Acharya Prashant: At the root of the climate catastrophe lies manтАЩs tendency to consume, and man consumes in three clear ways and three distinct ways; man wants to consume the entire world, and the entire world consists of human beings, prakс╣Ыtik beingsтАФwhich you call as natural beingsтАФand man-made things. Whenever you will look around you, these are the three kinds of things you will find: other human beings, other natural beings, and other man-made things. Man consumes all three, and consumption of all three leads to carbon emissions.
When you consume another human being, what do you get? Kids. And that is the biggest cause of carbon emissions. When you consume man-made things, again, what do you emit? Carbon, because whatever is man-made is made using energy, and energy comes from fossil fuels. So, whenever you are consuming something man-made, you are causing carbon emissions. And the third thing is consumption of natural resources. Whether you are eating vegetables, whether you are vegan or not, or whether you are consuming meat, all of this is highly carbon-emitting. Even if you are vegan, you will eat grains at least. Where will the grains come from? They can only come by felling forests. But then you start feeling great: тАЬI am a vegan, you know. I am holier than thou!тАЭ
The Earth does not have the resources to support eight billion or eleven billion vegans, so do not be happy about just being a vegan. Veganism does not help the cause of climate change beyond a point. We need two things: less people and less consumption, and both of them together. Even if one of them is missing, you are gone. The US has not too many people, just thirty-two crores are there, and yet they are the biggest carbon emitters in the world because they consume. On the other end is China; in China, the per capita consumption is one fifth or one tenth of the US., yet they are number two on the carbon list. Why? Because they are just too many.
