Doomsday: Wake up, it's already late || Acharya Prashant, TedX (2023)
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Video Information: 10.04.23, TEDx talk, SVC-Delhi
Context:
~ Why our consumptions are destructive ?
~ What are the facts about destructive consumption?
~ What are causing global warming & climate change ?
~ How are food affective global warming & climate change?
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?...
~~~~~
Video Information: 10.04.23, TEDx talk, SVC-Delhi
Context:
~ Why our consumptions are destructive ?
~ What are the facts about destructive consumption?
~ What are causing global warming & climate change ?
~ How are food affective global warming & climate change?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Right, so the topic was spinning yarns of epiphany.
00:14What is epiphany?
00:15A sudden realization or revelation of the truth.
00:21We say that facts are the door to truth.
00:26And therefore, one has to first talk of the facts before saying anything about truth or
00:36desiring an epiphanic moment.
00:40Are we really in touch with the facts?
00:44So we said, let's check that out and we named the presentation as missing the obvious.
00:53Let's see to what extent are we really grounded in the facts.
00:56We'll be taking two sets of facts.
01:01Facts that we are calling as far and wide that relate to something global, something
01:07macro and facts that are more personal, more micro, more related to our day-to-day lives.
01:14And we'll see whether we really are in touch with them.
01:17So let's begin.
01:18Yes.
01:20First thing, as you look at this slide, you must realize that this is needed to be shown
01:29here because it is not being normally shown elsewhere.
01:35We are talking of CO2 emission as a proxy for mindless consumption.
01:44Where do these emissions come from?
01:48They come from energy consumption when it comes to all countries, heat consumption when
01:55it comes to mostly the first world, cold countries, transport, industrial production and very
02:05very importantly food.
02:08Especially if you are a flesh eater, if you are someone who consumes a lot of so-called
02:13non-vegetarian food, animal products, be it flesh or dairy, then you are contributing
02:22a lot to carbon emissions.
02:25And what have those emissions done?
02:27Look at the stats.
02:29The pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were 280.
02:35Even till 1950, it was 310 ppm.
02:39Currently it stands at around 420 ppm, that's an increase of 50% over the pre-industrial
02:46levels.
02:47And we know what carbon dioxide does, it traps heat, the familiar greenhouse effect.
02:54Global mean temperature rise as a result of the greenhouse effect has been 1.5, 1.6 degrees
03:03Fahrenheit and it's only increasing and increasing at an increasing rate.
03:10Forget about arresting the temperature rise, it's only accelerating.
03:17The projected temperature rise by 2050 is 1.6 degrees, not Fahrenheit but centigrade.
03:25And that's an optimistic estimate, mind you.
03:29The sea level rise is already close to 100 mm and it can go up to 200-300 mm by 2050.
03:40These are not just numbers.
03:43These are warnings of an impending catastrophe and this is not something that we discuss
03:49in our daily lives.
03:50This is not a part of our daily discussions and the national discourse.
03:561.2 billion climate refugees by 2050 and that's not the worst thing to hear of.
04:03The worst thing is that we are probably already in the sixth mass extinction phase and out
04:08of the previous five, at least three were caused by an excessive presence of carbon
04:15dioxide in the atmosphere, the same thing that you are witnessing today.
04:18Do you understand what mass extinction means?
04:21It means that as a generation we have been so stupid that we are obliterating not just
04:27our own but probably all the species on this planet and that's happening within the next
04:32few decades.
04:34That's who we are and that's how oblivious we are to the very obvious present stunning
04:42facts.
04:43How can then there be an epiphany or truth?
04:47Total, that's total and we are talking of both Indian and international news channels.
04:55This is the kind of importance that we are giving to the all-round destruction that awaits
05:00us.
05:01Next one.
05:03And then when it comes to consumption, we are not just consuming industrial goods, not
05:08just fossil fuels, not heat, not just energy, not just food but also something softer, subtler
05:14which is data.
05:17You look at the kind of GBs that we are consuming.
05:20The GBs that an average mobile user in India is now consuming is close to 20.
05:26The average time that an average teenager is spending on his mobile screen is more than
05:34eight hours now and a lot of that is just social media trivia.
05:39That's what we are consuming and the result is an exponential rise in misinformation,
05:47fake news, loss of creativity and even loss of IQ, we'll come to that later.
05:53Now, we say because the global temperatures are rising and there is the climate catastrophe
06:01awaiting us, let's be do-gooders, let's recycle plastic, let's replace our old style electric
06:12bulbs and let's plant trees.
06:15The thing is planting trees is way too insufficient now, it's not going to help.
06:21You look at the data.
06:23You require a landmass much greater than the size of India to be forested, to be planted
06:31with trees if you are to make any substantial impact, obviously that's not going to happen.
06:36So these two trees, four trees that we are thinking of planting are not going to help
06:40because the cause is consumption, the cause is overpopulation.
06:45Who consumes?
06:46The people consume and because there are so many of us, that's why the consumption levels
06:51are so high, yes.
06:56And when it comes to consumption, see how we deceive ourselves, we say we'll plant trees
07:04and that's another aspect of deception, very personal.
07:09We do not have money to study, we do not have money to invest in entrepreneurship, we do
07:15not have money for research and development, but we have all the money for bridal jewellery.
07:21India stands at number two there and see the striking contrast.
07:26Number 150, number 190, what are the ranks in the last three points, 142, 144, 146 and
07:34what's the rank up there, first point, number two, education, per capita income, health
07:43spending, we are nowhere, but when it comes to gold, when it comes to weddings, we are
07:50right at the top, that's who we are and are we in touch with these facts or we take these
07:56things as normal.
07:57If you really are in touch with these facts, you'd be astounded, you'd be shocked, you'd
08:01be stirred into action, what are we acting, when we are not even realizing, not even paying
08:06heed, how will we act.
08:07Next one please, extremes, an example of extremes here, can you imagine roaming around in a
08:14t-shirt on Antarctica or on the Arctic, but that's what is happening, look at the temperatures
08:23and there is no typo there, we have not missed out on a minus sign, that's 38 degrees, yes,
08:31not minus 38 and that's on the, that's the kind of extreme weather events that we are
08:41already into, we are not forecasting, nobody is acting as a doomsday warner or something.
08:5183% increase in extreme weather events, remember the Australian forest fires, remember the
08:59European heat waves, remember what is happening in Pakistan and Bangladesh next door, the
09:05floods and remember what is happening in India as well, the frequency of cyclones and 83%
09:12increase over just the last one or two decades, that's where we are.
09:19Flood and other water related, that's just a number, dollar 5.6 trillion by the next
09:24decade or by 2050, to put things in perspective, that's more than the current GDP of India,
09:31we are not yet even at dollar 4 trillion completely, but the economic loss comes later, it's the
09:39human loss that's the worst tragedy and we are yet to fathom the magnitude of what we
09:46are already into and neck deep into.
09:51But we talk of other truths, we talk of metaphysical realities, we talk of knowing the unknown
09:59and even the unknowable, when we do not know even that which is present right in front
10:04of our eyes, we do not know the obvious facts that stare at us and would destroy our lives,
10:09but we want to know of some hidden mystical reality, how will that work?
10:13Next one please, extremes, just as we saw extreme weather events, look at the extremes
10:21here as well, we are contrasting the far and wide with the up and close, the near thing
10:27and saying that be it the distant reality or the immediate one, we are equally in oblivion.
10:34Look at these extremes and we are talking of dollar billionaires here, mind you, India
10:41ranks third when it comes to the number of billionaires in the world and 80% of Indians
10:47earn less than rupees 10,000 per month, if you earn rupees 20,000, 25,000 a month you
10:53are in the top 10 percentile in India, that's where we stand, the percentage of population
10:58below the poverty line is still 20% and that's when we have defined the poverty line on bare
11:04sustenance terms, we have taken the minimum number of calories a person needs to survive
11:09and then we say, for these calories what is the minimum amount of food grains etc that
11:13you need to consume and based on that we have drawn the poverty line, which is a very inhuman
11:18way of drawing the poverty line and still 20% of us are below the poverty line and yet
11:24we have vulgar accumulation and display of wealth going on, the inequality is increasing
11:31continuously, you know of the Gini coefficient, right?
11:35And you know of how it has only been increasing in the world and also in India, yes.
11:43Now, killing, violence, there is a violence that is happening on a global scale, macro
11:50level and there is a violence that is happening right in our households, let's first look
11:55at the former one, fish gone, number of species that are getting extinct every day, do you
12:05know that is more than 100 times the natural rate, the natural rate is that one or two
12:13species will go extinct every day and that's a natural thing, that has been happening since
12:19the last millions of years, but today we have exceeded that rate by 100 times, some
12:25studies say 1000 times, even as we speak a few species have gone extinct, can you imagine
12:33the devastation, the total obliteration of life itself, that's what we are doing and
12:39we remain blissfully ignorant, we behave as if nothing is amiss.
12:45All the fisheries gone, would we survive, 2048, it's as if fisheries are out there,
12:51somewhere isolated, disconnected from us, would we survive if they are gone, please tell me.
12:58And India, relate the last two points, very few people realize that milk and beef are synonymous.
13:08Very few people realize that, we do not bother to inquire what happens to all the cattle
13:14after they stop yielding milk, as young, educated, inquisitive minds, should we be that complacent,
13:24that ignorant, that oblivious, isn't there a direct relation between our dairy consumption
13:31and our beef production and subsequent export, but we don't mind.
13:37Next, killing them, so we are not just killing the cows, the buffalos, the fish, the entire
13:44wildlife, look at who else is being killed, 189, that's rock bottom, I wonder if there
13:52is any country below us, 920 is the ratio, where are those missing 80 girls and if you
14:01are a killer, why would you spare your own daughter or wife, that's the worst kind of
14:08genocide going on in India, but we don't bother, we behave as if we are an educated, enlightened,
14:17empowered country, especially when it comes to empowering the other gender as well.
14:24Think of killing, killing happens everywhere because the killer is the same, the fellow
14:30who can kill an innocent animal just for his pleasure and profit, why would he spare an
14:38innocent girl, she would be killed because he knows there is a cost to bear and then
14:44there is a dowry to gift and all such things.
14:49Female labor participation rate 25%, worse still, it is falling, education levels among
14:56women are increasing, their labor participation rate is falling, over the last 20 years it
15:01has actually fallen, more women were at workplaces than they are today, two decades back, the
15:10proportion of women working was more than what it is today, women are withdrawing from
15:16workplaces, 73% of them even if they continue to work, they leave their jobs after work
15:23and that's not really an informed and voluntary choice, it is to do with the social conditions
15:30and the cultural conditioning a lot.
15:36We talk of farmer suicides and that's a very tragic thing, the newspapers are all full
15:41of farmer suicides and that is something we must address obviously, but what about the
15:45housewives and does anybody bother to inquire what our cultural institutions are doing to
15:53the women to the point that she is compelled to die by suicide and we are missing that
16:01as young students when you talk to each other, I am asking you, do you take up these issues?
16:07Do these form a part of your daily conversations?
16:10They hardly do.
16:13Next, loss of biodiversity and we will be talking of another kind of loss next.
16:20This is a loss far and wide as is biodiversity.
16:24This is biodiversity loss, I just addressed that.
16:28The extinction rate has exceeded the natural rate not by percentage points, but by manifold,
16:35but by multiples, 1 million animal and plant species threatened with extinction, threatened
16:44with extinction, they are not just threatened, their numbers are not just reducing, they
16:50are going extinct, we understand what extinction means, they will never return.
16:54We are not talking of a few members of the species, we are talking of the last member
16:59of the species, it's gone forever, never to return and we are talking of not one such
17:05species, we are talking of a million such species.
17:11Look at the third point, let it sink in.
17:16The only mammals that are surviving today are the ones that we use, all other mammals
17:22we have wiped out.
17:25So if you want to survive on this earth, we have colonized, monopolized it to such an
17:29extent that if you want to survive on this earth, you have to be usable to human beings.
17:33If you are not usable, you will be killed.
17:37So goat, cow, buffalo, sheep, camel, only such mammals that are of use to us have been
17:47allowed to not just survive, but multiply, we forcibly multiply them, that's the reality
17:52of the animal farms, we forcefully multiply them and all other animals, think of the millions
17:58of mammal species, we have completely wiped them out, that's who we are.
18:03Wild mammals represent only 4% obviously.
18:07We talked of loss of biodiversity, here is the corresponding loss of creativity.
18:13Have you heard of something called the Flynn effect?
18:16Do you know that each generation is significantly lower on IQ than the preceding one?
18:24And that has been happening since the last 40-50 years, since the advent of television
18:29and now that has been compounded with the internet.
18:33We are losing IQ at the rate of 3-5 points every decade, isn't that astounding?
18:40Look at the other points, newspaper reading, magazine reading declining sharply, when was
18:50the last time you came across a great new poetry book, a great new publication, who
18:57cares for poets now?
18:59Innovation, creativity, intelligence, empathy, all of these things are being lost just as
19:07we are losing biodiversity.
19:09The loss outside is also the loss inside and we are not seeing that.
19:19Superstitions, 50%, almost 50%, you add up those numbers, that's 10, 24, 14, that's almost 50%.
19:3050% people still do not completely believe that global warming is happening and it's anthropogenic.
19:38Which means they won't really participate in any climate activism.
19:45Imagine that superstition of the worst kind and that same kind of superstition is reflected
19:50in something else.
19:53Look at what is happening on social media these days.
19:58Superstition rules and if you can propagate superstition, you will very soon be a superstar.
20:05Is that not the rule now?
20:08Look at this.
20:09Miracles, yes, they do happen and that's not just something that Indians believe in.
20:16Faith healings, no, no, no, the scientific system of medicine won't help you.
20:23Come to all the other kind of mumbo-jumbo and the number of deaths that is causing,
20:27that's going largely unreported.
20:29So a mind that does not care for the truth is what is called a superstitious, right?
20:35We do not care for the truth when it comes to macro events and we also do not care for
20:40the truth when it comes to things in our personal life.
20:43So small things, you want to proceed for an examination, somebody tells you, well, you
20:50should wear this thread or take some yogurt before you leave and that same kind of harmless
20:56looking thing is what becomes the climate tragedy and subsequent extinction as well.
21:03So please don't take those little superstitions lightly, they are killing us.
21:09Good.