Most Effective way to Tackle the Climate Crisis! || Acharya Prashant (2019)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00So, with regards to the what must be done versus what we want to do, the lot of things

00:12like one is environment, veganism, so we understand that we have to choose one activity which

00:18is most critical.

00:19When you say critical, it is like most people are affected by it.

00:23So, when I came to Mumbai here, I could clearly see a difference in the air which is in Bangalore

00:29and which is here.

00:30I feel very suffocating sometimes.

00:33So, what you said about understanding the issue, studying about the issue and then taking

00:39an action is probably an ideal case.

00:41So, not everybody is devoted to go to that length.

00:44So, what I think is wherever you are, start from there.

00:48If I am planting trees in one particular area, it is definitely not harmful.

00:52It is beneficial for the people who are there.

00:54It has to be thought of in terms of the overall opportunity cost, you see.

01:00You have to understand this.

01:02And it's not that you have to think of the most important issue.

01:08You also have to think of the most effective way to tackle that issue.

01:16You may very well be able to rightly identify the most important issue, but what if you

01:20are using the least effective way to tackle that issue?

01:27And you know what is the problem with the less effective ways?

01:32The problem is not merely that they are less effective.

01:35The problem is that they make you feel that you are doing something effective.

01:42So they absolve you of your responsibility.

01:45You start saying, you see, I did my bit.

01:48You see, I did my bit.

01:49And when you say, I did my bit, you become licensed and entitled to do a lot of other

01:55kinds of rubbish.

01:57I'll say something with respect to this tree plantation thing.

02:02You see, it is very well known that one tree over the course of 40 years would absorb just

02:09one ton of carbon dioxide.

02:12How effective is that, please?

02:14And that is if that tree lives to get 40 years old.

02:21One tree over 40 years absorbs one ton of carbon dioxide.

02:25In one year, how much does it absorb?

02:280.025, 0.025 ton, one.

02:34Whereas having one less child causes a difference of 60 tons per year.

02:43How do you want to plant trees happily and then go home and have a child?

02:51One child is 60 tons per year.

02:55And one tree is 0.025 tons per year.

03:00But by planting a tree, you start feeling that you have done your bit.

03:04And you feel very happy.

03:06Now you can go on a date, get married, and then obviously you'll have kids.

03:11This is the kind of thing I become very unhappy with, very, very unhappy with.

03:20All the measures that social activism is taking can contribute not 1% of that which having

03:37a child less does.

03:41But then all the do-gooders are roaming and they are going around with a lot of pride.

03:45You know, we are climate warriors.

03:47What climate warrior?

03:50What climate warrior?

03:53What is this tree plantation thing?

03:58Devote your resources, your energy, your Fridays, your Saturdays or your Sundays to doing the

04:02right thing.

04:03Have an awareness campaign.

04:07Go to young people in schools and colleges and tell them not to procreate.

04:11That's what you must be doing.

04:12Instead, you are feeling good by planting trees.

04:17Not that planting trees is harmful.

04:19I am fully in support of it.

04:21But then the opportunity cost is great.

04:23You understand opportunity cost?

04:25The same time that you invested in planting a tree could have been invested in delivering

04:31a presentation in a particular college.

04:34By planting the tree, you refuse to make that presentation in the college.

04:38And this is criminal.

04:41This is outrightly criminal.

04:42I do not support this.

04:46So do not say we are little beings, we can only do this much.

04:50The ones who are doing this much are the ones causing the problem.

04:54Misplaced climate activism is not solving the problem, it is a part of the problem.

05:02Everybody is becoming a climate activist without realizing what is it that really needs to

05:06be done.

05:07There are a few things you must understand.

05:12At the root of the climate catastrophe lies man's tendency to consume.

05:22And man consumes in three clear ways and three distinct ways.

05:27Man wants to consume the entire world.

05:29And the entire world consists of human beings, prakritic beings, which you call as natural

05:37beings and man-made things.

05:39Whenever you will look around you, these are the three kinds of things you will find.

05:44Other human beings, other natural beings and other man-made things.

05:52Man consumes all three and consumption of all three leads to carbon emissions.

05:59When you consume another human being, what do you get?

06:03What do you get?

06:04Kids.

06:05That is the biggest cause of carbon emissions.

06:07When you consume man-made things again, what do you emit?

06:11Carbon.

06:12Because whatever there is man-made is made using energy and energy comes from fossil

06:18fuels.

06:20So whenever you are consuming something man-made, you are causing carbon emissions.

06:26The third thing is consumption of natural resources.

06:30Whether you are eating vegetables, whether you are a vegan or not, or whether you are

06:38consuming meat, all of this is highly carbon emitting.

06:45Even if you are vegan, you will eat grains at least.

06:48Where will the grains come from?

06:51Where will the grains come from?

06:54They can only come by felling forests.

06:59But then you start feeling great, I am a vegan, you know.

07:02I am holier than thou.

07:05The earth does not have resources to support 8 billion or 11 billion vegans.

07:12So do not be so happy about just being a vegan.

07:16Veganism doesn't help the cause of climate change beyond a point.

07:23We need two things.

07:24One, less people and less consumption.

07:27And both of them.

07:29Both of them together.

07:32Are you getting it?

07:35Even if one of them is missing, you are gone.

07:39US has not too many people.

07:44Just 32 crores are there.

07:48And yet they are the biggest carbon emitters in the world.

07:52Because they consume.

07:54On the other end is China.

07:56China, the per capita consumption is 1 by 5 or 1 by 10 of the USA.

08:03And yet they are number 2 on the carbon list.

08:05Why?

08:06Because they are just too many.

08:10You need a situation where there are not more than 2 or 3 billion people in the world.

08:14That has been scientifically calculated to be the sustainable limit.

08:18And currently we are 8 billion.

08:20We need to reduce it to 2 or 3 billion.

08:22That's the first thing.

08:23Secondly, these 2 or 3 billion people have to be spiritual so that they do not have a

08:27tendency to consume.

08:28Unless you are spiritual, you are bound to be living a consumption-centric life.

08:37The very urge for liberation, when it doesn't find an outlet, it becomes the urge to consume.

08:42Do you see this?

08:43Where does the tendency to consume so much come from?

08:48It comes from the misidentified and thwarted urge towards liberation.

08:56If you will not provide liberation to a man, his energies will flow in the direction of

09:01consumption.

09:04So these are the 2 things that we require.

09:06One less population, secondly the population that remains must be highly spiritual in its

09:12outlook.

09:13Only then can you avoid the climate catastrophe.

09:15All this tamasha that is happening on the streets will not help.

09:19Instead it is making people feel good about themselves.

09:22I look at these warriors, climate warriors, young men and young women.

09:27Some of them were fighting the police recently in Bombay.

09:31And I thought to myself, will these young people refuse to have a kid?

09:35No, that they won't.

09:37Even for a tree, they are prepared to lay down their lives and I respect that sentiment.

09:42Seriously I respect that.

09:44But then I want to question the efficacy of that.

09:48You don't want these 2,700 trees to be cut down.

09:52But then if you get one child, that is the equivalent of cutting down a lakh trees.

09:59Bringing one child to the world is the equivalent of cutting down a lakh trees.

10:05Maybe more.

10:06Let's do the maths.

10:10But you show so much of sentiment when a tree is hacked down.

10:17And you show no sentiment when you see family after family procreating.

10:23You in fact send them congratulatory messages, wow, nice, didi, good that you had your second

10:32or third kid now.

10:35Coming from the climate demonstration, what does this young girl do?

10:41She calls up her didi and says, so didi, was the delivery fine?

10:46What nonsense is this?

10:51Do you understand?

10:54Climate catastrophe is a spiritual problem and it can only have a spiritual solution.

11:04All else that you see happening around you in the name of climate activism is just tamasha.

11:10It will not help.

11:11It will boost up a lot of egos.

11:14It will give fame and limelight to a lot of young people.

11:18They will become climate warriors, they will become saviors of the world.

11:21Tomorrow one of them might even get the Nobel Prize.

11:26So much of limelight is there, you know.

11:28This young man, he has really brought this issue to popular consciousness.

11:36Let's bestow upon him the Nobel Prize for peace.

11:40All that can happen.

11:42But all that will be just symbolic, not helpful at all or even if it helps, it will help only

11:50to a very marginal degree.

11:54Do you get the real solution?

11:58Some 8 billion, take it back to 2 billion and you don't have to kill people for that.

12:04You just have to educate and encourage people to not to reproduce.

12:09Even if they want to have kids, let them have at max one kid.

12:15And second thing is, this 2 or 3 billion that finally remains must be deeply spiritual from

12:21the heart so that it does not have a tendency to feast upon the world.

12:30Are you getting it?

12:32But the way climate activism is going, it is going in a very blind direction.

12:41People are trying to get governments to intervene by way of legislation.

12:47What can the governments do?

12:51It's a democratic world.

12:53The governments will only do what the people want them to do.

12:57And the people want only cosmetic steps to be taken.

13:02So the governments will take cosmetic steps.

13:07In fact chances are, as far as this tree plantation exercise is concerned, chances are we have

13:13already crossed the threshold where tree plantation can reverse the effects of climate

13:22change.

13:23That threshold has already been crossed.

13:27Now we need stricter action, now we need more meaningful action, now we need real action.

13:34Planting trees might have been a useful step 20 years back, but that threshold has been

13:40long since crossed.

13:42You need to do more concrete action today and more concrete action is not about Friday

13:47demonstrations and all those stuff and Friday strikes.

13:52All that is just a show.

13:55Real action needs to be taken.

14:08At the center of all this lies man's tendency to consume which comes from an absence of

14:16spiritual education.

14:18Climate change is a result of absence of spiritual education.

14:24Do not talk of two problems, there is just one problem.

14:27That problem is man's misguided and uneducated ego.

14:32Unless you educate the ego about who it really is, it will keep proceeding in the direction

14:38of blind consumerism.

14:41Lack of spiritual education has brought this catastrophe upon us.

14:45That is the only problem and therefore that has to be the only solution.

14:50All the other things that we are doing will not help much.

14:53Yes, so I have tried to educate my friends and family around me, so maybe I should take

15:01a bigger step now to spread awareness.

15:08If that is something that must be done, do it.

15:13It is not a time where you can gently nudge someone and feel that you have done your bit.

15:24Because it is nobody's personal or private matter anymore.

15:29A fellow reproducing blindly is a threat to the entire humanity.

15:35How is his family his personal matter?

15:40Tell me please, somebody sets a time bomb in his home, a huge time bomb that will bring

15:48down the entire community, will you say it is his private matter because he is doing

15:53it within his home?

15:55Tell me please, somebody sets a bomb inside his home and the bomb is powerful enough to

16:02bring down the entire building, not merely his apartment, will you say it is his private

16:08matter, how can I interfere, these are personal choices, we have to respect personal choices.

16:14These are not personal choices anymore.

16:16If you are reproducing, you are bringing down the entire humanity.

16:22So you have to be more than gentle now, are you getting it?

16:29And that does not mean cruelty, that means more compassion, more energetic action coming

16:36from deeper compassion and deeper sense of responsibility.

16:45You will have to give up the notion that these are first of all personal choices, no, not

16:49personal choices.

16:51What you are doing has an effect on me, how is it your personal matter?

16:55Acharya ji, regarding the population, so generally when on the streets when I see women begging

17:11with their children or on the streets I see people, I get really angry that how can they

17:18have kids being in the position they are in, like one is that they have not figured

17:23out a way for themselves, I understand that it is just by chance that the situations that

17:29we are born in the kind of resources we have, it is just a genetic chance and I understand

17:35that but I really get angry when I see that very poor people who are not even able to

17:40fend for themselves are having kids and then they just use them as tools further to beg

17:46and so what is, how do we go about dealing with this?

17:51You are looking in not exactly the right direction.

17:56That kid that you see begging on the street will have a far smaller carbon footprint throughout

18:03his life even if there are five such kids in that beggar family.

18:08Obviously that beggar family must not have five such kids but the reasons for not having

18:15kids must be social and economic.

18:19By having five kids, the beggar family is not really causing much harm to the climate

18:26because their consumption levels are extremely low, wait, wait, their numbers do not matter.

18:34India has 1.4 billion people, India's carbon footprint is very small compared to that of

18:39the US, so numbers right now don't matter that much.

18:45Compared to this, the one or two kids that an affluent family has are a far bigger problem.

18:55Think of their carbon footprint.

18:58And having a kid is not merely having a kid, it is a geometric progression.

19:05You have a kid, the kid will have kids and then they will have kids.

19:10It's not one person you have given birth to, you have given birth to 100 persons.

19:18There is an estimate that says that a woman can do all sorts of climate activism all her

19:24life and save a few tons of carbon emissions.

19:33But if she just decides to have one less child, she can save six times more carbon

19:39emissions without doing anything else.

19:43Either she can go out four hours every day of her life and indulge in tree plantation

19:48and this and that, and every single day of life she can indulge in climate activism.

19:55And that will result in the lessening of the global climate load by x tons, right?

20:04The other option is don't do anything.

20:06There is no need for any climate activism.

20:08Just have one less child.

20:10And by having one less child, you will save six x tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

20:18Are you getting it?

20:28It is available.

20:29It is not being shared and broadcasted.

20:34It is very much available.

20:35Where else am I getting it from?

20:38I didn't meditate and get this knowledge.

20:44I am getting it from public sources.

20:47It is just that people become too emotional if you tell them to have one less child.

20:54I have tried with a couple of my friends, they are just like, my kid needs a company.

21:00To hell with their emotions.

21:01Who are you?

21:03When somebody is being dragged to the jail, he obviously feels emotional.

21:08So what?

21:10You will have to pay for your follies.

21:17When somebody doesn't get selected in an entrance exam, he or she does feel emotional.

21:21So what?

21:22Just because you are emotional, you cannot be granted a pardon or a favour.

21:32Now you see why lack of spirituality is the biggest problem?

21:36Because when you do not operate from a spiritual centre, then you operate from an emotional

21:42centre.

21:43These emotions are what is causing this climate change.

21:50And I am really surprised that so many people who are highly emotional are into climate

21:56activism.

21:57When the entire problem is of emotions.

22:01You are so emotional about that next foreign holiday, right?

22:05That is carbon intensive.

22:08You are so emotional about having a good nice nest of your own, that is carbon.

22:13You are so emotional about having two nice kids, that is emotion and that is carbon.

22:22Emotion equals carbon in a big way.

22:26And the problem to this emotional centre is nothing but spirituality.

22:36Think of it.

22:37Whenever you go emotional, you start releasing carbon dioxide, don't you?

22:40When you go emotional, you either drink and that is carbon or you go and have a party

22:47and that is carbon.

22:56This entire model we have based our lives on, this centre around which we are living

23:04is flawed.

23:07And that is what is leading to this climate catastrophe.

23:10We are not addressing the central problem.

23:15We are just dabbling on the periphery.

23:23And that will not help.

23:29That will just help boost our ego.

23:30We will say, you know, I did my bit, I am a climate warrior, I will have nice photos

23:36to put on Facebook and I now have the right to tell the others, you know, you are morally

23:42inferior to me.

24:02So if there is one action that you must take to fight this menace, what is that?

24:10We said it is not merely important to identify the problem.

24:15You also need to identify the most effective way to fight that problem.

24:21What is that most effective way?

24:22It is not tree plantation.

24:24The most effective way is spiritual awareness.

24:32That is what you have to do and that is difficult.

24:34That is far more difficult than planting trees.

24:37So we would rather plant trees.

24:40That is how the whole thing goes.

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