On the global crisis of population, consumption and climate || Acharya Prashant (2019)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?  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: Vishranti Shivir, 09.06.2019, Bengaluru, India   Context:  ~ Is it a good idea to move to another country to fight climate change?  ~ How to tackle the population explosion?  ~ How do we counter rising consumption?  ~ Is controlling the population the answer?  ~ Why is a dependent life necessary?    Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00What would happen in the old age?

00:08Now, we can say, you know, that we would be so capable that we would be able to see Yadavid

00:15Ashram.

00:16But practically, I see in my life that if my mother was there, she was sick, and if

00:24we were not there, then she would have a problem.

00:27Are you like your mother?

00:29Then why are you comparing?

00:32Your mother paid for a dependent life.

00:42Do you first of all want to be dependent?

00:45Then why are you weaving stories?

00:48But my father, he was...

00:50He too would have been dependent.

00:52Why do you want to be dependent in the first place?

00:54He wasn't.

00:55He's not dependent.

00:56He's...

00:57Then why does he need you?

00:58Are you a doctor?

00:59Yes, but...

01:00Are you a doctor?

01:01No.

01:02Then what would you do?

01:03But he does not...

01:04Yeah, but then...

01:06Because he spent all the money on us, now he does not have that.

01:09Don't do that.

01:11Don't spend all the money on five kids.

01:14Keep something for yourself and your old age.

01:21In old age, you need medicine, not sons.

01:27And if you want a caretaker, hire a nurse.

01:32That's right, because we all are living outside, they both are living alone and they are living

01:37good life.

01:43How many sons anyway return from abroad to take care of their parents, sitting in some

01:54native village in Uttar Pradesh?

01:56Does that happen?

02:04And why do you need to drag your life till 95 years of age?

02:08If you find that you have turned debilitated at 80, switch it off.

02:15Do you really need to continue living for 120 years?

02:24Live a rich, fulfilled life and when you find that you are on the verge of becoming dependent,

02:33then call it off.

02:41Not one hair in your head is grey and you are worrying about old age.

02:54Why must you turn so pathetically old in the first place?

02:59I am asking you.

03:01If you are healthy, then continue to live on, 90, 95, it's okay.

03:07Because you are still healthy and strong and on your own.

03:11But the day you find you are tied to the bed and dependent on others for every small thing,

03:20why do you still want to keep breathing?

03:28Call it a day, done, lived enough, lived richly.

03:36I can retire now, can't I?

03:39Is it not a sensible decision, like looking at the condition of the country, the temperature

03:44is rising, to move to a better country where population is lessened?

03:50Climate change doesn't differentiate between countries.

03:59Wherever you go, the battle has to be fought.

04:12You can fight it here, you can fight it there.

04:15If you think you can fight it better over there, then do shift.

04:22As far as I am concerned, I would want to be in the thick of the battle.

04:27I would want to fight where the problem really is.

04:31Why escape away to some land where people are already more aware, more responsible?

04:46The bulk of population growth in the coming few decades is going to come from countries

04:51like India.

04:54What would I do by preaching these things to the Japanese?

05:02Their population is already reducing, they will become extinct if I preach a little more

05:08to them.

05:15These things need to be drilled into Indians because this is the place from where most

05:24of the world's population growth is going to come.

05:27Sorry sir, look at the growth rates, what are you talking of?

05:58India is the third biggest emitter of carbon, you are probably talking of per capita emissions.

06:06Why talk of per capita thing?

06:12After China and the US, India stands at number three and in terms of yearly growth, India

06:19is number one.

06:27We all want progress, and every bit of that which you call as progress is carbon emitting.

06:40Every bit of that which you call as the good life is carbon emitting.

06:51A fellow comes from a small town to live in Bangalore, his carbon footprint probably increases

06:56five times, but you call it progress, you call it urbanization.

07:07A fellow moves from a small house to a big house, his carbon footprint increases four times.

07:15But you say it's great.

07:18A fellow gets a higher paying job and gets two more air conditioners, he has done his

07:29share of damage to the earth, but he'll say this is progress.

07:39Progress itself is the problem.

07:48As long as there are so many people progressing, if you want to progress, then let there be

07:54a quarter of people that there are, then you can have all these progresses.

08:00But you cannot have the kind of per capita consumption of resources that probably the

08:09US currently has with the kind of population that India currently has.

08:17But that is what we want, we want the population of India to be multiplied by the per capita

08:25consumption of the US and that is catastrophic.

08:32If you want per capita consumption levels of the developed countries, then you reduce

08:39your population to the level of developed countries.

08:45You cannot have the population of India, but the per capita consumption of Germany.

08:50Unfortunately that is what we want.

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