Meet Sailesh Rao of Climate Healers in Ahwatukee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sailesh Rao.

Sailesh, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born and raised in India in the Hindu tradition, founded on the axiom, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,” which is Sanskrit for “all life on Earth is one family.” I came to the US in 1981 as a graduate student and completed my doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1985. For the next 20 years, I worked on internet communications infrastructure. During this period, I was successful in transforming early analog internet connections to more robust digital connections that also ran ten times faster.

In 2005, I happened to see Vice President Al Gore’s climate change presentation on a public access channel on TV. I was so shocked that I spent a few months studying the problem and then I closed our internet technology startup and devoted my life full time to address the environmental crises on planet Earth from a systems perspective. I founded Climate Healers in 2007 with the mission to heal the Earth from the inside out.

The core guiding principle for our work at Climate Healers is that “compassion for all life is infinitely sustainable.” I consider myself a Human, Earth, Animal Liberation (HEAL) activist. I’m a devoted husband, father of two amazing sons and since 2010, a star-struck grandfather. I have promised my granddaughter, Kimaya, that the world will be largely Vegan by the time she turns 16 in the year 2026 so that people will stop eating her relatives, the animals. I have faith that humanity will transform to keep my pinky promise to Kimaya, not just for ethical reasons, but also out of sheer ecological necessity.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has been a rough, tough and amazing journey. Every major change in my life has come from spot decisions that were scary to make at that time, but make perfect sense looking backward. When I started working on the environment, I became quite depressed after 2-3 years as I realized that humanity was headed over an ecological cliff. I concluded that every other species belonged perfectly in nature, but we humans, with our unique abilities, were the sole exception.

Then, when my granddaughter was born in 2010, she lifted me and transformed my outlook completely. I held her in my arms for the first time when she was a month old and when she looked up at me and smiled, I knew that she belonged exactly as she was in nature. And therefore, we all belonged exactly as we are as well. When I transformed my outlook on my fellow humans, I could see our past folly in a different light and it all began to make perfect sense. I wrote a couple of books, “Carbon Dharma: The Occupation of Butterflies” and “Carbon Yoga: The Vegan Metamorphosis,” describing this new story. Using the metaphor of metamorphosis, the current COVID-19 lockdown is the human caterpillar entering the chrysalis phase where we are called to take care of each other and heal ourselves before we assume our role as the caretaker species of the planet in our butterfly phase.

Please tell us about your organization.
Climate Healers is a non-profit engaged in research and education activities concerning the environmental crises and how to mitigate them. We are most proud of our role as co-Executive producer of four consequential full-length documentaries, “The Human Experiment,” “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret,” “What The Health,” and “A Prayer For Compassion.” I have also been featured in Jane Velez-Mitchell’s award-winning documentary, “Countdown to Year Zero,” which is available on Amazon Prime.

Climate Healers published a white paper, “Animal Agriculture is the Leading Cause of Climate Change,” which has received numerous accolades for being forthright in its analysis of the impact of the animal agriculture sector. As an engineer, I am trained to search out the truth in all that I do. For otherwise, whatever I build would not work as intended.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
What I like best about our city is its proximity to the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) because my granddaughter is registered in that community. I am truly grateful to the Akimel O’otham people for hosting this city on their sacred grounds. What I like least about our city is its sprawl and poor public transportation which makes life difficult without automobile ownership.

Contact Info:

• Address: 3145 E Chandler Blvd #110-233
• Website: https://www.climatehealers.org
• Phone: 7328093526
• Email: srao@climatehealers.org
• Instagram: VeganWorld2026
• Facebook: ClimateHealers
• Twitter: ClimateHealers

Image Credit:
Beth Redwood (for photo with cow) Thomas Wade Jackson (for photo with Kimaya)

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