Press Release
Friday 17 May
Delhi India
Address to the students of Salwan Public School in Mayur Vihar on Climate Emergency – raising awareness and turning the crises into an opportunity for a new wave of community-centered ecological entrepreneurship.
With about 1500 schoolchildren, this is one of the most environmentally – responsive schools in Delhi NCR in thoughts and in action, that I have come across so far. The agenda for the workshop is as follows:
a. To raise awareness about the Global Climate Emergency.
b. Share and discuss adaptation and mitigation strategies needed in our lifestyle, in education, and in our profession to address this challenge.
c. Share career guidance for social and ecological research, innovation and entrepreneurship to turnaround this from crises to multiple opportunities to build a new future that is livable, equitable, sustainable and has attractions that children can aspire for, for healthy, happy and harmonious living.
In this session, I shall delve deeper into the historical backdrop of what led us to the brink of climate catastrophe – the elusive quest and pathological dependence on Diabolic Energy sources rather than on Metabolic Energy:
Climate Breakdown that affects us all, is a cancerous outgrowth of the colonialist excesses, that have only become deeper and more pervasive, though in covert ways, through the global banking system, the military arsenal to fiercely enforce it upon countries to fall in line and the moral authority derived from White Supremacism and “higher-grade status”, to contain the resentments and rebellion, Hubris Breakdown ought to be, therefore, an integral part of our Degrowth revolution.
I must also propose a working definition of who and what is indigenous given the fact that even the United Nations admits that it is a loosely defined term.
Indigenous, as we all born on Mother Earth are, simply means original inhabitants who practice the indigenous way of life.
They could be in forests, village or city (सप्तपुरी – seven ancient cities) but nevertheless, they lived in harmony with nature and primarily didn’t use minerals, mineral oil or coal except what appeared on the surface. Anything extracted forcefully from the womb of mother earth like a child suckling on the mother’s breasts but not gnawing at it or devouring her blood, organs and entrails, was called अमेध -that which destroys intellect or medha shakti.
That is the line that demarcates indigenous and non-indigenous people or societies, and not the color of their skin or where their forefathers came from.
Today, ironically, we are trapped into using petroleum or derived products bcoz our natural and indigenous sources of food, fuel, raw materials, etc from the forests, pastures and farms have been destroyed and continue to be looted and plundered. The indigenous system is called सुमेध that which enhances intellect or medha shakti and enables further human progress.
It is this ingenuity gap that through the popular mode of voting for political power merely on the strength of numbers is a sure-shot way to further perpetuate the popular errors. Instead, we need to pay attention to healthy investigation to diagnose the nature of the problems that have brought us to the brink of climate catastrophe, that children and youth around the world are rebelling against as inter-generational injustice.
The Degrowth Revolution for all practical purposes must dovetail into acknowledging the merits of the indigenous ways of life, that we ridiculed, undermined and destroyed as inferior, as a viable part of the overall solution, moving forward.
Nature is self-powered. Why do human civilizations need to be such creepy lame-ducks that need powering from external sources?
Having spent a good part of the past decade studying indigenous systems and structures, one of the defining criteria for indigenous and non-indigenous societies is the kind of energy they use. I classify them as Metabolic – plant, animal and human power that indigenous societies use and Diabolic – artificial external power from burning coal, petroleum, nu-killer, hydel and solar panels and windmills, except for a minimalist use where they are directly used as mechanical power without having to convert to electrical power and back to mechanical power. Grass blades, leaves, animal and human skin are excellent “natural” solar panels with unmatched efficiency compared to the artificial ones.
The hidden secret of these indigenous societies and which could be new frontiers for scientific progress, though this requires restoration of the natural eco-systems to their pristine glory are technologies such as self-illuminating gems that can store solar light during the day and emit by night, anti-gravity wheel-chariots and aircrafts using mercury distillation. They cannot, however, function in today’s noisy and polluted environments as the ingredients require a high degree of purity and high levels of meditation of the research scientists.
In this way, as the Hubris Breakdown is done with, we can look forward to further scientific and human progress without being deterred by the atavistic fears of having to return to pre-modern lifestyles.
We will then have an online address by the organisers from 4pm to 7pm at in the evening at a School (to be notified soon) which will also be webcast live. Local organisers are advised to put up screens in the local park or public place where peoPle can gather to listen and ask questions. We shall announce the weblink and other details by Sunday evening.