Animals too must have rights like humans || Acharya Prashant, with Bard College (2022)

Acharya Prashant

Full Video: How to change the Inner Climate? || Acharya Prashant, with Bard College (2022) Link: https://youtu.be/-1c6uRbxCzQ?feature=shared  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  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00A South American country brought about changes in its constitution.

00:19They actually overhauled their entire constitution and the constitution is now almost founded

00:27on giving great rights to the climate, to the various animal and bird species.

00:42And it's a document worth emulating.

00:48I think a lot of countries in the coming years will take inspiration from it and actually

00:55need to take inspiration from it.

00:58So that could be done, but profit is profit, greed is greed and when we do not respect

01:12the rights of sentient beings, people in flesh and blood we can see and talk to, how will

01:23we respect the rights of something a little abstract as the climate.

01:35The climate is not going to come and talk to you and plead to you as a person and the

01:43climate is not going to sue you on its own.

01:46Everybody needs to act on behest of the climate as a proxy.

01:54So I don't think we are going to be very respectful towards the climate on our own, even though

02:00the right legislations are important and must be there.

02:05So what to do then?

02:08You need to tell people, there has to be the right kind of knowledge.

02:19What is happening is, we are in the middle of an information revolution, we all know

02:27we are.

02:32But this information revolution has not increased knowledge.

02:40It has not increased knowledge and for sure it has decreased wisdom.

02:47Why?

02:48Because there is so much information available to us, this part we see, what we do not see

02:55is that the opportunity to disseminate misinformation is now greatly available to the miscreants.

03:09So you get a lot of information today, several hundred times more than what you used to get

03:1530 years back.

03:18But most of what we are getting now is misinformation or disinformation or false information or

03:27misleading information or distracting information.

03:32So the result is that the quality of our knowledge has greatly fallen and knowledge is what forms

03:43our insides.

03:47On the outside we are made of food, air, water, flesh, bones.

03:55On the inside we are made of knowledge and the knowledge that constitutes our insides

04:02has become all corrupted.

04:06So what will happen is that there is this factory and this factory is harming the health

04:12of the local environment as you said.

04:17But people have been taught that comfort and greed are more important, more important

04:26than the health of the environment.

04:31That needs to change.

04:32Is it okay if I add on?

04:36What about the nature of human nature to survive?

04:41It also prompts us to prioritize ourselves more and also adds on to that greed because

04:47naturally we want to survive.

04:50You see, we need to appreciate the nature of the beast within more clearly.

05:06There was this COVID pandemic and people knew that if they would behave in certain

05:13ways, they may even die.

05:16Did they still behave rationally?

05:21The climate crisis does not even threaten you that much.

05:26Nobody will say that if the climate keeps worsening, then by next year 35% of the world's

05:32population will be wiped out.

05:35So when it comes to having a good time, when it comes to having pleasure, the beast within

05:41is prepared to trade long term wellness for instant gratification.

05:53Long term wellness can wait.

05:55After all, we do not know whether we would be around in the long term.

06:00Then somebody said in the long term, we are all dead anyway.

06:04So why not have a good time as long as it lasts?

06:14You have also mentioned that with the skin condition, if it doesn't affect us directly,

06:21we more than likely won't see it.

06:24I'm thinking that this is also what you're trying to infer with the climate crisis.

06:30We can't really see it directly.

06:32So therefore, it's easier for us to ignore it and push it aside.

06:36So let me ask you, what is it that we can see directly?

06:42You cannot, for example, see at this moment, the carbon dioxide concentration in the air

06:49increasing.

06:50We cannot see that.

06:51We don't even actually have instruments to measure that.

06:53The common man does not have that.

06:55But what is it that we can see worsening on a daily basis?

07:01And we are also concerned about what is that?

07:04The rising temperatures with this current heat wave that's going on right now.

07:09And then also in the past, we've also had a snowstorm in this area.

07:14So it's also we could see the issues going on too.

07:18You see, the opposite is also sometimes evident.

07:23There are places on the planet that are having harsher winters.

07:27And I have seen people when the winters are harsher, they would say, oh, and then there

07:32are people who are talking of global warming.

07:33Where is the warming?

07:34All I'm experiencing is the cold.

07:37So you see, these temperature fluctuations are not so wild or so apparent that they become

07:45undeniable.

07:47When we want to stay in the false, when we want to deceive ourselves, we get enough evidence

07:57to stay in that deception.

08:00The proof of global warming or climate change is still not irrefutable for those who are

08:09hell-bent on denying them.

08:11There are, we very well know, there is a huge community of climate deniers that exists

08:19and who keep saying that all this anthropological global warming thing is a hoax.

08:24It does not exist at all.

08:26So what does that mean?

08:27I mean, that means that the common man still has a lot of places to take refuge in.

08:39The truth is still not very bluntly out in the open.

08:45Those who want to refuse it are still refusing it and will probably be able to refuse it

08:50for another, I think, five or eight years at least.

08:54So my question, let me take that.

08:59I asked you, what is it, however, that no person in his senses can refuse?

09:06He can neither refuse it nor can he pretend disinterest from it.

09:13What is it?

09:17The fact that our lives are in a mess.

09:22There is nobody who does not want to improve the quality of his life.

09:25Do we agree on that?

09:27Every single person on this planet wants change in his or her life and what is that change

09:33all about?

09:34That change is about improvement.

09:35We want to have a better life.

09:36Is that true?

09:37We accept, we acknowledge that our lives as they stand have problems in them, otherwise

09:44why would we want to change or improve?

09:46We are all looking for change.

09:47We get up each morning and we say, can we have something better?

09:51Can we reach a better place?

09:52Can we do something better?

09:54Whatever, whatever.

09:55Can we eat something better?

09:57So if we can show this to the person and impress on him that you need to be better, your life

10:05needs to change, then I think the climate crisis can also be addressed.

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