Full video: East Meets West on Climate Change || Acharya Prashant, in conversation (2022)
Link:
• East Meets West on Climate Change || ...
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Video Information: 11.02.2022, Interview Session, Goa
The interviewer is Dr. Eban Goodstein, Environmental Economist, Director - Center for Environmental Policy, Bard College, New York, USA.
Context:
~ What is Climate Change?
~ How to stop climate change?
~ What is the solution to global warming?
~ How can we control the increasing population?
~How can spirituality solve the problem of global warming?
~What is the most effective way of dealing with climate change?
~ How can population control help in dealing with climate change?
~What is the solution to climate change?
~How spirituality can stop climate change?
~Climate change has no scientific solution
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Link:
• East Meets West on Climate Change || ...
~~~~~
♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?
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: 11.02.2022, Interview Session, Goa
The interviewer is Dr. Eban Goodstein, Environmental Economist, Director - Center for Environmental Policy, Bard College, New York, USA.
Context:
~ What is Climate Change?
~ How to stop climate change?
~ What is the solution to global warming?
~ How can we control the increasing population?
~How can spirituality solve the problem of global warming?
~What is the most effective way of dealing with climate change?
~ How can population control help in dealing with climate change?
~What is the solution to climate change?
~How spirituality can stop climate change?
~Climate change has no scientific solution
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00See, it's a man-made thing, right?
00:04When we talk of climate change, the word anthropogenic is the most important.
00:13It's a basic thing, but I'm reiterating because that's the thing we give the least attention
00:19to.
00:21We are treating climate change as if it is something outside of us.
00:27As if some asteroid from outer space came over and delivered all the gases and trapped
00:36all the heat in our atmosphere.
00:41I want all of us to pay attention to the fact that we have done it.
00:48It is our action and every action is representative of the state of the actor.
00:56We are in a particular state internally and therefore we are doing what we are doing externally.
01:03Now our internal state has brought about this external action, this external state and we
01:12are not addressing the root cause, we are not addressing the way we are and the way
01:17we have been probably all throughout our history.
01:21We do not want to address that because probably that's too painful and that would cause too
01:26tectonic a shift in our entire life system.
01:31So we want to treat it as one of the problems that face us.
01:37That's a very fragmented approach.
01:42Hence the solutions that we are thinking of are also pretty external in nature.
01:48So we want to move to greener technologies, we want to have carbon sequestering mechanisms,
01:56we want countries to pledge for reforestation, we want auto manufacturers to come up with
02:06newer technologies and such things, and countries quabble with each other, who should bear the
02:12brunt and then issues of climate justice and such things crop up.
02:19The thing is, I want us to inquire into it.
02:23Are we even understanding where the whole thing is coming from really?
02:28And if we do not understand that, is it not a fundamental conclusion that we will never
02:35be able to solve this problem and all the actions that we are trying to have as remedial
02:42actions would just be consolations.
02:47We would be entertaining ourselves and we would be rather gratifying ourselves that
02:55we are doing something meaningful and fruitful and nothing would come out of it.
03:00And I am not just hypothesizing in a vacuum.
03:04You see, we started taking this thing a bit seriously in 1990, that's the watershed year.
03:12And we are more than three decades from there now.
03:17And not only have we failed to reduce or neutralize carbon, the fact is today we are releasing
03:2720 to 40% more carbon than we used to do three decades back.
03:34And that's with all our climate action.
03:37And there is really no hope that we are going to achieve carbon neutrality any soon.
03:45My country, India, for example, even as a matter of pledge has quoted 2070.
03:54Now that to me is just too far off.
03:59And this kind of action is just too insufficient.
04:04So we are doing it, we are doing it and there are two things about us that are causing it.
04:13They are so fundamental that we don't even talk about them.
04:16Those two things are the numbers that we are and the numbers that are represented by
04:25our per capita consumption.
04:29And even these two are fundamentally one.
04:33The inbuilt human tendency to take consumption as an indicator of the fulfillment or success
04:46of one's life.
04:48That's the reason we multiply and that's the reason we want to consume more and more.
04:54And climate change is hardly anything but a function of our numbers on this planet,
05:01our population and the per capita consumption by each person of our species.
05:09Unfortunately, irrespective of the variations in culture, thought, religion, ethnicity,
05:17all that we have across the world, about one thing, we all are fully in agreement and that
05:26is that we all need to have a good time by consuming more and more, be it the Indian,
05:34the Chinese, the American, the African, anybody.
05:37We all want to have a happy life and about a happy life, the thing is consumption.
05:44Consume more and let there be more people who can consume more.
05:48So the slogan really is, more to consume more.
05:53And nobody seems to want to address that because that is just too explosive an issue probably
05:57especially in a democratic setup.
06:00The fundamental thing is we are just too many and if we remain as many as we are, then
06:08I don't want to sound nihilist or something but I don't really see hope unless we address
06:14that one thing.
06:15Equally, if we can address that one thing especially to youngsters, then obviously there
06:21is a lot of hope and great possibility and that possibility will then not relate only
06:26to climate change but to everything that we do.
06:28As human beings, we will be able to lead richer, deeper, more meaningful lives, more loving
06:34lives, lives of compassion, lives of less strife and lives that have a certain fulfilment.
06:43So that is my simple position in a nutshell.
06:46Obviously, we will be going into the nuances of everything but I thought it would be better
06:54to just put everything on the table right away.
06:59That is such a clear statement of the challenge that we are in.
07:03Fundamentally, there is 8.5 billion of us, soon to be 9, soon to be 10, half the folks
07:09on the planet are barely getting by and living on a few dollars a day and everybody is aspiring
07:15to more and this has led us to already be fighting over water and topsoil and fish and
07:22forests and biodiversity and it is the fundamental reason the planet is heating up.
07:29I would maybe differ with you a bit because I think that in the long run, humans need
07:37to figure out how to come into right relationship with themselves and with the planet in terms
07:45of this quest for more.
07:49I think that with the climate issue in particular, there is a window in which technology can
07:55buy us time and so I believe there is sort of good news on sort of the endless numbers
08:06of people on the planet.
08:08Population growth rates are slowing down finally.
08:13China I believe this year for the first time has tipped into a negative growth for population.
08:22So I am hopeful that humanity, we can see our way through and we can stop at 10 billion
08:29and then slowly have the population decline, create more space for people, create more
08:34space for creatures, but I feel like we are at this moment, this critical juncture where
08:40we have to get this right.
08:42Technology can buy us time, but I agree fundamentally it is how do humans heal themselves and really
08:49develop a healthy relationship with each other and with the planet.
08:54Dr. Iban, I too want to be optimist on that count.
09:00In fact, because I want us to be there in the medium run at least and I want us to not
09:09only exist, but exist in a healthy way, in a fulfilling way, therefore I want to be realistic
09:17about the threats that face us.
09:22You see, yes that is very true that as economies prosper, then birth rates go down and at some
09:32point we achieve population stability, but then again I want us to enquire into what
09:39makes people in a developed place have fewer kids.
09:46Is it because they become full of empathy and concern, is that what is happening in
09:52let us say Japan or Germany and what causes people in a place like, let us say, Bangladesh
10:03or parts of India still in the north to have relatively very high fertility rates.
10:12Is it because they are intrinsically violent people compared to the Japanese or the Germans?
10:17No, that is not the thing.
10:20Even when the fertility rates are going down, they are going down because of the desire
10:27to consume life even more deeply.
10:33I do not want to spend child on the kid because I want to rather spend time vacationing and
10:39touring the globe.
10:40Now my question is, having a child has a great carbon footprint and if I do not have a child
10:49because I want to consume all kinds of material prosperity and I want to be a globe trotter,
10:56I want to be flying, let us say, 30 to 40 days per year, is that going to reduce the
11:03carbon footprint compared to the decision of having a child or is it going to be just
11:07equal to that?
11:10So mere reduction of population in itself will not be sufficient because the reduction
11:16in population itself will be a by-product of prosperity and prosperity itself has a
11:21carbon footprint.
11:22So please tell me how is just prosperity going to help when prosperity itself means carbon.
11:28Prosperity means carbon, our emotions mean carbon, everything that we do simply means
11:33carbon because at the center of our existence is a lot of carbon.
11:39It is indeed.
11:40No, and I agree with you, I mean, it is essentially the reason that people are having fewer children
11:48and not only in the wealthiest countries, but as I said also in China now, is fundamentally
11:56they feel like they cannot afford them because of the expectations that life is about consumption
12:05and is about having that car and that apartment and all of those things.
12:12And so, yeah, I'd love to hear how do we then, from your perspective, make that transition
12:19to a better and more healthy relationship with each other and with the planet and de-emphasize
12:28the need to have a closet full of clothes that you never wear or, you know, three cars
12:35and, you know, how do we move in that direction?
12:39First of all, I want to give due credit and acknowledgement to technology.
12:45I'm just not decrying the role of technology.
12:49We need better technologies today.
12:52But I see their role more as that of analgesics.
12:58There is a lot of pain.
12:59There is a lot of current immediate pain and therefore we need better technologies to manage
13:05that pain.
13:07Technology cannot really cure this situation, but can give us a temporary relief.
13:15Also, it can give us a longer rope with which to maneuver our way towards a solution.
13:25So, the window that we have, I suppose that's what you said, the window that we have is
13:30broadened by technology.
13:32So, first of all, yes, due credit technology.
13:35Now, I want to put forward the reservations that I have with respect to technology.
13:41Technology shows us a false dawn.
13:46So, if I, for example, get an air conditioner, in India we have these star ratings on ACs
13:54and if you have a higher star rating, it means that the power consumption is relatively lower.
14:00Right?
14:00And India is a relatively warm place and as people get prosperous, one of the first things
14:08that they want in their homes is more air conditioners.
14:10Initially, people start with having air conditioner in one of the rooms and then they want air
14:15conditioners in all two rooms, three rooms and if they have, five rooms.
14:19So, let's say we have a young one in the family who has been sensitized in the school or in
14:27the college about the enormity of this problem of climate.
14:32So, he raises his hands up and he says, no, nothing doing, we cannot have so many ACs
14:37and it's not good for the climate.
14:41The elder sister comes in and says, look, technology has brought in this new AC with
14:48a five star rating and it consumes far lesser power.
14:55Now, that brings in a false sense of complacency.
14:59We used to have these very antiquated cars that we kind of inherited from the British,
15:09ambassador cars and they used to be really great instruments of pollution of all kinds,
15:18including noise pollution.
15:20So, they were phased away.
15:22Now, you would hardly see any of them on Indian roads.
15:24Now, we have really sleek modern cars.
15:26In fact, we share a lot of them with the Americans, with the Europeans and we have the same models
15:31running here.
15:32But what has happened?
15:33What has happened is that the numbers have increased so very exponentially that the total
15:42emission count is nowhere close to what we used to have in the 70s or 80s.
15:48So, in spite of better and greener and more efficient technologies on the net, we stand
15:56very poorly compared to where we did even four decades back.
16:00So, from a macro perspective, is betterment in technology really helping or is it enabling
16:08the consumer of the technology to consume more and more with impunity and with the false
16:16assurance that you see I now have a moral license as well.
16:21I'm not a climate offender anymore because the technology that I'm consuming is so very green.
16:27No, I have a Tesla now rather than a Suzuki or a Hyundai.
16:32The thing is, is a Tesla really carbon neutral?