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Video Information: 16.05.2022, IIT-Ropar, Greater Noida, U.P.
Context:
~ Is Climate Change a technological problem?
~ Who is the real culprit for Climate Change?
~ How can govenment and institutions help in eradicating this problem?
~ What is the connection between consumption, population and climate change?
~ What is the role of an individual in this scenario?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates?
Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work?
Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...
Want to work with Acharya Prashant?
Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...
➖➖➖➖➖➖
Video Information: 16.05.2022, IIT-Ropar, Greater Noida, U.P.
Context:
~ Is Climate Change a technological problem?
~ Who is the real culprit for Climate Change?
~ How can govenment and institutions help in eradicating this problem?
~ What is the connection between consumption, population and climate change?
~ What is the role of an individual in this scenario?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00First of all, I would like to thank you, Acharya. Actually, I am listening to you from last two
00:10and a half years. And after that, a lot of betterment has happened and I have become
00:15a better person. Even after listening to you, I started on veganism also. And Acharya, my
00:23question is regarding climate change. Previous to this, we were actually studying and
00:30we used to think that climate change is actually a technological problem. Like,
00:34only this carbon emissions are there and renewable and electric vehicles are the solutions. And we
00:40were doing even research on this. So, I had the same notion that technological problem is actually
00:46climate change is a technological problem. But after watching your video on climate change,
00:52then I got to know that actually the overpopulation and overconsumption are the
00:56main culprit and the main causes behind it. And in the same regard, in the last term also,
01:03you answered someone's question that the probable solutions would be like either
01:09one is the spiritual upliftment that the foundation is doing this work. And also,
01:14and another is to have some rules and regulations which will actually compel people to stop
01:21overconsumption and stop overbreeding. So, like, as we are doing the spiritual upliftment from our
01:27side, and what I would like to know what are your views on the, let's say the institution
01:32on government side, like how on which aspects they should like work on, and as we who are
01:40listening to you, and how we can contribute to the other part of the solution, like the
01:46rules and regulations, what you are saying that government or institutions can work upon
01:51in the other side of the solution. I wanted to know your views on that.
01:56People have to be awakened, and those awakened people have to elect governments
02:05that will listen to awakened voices.
02:08If governments know that their vote banks give two hoots to the climate,
02:20then why will they ever take the trouble of pushing reforms and regulation and taxation,
02:31that won't happen. So, the solution cannot really come from the governments.
02:40The solution has to come from an awakening of mass consciousness,
02:47or the solution has to come from some kind of a benevolent dictator.
02:53He says, even if the masses are not awakened, I am going to enforce regulation.
03:02But that kind of a thing is not preferable. It's better if the masses themselves decide
03:11that climate action is important, and if the masses decide that, then the leaders will have
03:17to listen to the masses. That's what a democracy is all about.
03:21So, at the ground level, you see, there has to be a mass awakening.
03:32A lot of effort has to be made towards sensitizing the common public.
03:40Climate action has to become a part of the electoral manifesto of political parties.
03:48Till we come to the point where we start seeing political leaders
03:56talking of the climate to get votes, we will not find any concrete action.
04:06Votes have to be dependent on the willingness of the leader or the candidate
04:14to take action on the climate front, and the voters, therefore, have to be educated. There is
04:20no solution. Till the time we have this debate, we will not find any concrete action.
04:27Till the time we have this situation where votes come on communal basis or
04:35caste basis, or sometimes they are blatantly bought off,
04:43there is very little hope for substantial improvement in the climate situation.
04:49So, the work has to be done on the ground by people and organizations who understand the
04:59criticality of this moment, and the right kind of people have to be elected, and the right kind of
05:09leaders must be brought to power. If you find that your representative at whatever level
05:29has no sensitivity for this absolutely critical problem, then you must ensure he is defeated.
05:39You must ensure, if possible, that he does not even complete his term if already elected.
05:53You see, not all people can be educated in a short period of time,
06:01and when I say short period, I mean a period of few years.
06:04But even if you have 10% to 15% people who make climate action
06:15a high priority, a top criteria when it comes to deciding their vote,
06:25then you will find a great movement.
06:28A great movement.
06:33And from the choice of these 10% or 15% people,
06:38then you can have regulation that will affect 100% people.
06:45In an economy you see, in a democracy you see, 10% to 15% is a very, very large number.
06:53A vote share shift of 1% is enough to turn tables around. 10% is like an earthquake.
07:11It upturns everything. So, if you can have just 10% people who say our top most priority is the
07:20climate and we will vote for the candidate who listens to the climate,
07:28then you will have regulation as we said that will affect and be binding on 100% of the people.
07:34And regulation is needed. Mass awareness by itself will not suffice.
07:46And even if mass awareness is to be brought to those levels, it will take
07:50decades. We don't have decades. But we still have probably sufficient time to have 10% youth
08:03rally with us.
08:07Yes, Azharji. And in the same question, as you are saying this 10% of youth,
08:13generally still those 10% of youth think like, okay, only this technology will come up,
08:18let's say some fancy change, let's say some new EVs are coming or something like this.
08:23So, when we are talking of raising awareness, that's what we need to tell the people.
08:28Climate change is not a problem of wrong technology.
08:36Climate change is a problem of wrong mentality.
08:40It is not a technological but a spiritual problem.
08:44No improvement in technology will be enough to take care of the carbon emissions.
08:57It is in Britain, I think that they are now experimenting with masks that would absorb methane
09:06and those masks they are putting on the mouths of cows.
09:15Hmm, so that their methane emissions are absorbed.
09:19But one thing they do not want to agree to, why eat the cow at all?
09:24The cow has to be eaten and the cow has to be milked before it is eaten.
09:29Milk we cannot leave and beef we cannot leave.
09:34But we will try to find smart technological solutions. We have come up
09:39with a smart mask and this won't help because your lust for beef is unending.
09:50Also, the ego is a very cunning thing.
09:56It does not want to have knowledge that hurts its interests.
10:04What does beef consumption do and what does dairy consumption do?
10:10It is very well and very broadly and in great detail documented at thousands of places.
10:22You need not even visit a library or buy a book, just Google
10:28and you will come to know about the effects of animal agriculture.
10:34But we don't even want to know.
10:39So, there has to be a mask program, there have to be loud and powerful voices,
10:45there has to be a lot of youthful energy
10:51that has to finally coalesce into some kind of a vote bank.
10:58And then we require strict and binding regulation.
11:02We require very very high levels of taxation. For example,
11:07animal flesh and milk must be taxed at sky-high levels, 4,000% tax, taxation of that kind.
11:19So, HRG is the solution.
11:21Instead, let me just add because it just flashed, instead what we have is governments
11:29that are supporting flesh and animal meat production.
11:35They call it the blue revolution, the pink revolution, the white revolution.
11:42These are the kind of governments we elect.
11:46In fact, the biggest sub-governments are the ones that are supporting the animal meat production.
11:54And the biggest sub-governments are the ones that are supporting the animal meat production.
11:59These are the kind of governments we elect.
12:03In fact, the biggest support to climate destruction comes from the government.
12:13If you want to import equipment for your mechanized slaughterhouse,
12:19you will be subsidized by the government at the taxpayer's expense.
12:30Whereas if you want to put up a plant-based milk facility,
12:37you will probably face a lot of resistance and the usual bureaucratic hassles.
12:42You may have to bribe your way through the system.
12:47Slaughterhouses, the government will ease your way.
12:54The government is the biggest offender and we do not see that.
12:59The government is the biggest killer of wildlife, of animals.
13:05And why am I talking of the government again and again?
13:07Because we elect the government.
13:11Therefore, the voter has to be awakened.
13:18Necharji, like as you said that voter has to be awakened.
13:22So in this regard, even I tried sometime to actually
13:26bring upon the people around me to come into spirituality and understand the things.
13:33But generally, it is my observation that some people who are really very little bit honest,
13:42they will come upon, they will accept the things.
13:44But many of the time, most of the people, when they see that
13:47there is something that is actually hurting their whatever the existing they are doing,
13:53so they will try to prohibit and especially when something spiritual
13:57or something like that they can, they try to go ahead.
14:00So what I try to do initially, I try to share them with the spirituality aspects.
14:07But now, I try to make them a little bit more aware of the climate side.
14:11So I try to make them concerned about this from this side.
14:14So some people understand.
14:16So this is also followed by, what do you think?
14:20Like, as you said, like only 5 to 10% of people would be like,
14:24who will be actually understanding this thing.
14:27And they will know that this is a spiritual problem, not some other problem.
14:32But like as majority of the people won't understand this.
14:35So what do you think?
14:37If they don't understand spirituality, they understand the materiality, right?
14:45Yeah.
14:46It's touching 50 degrees outside.
14:50This much I hope they and their skins understand.
14:56They understand the temperature, right?
14:57They feel the heat.
14:59Yeah.
15:00So come up with a smart campaign.
15:03Why don't you talk about it?
15:06Let there be a climatometer.
15:09Show how we all are suffering because of the insane actions of the majority.
15:20Yeah.
15:22Make the calculations and display how every gram or pound of flesh that you take in
15:33is contributing to a temperature rise.
15:35How your insane dairy consumption is not innocent, innocuous at all.
15:48How it is a fallacy to consume dairy and yet call yourself a vegetarian.
15:55To consume dairy and yet call yourself a vegetarian.
16:05So one has to put in his heart and soul into this kind of activism.
16:14The challenge is great.
16:17And the challenge is great only because the rewards will be very fulfilling.
16:22You are saving not your personal self, not your family, not even just your nation.
16:27You are saving the entire planet.
16:30You don't even know of the billions, trillions of living beings you are saving.
16:37That's the enormity of the challenge and therefore the possibility.
16:44Is it not worth it?
16:45Does it not energize you?
16:50So act.