Anthropogenic Climate Change || Acharya Prashant (2022)

Acharya Prashant

Full video: East Meets West on Climate Change || Acharya Prashant, in conversation (2022) 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

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

00:20to.

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 enquire 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, you see, we started taking this thing a bit

03:08seriously in 1990, that's the watershed year, and we are more than three decades from

03:15there now.

03:18And 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 and 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

04:26our 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

04:45of 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 a 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 eight and a half billion of us, soon to be nine, soon to be ten.

07:09Half the folks on the planet are barely getting by and living on a few dollars a day and everybody

07:15is aspiring to more and this has led us to already be fighting over water and topsoil

07:22and fish and forests and biodiversity and it is the fundamental reason the planet is

07:27heating up.

07:29I would maybe differ with you a bit because I think that in the long run humans need to

07:37figure 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.

07:58And so I believe there is sort of good news on sort of the endless numbers of people on

08:07the 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 can, we can see our way through and we can stop at ten

08:28billion and then slowly have the population decline, create more space for people, create

08:34more space for creatures, but I feel like we are at this moment, this critical juncture

08:39where we 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 only

09:09exist but exist in a healthy way, in a fulfilling way.

09:15Therefore I want to be realistic about 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

10:02or 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 carbon

11:03footprint compared to the decision of having a child or is it going to be just equal 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.

11:40I agree with you, it is essentially the reason that people are having fewer children and

11:49not only in the wealthiest countries but as I said also in China now is fundamentally

11:56they feel like they can't 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 three cars and how do we move

12:37in 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, we need better technologies today but I see

12:53their role more as that of NLG6.

12:58There is a lot of pain, there is a lot of current immediate pain and therefore we need

13:03better technologies to manage that pain.

13:07Technology cannot really cure this situation but can give us a temporary relief and also

13:15it 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 broadened

13:31by technology.

13:32So first of all yes due credit technology.

13:35Now I'll 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 and India is a relatively warm place and as people get prosperous one of the first

14:07things that 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 and it's

14:37not good for the climate.

14:41The elder sister comes in and says look technology has brought in this new AC with a five star

14:48rating and it consumes far lesser power.

14:55Now that brings us brings in a false sense of complacency.

14:59We used to have these very antiquated cars that we kind of inherited from the British

15:07ambassador cars and they used to be really great instruments of pollution of all kinds

15:17including noise pollution.

15:19So they were phased away.

15:21Now you would hardly see any of them on Indian roads.

15:23Now we have really sleek modern cars in fact we share a lot of them with the

15:27Americans, with the Europeans and we have the same models running here.

15:30But what has happened?

15:32What has happened is that the numbers have increased so very exponentially that the total

15:40emission count is nowhere close to what we used to have in the 70s or 80s.

15:46So in spite of better and greener and more efficient technologies on the net, we stand

15:54very 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 am not a climate offender anymore because the technology that I am consuming is so very

16:26green.

16:27No, I have a Tesla now rather than a Suzuki or a Hyundai.

16:32The thing is, is a Tesla really carbon neutral?

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