Tree Plantation is False Climate Activism || Acharya Prashant (2019)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00I will say something with respect to this tree plantation thing.

00:11You see it is very well known that one tree over the course of 40 years would absorb just

00:19one ton of carbon dioxide.

00:22How effective is that, please?

00:24And that is if that tree lives to get 40 years old.

00:31One tree over 40 years absorbs one ton of carbon dioxide.

00:35In one year, how much does it absorb?

00:370.025, 0.025 ton, one.

00:44Whereas having one less child causes a difference of 60 tons per year.

00:52Now do you want to plant trees happily and then go home and have a child?

01:00One child is 60 tons per year and one tree is 0.025 tons per year.

01:09But by planting a tree you start feeling that you have done your bit and you feel very happy.

01:15Now you can go on a date, get married and then obviously you will have kids.

01:21This is the kind of thing I become very unhappy with, very, very unhappy with.

01:29All the measures that social activism is taking can contribute not 1% of that which having

01:46a child less does.

01:51But then all the do-gooders are roaming and they are going around with a lot of pride.

01:54You know, we are climate warriors.

01:56What climate warrior?

02:02What is this tree plantation thing?

02:07Devote your resources, your energy, your Fridays, your Saturdays or your Sundays to doing the

02:12right thing.

02:13Have an awareness campaign.

02:16Go to young people in schools and colleges and tell them not to procreate.

02:21That's what you must be doing.

02:22Instead, you are feeling good by planting trees.

02:26Not that planting trees is harmful.

02:28I am fully in support of it.

02:31But then the opportunity cost is great.

02:33You understand opportunity cost?

02:35The same time that you invested in planting a tree could have been invested in delivering

02:40a presentation in a particular college.

02:43By planting the tree, you refuse to make that presentation in the college and this is criminal.

02:50This is outrightly criminal.

02:51I do not support this.

02:56So do not say we are little beings, we can only do this much.

02:59The ones who are doing this much are the ones causing the problem.

03:04Misplaced climate activism is not solving the problem, it is a part of the problem.

03:12Everybody is becoming a climate activist without realizing what is it that really needs to

03:15be done.

03:16There are a few things you must understand.

03:21At the root of the climate catastrophe lies man's tendency to consume.

03:31And man consumes in three clear ways and three distinct ways.

03:36Man wants to consume the entire world.

03:39And the entire world consists of human beings, prakritic beings, which you call as natural

03:46beings and man-made things.

03:49Whenever you will look around you, these are the three kinds of things you will find.

03:54Other human beings, other natural beings and other man-made things.

04:02Man consumes all three and consumption of all three leads to carbon emissions.

04:07When you consume another human being, what do you get?

04:12What do you get?

04:13Kids.

04:14That is the biggest cause of carbon emissions.

04:16When you consume man-made things, again, what do you emit?

04:21Carbon.

04:22Because whatever there is man-made is made using energy and energy comes from fossil fuels.

04:29So whenever you are consuming something man-made, you are causing carbon emissions.

04:36And the third thing is consumption of natural resources.

04:39Whether you are eating vegetables, whether you are a vegan or not, or whether you are

04:48consuming meat, all of this is highly carbon emitting.

04:54Even if you are vegan, you will eat grains at least.

04:58Where will the grains come from?

05:01Where will the grains come from?

05:04They can only come by felling forests.

05:08But then you start feeling great, I am a vegan, I am holier than thou.

05:15The earth does not have resources to support 8 billion or 11 billion vegans.

05:22So do not be so happy about just being a vegan.

05:25Veganism doesn't help the cause of climate change beyond a point.

05:32We need two things, one, less people and less consumption.

05:36And both of them, both of them together.

05:40Are you getting it?

05:44Even if one of them is missing, you are gone.

05:48US has not too many people, just 32 crores are there.

05:57And yet they are the biggest carbon emitters in the world.

06:01Because they consume.

06:04On the other end is China, China the per capita consumption is 1 by 5 or 1 by 10 of the USA.

06:12And yet they are number 2 on the carbon list.

06:15Why?

06:16Because they are just too many.

06:19You need a situation where there are not more than 2 or 3 billion people in the world.

06:24That has been scientifically calculated to be the sustainable limit.

06:28And currently we are 8 billion, we need to reduce it to 2 or 3 billion, that's the first thing.

06:32Secondly, these 2 or 3 billion people have to be spiritual so that they do not have a

06:36tendency to consume.

06:37Unless you are spiritual, you are bound to be living a consumption-centric life.

06:46The very urge for liberation, when it doesn't find an outlet, it becomes the urge to consume.

06:52Do you see this?

06:53Where does the tendency to consume so much come from?

06:57It comes from the misidentified and thwarted urge towards liberation.

07:05If you will not provide liberation to a man, his energies will flow in the direction of

07:10consumption.

07:14So these are the 2 things that we require.

07:16One less population, secondly the population that remains must be highly spiritual in its

07:22outlook.

07:23Only then can you avoid the climate catastrophe.

07:25All this tamasha that is happening on the streets will not help.

07:29Instead it is making people feel good about themselves.

07:31I look at these warriors, climate warriors, young men and young women.

07:36Some of them were fighting the police recently in Bombay.

07:40And I thought to myself, will these young people refuse to have a kid?

07:44No, they won't.

07:47Here for a tree, they are prepared to lay down their lives and I respect that sentiment.

07:52Seriously I respect that.

07:53But then I want to question the efficacy of that.

07:57You don't want these 2,700 trees to be cut down.

08:01But then if you get one child, that is the equivalent of cutting down a lakh trees.

08:09Bringing one child to the world is the equivalent of cutting down a lakh trees.

08:14Maybe more.

08:15Just do the maths.

08:20But you show so much of sentiment when a tree is hacked down.

08:26And you show no sentiment when you see family after family procreating.

08:33You in fact send them congratulatory messages.

08:36Wow, nice, didi, good that you had your second or third kid now.

08:44Returning from the climate demonstration, what does this young girl do?

08:50She calls up her didi and says, so didi, was the delivery fine?

08:56What nonsense is this?

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