Acharya Prashant states that at the root of the climate catastrophe lies man's tendency to consume. He explains that man consumes in three clear and distinct ways. Man wants to consume the entire world, which consists of other human beings, natural beings, and man-made things. The consumption of all three leads to carbon emissions. When you consume another human being, you get kids, which is the biggest cause of carbon emissions. When you consume man-made things, you emit carbon because whatever is man-made is made using energy, and energy comes from fossil fuels. The third type is the consumption of natural resources. Whether one eats vegetables, is a vegan, or consumes meat, all of it is highly carbon-emitting. Even if you are a vegan, you will eat grains, which can only come from felling forests. He argues that people start feeling great, thinking, "I am a vegan, you know, I am holier than thou." However, the Earth does not have the resources to support 8 or 11 billion vegans. Therefore, veganism does not help the cause of climate change beyond a certain point. To address the climate crisis, two things are needed together: less people and less consumption. The speaker points out that the US has a relatively small population but is the biggest carbon emitter because they consume so much. On the other hand, China's per capita consumption is much lower, but they are number two on the carbon list because they are too many. A sustainable population for the world has been scientifically calculated to be not more than two or three billion people. Currently, at 8 billion, we need to reduce it to two or three billion, which can be done by encouraging people to have at most one child. Secondly, the two or three billion people who remain must be spiritual so that they do not have a tendency to consume. Unless a person is spiritual, they are bound to live a consumption-centric life. The speaker explains that the very urge for liberation, when it doesn't find an outlet, becomes the urge to consume. The tendency to consume so much comes from the misidentified and thwarted urge towards liberation. If you do not provide liberation to a man, his energies will flow in the direction of consumption. The climate catastrophe is a spiritual problem and can only have a spiritual solution. All the spectacle that is happening on the streets in the name of climate activism will not help. Instead, it is making people feel good about themselves. The speaker mentions seeing young climate warriors fighting the police and thinks to himself whether these same people would refuse to have a kid. He respects their sentiment but questions the efficacy of their actions. Bringing one child into the world is the equivalent of cutting down a lakh (100,000) trees. He concludes that the current climate activism is a blind direction, a show that will not help, and that real, meaningful action is needed.