Parvati.org members after #July11at11 Day of Action

Community: Celebrating Parvati.Org Climate Leadership

Parvati.org, a Toronto-based organization with offices in Edmonton and Vancouver and a heart in the Arctic, is fresh off a Climate Reality Leadership training with former US Vice President Al Gore. The ten members of parvati.org immediately sprang into action the day after the training concluded by staging an event, #July11at11, as part of Climate Reality’s Day of Action.

July11at11, which took place at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre in Toronto, featured a free class in YEM: Yoga as Energy Medicine, led by Toronto-based musician and YEM: Yoga as Energy Medicine founder Parvati, the president and CEO of parvati.org. Attendees of all levels unrolled their yoga mats and unwound their muscles and their minds through Parvati’s expert guidance. Then they contemplated the situation in Canada’s Arctic as Parvati.org staff gave a presentation based on their seven months of research on the threat of seismic testing and oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean.

“Seismic testing is known to harm marine life. It can cause permanent hearing loss, disruption of feeding, disruption of migration routes, and death,” said Vandana Ryder, legal counsel for Parvati.org. “Arctic ice is essential to protect and regulate the climate of the entire planet. And to help stabilize the climate, drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic quite simply must never happen.”

Following the presentation, Parvati took the stage again, in a shimmering fairy queen character costume that awed the attendees when she reappeared, to sing her self-produced singles “Yoga in the Nightclub” and “You Gotta Believe”, two of the songs she sang at the North Pole on a journey to raise awareness of the melting polar ice, as well as her upcoming single “Shanti Om”. Dancing enthusiastic audience members were also treated to preview screenings of two music videos with footage that Parvati’s crew shot from the North Pole.

Attendees signed two parvati.org petitions at July11at11, calling for business and government to practice transparency regarding plans for seismic testing, as well as the Climate Reality Live Earth petition. July11at11 event inspired viewers around the world by partnering with the new Canadian streaming location-based video platform Yeplive.

Deeply moved by the messages she heard from the Inuit to “please tell the South to stop polluting” when she traveled to the North Pole, Parvati founded Parvati.org in December of 2014, in response to the threat of seismic testing in Baffin Bay off the coast of Nunavut. Its current immediate mission is to stop seismic testing in the Arctic, following with the ambitious goal of having the entire Arctic Ocean above the Arctic Circle declared an international marine protected area known as MAPS (Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary), free from exploitation of all kinds, including seismic testing or oil exploration.

Next steps for the motivated team at Parvati.org include a consumer empowerment campaign to stop seismic testing in the Arctic Ocean, as well as continuing to work with Climate Reality Project and Greenpeace, and network worldwide to raise awareness of the need to protect the Arctic and stop climate change.

“All of us at parvati.org are clear that the Arctic Ocean must be protected for the sake of everyone on the planet.

The practice of yoga, which means union in Sanskrit, is a way of coming home to our inherent interconnection, to which we must awaken if we are to stop climate change.

Music, like all art, as well as yoga and meditation, can become vehicles to cultivate our human potential. It can remind us of our inherent interconnection as one earth family. It can help guide our way home.”

– Parvati

by Parvati Magazine staff