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Video Information: 27.07.22, 'East-West Dialogue on Climate and Justice', organized by Bard College, 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
Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...
Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?
Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...
Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...
~~~~~
Video Information: 27.07.22, 'East-West Dialogue on Climate and Justice', organized by Bard College, 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
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Welcome, everyone, to the second East-West Dialogue on Climate and Justice.
00:08My name is David Blochstein.
00:10I'm the co-director of Solve Climate by 2030, a program of the Bard College in New York.
00:18This discussion with Acharya Prashant of the Prashant Advait Foundation of India is part
00:24of our worldwide teach-in on climate and justice.
00:29Acharya Prashant is a powerful voice of socio-spiritual awakening in today's world.
00:36He is an acclaimed Vedanta exegete and author of over 80 books, including the national bestseller,
00:44Karma, Why Everything You Know About It is Wrong.
00:48An alumnus of IIT Delhi, IIM, a medibod, and a former civil services officer, he is an
00:58exponent of pure Vedantic wisdom, a vocal warrior against superstition and inner weakness,
01:06a promulgator of pure spiritual veganism, and an expounder of essential human freedom.
01:13This discussion today is a follow-up to a conversation between Acharya Prashant and
01:20my colleague, Dr. Eben Goodstein, director of Bard's graduate programs in sustainability
01:27and director of Solve Climate by 2030.
01:30That conversation, recorded in April of 2023, is available on the Acharya Prashant YouTube channel.
01:40Today, Acharya will respond to questions from students around the world, including participants
01:48in Bard's internship in social media for climate activism.
01:53I'm delighted to welcome Acharya Prashant and our student participants.
01:58We thank you all for being with us today.
02:01In a moment, I will be turning it over to my friend and colleague, Anupam Chatterjee
02:07of the Prashant Advait Foundation, who will be moderating the question and answer session.
02:14But I'd like to begin with the question myself, which is that in this discussion between yourself
02:22and my colleague, Eben, you talked from a very deep spiritual perspective and the need
02:31for personal transformation, but yet as we're looking at the climate emergency which is
02:38on us right now, we've named our project Solve Climate by 2030 because the time is very short,
02:48as identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
02:53So how do we reconcile the need for immediate action with the need for deep personal and
03:03societal transformation that often takes longer than the time that may be available to us?
03:11So an easy question to begin.
03:14Yes, and thank you, first of all, for having this discussion.
03:23Yes, it's an easy question about a difficult situation.
03:29You said inner transformation processes are often long winding and deliver results only in the
03:41long term. So it's not really so that inner transformation will necessarily take a long time
04:00and inordinately long time considering that we are looking at 2030 as the threshold, as the cut-off year.
04:16You see, look at it differently.
04:19Apart from the inner transformation route, we have tried everything else.
04:31That there is a climate catastrophe upon us is not new information. We have known it since at least
04:42at least four decades now, if not more.
04:48What have we been able to do in these four decades?
04:55Not only has the climate crisis worsened, the rate of worsening has actually accelerated.
05:06So, we are sinking at an increasing rate of sinking per year. That's how we are doing.
05:24If that is what we are getting from our conventional route of inner transformation,
05:33conventional routes of crisis mitigation, it surprises me how we still hold so much trust over them.
05:45You know, we talk as if the other routes, which include legislation, regulation
05:58and so many other things, you know, as if those routes are tried, tested
06:09and have delivered results beautifully till now.
06:16And we assume as if the spiritual process is untrustworthy, unreliable and will necessarily
06:26take a long time, if at all, if it delivers any results. I'm saying, I'll repeat,
06:35keep the spiritual route aside and let's objectively, factually look at what have the
06:42other routes given us, except frustration, disappointment. Our confidence in our own methods
06:53needs to be checked, verified. And if we really test whether our confidence in our
07:10governmental processes and legal and technical processes is really well founded,
07:24now let's come to the spiritual thing. I'm not talking mumbo-jumbo, I'm not talking black magic,
07:34but it is entirely possible and it happens
07:39that clear communication of information, information in its entirety, is able to
07:50touch a person at such a deep place, that he is stirred into the right kind of action.
08:02And when I'm saying the right information in a holistic way needs to reach the individual,
08:11this is hardly even spiritual in the conventional sense, you know. When you say that a person
08:20fellow is on the spiritual route, what you usually mean is that the fellow is
08:30into some kind of esoteric methods or some kind of awakening of paranormal energies
08:42is being attempted, these kinds of things. When I'm saying that the spiritual route is the only
08:49route, I mean none of that rubbish, that illogical stuff. I mean simple dissemination of information
09:02in its entirety. Now there lies the catch. What do I mean by information in its entirety?
09:10You see, we often look at the climate crisis in isolation.
09:16We act as if we are otherwise all right, generally okay, and somehow, incidentally,
09:27incidentally, an alien crisis has hit us
09:35for no strong reason whatsoever.
09:43So we want to treat it in a very peripheral way,
09:49as if it is a skin infection or something,
09:53caused by a bacteria that has settled on the surface of the body,
10:02and the effect of that alien bacteria is only skin deep.
10:09That's the mental model we hold with respect to the climate crisis. On the other hand, what I am
10:16talking of is the right diagnosis of this crisis. Is it just an external infection on the skin of
10:32mankind or is it about our very blood having become toxic? Is it an influence
10:50affecting us from the outside or is it a malaise arising from the inside?
10:57That's what I mean by the spiritual route.
11:03So it is actually very scientific, no? Right diagnosis is the prerequisite for any kind of
11:10successful treatment. Nothing per se spiritual about this statement. It's very logical.
11:21What I am proposing is, for us to ponder on, that climate crisis, culture,
11:40and consumer capitalism are one and the same thing and
11:48unless all of them are treated together, the climate part just cannot be taken care of.
12:00You treat one part of this trifecta and you will find you are not succeeding even in 100 years,
12:11as if we have 100 years, first of all. But if you can look at the
12:19bigger picture, if you can have the bird's eye view and you realize what really is going on,
12:27then there can be a solution and a quick solution, a powerful solution.
12:33Mankind's very soul, if you may call it, for want of a better word,
12:43you could say core or you could simply say mind, the collective mind of humanity.
12:48That's what I mean by soul.
12:49That soul has gone sick, that needs treatment and I'm not dealing in metaphors,
13:07needless euphemisms, no. This is the most direct way of stating it.
13:14We do not know who we are. We do not know what we are here for.
13:20Therefore, we endlessly consume, we procreate, we live meaningless lives
13:30because we do not know ourselves and therefore the right purpose to life. Therefore, we
13:37run after miscellaneous identities, power, freedom and so much else
13:47and all that is externally manifested as climate change.
13:55So, climate change is nothing but a gross and tangible representation of what is sick
14:05in our very hearts and if you do not treat the sickness where it really lies,
14:17there is no point giving superficial treatments
14:27like applying ointments to the skin.
14:34When the symptom on the skin is just representative of a problem far deeper,
14:44the good news is this far deeper problem is actually easier to solve
14:55because the other routes have all conclusively anyway failed.
15:01Hence, the only route remaining has to be the only easy route remaining.
15:09You know, we don't have an option. If you don't have an option, how can you call
15:15the only available option as difficult? It has to be taken as easy because there is nothing else possible.
15:22Tell people that they need to tackle climate change and they'll be indifferent. Everybody is indifferent.
15:30Tell people that they are missing out on the essence of their own life,
15:38then they will listen because we all are basically selfish people.
15:43Climate crisis appears far too general, a bit too far in time
15:53and not so severe that it cannot be negotiated. You tell the common man on the road
16:00that global temperatures will rise by an average of two degrees centigrade.
16:04You'll not find him collapsing in shock.
16:12Two degrees rise in mean global temperature, he'll say fine,
16:20fine, I'll adapt.
16:22I'll get a better air conditioner.
16:27I'll take a longer vacation
16:33or I'll simply bear it. It doesn't matter so much. You may tell him of the other changes
16:38that you have seen in the world. You may tell him of the other changes that you've seen in the world.
16:45Or I'll simply bear it. It doesn't matter so much. You may tell him of the other changes and
16:53drastic effects that are possible. Rising sea levels and entire cities will be threatened and
16:58ecosystems will be washed out.
17:03And the negative feedback loop, the whole thing will keep worsening. Glaciers will be gone.
17:11We do not know what will happen to aquatic ecosystems. You tell him all these things.
17:15Was he ever in the first place interested in these things? You're talking to, let's say,
17:22a 35-year-old man. In his 35 years, and I'm talking of the average man, there will be
17:28exceptions always, but let's look at the average case. In his 35 years, when has he demonstrated
17:37any ecological sensitivity? How will he suddenly become sensitive today?
17:44We will have to realize that the climate crisis is nothing but the sickness of our
17:54personality coming out in the open. For far too long has it remained concealed.
18:04But now the cat is out of the bag.
18:09And we would be just continuing our primitive tendencies of self-deception
18:19if we do not admit the climate crisis for what it really is.
18:24It is a crisis of insane consumerism.
18:32And we consume because we know nothing better to do.
18:40We consume because we have a life to live and we do not know what to do with the 70,
18:4780 or 90 years and average lifespans are rising across the world.
18:56People are living up to 100, lots of them.
19:03People are living for long and have huge disposable incomes.
19:09There are so many countries that have millions of millionaires now.
19:13The USA obviously being the foremost.
19:18Millions of millionaires, so much money, so much money and so much time.
19:22The fellow is going to live for 80 years, 100 years, 110 years.
19:27What will he do? He does not know what to do with life.
19:32And every bit of action arising from his consumption of food,
19:39every bit of action arising from ignorance is carbon intensive.
19:48If you do not have a real purpose to live for,
19:53then you will live out of your whims, tendencies, emotions
19:56and they all have a huge carbon footprint.
20:02You do not know what to do in life, you will produce a lot of kids.
20:05I know I am generalizing.
20:10But then the climate crisis too is a general crisis, is it not?
20:15So let us keep the exceptions aside.
20:19Let us look at the common man.
20:23Can we talk of...
20:28I cannot hear you, you said something?
20:30I was just going to say, I mean, it is a powerful answer.
20:34And it makes me realize that the thing about the climate catastrophe that is in front of us
20:49is that it is putting those questions in front of individuals and society
20:55and that this may be actually the opportunity to make the real shifts in who we are
21:05that we need to be making otherwise and that we would not recognize that.
21:11Sir, if I may venture that far, I would say the climate crisis
21:21is challenging us to answer questions we should have answered several centuries back.
21:30You could even say it's a crisis of philosophy.
21:36It is just proving that the philosophies we have based our lives on
21:42since long are inadequate, actually false.
21:47We could not answer those questions then and there was nothing and nobody
21:56to conclusively tell us in our face that we do not know the answers.
22:03Now we have a very, very tangible proof available,
22:07a proof of our inadequacy in the form of this crisis.
22:10So, you know, we need the right understanding, we need to know who we are and why we exist,
22:17and that determines our economics, that determines our very lives.
22:26Is it not true and is it not obvious that the shape of the world that we live in
22:34Is it not true and is it not obvious that the shape of the economic structure
22:43that we have, the entire economic system of the entire world, that's what is producing
22:53the carbon in the atmosphere?
22:55We have philosophies that have no space for compassion. We do not want to look inwards,
23:11we do not want to know what should be the right relationship between man and the world he inhabits.
23:20And that's why we are living in an absolutely awkward way. Our lives are bizarre.
23:31They are bizarre and they are producing a lot of gas, you know, like the fart of the cattle
23:44that's responsible for so much of the carbon concentration that represents in a very dramatic way
23:58a picture of our lives.
24:03That can be changed, all that can be changed.
24:06People can give up flesh consumption, it takes an instant.
24:18There are people and I know several thousands of them, optimistically I could say there are
24:27lakhs of them, who have given up flesh consumption in a matter of days, weeks, a few months.
24:36And we very well know that flesh consumption and dairy, they are either the largest or the
24:45second largest cause of carbon concentration.
24:51And that cause can be addressed in a jiffy because the climate crisis is a crisis of the choices we
25:06are making. And since we are the chooser, the choices can immediately change, a lot of them.
25:13A few are structural that may take a little more time, but there is a lot that can be immediately
25:18done if we can show the total picture to the human being and the total picture must include
25:28his own face. If the climate crisis remains something outside of ourselves, we will not be
25:37too interested in tackling it. It is a crisis inside of us, not outside of us. If it is shown
25:45to be a crisis inside of us, I know I am repeating these ideas, but I think I need to,
25:50so I am taking that liberty, I hope you will pardon. It is a crisis inside of us and when
26:00we see that it is a crisis inside of us, we will be more interested in tackling it.
26:04Because as we said we are all selfish people, let's use that selfishness constructively.
26:15Thank you, that is a powerful answer. And one that I think we all do well to heed.
26:26We have students who have been also thinking and have questions that are also powerful questions,
26:33so I think we should yield to them to ask some questions that will I think enlighten all of us.
26:43So Anupam, do you want to call on the first student please?
26:46Yes, definitely.
26:48Sure David, thank you.