Acharya Prashant explains that it is not enough to identify the most important issue; one must also find the most effective way to tackle it. He argues that you may rightly identify the most important issue, but if you use the least effective way to tackle it, the problem is not merely that the method is less effective, but that it makes you feel you are doing something effective. This misplaced climate activism is not solving the problem but is a part of it. To illustrate this, he compares planting trees to having fewer children. It is well-known that one tree over 40 years absorbs just one ton of carbon dioxide, which is 0.025 tons per year. In contrast, having one less child causes a difference of 60 tons per year. Despite this, people feel happy planting a tree, believing they have done their bit. He states that all the measures social activism is taking cannot contribute even 1% of what having one less child does. He advises devoting resources and energy to the right thing, such as running awareness campaigns to tell young people not to procreate. He highlights the opportunity cost: the time invested in planting a tree could have been used for a more impactful presentation at a college. At the root of the climate catastrophe lies man's tendency to consume. Man consumes in three distinct ways: other human beings, other natural beings, and other man-made things. The consumption of all three leads to carbon emissions. Even if one is vegan, they eat grains, which can only come from felling forests. 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. Acharya Prashant asserts that two things are needed: less people and less consumption. The world needs a situation with not more than 2 or 3 billion people, which has been scientifically calculated as the sustainable limit, whereas the current population is 8 billion. Secondly, these 2 or 3 billion people must be spiritual so that they do not have a tendency to consume. The climate catastrophe is a spiritual problem and can only have a spiritual solution. It is a result of the absence of spiritual education, which has brought this catastrophe upon us. The problem is man's misguided and uneducated ego. He concludes that if you are reproducing, you are bringing down the entire humanity. To address this, one must be more than gentle, which means more compassion and energetic action from a deeper sense of responsibility. The lack of spirituality is the biggest problem because when you do not operate from a spiritual center, you operate from an emotional center. These emotions are what are causing climate change; emotion equals carbon. The solution to this emotional center is spirituality. The most effective way to fight the problem is spiritual awareness, which is far more difficult than planting trees.
