Do No Harm

While concerns about making greener lifestyle choices are fairly new, caring about the planet and all of its inhabitants has been a part of yoga philosophy for thousands of years. Many of yoga's yamas, or principles, are relevant, explains Georg Feuerstein, founder of the Yoga Research and Education Foundation in Middletown, California. First among these is ahimsa, or nonviolence. "Genuine yoga is impossible without it," he writes in The Deeper Dimension of Yoga. Indeed, Jainism, which shares its roots with yoga, is based on what some would consider a deep concern for the environment. Strict adherents don't dig in soil, mold lumps of clay, disturb a puddle, or do anything else that might affect another living organism negatively. They even wear masks over their noses and mouths to avoid inhaling tiny bugs.

Obviously, not everyone will go to such extremes. But the general principle of nonharming can influence daily choices. Some people choose not to eat meat, to eat lower on the food chain. By doing this they not only spare animals' lives but also help the environment by reducing emissions. A recent University of Chicago study found that a person who eats a typical American diet, which includes meat, contributes 3,274 pounds more greenhouse gas emissions to the environment each year than a person who eats food that comes only from plant sources.

Food choices are just one way that yogis practice caring for the environment. Julie Roddham, 41, the wardrobe manager for Cirque du Soleil's O show in Las Vegas, experiences a sense of interconnection with the natural world when she practices yoga several times a week and says, "The biggest challenge is to take that intention and feeling and to live it off the mat."

One way she tries to do this is by being a good steward of the land around her home. When she bought her house in the desert seven years ago, there was a lawn in the front yard. She realized she had a choice: She could water, mow, and distribute chemicals on grass that would struggle to survive there, or she could replace the grass with native plants that would thrive. "I chose to take the grass out, and I planted cactus and desert herbs," Roddham says. As a bonus, she's learned to use some of the herbs as household cleaners—which allows her to avoid the standard commercial versions she believes will harm the water supply.

The more closely you look at yoga principles, the more clearly they point toward taking action to care for the earth. One of the yamas, astyea, or nonstealing, is a good example. Adopting astyea means not using more than you need and making good use of the surplus. By focusing on what you really need, you can help counteract the thousands of consumerist messages you're exposed to each day. Another principle, aparigraha, or greedlessness—sometimes referred to as nongrasping—reminds us to respect others' rights to share a clean environment.

Recycling, a long-standing cornerstone of a green lifestyle, is an excellent application of both nonstealing and greedlessness. Roddham, for example, has taken over responsibility for the recycling program at her workplace—she asks her co-workers to drop off recyclables in her office, and "when the sack gets so big that I can't get in my door," she totes them home and puts them out with her own recycling. She's currently working to expand recycling options at Cirque du Soleil's other properties.

Just as people at all fitness levels benefit from the physical practice of yoga, so yoga principles can help you become greener, whatever your starting point.

For some practitioners, like Currie, yoga is the entry point to greener living. For others, green living is already so much a part of their daily routine that it simply goes without saying. But even people who are well on their way toward living a green lifestyle often find that their yoga practice deepens their commitment to the earth.

This is the case for Brian Raszka, a Reno, Nevada, artist. His ecological awareness began in high school, when he made his first donation to Greenpeace. He and his wife follow an array of earth-friendly practices, including riding their bikes to work; when they must drive, they batch errands to use their car less often.

"Yoga is about balancing all aspects of your life," he says. "If we balance our lives, it's easier to think outside our immediate experience. This opens us up to consider, for instance, green issues."

Linda Mason Hunter, 60, an author and home design consultant in Des Moines, Iowa, has been practicing yoga and steadily moving toward a greener lifestyle for the past 25 years. She too sees a strong connection between the two. "You can certainly live a green and sustainable life without practicing yoga," she says. "But I don't see how you can do yoga and not be interested in a green and sustainable life."

For her, the link between the two is mindfulness—she practices mindfulness during her asana practice, which reminds her to bring that attention to the rest of her life. So as not to get overwhelmed and paralyzed by all the choices before her, she has systematically directed her gaze onto different areas of her life, taking the greening one step at a time. For a while, she focused on reducing the amount of chemicals she used. Now, she's focused on cutting her energy consumption. She's planning to purchase a fuel-efficient car and has taken the big step of spending part of the year in Vancouver, in order to reduce her use of air conditioning during the hot summers in Des Moines.

The work, she says, will never be done—but she's in it for the long haul. "I see a lot of things that I still have to do, but I don't get uptight about it. It has to be an evolution," she says. "It's a process, and it's going to take time."

That Inconvenient Truth

But time is the one thing we don't have, says Emily Figdor, a clean air and energy advocate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington, D.C. "The scientific community tells us that we have a 10-year window of opportunity to act to prevent the worst impacts of global warming and to stabilize our emissions of global warming pollutants," Figdor says. She adds, "That's a very narrow window, and we're past the point of taking the modest first step. We can't just put a Band-Aid on the problem."

Figdor also says that while individual actions—such as eating organic foods, recycling, and watching our energy usage at home—are commendable, there's a danger of deciding you've done your part and don't need to do more. Indeed, Matthew Kotchen, an environmental economist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, recently published a study suggesting that consumers who buy premium green goods (rainforest-friendly shade-grown coffee, for instance) may be less likely to donate money to environmental causes. That's bad news, because pooling your money with others helps fund large-scale change. It's great to vote with your dollar in the marketplace, but if it causes you to scale back your charitable contributions, you may actually have a net negative effect on the environment.

"This is where honesty comes in," says Bo Forbes, a Boston yoga teacher and clinical psychologist. "You have to get informed about the changes that are possible for you to make, and to ask yourself whether you're doing as much as you can." While you're asking yourself this question, be sure that you're not giving yourself a pass for taking only the green actions that benefit you in other ways—for instance, are you eating organic food for the environment, or for your health? Are you buying a fuel-efficient car for the environment or, as gas prices climb, for your wallet?

Of course, it's not wrong to take positive actions on behalf of your health or pocketbook. But Forbes would urge you to remember the importance of selflessness and altruism in yoga. If you find you're only taking the green steps that benefit you directly—and scaling back on other selfless actions—you may want to consider where your motives lie and whether there's more you can do.

Get Active

It so happens that Figdor has an idea about how all of us can do more on behalf of the environment: "Get involved politically," she urges. Our most significant global warming problems are most likely to be solved not by individuals taking action on their own, but by federal, state, and local governments creating policies that regulate industrial emissions and provide funding to develop long-term, widespread clean energy sources. Many changes that will really help the environment can only come at the policy level, she says.

The idea of political activism might seem problematic for yoga practitioners—one of the limbs of yoga, after all, asks us to keep our gaze focused inward and accept the world as it is. Can we do this and take action on behalf of the environment? Absolutely, says Forbes. "Sustainable living is an issue of nonviolence toward the earth and the environment all around us, and ahimsa trumps everything else in yoga philosophy," she says. "It's the primary principle."

Entrepreneur Jonathan Fields, 41, owns several companies, including Sonic Yoga in New York City. He doesn't really consider himself an activist, although he's long been interested in environmental issues. Last year, he saw the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. "My mind immediately went to my daughter, Jesse—she's five," he says. "What kind of a world will I be leaving her?"

So Fields started taking action at his yoga studio as well as in his personal life, including switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, signing up for wind- and water-generated power, and offering his students a $10 credit for buying compact fluorescent bulbs or switching to green power at their homes.

"You could say that since yoga emphasizes accepting yourself and your circumstances as they are, without your being compelled to change them, you should say, "That's just the way it is; deal with it.' But I don't think that's yoga's larger message," Fields says. "I'm very attached to the desire to create the healthiest planet possible for my daughter."

Where there is attachment, anxiety is sure to follow. Since most of us are doubtless quite attached to life on earth as we know it, in this era of distressing headlines, a certain amount of anxiety about environmental issues is quite normal, says Larina Kase, a Philadelphia psychologist who frequently works with patients on anxiety and fear issues. In this case, a bit of fear is a healthy thing, she says, because it can propel us to make changes. The trick is to keep the anxiety at a manageable level.

"If someone reacts with intense fear and anxiety, they're likely to feel helpless," she says. Yoga practice can help with this, too—for instance, Fields calms his anxiety on this and other issues with a regular practice of meditation and pranayama. Focusing on the present is also beneficial, says Forbes. "Stay within the reasonable present, and focus on the small steps you can take," she says—whether those steps are personal or political.

Of course, all of those small steps can feel like just that—small—in the face of such a large environmental threat. Caroline MacDougall, 54, of Santa Barbara, California, has spent years practicing yoga and living green. These practices have touched many parts of her life: Her car is a hybrid, and the tea company she runs, Teeccino, helps protect rainforest trees by purchasing and using the nuts of the ramon tree—a relative of the fig—in some of its products. And yet, she says, "I always worry that I'm not doing enough."

MacDougall finds an encouraging metaphor in her yoga practice, however. "What I love in class is that we're all practicing together. I can feel everyone breathing and moving through the postures. There are people in my class I may never talk to, but I feel bonded to them," she says. "I realize that if I do my part, and everyone else does their part, then together we can create change."

Alison Stein Wellner lives in New York City. She wrote "Kind Ambition" in the April 2006 issue.

Police Clamp Down on Jaywalking Offenders

Should jaywalking be a crime worthy of public humiliation? In Shanghai it would seem a debate of formidable proportions.

It will now be common practice in Shanghai for the police to post photos and videos of jaywalkers in newspapers and on television! According to news sources, this represents an attempt to bring public shame upon jaywalking offenders in the hopes of preventing them from breaking traffic rules in the future.

The Shanghai Daily stated that offending pedestrians, moped riders and cyclists will be photographed at selected city intersections and their images then posted on television programs especially set up by the police. Lawyers have protested this steep punishment and have threatened defamation lawsuits, but so far, none have been initiated.

One local lawyer, Liu Chunquan, told the press:

“It’s a principle of law that a penalty should match the seriousness of the crime.”

It would appear that jaywalking is more than a crime; it is a way of life in many Chinese cities. In Shanghai alone, traffic police recorded 7.78 million jaywalking violations in the first eight months of 2008.

What’s next?

The execution of jaywalkers who still refuse to stop?

Thousands of Indians seek refuge from floods in Nepal

Published on Sep 15, 2008 - 8:14:58 AM

By: IRIN News

Rekha Devi and her four children have no idea when they will return to India. Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

SAPTARI, 15 September 2008 (IRIN) - Thousands of Indians have taken refuge in Nepal's eastern Saptari District, 300km southeast of the capital, Kathmandu, after heavy flooding in Nepal and their home state of Bihar.

The floods occurred after the Koshi River - Nepal's largest, which straddles the India-Nepal border - burst its banks on 18 August.

Some 70,000 Nepalese nationals are displaced, while the situation in neighbouring Bihar is reportedly worse. Indian officials report that more than 250,000 people are displaced, with over three million affected as of the first week of September.

Many villagers from Bihar's Supaul District fled to Nepal as it was easier to access than crossing the flooded areas to Indian relief camps.

In addition, they were closer to the eastern districts of Nepal, the displaced families told IRIN.

Many of the displaced heard that it was quicker to receive food and shelter in the Nepalese camps as the numbers of displaced were significantly fewer than in India.

"It may take us more than five or six months to return home, as we have nothing left now and the Indian government has told us that we have to remain in camps for many months before the water levels recede," said Kalanand Jha from Supaul District, one of the 13 most affected areas of north Bihar.

More than 1,000 villages were reportedly heavily affected by the floods, the Indian government said.

"I have nothing left. I lost all my cash I had saved for my family, my house. All I have now is my children," the mother-of-four lamented.

According to aid agencies, the Indian government has been digging new channels to direct the course of the Koshi River and repair roads and embankments broken by the flood to improve access.

However, it will likely take between three and six months before the displaced Indian families will be able to return safely home.

Challenges for aid agencies in Nepal

There are up to 7,000 flood-displaced Indians now living in the relief camps in Nepal, where they are living separately in tented camps or school buildings in Sunsari and Saptari districts.

Relief workers say they occupy approximately 20-30 percent of the camps.

Meanwhile, the Nepalese government and relief agencies have begun the process of registering the displaced.

"There is no clear picture of the displaced families from India. This is important to assess their vulnerability," Sanjeev Kafle, director of disaster management of the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), said.

The NRCS is helping the Nepalese government to register the displaced families for long-term humanitarian assistance.

Humanitarian aid for Indian families

"I can't return now and I don't want to travel all the way to live in another camp," Rekha Devi, 32, with three girls and a one-year-old son, said in the Bhardaha area of Saptari.

She and her children had fled with 11 relatives from Hridayanagar village of Supaul District, neighbouring Nepal's south-eastern region, and are staying in Kankalni Madhyamik School with many other Indian families.

Local NGOs and international aid agencies and the Nepalese government have been providing food, drinking water, clothing and other necessary humanitarian assistance, according to families.

However, new challenges will likely emerge.

"Although Nepal's government and aid agencies have not discriminated against the Indians with humanitarian assistance, the country can't afford to continue to do the same for a long time," said one local aid worker, who asked not to be named.

The financial resources may not be sufficient in the months to come, he said.

According to local government authorities, the country planned to provide nine months' support for the Nepalese families, while there was no certainty over the fate of the Indian ones.

"It is possible that they will be supported with emergency aid for another two to three months. But the Nepal and Indian governments should seriously think of how to help the affected Indian families displaced in Nepal," said the relief worker.

Suspects quizzed over Delhi bombs

More than 400 people have died since late 2005 in bombings at Indian cities

Indian police say they have detained several suspects a day after a series of bomb blasts killed at least 20 people in the capital Delhi.

About 90 people were injured when the five devices went off in busy shopping areas within minutes of each other.

Indian media reported that 10 people were being questioned and police told AP news agency they had "vital clues".

Responsibility for the blasts was claimed by a Muslim militant group in an e-mail sent to Indian media outlets.

More than 400 people have died since late 2005 in bombings at Indian cities.

BOMB ATTACKS IN INDIA IN 2008 13 September: Five bomb blasts kill 18 in Delhi 26 July: At least 22 small bombs kill 49 in Ahmedabad 25 July: Seven bombs go off in Bangalore killing two people 13 May: Seven bomb hit markets and crowded streets in Jaipur killing 63 Delhi bombs follow haunting script In pictures: Delhi blasts

Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AP that several people were being held and investigators hoped to solve the case soon.

Four unexploded bombs were also found and defused on Saturday, police said.

Two of the blasts hit Connaught Place - an important financial and commercial centre - while two more hit the upmarket shopping district of Greater Kailash.

'Cowardly'

A fifth ripped through a busy electronics and automobile components market.

An e-mail purportedly from a group calling itself the "Indian Mujahideen" claimed it carried out the attacks, adding: "Do whatever you can. Stop us if you can."

The same group has claimed responsibility for two other recent bomb attacks in Jaipur and Bangalore.

The Mayor of Delhi, Arti Mehra, said the city would not be intimidated by the "cowardly" attacks.

Pakistan's new President, Asif Ali Zardari, joined in official Indian condemnation.

British Justice Minister Jack Straw, in Delhi on an official visit, also condemned the "horrible attacks".

America's ambassador in Delhi, David C Mulford, said the US stood shoulder-to-shoulder with India in the fight against terrorists.