Climate Denialism - The Last Nail?

Bill Gates, at an international summit, said, "The climate is not the end of the planet. So the planet is going to be fine. There's a lot of climate exaggeration out there, things are not that bad."

He has been furthering such opinion frequently, and vociferously ???????????????????? ?????????? ?????? ???????????????? ?????? ?????????????? ????????????.

If you find an author, let's say Hannah Ritchie, coming up with a book underplaying the Climate Crisis, chances are that someone like Gates will be writing the foreword.

Such propaganda is not unique to Gates; many influential figures - either billionaires, or their representatives - want us to buy into this blatant lie.

There is a concerted effort to hide the reality from us, and keep us sedated in a fool’s paradise.

“The planet is going to be fine" Fine, yes, but for whom, Sir?

Surely ?????? ?????? ?????? ????% ???????????????????? ???? ?????? ?????????? that doesn’t command much of its resources.

Surely not the thousands of sentient species that are going extinct every day due to human activity.

The quoted wordplay is commendable for what it smartly conceals: The planet is indeed going to be ‘fine’, but only for the super-rich.

The planet is indeed going to be ‘fine’ for the top 1% of wealth owners who command more than 50% of its assets.

The planet is going to be ‘fine’ at the cost of 95-99% of its commoners.

Climate change hits the disadvantaged the hardest. The sheer irony is that those who are greatly responsible for carbon emissions will be impacted the least, and those who are not responsible will be tormented, even obliterated.

One does not have to be a genius to see why the privileged ones are unified in downplaying-understating-denying the impending horrors of climate catastrophe.

The climate catastrophe is the inevitable result of consumer capitalism - the same system of which our top billionaires are a major beneficiary. Any meaningful action against climate change is likely to bring these people down from the pole positions they occupy, besides causing a major dent in their coffers.

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What the privileged ones call as eco-pessimism or exaggeration has actually become a dreadful lived reality for billions of individuals:

1. Asia suffered 3,612 natural disasters from 1970 to 2021, resulting in $1.4 trillion in losses and nearly a million deaths, 47% of global natural disaster deaths.
2. By 2050, 1.2 billion people may become climate refugees due to uninhabitable conditions from floods, storms, droughts, and wildfires. Currently, 21 million people are displaced annually.
3. Excessive heat endangers 2.4 billion workers globally, with Indian workers at high risk.
4. Air pollution in Delhi may reduce life expectancy by nearly 12 years.
5. Climate change has led to a 32% rise in neonatal deaths from 2001 to 2019, mainly in low- and middle-income groups.

Climate change doesn't impact us equally, for instance:

1. The richest 1% account for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66%.
2. Developing countries account for 91% of deaths related to extreme weather.
3. The wealthiest 12 billionaires produce more greenhouse gas emissions than the annual energy emissions of 2 million homes.
4. High-income countries are responsible for 40% of global consumption-based CO2 emissions, low-income countries for 0.4%.
5. The carbon footprint of the 0.1%, from yachts, jets, and mansions, is 77 times higher than the level needed for global warming to peak at 1.5°C.

The UN climate chief says, "Humanity has just 2 years to save the world."

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One might be one of the richest people in the world, but that doesn’t guarantee wisdom. Rather, money, insecurity, and greed often go together - and insecurity and integrity hardly sit well with each other.

Today, misinformation, disinformation, and lack of awareness around climate change seem to be another gargantuan challenge that he can’t shy away from.

Climate change is a result of limitless consumption. This consumption is necessitated by man’s inner hollowness and his endless attempts to fill it with material; manifesting as conspicuous consumption and overpopulation.

The economic system that promotes such consumption is capitalism - essentially the urge to keep increasing corporate profit endlessly, even if the planet lacks resources for such endless and meaningless expansion.

Climate change is a problem of the hollow in man’s heart, and it is in man’s heart that its solution lies.

We repeat: it is NOT possible to have a technological solution to climate change. It is the final crisis, the final challenge, and the answer will have to be dimensionally superior. Old solutions won't work this time.

Unless we change the very basic philosophy that underpins our existence, we won't survive.

The thought that "man is born to be happy, happiness is the goal of life, and happiness is obtained by more and more consumption" is what informs the lives of the 8 billion of us on this planet. And 8 billion bad philosophers are too many to bear, even for this tolerant planet. No, Mr. Gates, the planet won't be fine.

Follow Acharya Prashant, the ??????????'?? most followed spiritual leader and a leading voice in the fight against climate change. He promotes veganism, science activism, campaigns against superstition, and champions essential human freedom