Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), May 18, 2025 (ANI): Renowned philosopher and author Acharya Prashant has unveiled his new book 'Decoding Success', a compelling inquiry into the modern pursuit of success and its deeper psychological and spiritual implications on May 18th. Speaking to media, he sounded alarm on climate catastrophe, global apathy. In a searing indictment of the global community's failure to confront the climate emergency, he has warned that humanity has already crossed a critical threshold in global warming. Launching Operation 2030, he called for urgent public sensitization, declaring that "we are in the most dangerous phase that history has ever known."Further he said, "We have to start with the ground reality. The 1.5-degree temperature rise that we wanted to desperately avoid, that is already upon us... We in 2025 are already seeing global average temperatures... by not only 1.5 degrees but by 1.75 degrees centigrade. The 1.5-degree temperature rise that we wanted to desperately avoid, that is already upon us... We in 2025 are already seeing global average temperatures... by not only 1.5 degrees but by 1.75 degrees centigrade” "By 2030, we wanted 43 per cent reductions and we are close to having zero per cent reductions... Either emissions have reduced by 2 per cent or maybe they have increased by 2 per cent... We have done nothing at all." "Trump has pulled out of Paris agreement... Not only that, he is saying we will dig deeper to get gas, oil... even excavate Alaska..."
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00:002015, we had already realized that the climate crisis is the gravest danger mankind has ever faced.
00:09We in 2025 are already seeing global average temperatures above normal by not only 1.5 but by 1.75 degrees centigrade also.
00:20It's a great, great warning sign.
00:23We have to start with the ground reality.
00:26The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that has set up the provision for the COPs, Conference of Parties,
00:41so that we are able to pose some kind of effective challenge to the climate crisis.
00:482015, we had already realized that the climate crisis is the gravest danger mankind has ever faced.
00:57It was already clear to us, 2015.
01:00In fact, it was very clear even before 2015.
01:03So, 2015, we set a target for ourselves.
01:07We said we have to reduce our carbon emissions by 43% before 2030.
01:18And we have to come to a net zero state by 2050.
01:24And if this we successfully do, only then we will be able to limit the global average temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees.
01:33So, there were two things.
01:34One, the objective.
01:35The objective was to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees centigrade above normal.
01:42This was the objective.
01:44And the means was the reduction of emissions compared to the 2019 levels.
01:49That was the means.
01:51Now, if the means has not been taken care of, obviously the objective is not going to be met.
01:56The objective has not been met.
01:58The 1.5 degree temperature rise that we wanted to desperately avoid, that is already upon us.
02:05We, in 2025, are already seeing global average temperatures above normal by not only 1.5, but by 1.75 degrees centigrade also.
02:17Right?
02:18So, that threshold has been breached.
02:20And it's a great, great warning sign.
02:23Reason?
02:24We did not dream up the figure of 1.5 degrees.
02:27There was solid hard scientific logic to it.
02:31Just after 1.5 degrees rise above the normal, feedback loops, they set in.
02:40And what is the feedback loop?
02:42It is a self-sustaining, self-reinforcing cycle of carbon emissions.
02:49That does not require any human intervention, any human mistake for it to sustain.
02:58Which means that once a feedback cycle starts, after that, even if you drop your emissions to zero, the cycle would still continue to operate and roll on.
03:09And so, more and more carbon will be added to the atmosphere, even if you do nothing at all.
03:16And the more the carbon gets added to the atmosphere, the more that cycle will intensify.
03:20It's a feedback cycle.
03:21So, A does B, and B in its turn reinforces A.
03:26A causes B, B strengthens A.
03:29The more A is strengthened, the more it causes B.
03:32The more B is caused, the more it reinforces A.
03:35That's called a feedback cycle.
03:37And those feedback cycles have already started.
03:40Already started.
03:41And we are nowhere serious about the whole thing.
03:44The proof is that by 2030, we wanted 43% reductions.
03:48And we are close to having 0% reductions.
03:51If we accurately measure where we have reached, it would be plus minus 2%.
03:59Either emissions have reduced by 2% or maybe they have actually increased by 2%.
04:06Both the situations are close to zero.
04:08We have done nothing at all.
04:10We stand exactly where we stood in 2019.
04:13And the temperatures, they just keep increasing every passing year.
04:18And that spells catastrophe.
04:21This is the end.
04:23And this is not being highlighted by any party whatsoever.
04:26It is as if mankind has collectively taken a suicidal decision.
04:31We are saying this is upon us and we don't want to do anything about us.
04:35Trump has pulled out of the Paris Agreement.
04:38And this is the second time he is doing that.
04:40Not only has he pulled out of the Paris Accord,
04:43he is saying we will dig deeper to get gas, oil,
04:47and we will not just use it, we will actually export it.
04:51We will even excavate Alaska beneath all the sheets of ice.
05:01If there is oil or gas to be found, we will dig it out.
05:05And that kind of mindset is there.
05:08Environmental sciences, the climate crisis,
05:11these things are being expunged from the curricula of schools and colleges.
05:16And especially in the US, there is a clamp down.
05:20They don't want people to talk of it.
05:22They don't want this to get into the popular discourse.
05:26Conversations are being screened.
05:29Popular public conversations are being screened for climate.
05:33So how am I mistaken in thinking that we have actually decided,
05:40we have actually resigned and said that this is our fate
05:44and nothing can be done about it.
05:46But then it is not a question of our fate.
05:48It is a question of this planet.
05:50It is a question of the coming generations.
05:52It is also a question of the millions of other species
05:55for whom the planet is home.
05:58We don't monopolize this place, do we?
06:00So what right do we have to decide to just give up on this planet
06:05and then shoot ourselves all the way to Mars?
06:09That's what we seem to have decided.
06:11But what about the millions of innocent species
06:14who have done nothing to deserve extinction
06:17but are going extinct every day by the rate of dozens per day
06:21for no fault of theirs at all?
06:24So that's why this Operation 2030, to sensitize people to this.
06:29And when people are sensitized to this,
06:32then they'll be able to revisit their priorities.
06:35They'll be able to see that the kind of people they idolize and admire,
06:39they are the ones chiefly responsible for bringing this crisis upon us.
06:45A quarter of the total global emissions come from the top 1% rich population of this planet.
06:54Top 10% of the rich population contributes for more than 50% emissions.
07:02And in contrast, the bottom 50% contribute only around 5%.
07:06So this is a problem created by the rich but not paid for by the rich.
07:13They do it and we suffer.
07:15Because emissions don't really respect national boundaries.
07:21What you have emitted in the U.S. doesn't stay there.
07:24It affects the global climate.
07:26So what the U.S. does is paid for by India, by the poor in India.
07:31Climate injustice.
07:33But we are not talking of it.
07:35We are behaving as if everything is hunky-dory.
07:37It is not.
07:38We are in the most dangerous phase that history has ever known.
07:46Our three, four thousand year old recorded history has never seen such a dangerous phase.
07:54What can be more dangerous than getting obliterated altogether?
07:58We are not just going extinct.
08:01We are taking the entire planet along with us to destruction.
08:05Final destruction.
08:07Irreversible destruction.
08:08True.
08:10Later.
08:11Later.
08:12ppy Money.
08:13Peter M