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Video Information: 11.02.2022, Interview Session, Goa
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?
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: 11.02.2022, Interview Session, Goa
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?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00How do you, if you, and I see many young people in the United States who, you know, are, you
00:08know, choosing veganism for climate reasons, you know, living plastic-free lives, you know,
00:16trying to explore what it really means to be in kind of a right relationship with themselves
00:22in the earth.
00:23So how do we, how do we, I mean, but it's a small group, right?
00:30It's 1%, you know, how do we expand that appeal of that, of that kind of questioning of life
00:36to more young people?
00:38Teachings, just as you are approaching them, we'll have to teach, we'll have to teach.
00:46And I suppose any, any good business today to survive has to first of all generate awareness.
00:56Therefore, it has to be in the business of teaching, right?
01:01Because the right product today would need an aware buyer.
01:10You just cannot sell the right thing to the wrong person.
01:14If I am someone conditioned by generations of consumptions of advertising and misplaced
01:22cultural values, and somebody comes up with a great product or great service, I'm not
01:29going to buy that.
01:32So if I come up with something that really is good, from an internal perspective, from
01:39an ecological perspective, then I'll have to first of all generate awareness.
01:45And I'll have to be prepared to go that extra mile and put in that much of extra effort.
01:51So the business of teaching is what this world needs today.
01:56I'm not saying one has to be, in that sense, just a teacher, but you will have to be a
02:01teacher as well.
02:03You want to come up, for example, with a great vegan cafe or a great vegan recipe or a packaged
02:12vegan product.
02:15In a place, let's say like, like North India, where there is not much sensitivity or awareness
02:22regarding veganism, and where dairy production and consumption is a cultural value.
02:29First of all, you will have to educate the population.
02:32And you'll have to educate the population to a point where they are prepared to accept
02:37the product, even if it turns out a little expensive, though typically, it won't be an
02:43extra expensive.
02:44But even if it is, education will make it acceptable and affordable to people.
02:51Same thing when it comes to clothes, when it comes to automobiles, when it comes to
02:57even tourism destinations, or when it comes to means of gratification.
03:08That's what we need today.
03:09We cannot have, you please tell me, otherwise, I'm curious to know, how can I have a great
03:15business in a market that does not value that business?
03:20How will I get my employees?
03:24How will I get my vendors?
03:25How will I get my customers?
03:28Even the government is not going to support me, rather, I would find that the government
03:31is subsidizing my competitor, and that competitor is feasting on all kinds of rotten and polluting
03:38technologies.
03:39But because that competitor has a market around him, and in a democracy, it's the numbers
03:45that matter, so the government seems to be more aligned with him, how will I survive
03:49in the market?
03:50So, I have to be an educator.
03:52I know that's going to be tough, but then as a young person, when we are talking of
03:57that segment, as a young person, I ought to have the stamina for troubles, why not?
04:05That's what would probably make life worth living.
04:09Yes.
04:10Yes.
04:11Well, I think we're in agreement that fundamentally education is the key, and that we need people
04:19with a different vision of how humans should be living on the planet to become educators.
04:28And I'll just say that for the vision of our teaching really is just to recognize that
04:36many, many teachers, many, many students, many, many staff members at universities and
04:41high schools and secondary schools, they understand the depth of the climate crisis.
04:46They know that this is existential, right?
04:48They know that if we do not change course, that we are going to be experiencing a world
04:57where in many parts of the world, it will simply be too hot to live, where sea levels
05:02will rise, where crops will fail.
05:07And they're frightened of that, right?
05:10And it is a moment to really rethink what are we doing on this planet, if this is the
05:16direction that we're headed.
05:18And so the purpose of the teach-in is to just bring all of those people together and have
05:24this conversation.
05:25Yes, we can buy time with technology, right?
05:28Yes, we can do that.
05:30But at the end of the day, what is this telling us about humans and the way we're living on
05:36the planet?
05:37So that is the purpose of the teach-in.
05:39It's really creating a community, a global community of educators, and giving them the
05:44chance to interact with each other.
05:46We do it on Zoom calls, but also to bring together people in their community with a
05:52similar concern to start to have these conversations.
05:57When we're talking of consumption, doctor, the very basic kind of consumption, food,
06:08just as we don't want to talk of our numbers on the planet, because that becomes an emotive
06:14issue in a democratic setup, we also do not want to talk of our food choices.
06:20But the fact is, and the numbers are out in the open, that food is probably the largest,
06:27or if not the largest, the second largest contributor to greenhouse gases emission.
06:32And we don't want to talk of that.
06:34And the thing is, carbon-emitting food choices are also mostly food choices that involve
06:46cruelty towards animals, that involve a distorted relationship between our species and the
06:51other species.
06:53The thing is, when we say that we must take care of ourselves, that we must care for our
06:57future, how will we bring in that kind of self-love?
07:02I invite us to think about it.
07:04How will we have that kind of self-love if we do not have love for the other species
07:09that inhibited this planet?
07:11I mean, the very thing on my plate is coming as a result of slaughter.
07:19Why then will I not be disinterested in stopping the slaughter of the biggest carbon sinks
07:27on the planet, the forests?
07:29For the sake of my food, we are killing not just directly, and even as we have spoken
07:37over the last 30 minutes or so, millions of animals have been slaughtered in these
07:4230 minutes, just for our appetite.
07:46And not only are these animals being slaughtered, forests are being cleared, just so that we
07:52can have farms to raise these animals.
07:56Now, when we are clearing those forests, we are erasing the biggest carbon sinks that
08:04we can have.
08:05Also, we are robbing the species of their habitat.
08:12And in doing all that, how are we displaying any kind of self-love?
08:21So self-love, when it comes to talking of our own interests as species, self-love has
08:26to be inseparable from love towards the wider ecosystem.
08:31Unfortunately, that's not what our education is teaching young people.
08:36Otherwise, it's very, very easy to take care of this problem.
08:40All the deadlines that we are setting for ourselves, be it 2030 or 50 or 70, we can
08:48over-achieve even before those deadlines.
08:53Because it's we who are doing it, that's the challenge and that's the opportunity.
08:59It's not being sent down by the gods, it's not being conspired by the aliens, we are
09:07doing it.
09:08And if we are doing it, we may as well stop it right now.
09:12But to stop it, we require the kind of consciousness that acknowledges itself as the culprit,
09:19that acknowledges that it has been living in ignorance, and it has been living in ignorance
09:24all throughout these centuries, just that the ignorance was not displaying its devastating
09:29consequences because our numbers were not so large.
09:32And because the industrial revolution had yet not happened, therefore we did not have
09:37this much power to destruct in our hands.
09:40Now we have numbers, and we have the industry, and we have the technology and the know-how,
09:45the knowledge, and we have great power, and all this is a very, very explosive combination.
09:52So that's where we are, and it's a very slippery slope, very slippery slope.
10:01I'm fighting it in my little way on a daily basis, and I see the challenges, and the challenge
10:11that I'm seeing, Professor, is really not technological.
10:15Jealousy, you cannot treat through technology.
10:19Ignorance, you cannot treat through technology.
10:21Lovelessness, you cannot treat through technology.
10:24All the human darkness within, you cannot deal through technology.
10:31And when I talk of veganism, or when I talk of plastic, or when I talk of population,
10:36when I talk of climate, the obstacle that I face, I repeat, is not technological.
10:42It's not that people are not aware of better technologies.
10:46It's not that people are not aware of the numbers.
10:50It's just that people have not been sensitized enough.
10:53People are not loving enough.
10:55The norms that we have, the norms post the Enlightenment period in Europe, the religious
11:02values that we have, the distorted religious values, that is not the really spiritual values,
11:09they are not at all conducive towards a solution of this problem.
11:16Education, I think, unfortunately, fortunately, is the only thing that can save us.
11:22We require huge armies of dedicated educators.
11:28We require tremendous propaganda.
11:30We require publicity in all ways, in all forms.
11:35We require people to go knocking each home, and get the doors open, and barge in, and
11:42have tutorials.
11:44And if that can happen, then probably we can have governments to tax the right things,
11:50to subsidize the right things, and only then we can have public policy in the right direction.