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Soil is the foundation of life on Earth. The Save Soil movement seeks to raise awareness around the world about the threats to these oases of biodiversity.
“The only magical material that turns death into life. This is Sadhguru’s clear and mystical definition of soil. An internationally renowned Indian guru and yogi master, his book Inner engineering: a yogi’s guide to joy made the New York Times Best Seller list in 2017. After creating the Isha Foundation in 1992, a non-religious, non-profit organisation promoting the practice of yoga, Sadhguru has initiated numerous programmes, particularly in the field of schooling and environmental protection. He has been the driving force behind Project Green Hands, which has planted more than 35 million trees since its launch in 2004.
In 2006, he even won a Guinness World Record for planting no less than 852,587 trees in a single day! In order to broaden the scope of Project Green Hands, Sadhguru initiated a new movement in early 2022. Called “Save Soil”, it aims to raise awareness among people around the world about the threat of soil extinction and its irreparable consequence: desertification.
Acting consciously
In order to “bring humanity together to keep the magic of the soil alive”, Save Soil has devised a global initiative, which includes both concrete actions on multiple scales, but also a more spiritual inner approach. Conscious Planet – as it is called – is conceived as “an effort to raise human consciousness, and bring a sense of inclusion so that the multiple activities of our societies move into conscious mode. An effort to align human activity so that it supports nature and all life on our planet.
The idea behind this initiative is to take environmental issues out of their traditional ideological box. The ultimate goal is to “create a planet where large numbers of people act consciously, where governments are elected consciously, where ecological issues become electoral issues in the world”. To achieve this, Sadhguru is currently travelling the world to raise awareness on a 100-day motorbike trip from the UK to India, crossing 27 countries and covering 30,000 km.
Informing, convincing, accompanying
After many years of empirical experience, the Save Soil movement has come to the conclusion that while more and more people are familiar with the concepts of greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, air pollution and water scarcity, the issue of soil is still largely underestimated or even ignored. The Save Soil teams are therefore focusing their efforts on three areas. Firstly, by drawing attention to the fact that the thin layer of fertile soil that has allowed humanity to prosper for millennia is now in great danger.
Second, by convincing some four billion people in the so-called Third World countries to support policy programmes that include major shifts in the direction of keeping soil organic matter levels to a minimum of 3-6%. Finally, by ensuring that these policy changes are actually implemented in a concrete and effective way. To achieve its goals, the Save Soil movement is already involving the huge Sadhguru community.