- 23 hours ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:002024 was the hottest recorded year.
00:042025, five months have been declared as the hottest recorded.
00:08We are already heading into another very hot, difficult summer.
00:12It is almost as if mankind has made a collective decision to go suicidal.
00:20And that cannot be stopped.
00:22It will be beyond our hands.
00:23It will be beyond our control.
00:24Why are people not scared then?
00:26You see, think of alcoholism.
00:28There is a certain pleasure involved with emitting carbon.
00:32Our emotions are carbon, our celebrations are carbon.
00:35And that's why I say that the only solution that this crisis can potentially have,
00:40this fellow who does not emit anything because he is simply poor,
00:44takes that one as his role model and wants to become that one.
00:47We are worshipping those who are butchering us.
00:51The most final symptom of it.
00:54And that's only half the problem.
00:55The other half is...
00:592024 was the hottest recorded year.
01:032025, five months have been declared as the hottest recorded.
01:08We are already heading into another very hot, difficult summer.
01:12When we talk about climate and though there is a lot of conversation around it,
01:16do you see that awareness translating into something or do you just see those as empty conversations?
01:23Hot air.
01:24I see them largely as hot air that's only getting hotter each passing year.
01:31Even as we say, 2024 was the hottest complete year on record.
01:38And 2025 has so far already exceeded that.
01:432025 is also the coldest year compared to all the years that are to come.
01:54Wow.
01:56Yeah.
01:57Yeah.
01:58Yeah.
01:58And we had the Paris Agreement, 2015.
02:03We said by 2030, going by each country's national data variables, we'll be reducing our carbon footprint, carbon emissions by
02:1544%.
02:162050, we'll come to a net zero situation.
02:20Instead of that, 2025, we stand two or three percentage above the level we started off.
02:30Instead of getting closer to minus 44, we are actually plus 3%.
02:37It's not that we are missing the target by a little.
02:42It's not that instead of minus 44%, we have been able to achieve only minus 35% or minus 15%.
02:49So the reduction has not been sufficient.
02:52Instead of reducing, we have actually been increasing our emissions.
02:58And the projection for the remaining five years till 2030 is that we will be increasing our emissions at an
03:09increasing rate.
03:12Increasing our emissions at an increasing rate.
03:15It is almost as if mankind has made a collective decision to go suicidal.
03:21If you see NCRT-CBSC textbooks in India, we are dropping the chapters on environmental awareness, environmental science, the Trump
03:33administration.
03:35They are blocking any social attempts to even raise the issue of climate or emissions or environment.
03:45They have pulled out of the Paris Accord?
03:46They have pulled out of the Paris Accord and they are saying they'll cut down on the subsidies given to
03:51cleaner vehicles and green energy.
03:53And they are saying we'll dig deeper into Earth.
03:56We'll dig even into Alaska and we'll bring out gas and oil and we'll burn the fossil fuels and make
04:03America great again.
04:04So mankind has has turned suicidal.
04:07Also, we wanted that minus 44 degree limit by 2030 for a very specific reason.
04:17We wanted to keep the temperature increase, the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above normal.
04:26Yes.
04:27We said, now why this 1.5 degrees?
04:31Because science has it that after 1.5 degrees, somewhere between 1.5 and 2 degrees, feedback loops, positive feedback
04:40loops, they get initiated.
04:42Why are they called positive?
04:44Not in the sense of bringing about wellness or positivity.
04:48In the sense of being self-reinforcing and self-sustaining.
04:53Which means that here onwards temperature rise will not depend on anthropogenic emissions.
05:03Which means that even if we cease to additionally emit carbon now onwards, still such cycles have been set in
05:15motion that additional carbon would be generated on its own irreversibly and that too at an increasing rate.
05:24And that cannot be stopped.
05:26It will be beyond our hands.
05:27It will be beyond our control.
05:28So, you have done something, you have done something and now the thing has gone out of control.
05:34Even if you stop now, even if you desist now, even if you repent now, you cannot control it.
05:40So, we have come to that point.
05:43Feedback cycles are a very, very simple thing.
05:45Let me give you a very, very basic example.
05:48We talk of the glacial ice melting and the consequent rise of the sea levels, those things.
05:55So, let me take that example.
05:57So, there is ice on a mountain.
06:00There is ice on a mountain.
06:02Broadly speaking, that's what a glacier is.
06:04Yes.
06:05There is ice on a mountain.
06:07Or ice on rock.
06:08There is ice on rock.
06:10And the rock is typically dark in colour.
06:12And the ice is white.
06:14So, when sunlight, radiation falls on ice, it gets reflected back.
06:19Because that's what white colour does.
06:21But due to climate change, consequent global warming, the ice melts.
06:27So, the white colour is gone.
06:28And the dark rock beneath gets exposed.
06:31And that one absorbs sunlight.
06:34When it absorbs sunlight, it gets heated.
06:36When it gets heated, more ice melts.
06:39When more ice melts, more rock gets exposed.
06:42When more rock gets exposed, more ice melts.
06:44And that's a cycle beyond a control now.
06:46You cannot control it anymore.
06:48So, 450 ppm carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, feedback loops are well and truly activated.
06:57We started from 250 to 270 ppm pre-industrial levels.
07:02And we have come to a point.
07:04Soon, we will be reaching the double level of the natural levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
07:12And it's beyond human control now.
07:15So, it seems we have already given up.
07:18At least that is what is apparent from the attitudes of leaders and their societies, their electorates.
07:24No one seems bothered.
07:26We are paying lip service.
07:27But it is as if mankind has collectively resigned.
07:31We are saying it is going to come.
07:33And the effort that it takes, the resolve that it takes to stop it, that we are unwilling to provide.
07:40So, let it come.
07:42Anyway, the worst of it will not be seen by our generation.
07:45It will be seen 10, 20, 30 years later.
07:50Actually, it is being seen even today.
07:51But it's only going to intensify and accelerate.
07:54And the gravest results will be upon the coming generations.
07:58So, why should we bother that much?
08:02But it's not a case of not knowing what can happen.
08:06There are certain events that happen where you don't know the consequences and those consequences then take place.
08:12Here, like you are saying, and we have all been reading about it, whether there are deniers of that or
08:17not, but there is scientific evidence that all this is happening.
08:20It's irreversible.
08:21Why are people not scared then?
08:24Is it that you are too consumed by yourself right now?
08:26You don't care about?
08:27You see, think of alcoholism.
08:30Think of obesity.
08:32Think of substance abuse of any kind.
08:35Think of any kind of compulsive obsession.
08:38Does the person involved not know what is coming towards him?
08:43What is in store for him?
08:45He knows that very well.
08:46With every morsel, you are aware that you are overeating, that this is beyond your calorie brief, and yet you
08:54take it in.
08:54That's what is happening.
08:56Because there is a certain pleasure involved with emitting carbon.
09:02Our emotions are carbon, our celebrations are carbon, our feelings, our relationships, our happiness, our sense of progress, everything is
09:12carbon.
09:13So, to stop carbon emission, you will have to have a different philosophy of life altogether.
09:18And that's why I say that the only solution that this crisis can potentially have, even if a solution is
09:27still possible, is neither political nor technical.
09:32The solution will be spiritual.
09:35Because carbon is not really emitted by a car engine or a jet engine or a power plant.
09:45Carbon, truly speaking, is emitted by the emptiness inside mankind.
09:50We do not know what we want and hence we want everything.
09:54And that requires attempt and energy.
09:58And energy is emission.
09:59Energy is carbon.
10:01You know, we want stuff and that takes emissions and that is carbon.
10:06Why do we want so much stuff?
10:07Because we do not know what we want.
10:09And that's why the crisis can only have a spiritual solution.
10:11Is that why you say, and I am quoting from your book on page 14, that man's hunger is not
10:17so much in the stomach.
10:19It resides in his mind.
10:21And no fruit is enough when it comes to the mind.
10:24So, man has been destroying everything he can touch.
10:27And climate change is the most recent and the most devastating and probably the most final symptom of it.
10:33Most final symptom.
10:34Is that what…
10:36Yes.
10:37Basically, you are alluding it's just not about cars and emissions.
10:40Yes.
10:41See, it's something so simple.
10:43When do you call a person successful or happy?
10:48Think of a person you are calling normally as successful or happy.
10:52Who is this person?
10:53This is a person whose carbon footprint has increased.
10:57Hmm.
10:58So, the person was riding a two-wheeler.
11:00Now, he is a four-wheeler.
11:01Or he had a smaller car.
11:02Now, he has three big cars.
11:03And you will say he is prosperous, happy, successful and all of that.
11:06Yeah.
11:07Big house 20 ACs.
11:08Big house 20 ACs.
11:09So, everything that we associate with happiness is carbon.
11:14Which means that our basic definition of happiness itself is very violent and very misplaced.
11:20We need a different, a real philosophy of life.
11:24We have been told that the purpose of life is happiness.
11:27And happiness is to be obtained through consumption, material consumption.
11:31Hmm.
11:32Purpose of life is happiness and happiness comes from material consumption.
11:35And consumption is carbon.
11:37So, the purpose of life is to emit carbon.
11:40That's the corollary.
11:41If the purpose of life is to emit carbon, then we all, the 8 billion of us.
11:46And we will be like 10 billion in a couple of decades.
11:49Hmm.
11:50The 8 billion of us then exist just to emit carbon.
11:54Hmm.
11:54So, what else will we get?
11:56Apart from climate devastation.
11:58And that's what we are getting.
12:01What do you make of a lot of activism that you see around climate change?
12:10Or people, those who are speaking about this?
12:14Because, you know, and it's something very interesting that you write in your book.
12:16And when you say half-hearted or superficial measures are not going to work now.
12:22You cannot have somebody set the AC to 22 degrees instead of 16 and then feel proud that he is
12:29contributing to climate movement.
12:32That is mere self-deception.
12:35What do you mean by this self-deception?
12:36I mean, why are we fooling ourselves if it is self-deception?
12:40Just to feel good temporarily.
12:43It's like a dopamine spike.
12:45I am a nice man.
12:46I am a moral man.
12:47I am a responsible man.
12:48You see, the top 10% of the global population by wealth, they are responsible for more than two-thirds
13:02of global emissions.
13:04That's it.
13:05And if you take the top 1%, they contribute to more than a quarter of global emissions directly.
13:13If you take all the indirect emissions also, it's only going to increase.
13:19That's what they do.
13:21And that's not the only problem.
13:23The problem is that those who are not yet there in the top 1 or 10 percentile, they aspire to
13:32be there.
13:32Which means that our role models are those who emit the most.
13:39Our role models are those who emit the most, who devastate this planet the most.
13:44They are our role models.
13:45So, on one hand, they are the ones emitting like mad.
13:52It was like this that one particular billionaire in the United States, the amount he emits daily, an average Indian
14:02will take 2,500 years to emit.
14:08The amount of carbon that the average American billionaire emits daily.
14:19And that's only half the problem.
14:21The other half is this fellow who does not emit anything because he is simply poor, takes that one as
14:28his role model and wants to become that one.
14:30Aspires to be that one, wants to be employed by that one, worships that one.
14:36Now, in this kind of philosophical ecosystem, how can there be any reduction in emissions?
14:42We are worshipping those who are butchering us.
14:46You know, it reminds me of, like you said, it reminds me of all these conferences, even the Paris Accord
14:53or anything.
14:54Where every single individual or the world leader who is coming there comes in their own jet and then talks
15:00about carbon emissions need to be lowered.
15:02Yeah.
15:02So, it's superficial lip service while you are not putting that in practice for yourself.
15:09Also, you see, all these carbon austerity measures are preached to those who are anyway not emitting much.
15:17Yes.
15:18If you go to an Indian average household, how big is their carbon footprint?
15:24How many tons of CO2?
15:26The global average is close to four-tenths.
15:29The average Indian, if you remove the top five percentile of Indians, does not emit even one-tenths.
15:34And you go to that person and you tell him, you know, this bulb, this electric bulb, you should not
15:40be using when you are not in the room.
15:43You should not be having an AC.
15:45Instead of using that little 60cc moped or scooter, you should be walking to the charaha.
15:53All this is stupid.
15:56Because even if he does all this, it's not going to make even a minor difference.
16:02But instead of pointing our fingers to the place where the culprit is, we are being told to look at
16:12ourselves as if the global south is responsible,
16:16as if the normal poor person is responsible, as if the middle and the lower middle classes are responsible.
16:23They have done nothing.
16:24The fact of the matter is, most Indians actually need to increase the size of their carbon footprint.
16:35Somebody will find it offensive and say why.
16:37I understand, I understand.
16:38But you think of a girl who does not go to school.
16:41If she goes to school, there would be some carbon emission.
16:45Now that kind of carbon emission is welcome.
16:48You think of a person who does not have sufficient power consumption, even enough power consumption to keep himself cool
16:58in summers and warm in winters.
17:01Yes.
17:01You cannot be stone hearted and tell that you must not consume anything so that that particular billionaire can keep
17:12emitting like mad.
17:13So, when it comes to this part of the population, the lower half, the lower quarter percentile of the population,
17:21they are in fact going to increase their carbon emission and their consumption and that is justified.
17:29Where we should restrict is the top 1, 5, 10 and 20 percentiles.
17:34But they are the ones also holding power.
17:37They are the ones deciding the narratives.
17:40They are the ones controlling media.
17:42They are the ones who also have political power at their disposal.
17:47They will not allow this to happen.
17:49They set narratives.
17:50They are the ones who fund the kind of journalism that calls all climate change as hoax.
17:57And there is a very strong current of climate denialism as well.
18:01All that is being funded by those top 1, 5, 10 percentile people.
18:06You know, it brings me to a very interesting question to ask you then.
18:14Is it a class problem then or this divide that we are talking about, this denialism that we are talking
18:22about, how do we then balance the obvious question would be,
18:26how do I balance my development, my need or will for a better life with this whole climate change because
18:34I am also living in it?
18:35Beautiful questions, both of them.
18:37It is not a class problem because irrespective of the class, there sits an animal within us that wants to
18:43consume.
18:44There are the haves who are able to consume.
18:47There are the have-nots that aspire to consume.
18:49So, how is it a class problem?
18:52Irrespective of the class, wherever the man or the woman or the kid or the Asian or the African or
18:57the Hindu or the Christian is located, this fellow wants to consume.
19:01And that is independent of the class.
19:03Right?
19:03So, it is not a class problem.
19:05First thing, it is a philosophical problem.
19:07You need to have the right philosophy of life, the right understanding of life.
19:11The problem lies there.
19:12What was the second thing you said?
19:13Then how do I, if it is not a class problem, I also want to, like you said, I aspire.
19:19How do I balance my development?
19:19See, see, see, please understand.
19:21There is enough for you to consume without you becoming a climate convict.
19:33It is not necessary that if you make even minor emissions, that's to be counted as a crime.
19:40That's not so.
19:42The earth has natural climate sinks.
19:47On the land, there are the forests and then 70% of the surface is ocean.
19:53Water absorbs carbon, so do forests.
19:56So, if you are making emissions under a certain limit, that is alright.
20:02And you can be very well developed.
20:05The problem is mad growth, not development.
20:09Development consists of looking at your real needs.
20:14Right?
20:15The right to be educated, medical facilities, having a culture of equality around you.
20:22All that counts under development.
20:24But what we want is unlimited growth.
20:28And by growth, we mean material accumulation.
20:31Yes.
20:31That's where the problem lies.
20:33For development, if you emit carbon, that is alright and that's not going to cause harm.
20:40But if growth is your objective, your philosophy is I have to keep growing endlessly, like the pursuit of endless
20:48profits by MNCs.
20:49I must grow endlessly and only then I can call myself successful.
20:53Otherwise, I feel hollow inside.
20:56Then there is a problem and that's where the problem is.
20:59Development is not the problem.
21:00Reckless pursuit of blind growth is the problem.
21:04And these two are distinct.
21:05These two must be seen as distinct.
21:07So basic comfort can't be seen as…
21:10A crime.
21:11No, no.
21:11That's not a crime.
21:12But over consumption has to be called…
21:15Otherwise, we are climate culprits, aren't we?
21:18Yeah.
21:19There was some emission involved with the production of these garments.
21:24There is air conditioning on as we sit here in the month of May.
21:28And I think that is justified.
21:30That is very much justified.
21:31And this is not what is responsible for climate catastrophe.
21:34But the third world has been made to feel guilty.
21:39We are being told that the climate crisis is a result of your use of the air conditioner or that
21:461000cc car that you have.
21:48Whereas, you have real monsters, SUVs and gas guzzlers.
21:52You go to US, you go to Dubai.
21:54That's where you find them.
21:56Yeah.
21:56But you are being told you are the culprit.
21:57Whereas, you are not.
21:59So, before you guilt people, those who are aspiring for a better life, give up your private jets and your…
22:06Yachts.
22:07Yachts.
22:08Before you give people grief for their basic needs.
22:12Thank you so much.
22:13We can go on and on on these topics.
22:15But paucity of time.
22:17But thank you so much again for speaking to us.
22:19Most welcome.
22:20Just download the Acharya Prashant app.
22:22And there you go to the community section.
22:25And you have live testimonials streaming in at the rate of 1 every 5 minutes.
22:31I am seeing lives change in thousands if not millions every day in front of my own eyes.
22:38We are doing it.
22:38We have actually done it.
22:39Join the community of more than 2 lakh participants on the Acharya Prashant app.
22:45Your first month is completely free.
22:48You will get full access to Gita Mission.
22:50On the app you will get regular live sessions.
22:53Daily exclusive conversations with Acharya Prashant.
22:57Access to the vibrant Gita community.
22:59Wisdom exams.
23:01Curated news.
23:03Audiobooks.
23:04Quotes.
23:04And much more.
23:06Search Acharya Prashant on Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
23:10And download now.
Comments