0:04 foreign [Music]
0:08 [Music]
0:11 thank you very much um
0:12 um
0:15 so first of all I mean let me say thank
0:17 you for inviting me here um
0:18 um
0:20 it's a pleasure to be back
0:22 uh and
0:24 um I am back uh because I did my
0:26 doctorate here
0:30 um and I left some years ago
0:33 and producing mathematics
0:36 um not philosophy and
0:40 um that was in the days when uh lactosh
0:42 was here but I you know to go to
0:44 seminars in the math in the philosophy
0:45 department on the philosophy of mathematics
0:47 mathematics
0:49 um and by the time I finished my
0:50 doctorate I knew that philosophy was
0:52 North a lot more fun than mathematics
0:53 and so I decided to be a philosopher and
0:56 I'm very happy about that so thank you
0:58 for having me back it's slightly strange
0:59 to be back to
1:01 my alma Martin
1:04 something like that after so many years
1:07 um anyway thank you so um
1:13 when I was invited to come and talk to
1:15 you I said what should I talk about okay
1:17 okay
1:19 um and the reply was well do something
1:21 of general interest
1:23 so I'm not going to give you a technical
1:26 logic talk I I thought I would talk
1:27 about something that is a government interest
1:28 interest
1:31 um in fact what I'm going to talk about
1:34 is a general interest to any thoughtful
1:35 person nowadays
1:38 because I don't think I need to tell you
1:40 you read the newspapers and the
1:42 scientific reports as well as I do
1:46 that where the world is on the brink of
1:47 a looming
1:51 um ecological environmental crisis
1:53 and that's something that should concern
1:55 us all
1:57 and I thought I would give you my 10
2:02 um
2:05 I thought I would talk about this from a
2:07 perspective that you probably haven't
2:08 met before
2:12 because my guess is that very few people
2:15 here know much about East Asian or Asian
2:17 philosophical traditions so I'm going to
2:19 draw on one of those which is the
2:22 Buddhist tradition
2:24 and I'm not going to assume that you
2:26 know anything about it so
2:27 so
2:29 um one thing I have to do is say
2:32 something about Buddhist philosophy
2:34 and let me say straight away that I'm
2:36 not Buddhist
2:39 um also Buddhist philosophy is a bit of
2:43 a misnomer in a certain sense because um
2:43 um
2:46 there's no one Buddhist philosophy any
2:49 modern is one Christian philosophy
2:50 um there are many Buddhist philosophers
2:53 just so many questions for answers and so
2:54 so um
2:56 um
2:57 people are going to even Buddhists are
3:00 going to disagree about exactly how you
3:01 view most things
3:03 and I'm going to be giving you one
3:06 perspective happens to be mine but other
3:07 people may disagree with me and they
3:10 probably will so that's why I call this
3:12 a Buddhist perspective um
3:13 um
3:15 um okay so what we're going to do is this
3:16 this
3:19 the talk has two parts
3:21 um and um
3:22 um
3:24 the first part is sections one and two
3:26 and I need to tell you something about
3:28 Buddhist ethics and Buddhist metaphysics
3:30 and some of this I'm going to go over
3:32 very fast I'm going to pause on the
3:33 things which are going to be really
3:35 important for the second part of the
3:37 talk which is on the environmental
3:39 issues and the applications of this
3:41 perspective to as I said
3:44 the moving environmental crisis so
3:46 that's where we're going so
3:47 so
3:49 um let's start by talking about the
3:51 Buddhist ethics
3:53 so uh let me give you the idiot's guide
3:55 to Buddhist ethics
3:57 um so
4:01 after he started to teach the Buddha
4:02 because that wasn't his real name his
4:04 name was Sonata um
4:05 um
4:08 laid down the basics of Buddhist thought
4:10 in What's called the foreign Noble Truth
4:11 don't get hang up that's the word noble
4:14 it just means worthy of respect okay so
4:23 Clauses statements which um according to
4:26 sedata defined
4:29 The Human Condition as it was and to
4:31 paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan
4:35 um the human lot not a happy one
4:36 um so
4:38 um first Noble Truth life is
4:41 characterized by and then there's this
4:44 Sanskrit word which is very hard to
4:47 translate into English the word
4:49 and the standard translation is
4:52 suffering okay but that's not a great
4:55 translation because the word duka has so
4:57 many resonances other than that so it
5:01 can mean suffering pain discontentment
5:04 anxiety dissatisfaction discount but
5:06 anguish stress misery processation in
5:08 fact all the things you're lowly love in
5:12 life okay no and life
5:15 life is like that okay
5:18 now the Buddha wasn't a Wowzer and he
5:20 know he know he knew that life has
5:23 moments of happiness and pleasure and fulfillment
5:25 fulfillment
5:27 so he wasn't saying you wouldn't say
5:30 life is unmiserably okay it's not
5:32 that but um
5:34 um everyone
5:40 has unhappy experiences recurrently
5:43 you're always going to get them you're
5:46 always going to get old if you are lucky
5:49 enough to live long enough right you're
5:51 gonna die eventually you're going to get
5:53 sick you're going to have marriage
5:55 breakups you're going to lose some of
5:57 you will lose your kids about a third of
5:59 the people in this room will get cancer
6:03 okay you know life is like that um
6:05 um
6:07 and even the good things in life come
6:09 with an edge
6:12 because when you get something you
6:15 experience in life
6:17 it's often not quite as fulfilling as
6:19 you want it I'm sure you've probably
6:22 experienced this and moreover
6:24 um you're liable to lose it
6:27 okay marriages break up people lose
6:30 their jobs people
6:31 um you know lose Parts their body
6:34 because of illness
6:36 um and so if you're attached to these
6:38 things then of course you're going to
6:40 get unhappy when these things come to pass
6:47 so um
6:48 um
6:51 the view is not that life is completely
6:53 miserable it's not but it's just that
6:57 zuka is a persistent and permanent
7:00 feature of our life now
7:01 now
7:04 um that makes it sound as terribly
7:07 pessimistic okay and sometimes when
7:09 people meet for it isn't the first time
7:12 they think it's a pessimistic philosophy
7:15 it's not it's realistic for sure but
7:17 it's not pessimistic because it says hey
7:20 you can make life better okay and that's
7:22 what the other four noble truths are
7:24 about so um
7:25 um uh
7:27 uh
7:30 let me come to the other Noble Truth in
7:32 a moment but let me just talk about the
7:34 fact that um there's an assumption
7:36 behind the four noble truths that duka
7:39 is not great I don't really think that
7:41 needs much arguing although we could
7:43 have a philosophical debate about it in
7:45 Q a but it's assumed that you'd rather
7:48 live a life without duka if you can okay
7:50 I sometimes think of this as a zeroth
7:53 Noble Truth okay so let's turn to the
7:54 other Noble Truth um
7:55 um
7:57 there's a reason why people experience
7:59 do come
8:02 um and um there are three things
8:05 uh called poisons closures
8:07 um which are uh
8:10 affect towards the things that happen in
8:12 life namely we really want the good
8:14 things to go on we really want the bad
8:17 things to go away so possessiveness and
8:18 hate and this one
8:21 uh they can run so delusion we do not
8:24 understand the world in which we live
8:26 I'll come back to that when we talk
8:28 about the metaphysics but
8:31 um the the main cause of Duke are the
8:33 facts that are these things possessing
8:35 this hate and ignorance
8:39 so those are the causes now third Noble
8:41 Truth get rid of the calls you get rid
8:44 of the effect okay and you can
8:47 at least you can try
8:49 um so the fourth Noble truth is
8:50 sometimes called the Eightfold Noble Path
8:51 Path
8:54 and it's a series of steps that you can
8:57 do to help improve your life so
9:00 um they come in three groups
9:03 um write view understand the worlds you
9:05 live in write intention uh you've got to
9:07 want to change
9:09 through to happen
9:11 um right action and these are the things
9:13 that any Western philosopher would
9:16 um recognize as ethical in the usual
9:18 sense uh right action right speech right
9:21 livelihood and what makes them right is
9:23 that they uh do not hurt other people
9:26 they're compassionate they help other people
9:27 people [Music]
9:27 [Music] um
9:28 um
9:32 and right mental state right effort well
9:34 nothing's going to happen unless you've
9:35 put the hard work in
9:37 these things are not easy and they're
9:40 right mindfulness right concentration um
9:41 um
9:44 right mindfulness in particular be aware
9:45 of what's happening don't just go
9:48 through life sleepwalking
9:52 okay so those are the uh the airport
9:56 Noble Path now uh if I left it at that
9:59 you might think well that's all fine but
10:01 um that all seems a bit selfish I mean
10:04 the point is to get rid of my Buca uh
10:06 what about other people's I mean and
10:08 and intelligence
10:10 intelligence um
10:11 um
10:13 Buddhism has always been insistent that
10:16 it's not about simply getting rid of
10:18 your own dukkah it's about getting rid
10:20 of other people's
10:24 um uh so a prime virtue is this thing I
10:26 don't know
10:29 um and the standard translation for that
10:32 is compassion that's not a great translation
10:34 translation
10:38 um a better translation is care
10:42 compassion sounds rather passive about
10:45 suffering with but Corona is about not
10:48 is about acting in such a way to improve
10:51 other people's lives so it's very active
10:54 it's not passive at all secondly you
10:55 can't be compassionate towards yourself
10:58 doesn't really make sense but you can
11:00 certainly care for yourself as you care
11:02 for other people and for reasons we come
11:05 to these often go together
11:08 yeah no let's put it on the table now
11:10 um how can I care for you if I don't
11:12 care for myself if I don't look after
11:15 myself if I'm starving I'm depressed
11:17 um it's not going to work you have to
11:18 care for yourself and care for other
11:22 people and these things are reciprocal okay
11:24 okay um
11:24 um
11:27 let me just say one more thing before we
11:28 move on
11:31 it might seem to you that what I'm
11:34 suggesting is that in being
11:36 compassionate to other people then all
11:38 you do is worry about the mental state
11:42 that's just crazy okay because suffering
11:45 has many causes okay and many of them
11:49 are material okay living in a war zone
11:52 not being able to have enough to eat
11:54 worrying about the health of your kids
11:58 all right these are all causes of
12:00 um suffering
12:02 and um
12:04 Buddhism says well you should try and
12:07 get rid of these as well
12:14 doing the things that you need to change
12:18 your headspace is not easy you cannot do
12:20 it if you're in a war zone or worrying
12:22 about your kids or worrying where your
12:24 next meal is coming from it doesn't work
12:27 not only that the very logic of the
12:29 situation says that you should get rid
12:31 of the material causes suffering as well
12:36 look suffering is bad okay
12:38 therefore you should get rid of it okay and
12:40 and
12:42 uh it doesn't matter what the causes are
12:44 getting rid of the course is getting rid
12:45 of the effect
12:47 so if there are material causes
12:49 suffering then you should get rid of
12:51 those to the extenders within your power
12:53 if it is
12:54 um so um
13:01 Buddhism especially in its modern incarnations
13:02 incarnations
13:05 um very much emphasizes the material
13:07 conditions of the world we live in and
13:09 it's no longer a kind of
13:11 um a renunciant view where you go and
13:14 sit in the cushion in your temple and
13:17 meditate 24 hours a day um
13:18 um so
13:20 so um
13:22 um
13:25 why why should I be interested in
13:27 getting rid of people suffering I mean
13:28 well I should be interested in getting
13:30 rid of my suffering is pretty obvious
13:32 right well I shall be interested in
13:33 getting rid of yours
13:36 well the standard replies given by this
13:39 guy his name is chanted over
13:41 um he's writing about the eighth Century
13:43 of the Common Era
13:44 um and he's probably the most
13:46 significant Buddhist ethicist and he
13:52 because it's suffering like my own suffering
13:53 suffering
13:54 I'll show you also be benevolent to
13:57 others because they are beings just as I
13:58 myself am a being
14:00 since I and others are exactly alike in
14:02 Desiring happiness what's so special
14:04 about me that just flies driving after
14:06 only in my own happiness
14:09 since fear and suffering are unwanted by
14:11 both me and others what's so special
14:13 about me that I protect this and not
14:16 that Alberta suffering is a bad thing
14:18 and you should try and get rid of it okay
14:19 okay
14:23 um look racism and patriarchy are bad
14:25 things right people suffer because of
14:27 racism people suffer because of
14:29 patriarchy they're bad and you should
14:31 get rid of them and it matters not one
14:35 iota that I who say this I'm white and a male
14:37 male
14:40 okay these things are bad and you should
14:42 get rid of them period okay
14:44 okay
14:46 um so that's the idiot's guide to
14:48 Buddhist ethics now let's turn to metaphysics
14:50 metaphysics
14:53 okay so uh
14:55 let me warn again that there's not one
14:58 single metaphysics so let me just talk
14:59 about the little bits that are sort of
15:02 found in the minister buddhisms um
15:03 um
15:07 reality has three marks brief features
15:11 um which are no self there's no
15:13 essential you that's really important
15:15 but it's not on today's agenda
15:19 Anita impermanence everything in the
15:21 causal flux comes into existence when
15:23 conditions are ripe
15:27 her sister a while and goes out of
15:30 existence when conditions so determine
15:33 okay again that's important but it's not
15:36 on today's agenda this one is potential
15:39 Summit parts are dependent of Regulation
15:43 so let's think a little bit about that
15:44 um particular partner is sometimes
15:46 translated as dependent original
15:49 dependence arising
15:51 um sometimes it's described as the were
15:56 um and the thought is that
15:58 that
16:02 whatever happens happens as a result of
16:04 multiple causes which all come together
16:08 to bring it about and that thing
16:10 together with
16:12 other events
16:14 conspire to produce a multitude of effect
16:15 effect
16:17 so you know I don't think anyone's going
16:20 to disagree with that the problem is
16:23 that when we think about these things we
16:26 don't take the ramifications to Heart
16:29 so let me just
16:33 let's think about this for a second
16:36 so this morning I went to I got up I
16:38 went to Costas to have a cup of coffee
16:39 it was actually bloody awful but never
16:41 won that
16:44 um just think about
16:46 getting a cup of coffee and Costas
16:50 all right so it was made from Beans
16:52 those beans
16:54 um ultimately through their energy from
16:57 the Sun okay they grew in Latin America
16:59 or Africa
17:02 and they got their water supply from
17:05 local rain and streams they were picked
17:07 by someone in one of those countries who
17:09 probably owns a lot less than I do
17:12 um they were shipped here
17:14 um probably in a boat owned by yet
17:17 another country with Sailors from yet
17:19 another country and by coal from yet
17:21 another country okay when it gets to the
17:23 UK they're roasted
17:26 um and it's given to the Distributors
17:29 um who work on a bunch of laws some of
17:31 which are international some of which
17:33 are British and so they depend on the
17:35 functioning of the British Parliament
17:38 the but no longer the EU but you know
17:41 other legal International legal bodies
17:43 um uh okay the copy was certainly by
17:45 some young people
17:48 um who were you know obviously earning a
17:49 lot less than I do
17:51 all right um
17:54 my purchasing the coffee helped them to
17:58 sort of go home have an apartment with a
17:59 roof over their head where we bring up kids
18:01 kids
18:02 um and
18:04 um they will you know talk to other
18:06 people about their day's experiences
18:09 maybe you know they'll talk about like
18:10 chatting to them
18:18 this is just the barest outline of my
18:21 buying coffee in the sort of locus as a
18:25 locus of causes and effects um
18:26 um
18:29 and I recommend it to you as a thought
18:32 experiment just to take
18:36 any one thing that happens to you today
18:37 maybe when you're at home tonight you
18:40 know having a glass of scotch or you
18:43 know yeah poker whatever you have just
18:45 think about one thing that happened today
18:46 today
18:48 and think about everything that was
18:50 involved in making that one thing
18:53 possible and the possible ramifications
18:57 of what you did and what other people
19:00 did and so on
19:02 um and when you do that you will realize
19:05 that you are deeply integrated with
19:08 people not just in London not just in
19:12 Britain all over the world okay as you
19:13 turn on your TV
19:17 then you are dependent on the people who
19:19 you know put Global satellites around
19:20 the world
19:22 when you use your phone you'll depends
19:25 on the people who made them okay so the
19:29 web of interconnections is evasive
19:33 probably it connects you to nearly
19:38 everybody else asked present and future
19:42 okay so this is important because when
19:44 you're thinking about ethical treatment
19:46 it means you cannot just take into
19:48 account how you treat your next old
19:50 neighbor or your professor or your
19:52 students or whatever you've got to think
19:54 about all the people who make your life possible
19:59 okay
20:02 um so this is Jay Garfield
20:04 so can't you make care that's Corona is
20:06 to recognize both the omnipresence of
20:08 suffering and our reconnectedness
20:11 through the web of dependent origination
20:13 it's recognized that one cannot solve
20:15 even the problems of One's Own suffering
20:18 without caring for that of others as
20:20 well you've now essentially such a later
20:22 and the claims that nature ensures will
20:24 make a plan
20:27 uh okay
20:29 um again before we get on to the second
20:31 part let me just sort of hammer this
20:33 point home because I think people do not
20:37 sufficiently appreciate it you and I are
20:40 essentially social creatures
20:41 and if we have more time I talk about
20:44 Marx in this regard but Buddhism is
20:45 enough for one day
20:50 so you cannot you could not I mean the
20:52 life you live
20:54 will be impossible without
20:56 all the people not just the ones that
20:58 give you your coffee okay
20:59 okay
21:02 um you depend on the British taxpayers
21:05 who pay your stipend or your salary you
21:06 depend on the people who make your
21:10 iPhone you depend on the people who you
21:12 know ship goods from China for you to
21:13 buy you depend on the people who design
21:16 your clothes you depend on okay this web
21:18 of interconnection just goes everywhere and
21:20 and um
21:24 your well-being
21:28 depends on their well-being
21:32 if the people who you know pay your salary
21:33 salary
21:35 can't get the money from the taxpayer
21:38 you lose your job okay if the people
21:41 um who decide to put the satellites
21:43 around the earth decided they were going
21:45 to maintain them anymore you lose your
21:46 cell phone and lots of any bank account
21:48 lots of other things um
21:49 um
21:51 you're flourishing depends upon the
21:54 flourishing of a lot of other people in
21:56 fact nearly everybody hidden the breadth
21:58 of the the um
22:01 and depth of procedure Summit partner
22:04 um but of course uh you know this is a
22:06 two-way street I mean um
22:09 in a sense the stuff the the well-being
22:11 of the people who I come in contact with
22:13 um uh
22:16 it depends also on me if I'm an
22:18 to my students they're going to suffer
22:21 if I'm a bad colleague to my colleagues
22:24 they're gonna suffer too so
22:27 you know these things um
22:28 um
22:30 compassionate action is
22:32 is
22:34 um let me put it around the other way if
22:36 you think about standard accounts of Ethics
22:38 Ethics
22:40 um it's normally thought of as a
22:43 zero-sum pain you know my rights are
22:45 your duties when I sell something my
22:47 profit is your loss etc etc
22:49 Buddhist ethics says no that's the wrong
22:52 perspective on things
22:55 um ethical action is a win-win situation
22:58 I help you to flourish you help me to
23:00 flourish and we all flourish together okay
23:02 okay
23:03 all right so
23:05 so [Music]
23:05 [Music] um
23:06 um
23:08 that's the end of the first part of the
23:11 talk let me just pause there for a
23:12 second because I want to move on now to
23:14 into our mental issues
23:17 um but just in case there are any points
23:19 of classification sorry clarification
23:21 let me just see if anyone wants to raise
23:29 and to be clear we will have a plenty of
23:32 time for Q a at the end as well so this
23:33 is a good opportunity if you just want
23:35 anything horrified quickly
23:37 there'll be time later as well yeah can
23:39 you just elaborate on the last points
23:41 you made about
23:43 um Western tradition of Ethics treating
23:46 the interaction as a security I'm not sure
23:58 look Western ethics at least
24:01 um has 17th 18th century depends very
24:03 much on um
24:05 um psychologicalism
24:07 psychologicalism
24:10 so if you look at you say compactors
24:13 discussed by humps and log and so on it
24:15 tells a story that people are essentially
24:16 essentially
24:18 um individual by the nature they're free
24:21 form with respect to their interests
24:23 their rights and so on um
24:23 um
24:26 but uh
24:28 if they don't cooperate they'll be a
24:30 warrable against all they won't last
24:32 long Ops of course so what they do is
24:34 they come together into social compact
24:37 so to have some of the
24:40 some of the aspects are life enforced by
24:43 central government so they can protect
24:44 their own interests but nonetheless
24:48 within that social compost I pursue my
24:50 own interests that's what the compact
24:53 has taught for me to presume pursue my
24:55 interests so um
24:56 um
24:59 uh I want to make as much money as
25:01 possible because that's good it's not
25:03 surprising that this view came into
25:05 being when capitalism was hitting at strides
25:07 strides
25:10 um and uh it's fine for me to exploit
25:13 you in any way I like because that's in
25:16 my interest and if I can make a lot of
25:17 money by exploiting you that's all
25:21 that's all moral okay so as I say my
25:23 game might be your loss but that's all fine
25:25 fine um
25:25 um
25:29 so morality then is about this kind of
25:31 trade-off between the individuals each
25:32 of whom looks after their own interests
25:34 to the detriment of other people that's
25:36 what the social contract is all about so
25:39 that's what I had in mind okay
25:42 um we can certainly discuss this later
25:49 any other general questions yeah
25:52 everyone cares about others can be more
25:54 really deep knowledge
25:56 why not foreign
26:17 cares about others
26:18 it could
26:20 look I don't think we're going to design
26:22 a perfect Society
26:24 Assurance help it could be better than
26:27 the society we live in now leave the
26:32 a third of the world's population
26:34 maybe more do not have adequate food
26:36 they do not have mathematical medicine
26:38 even in the United States which is one
26:39 of the richest countries in the world
26:43 okay if we can't design a better Society
26:45 of this or work towards a bit exciting this
26:46 this
26:47 there's something really sad you know
26:49 people are smart beings if they
26:51 understand the situation they're in
26:53 understand what makes them flourish
26:55 understand what doesn't make them
26:56 flourish they must be able to do better use
26:58 use okay
27:00 okay
27:01 we can certainly talk about that later but
27:02 but [Music]
27:03 [Music] um
27:05 um
27:07 we've been changing the world and our
27:10 society for 2 000 years do you think
27:12 that change has come to end obviously not
27:14 not
27:16 whatever World we're living in at the
27:19 year 3000 will be nothing like the world
27:23 we're living in in the year 2000 anymore
27:26 than the world in 2000 is the world is
27:32 the world is going to change that's
27:35 almost obvious okay the question is not
27:38 can we change it question is how do we
27:44 okay we can come back to some of these
27:46 issues in due course but let's get on to
27:48 environmental issues um
27:49 um
27:51 okay I'm going to skip over that because
27:53 of time
27:57 um okay let me talk about the looming
28:00 ecological crisis and
28:03 um if I was in the United States I would
28:07 expect to get still some climate denials
28:10 I assume I'm not so likely to get this
28:12 in the UK but maybe they're if I'm
28:13 denies in the audience we can discuss that
28:14 that
28:17 um but by and large I assume that I'm
28:20 preaching to choir here but what I want
28:22 to do is tell you how some of the things
28:24 I said
28:26 about Buddhist ethics and metaphysics
28:28 bear on
28:31 the current ecological situation many of
28:32 those will be pretty obvious to you now
28:35 I mean so um
28:38 let's talk about this look
28:40 um there is nothing wrong with changing
28:42 the environment
28:45 we have been doing this now as long as
28:46 there have been humans
28:48 and some of those things have been good
28:51 okay we have
28:54 um made sure that people or some people
28:56 at least have good security which are
28:58 used to not to be the case
29:00 um we have developed medical
29:01 technologists which help people when
29:06 they're ill we have eradicated many
29:09 terrible sicknesses
29:12 although I know the smallpox is making a comeback
29:13 comeback
29:17 um but polio has been largely eradicated
29:19 um so I mean all these involve
29:22 environmental changes okay um
29:23 um
29:25 so we've been changing the environment
29:28 and some of those changes are for the
29:31 better no doubt about that why well
29:34 because they reduce sufferings
29:36 um but
29:38 since the Industrial Revolution we've
29:39 been increasing the temperature of the
29:43 planet with consequences that we only
29:46 come to realize in the last 30 years
29:47 due to our understanding of the
29:50 interconnectedness of elements of the environment
29:51 environment
29:54 so particular party is a very old view
29:56 but the modern ecological understanding
30:00 of how the bits of our Republic relate
30:02 to each other is relatively new because
30:05 of climate science okay but climate
30:07 science is just an example of an
30:08 understanding of procedure Summit pattern
30:09 pattern
30:12 um okay so um
30:13 um
30:16 the increasing Global temperature is I
30:19 don't think arguable now already we have
30:22 seen an increase of
30:25 um Greek weather conditions like floods
30:28 tornadoes routes um
30:34 sea levels are already beginning to rise
30:37 and they're going to wipe out a lot of
30:39 Pacific Islands even the southern half
30:41 of Manhattan which is below sea level
30:43 like this is great okay
30:46 so these things are now starting to
30:48 happen already Okay um
30:55 because of the changes that we're making
30:57 to The Climate
31:00 um things are getting rather desperate
31:02 in many places especially in those
31:05 places where people have done least to
31:07 affect climate change which are those
31:09 sort of global South countries
31:13 okay so what we're seeing are rising sea
31:16 levels extreme weather conditions fires
31:18 throughouts floods
31:21 um disruption of arable lands just think
31:22 how much of the arable land is near the
31:25 coasts in most countries
31:28 um destruction of various ecosystems on
31:31 which we defend depend okay I think what
31:33 we're doing to the oceans for example by
31:35 climate change
31:37 um and in the end you know your life and
31:39 my life depends on Plants because
31:42 they're at the bottom of the food chain
31:46 um okay the effects well
31:48 um shortages of covered in clean water
31:51 unlikely only about four days ago the
31:53 head of the United Nations said unless
31:55 we get our act together real fast
31:58 we are going to be facing a crisis about
32:00 Clean Water by 2030.
32:02 you take it for granted you turn on your
32:05 tap and it comes out you cannot take it
32:08 for granted especially if you live in
32:10 the global South
32:11 which may not even you may not even have
32:13 a tap
32:15 okay migration
32:17 um look the people who live on the
32:18 coastal areas they're going to stay
32:20 there because their home's going to be
32:22 underwater they're going to move now
32:25 we've already seen the what migration
32:29 does when people migrate I read the news
32:30 about people coming from North Africa to
32:32 Europe every day you know how
32:35 politically disruptive this is okay it's
32:37 going to happen more and more in the
32:39 next 15 20 years
32:42 um increasing competition resources
32:45 primary resources and markets well
32:48 that's pretty obvious if resources are
32:51 dwindling competition following phrases um
32:53 um
32:55 increased International conflicts and more
32:56 more because
32:58 because
33:02 Nations protect their economies you
33:03 don't need to learn much about the
33:06 United States or China to let they go
33:07 through risk and they compete with each
33:10 other for it so if there's increasing economic
33:11 economic
33:13 um problems it's going to increase
33:16 cognit and um
33:17 um
33:20 a lot of that is clearly going to cause
33:25 so
33:28 even the first half of this talk we
33:30 should work to get rid of it I'm sorry to
33:31 to
33:36 ensure that we're going to go back to
33:38 you know print us through levels of
33:40 climate we can at least try and make
33:43 what happens at least compassionate for
33:45 everybody living in the world especially
33:47 those who are going to suffer most
33:49 um okay there's there's an ostrich
33:51 reaction which I'm sure that a lot of
33:52 people in the first world have
33:56 especially in the United States namely
33:58 that um
34:01 you think you can Hunker them and avoid
34:02 all this
34:04 you know the United States is a very
34:06 rich country some people are very very
34:09 rich and they think well they can do
34:10 they like other people who don't screw
34:12 themselves uh because I'm all right jack okay
34:14 okay
34:16 um obviously that's unethical but it's
34:20 also false because if you think about it
34:23 even the rich are connected by the web
34:26 of procedure Summit Potter at what goes
34:27 on in the world
34:30 when migration happens in a country it
34:33 affects everybody I hope maybe by
34:35 causing social disruption of what's
34:36 happening in the United States at the
34:39 moment but what happens in Europe now
34:40 with the people who come from North America
34:41 America
34:43 um and uh
34:45 in economic conditions are disrupted
34:48 then that affects everybody if clean
34:49 wood is a problem it's going to be a
34:51 problem for everybody um
34:52 um
34:55 so the world is people in the world are
34:57 not just connected
34:59 um socially they're connected
35:01 economically as well
35:04 so everyone is going to be affected by
35:12 new Global diseases caused by new
35:14 environmental conditions
35:15 I don't think I'll need to hammer that
35:18 after three years of coverage
35:20 um increased International competition
35:23 may be military
35:25 how far away are we from a monthly
35:27 complementation between China and America
35:29 America
35:32 uncomfortably close I think um
35:33 um
35:36 all right so
35:41 um
35:43 or the first part of the fourth Noble
35:45 Truth Right View understand the world
35:47 you're living in if you don't understand
35:50 it you won't do anything about it always
35:53 won't do anything efficacious right so
35:55 all I've done is describe the world to you
35:56 you
35:59 as I think science and any thoughtful
36:02 person now sees it so what can be done
36:06 okay obviously important
36:10 um well okay here's a utopian solution
36:12 um we Institute a world body that can
36:14 put in place and it's also appropriate
36:17 pollinated International activity yeah right
36:18 right
36:21 um we can redistribute the world's
36:25 resources more evenly across its peoples
36:28 we can have I'll probably decrease the
36:30 size of the world's population if there
36:32 were four billion of us not 8 billion of
36:34 us we wouldn't be in this situation
36:37 um we could put a halt to a full
36:39 economic production because rationale is growth
36:40 growth
36:42 which is causing a lot of the problem if
36:44 I'm talking about capitalism okay
36:47 um but this would require a level of
36:49 international cooperation which is
36:52 frankly you typing it ain't gonna happen
36:54 we haven't done it in the last 30 years
36:56 even though the writing was on the wall
36:58 we ain't gonna do it in the next 30 Years
36:59 Years
37:02 so nice as though that might be it ain't
37:04 going to happen
37:05 so what we can do
37:08 well we can do some things um
37:10 um
37:11 they might not stop
37:14 global warming but I can at least make
37:18 sure to get as bad as it might so
37:21 um we can underwrite the r d of cleaner Technologies
37:22 Technologies
37:24 for example by taxing the production and
37:27 use of fossil fuels and using the text
37:28 to subsidize development of renewable energy
37:30 energy
37:31 um and of course sharing the results
37:34 with countries of the global South
37:35 so if you listen to governments now
37:37 they'll say oh well we'll underwrite new
37:39 technologies because it'll make us more
37:40 affluentive what about what people are
37:42 really suffering the global South well
37:44 the new technologists developed should
37:46 be helping them as well because they are
37:48 suffering as much as probably more than
37:51 people in the global north
37:52 um winding back old and lower
37:54 Productions and setting strictly
37:57 emission limits on cars PowerPoints our
37:59 plants other heavy imploders
38:01 all of which are concerned are all of
38:03 this with concern for those who have to
38:06 move to different jobs okay so we're
38:09 we're changing the economy some old traditional
38:10 traditional
38:13 um Industries are going to go hopefully
38:16 you know gas plants
38:19 um power plants um people are going to
38:21 lose their jobs
38:24 so you know losing a job is definitely a
38:28 form of suffering so that when we change
38:30 the economy we should think about all
38:31 the people who are going to lose their
38:33 jobs and their wives and husbands and kids
38:40 expanding public transportation and
38:42 diminishing the Reliance on private
38:44 motor vehicles and air travel okay I
38:46 flew here from New York yesterday so
38:48 there's a an element of kind of
38:50 self-criticism here but you're happy to
38:58 what else could we do um well uh there's
39:02 more we could Implement sustainable food
39:05 production and Forestry and encourage a
39:07 group to move away from a mid-consuming
39:09 developed diet which is energy and
39:11 efficient and environmentally destructive
39:12 destructive
39:15 think of the Amazon Amazon [Music]
39:16 [Music]
39:19 um meat production is amazingly
39:21 inefficient in terms of nutrition
39:25 take something like eight kilograms of
39:27 vegetable usable humanly usable fertile
39:30 protein to uh produce one kilo of
39:34 humanly used by animal protein right um
39:34 um
39:36 encouraging measures to stop population
39:40 growth education Family Planning
39:43 um we know that if you educate women
39:46 then uh and enable them to use Family
39:50 Planning Services then the um size of
39:51 families goes down
39:55 okay so there are easy things we can do
39:58 to at least
40:00 stop the world population getting too
40:02 much larger namely educate people
40:05 especially women to have control their
40:07 own fertility um
40:08 um
40:11 uh okay so those are some of the things
40:15 but
40:18 um there are best going to slow down the change
40:19 change
40:21 on campus
40:23 um things are going to get worse
40:26 Okay so
40:28 we've got to prepare for what is not
40:30 going to be you know happy place over
40:33 the next 20 30 years how do we do that
40:36 well first of all we educate people
40:37 if they don't understand the situation then
40:39 then
40:40 um they're not going to act
40:49 we should be preparing to accommodate
40:50 Mass migration because it's going to happen
40:51 happen
40:54 and we know that simply putting up a
40:56 fence to keep people out does not work Witness
40:58 Witness
41:00 the wall at the Mexican border of the
41:05 um we must be prepared to deal with
41:08 extreme weather conditions of the kind
41:10 that we've seen a lot of tornadoes floods
41:11 floods buyers
41:17 even in the UK you've had some rather
41:19 inclement weather recently I believe
41:23 okay like the coldest
41:30 um
41:32 moving to sustainable energy and Food Systems
41:33 Systems and
41:35 and
41:37 systems which work under conditions of
41:40 increased stress because the climate
41:42 change is going to produce a lot of
41:44 increased stress on our production food
41:47 and water still water um
41:48 um
41:52 and probably the most important hold is developing
41:53 developing
41:56 an economic system which is more Humane
41:58 and more rational than the one we have
42:00 and yes I'm talking about getting rid of capitalism
42:02 capitalism
42:04 okay but that is a whole new discussion
42:07 but a very important one
42:15 yes
42:17 talk like this
42:20 now I've skated Jesus out of all of you
42:22 so what do I do
42:26 um I thought my name was in poetry
42:30 okay most of you
42:33 well before I give you the Poetry let me
42:35 just summarize the what I've said it is
42:38 good that produces abuse of them okay um
42:38 um
42:41 what we do we need to understand the
42:42 Buddhist lessons of care and
42:44 interconnectedness because that's what's
42:47 been driving what I've said about what
42:49 we should do in response to the
42:54 and passion to other people is important
42:57 understanding the interconnectedness of
42:59 people and things is important
43:02 because we live in a world of global
43:06 ecological and other interconnections uh
43:09 where we flourish collectively or not at all
43:15 okay here's the Poetry okay John Don
43:17 some of you will of course know this [Music]
43:18 [Music] um
43:24 no man is an island entire itself
43:26 every man is a piece of the continent a
43:27 part of the main
43:30 if it can't be washed away by the Sea
43:33 Europe is the less as well as for
43:36 profitary work as well as if a manner of
43:38 thy friends of our known worth
43:40 any man's death diminishes me because
43:44 I'm involved in mankind
43:47 and therefore you ever send a no over
43:49 the belt holes
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