Key Points

"We have to start with the ground reality," he said, referencing the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which set a goal to reduce global emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050. "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 also," said the renowned author who has launched 'Operation 2030', a spiritual mission with an aim of awakening the youth to the urgent threat of climate change.

Acharya Prashant, stressed that the 1.5°C target was grounded in science, not speculation. "Just after 1.5 degrees rise above the normal, feedback loops set in... once a feedback cycle starts, even if you drop your emissions to zero, the cycle would still continue." These self-reinforcing emissions cycles, he warned, are already in motion.

He criticised the lack of progress towards emission targets. "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."

Highlighting a global pattern of apathy and active resistance to climate science, he cited the rollback of environmental initiatives, particularly in the United States. "Trump has pulled out of Paris agreement... Not only that, he is saying we will dig deeper to get gas, oil... even excavate Alaska..."

Further, he pointed to the suppression of climate discourse: "Environmental sciences, the climate crisis--these things are being expunged from the curriculum... Conversations are being screened for climate."

'Operation 2030', Acharya Prashant explained, is a campaign to bring clarity and urgency to the climate conversation. "When people are sensitised to this, then they will be able to revisit their priorities... They will be able to see that the kind of people they idolise and admire are the ones chiefly responsible for bringing this crisis upon us."

He also underscored the climate injustice embedded in global emissions. "A quarter of the total global emissions comes from the top one per cent rich population... the bottom 50 per cent contribute only around 5 per cent." Despite this, it is the global poor who bear the brunt of climate impacts. "What the US does is paid for by India."

Acharya Prashant warned against the illusion of escape. "We don't monopolise this place, do we? So what right do we have to decide to just give up on this planet and then shoot ourselves all the way to Mars?"

In a stark closing statement, he declared, "We are not just going extinct, we are taking the entire planet along with us to irreversible destruction."

- ANI