Gita for Global Warming? || with O.P. Jindal University

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner (Q): What solution does the Gita offer for contemporary sociopolitical issues like global warming? Could Shri Krishna have anticipated back then that the planet would be facing a crisis like this at some point?

Acharya Prashant (AP): You see, the crisis that you are talking of is man-made. You call it anthropogenic global warming, right? It is not just global warming or climate change; it is AGW (anthropogenic global warming). We did it.

So, it is not of much use to talk about the problem without talking of the problem-creator. We created that problem, the human mind created that problem, and the human mind created that problem because the human mind is infested by and is vulnerable to certain malicious tendencies right from birth. We have almost a design flaw. The child is born enveloped in ignorance, and that ignorance displays itself in everything that we do throughout our lives.

As the flow of history would have it, today we have more material power than we have ever had in the course of time. Now, that is a deadly combination. One, we have tendencies pertaining to accumulation, consumption, ignorance, violence, fear — these are deep-seated tendencies sitting within everyone…