On YouTube
How to change the Inner Climate? || Acharya Prashant, with Bard College (2022)
Prakrati
700 views
1 year ago
Climate crisis
Greed
Information revolution
Wisdom
Material prosperity
Human nature
Legislation
Consumption
Description

Acharya Prashant addresses the challenge of encouraging factories in poor areas to prioritize the environment when business nature focuses on low costs and profit. He suggests that while treating the climate as a person with legal rights and penalties is a necessary step, it has limited effectiveness because people often fail to respect the rights of even sentient beings. He emphasizes that the current information revolution has paradoxically decreased wisdom and knowledge, as misinformation and distractions now constitute the internal makeup of individuals. This corruption of knowledge leads people to prioritize personal comfort and greed over environmental health. He further explains that human nature tends to prioritize instant gratification and survival over long-term wellness, especially when the threat, like the climate crisis, is not perceived as immediate or undeniable. He notes that even well-informed professionals often use data to deny climate change or justify it as beneficial. Acharya Prashant argues that the root of the problem lies in the human center, which remains unsatisfied despite material progress. He suggests that true change occurs when individuals objectively observe that material accumulation does not lead to deeper satisfaction or mental well-being. By questioning the value of blind consumption and withdrawing energy from useless pursuits, one can find a concentration of energy that leads to right living and subtler pleasures that do not depend on carbon-intensive consumption.