"Mother Earth is not just an assembly of
oceans, volcanoes, animals and human groups,
it is one whole living unit, and as such, 
it may collapse and die at any moment"
Javier Francisco Ortiz
Gaia Foundation’s proposal solves one of the main problems in reducing the effects of climate change,
Only by solving this problem, will we be able to overcome the current difficulties of our common home.
The deepest cause of climate change is not the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as it is commonly thought,
but the negative effect that each and every one of us generates over the course of our daily life,
as a consequence of our disconnection with Mother Earth,
and our forgetfulness that the planet is a living organism
that must be loved and taken care of as a mother.
Along with the creation of a low-emission economy, the problem is solved by adding
a process of personal transformation enabling all citizens to recover that connection with Mother Earth.
This process of personal transformation is Gaia’s main contribution to humankind.
To achieve it, we are doing two things
of equal importance:
On one hand, paying off our debt to the past.
Returning the forest we destroyed
to the indigenous peoples,
and on the other, paying off our debt to the future,
teaching our children that the planet is a living
being that must be loved and cared for like a mother.
In 2007, Costa Rica was the first country that committed to become a carbon-neutral nation.
While the government worked on promoting a low-emission economy,
Gaia began forging a national alliance with all social actors, including the Indigenous Peoples,
public universities, private business, municipalities and the central government,
aimed at promoting the signature and fulfillment of the Mother Earth Peace Agreement:
"I choose, here and now, to make peace with Mother Earth, to live in a conscious, healthy and sustainable manner, and to offset my ecological footprint."
After obtaining the support of several international indigenous leaders,
we visited all of the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica,
offered an apology for the excesses committed since
the invasion, and invited them to join an alliance
to sign and promote the Peace Agreement.
Against all odds and expectations, one by one each of these peoples gradually accepted our proposal,
and on December 21, 2012, this national alliance was forged around what we called “The Fire of Unity.”
From that fire, an agreement arose to create a peace trail uniting all of the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica.
At the same time, it would be an eco-ethno-touristic wellness destination and recipient of compensation,
so that no matter where they were in the world, signatories of the Peace Agreement could offset their footprint,
returning ancestral forests to the indigenous people.
At the request of the Alliance, on April 22, 2016, celebrated worldwide as Earth Day,
the President of Costa Rica signed the “Mother Earth”  executive decree and requested actions to be taken
so that every Costa Rican, from their earliest years of life, perceives the planet as a living unit
and generates planetary consciousness
with personal responsibility.
Thanks to that decree, a campaign was launched in public primary and secondary schools,
called “I Am the Answer.”
The campaign combines collaborative actions having a positive environmental impact
with Gaia Yoga and Intentional Meditation
to produce a process of personal transformation that lead to a conscious, healthy and sustainable lifestyle
and offsetting one’s ecological footprint through financial contributions to indigenous recipients.
The results of the campaign, which will be scaled up at national and international level, have been surprising.
For example, in less than a year students have already collaborated to build a yoga and meditation deck
and are creating a pollinator garden around the deck to save bees and the Guaria Morada, Costa Rica’s national flower.
Both in danger of extinction.
In addition, the children involved have asked the country’s President to sign the Peace Agreement,
and these eight-year-olds have became
replicators of the “I Am the Answer” project.
Let´s see...
"Now she does not allow me to scream at her, she comes and grabs me and says: come on mommy, sit here.
And she comes by herself, puts the phone away, puts her hand and stays like this and says: let's do yoga.
And everything, everything, my arrogance, 
just goes away.
I want to change and I don’t want to pollute.
I want Costa Rica to be carbon-neutral.
If we all help, we’re sure to make this happen. If we keep on polluting, it won’t, no way.
Our country might be tiny and they might call us Ticos, but we can do it.
We can make Costa Rica carbon-neutral.
Let us give their forests back to the indigenous peoples of the world...
and let us give hope to the children of the world.
