[Q&A] Why We're NOT Global Warming Activists (And Why I Choose, Instead…)

so this is an example of a video a short
video that's actually shorter this channel I don't have that much to say about this topic but maybe it's a little bit deep maybe it's a little bit interesting maybe maybe Melissa could throw in some thoughts though I got you've been warned I got a message from his Porter on patreon and he asked the question sincerely enough why don't I talk more about global warming I have had a couple of videos of the global warming the main one I remember was actually in response to vegan gains so I'm sure you can get it on the vegan gains playlist my responses to it discourage the vegan gains uh there were some technical and scientific issues I want to talk about irritable boring in that video and it's come up a few other times but anyway he phrased this question such a way as global warming is such an enormous issue it's an issue that's gonna have consequences for you and me and the next generation and my own daughter etc etc so why not say more about global warming and I think you already know my answer on this this topic babe and you know for me the answer this it's a little bit deep a little bit of resonant because it's part of the frame in which I've lived my entire life like if you asked the question why did I end up studying an obscure language like poly and not ancient Greek or Latin one of the main reasons was my perception of the world back in 1997 was that they were already was an enormous well-funded establishment dedicated to the study of ancient Greek and Latin maybe I'm wrong I mean you know now I'm much more cynical in my own form in 2018 looking back now probably I could have been a scholar of Latin and Greek and set the world on fire and brought those peoples on didn't know yeah but like from my you know podunk ignorant perspective 1997 I thought okay there already are these specialists and experts devoted to ancient Greek and Latin and they probably started studying those languages at age 12 and I'm never gonna be able to compete so why would I try to compete yeah why wouldn't I try to do something instead positive for Cambodia Sri Lanka Laos these places the dirt I think it's probably why you don't about nutrition because you're not a nutritionist right oh okay right but there's like a implicit there it's not just that I'm not a nutritionist it's that there is an establishment of well-funded well-educated experts who were in that field and who make money out of it right I mean like the fact that I'm not a nutritionist is not enough of a reason that's been good but now contrast this okay when I wrote my first article is my first public published articles dealing with politics in Laos was I great expert on Laos or lotion no was I a great expert on humanitarian work and corruption political problems in Laos or Southeast Asia no but nevertheless I was one of the best informed people in the world who spoken which is the first luck with this there isn't an establishment like there's an establishment of experts in Greek there's establishment of recent of experts in Latin there's an establishment of experts in nutrition right and and me in all three cases they may all be not cases I mean they now I'm older and I'm more cynical in 1997 I didn't see it the way in 1997 I never would have thought you know what you know the guys doing these studies in Greek and Latin this is all garbage and I can wipe the slate clean I can replace this with new and better scholarship today I probably would have responded that more ambitiously and I would have wanted to challenge that establishment but from my more youthful perspective it was like well why challenge it why reduplicate the efforts that are already there and so on right situation like Laos situation like Cambodia situation like Pali scholarship ancient Buddhist scholarship not the case at all I mean in many ways those are still fields where you know there's no competition they're still in their infancy there is no establishment the very few translations that are out there are terrible the very few sources and resources and where my perspective and the information I have to share may really be invaluable in the sense that there's no substitute for it there weren't there were not five other people in Laos who could have written the article I wrote about corruption in the you know in the charity industry there weren't you know and of course I met the of people who are you find out why they didn't see what weren't you the guy I wrote that article you know why was it me you know you if you meet those few other people face to face a lot of them you know had connections or had financial situations they didn't want to endanger their own position by speaking honestly about about such a yeah okay so I think the number one vegans were sorry I I'm just using nutrition as an example do it but you know dr. Greger is doing the word he's reading scientific articles making videos ever almost every day he's really at it every day and there are a lot of people on YouTube already that are vegan youtubers that just pair it the same studies or a parent the same results that he oh god is that the truth yeah right so like I in that same sense that there are plenty of people who are parroting the same issues about the warming yeah so like there are no I think there are enough channels talking about I don't know you well it could be something that you could talk about more I do remember one video that you made was pretty left an impact on me well you were talking about like um it shouldn't be about at least this is how I interpret it it shouldn't be about reducing your impact as much you can and that did have I'm sitting impact a lot but whatever it did have an impact on me because for a long time I had been thinking like okay how can we reduce as much as possible like I was really into and I think it is good I think it is like a positive thing to try to reduce your waste as much as you can but as much as I could I wouldn't use reviews containers and go to the grocery store and try to buy things in bulk which guys still do that but um you know like I was really still feeling guilty about the impact that I was having on the environment just from like you know buying a plastic bag like oh you know I'm contributing to all this harm in the world like well you know it and it can lead to just like it's better for me to just be dead I wouldn't be having an impact from the environment how dare I how dare I write this essay using a disposable pack and its kind of mentality right what if the essay really has some kind of positive value in the world or even I suppose the value for quote unquote saving the world what if you're doing something positive etc yeah so do I did a series of videos talking about that yeah so and I did really appreciate that so like I can understand wanting more content talking about that but I don't know what you would I I don't know I don't know what could you say well the one the one video I made I just mentioned he does say something quite shocking and I expect I think from any people cuz tux with the world of satellites and actually deflecting the solar rays in the sky it actually raises some points the other thing most people hadn't heard about that's that's what I would make that but for me you know I think you raise a second valid an interesting point this issue of there already being people you know echoing what dr. Greger is saying there's already kind of chorus of opinion following you know a few sources in in veganism uh nutrition that's interesting that's true but what I'm really pointing you is just the existence of the establishment itself right so you and I both have seen this YouTube channel for existence Huntley for example there's a YouTube channel which is specifically climate scientists working on the Arctic methane in a crisis the melting of ice on the North Pole etc that are fine right right and then dealing with the consequences of methane being released from the ice right and they're organized as a set of dissidents within the larger community of dedicated salary climate scientists climate experts right so this is my point now I I shared a house with one of those people I'd say we were roommates but we had separate rooms the hall we rented a house in England with a woman and she was a full-time employee of exactly that of exactly that demi-monde whatever you want to say she was part of the climate science establishment so she um you know you joke about it herself she was actually you know producing all these greenhouse gasps is flying back and forth to conferences in Switzerland and South Africa and Australia and stuff she was going to all these these you know climate science conferences that did get reported in the newspapers they were big news at the time she was part of that of that establishment now again the establishment will have its flaws and will need to have its critics the nutrition establishment has its flaws and needs to have its critics the ancient Greek and Latin profession has its flaws and needs to have its crypt critics there's no doubt but for me that's fundamentally a very different situation that I was in at northern Laos and even in the short time that I was involved in Korean achieve way you have no idea I mean very quickly you're in the most informed 1% of Canadians just if you care about and are studying what's going on with Korea native way people in Canada you know there should be an establishment there should be experts and what-have-you who are involved in those problems you know I was especially you you know the issues that are in language extinction and education but also economic and you know other other political problems they were facing so you know there again you know there's almost immediately pressure on me to speak out pressure on me to lead research projects and so on i member people say to me look we can get funding for you right away if you want to start doing this research project or something and it was like um I've been a student here for 3 months you know think thanks but you know I thought I thought it had more of a period of false humility first before you know taking on the composition so a lot of the issues I've chosen to engage with are the issues where my voice matters where the absence of my voice would matter again if I hadn't written that article in Laos nobody else would have etc etc and you know look and I've got to say also I do think that is in some ways an immature perspective of Hardman for sure that I think that was like I say why didn't I do Greek and Latin why did i do pally you know we're looking back at it in some ways I think it's stupid and I mean nail in a situation where I'm 39 years old I can read and write Chinese doing all this work on reading on Chinese and my opinion doesn't matter I'm one of a million white guys okay maybe not a million but in porpoise number of white Westerners who speak English is the first language you've managed to get you know some level ability in Chinese some knowledge of Chinese politics etc and my opinion does not matter my contribution doesn't matter in that field what does matter you know you have an extensive knowledge of history and politics of oh oh I'm not humble don't get me wrong oh don't know I'm you know mic my voices of tremendous unique out oh there's no question yeah yeah yeah I'm not it to make money and so on right but you know my situation you know my contribution will never be valued in that way it's much much different to try to compete and make your voice heard and make your contribution matter if you want to debate the future of Chinese politics with over 1 billion people who are involved Korean a jib way politics they're not a lot of people in the room there's a few dozen people you know debating with you and your voice really matters in the absence of your voice if you can be an eloquent voice you know for police reform or prison reform or education reform or language extinction or any of those issues connected First Nations your contribution really matters and in my experience it matters right away it matters and you all have been at it for a few months but you don't have a whole lot of credential in your belt and for me that that's like something like global warming it's the worst case scenario there's this huge well-funded establishment already I'm not a part of it I'm never gonna be a part of it I'm never gonna benefit from it always gonna be excluded by it okay well you know that's that that's the situation there yeah and then and then apart from that so what what can i what could I possibly contribute yeah I do understand you know in this sense it is so urgent it seems like the only thing that we should be concerned about because like right first of all we need we need a planet that can sustain human life if it can't you know if if some of these projections are true that within you know the next hundred years the just global economy is going to be in shambles due to climate change you know that is very serious and I understand why it's at the forefront of a lot of people's minds and maybe that's you know that's part of this urging you want yeah yeah yeah I assume the question yeah I sympathize but I disagree and you know to bring this back to two names that happen to rhyme Cicero and Mon Bo so I'm reading the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero and in reading Cicero I have to reflect a lot on the relationship between democracy and aristocracy and I was looking at some work by this journalist George mom Bo the other day I think George mom Bo is an idiot I really do not even gonna get into why but George mom Bo is in effect like an aristocrat our society he's the one person out of a million chosen almost at random to be the ecology reporter for a major newspaper in Europe so I mean in all of you how many people have that job in the whole english-speaking world how many people with a job how many people can keep it for decades the way he has researching and writing articles and publishing books and it's a goddamn shame that job went to such an idiot it really it really is a shame that it didn't go to a person of greater rigor honesty thoroughness you know an intelligence cousin ha I'm not even getting into this has this guy's tracker though George mom Bo he is however absolutely one of the most important voices on global warming and has been for decades and still is and he has sometimes gone through in detail reports from the United Nations you know on global warming or from specific bodies and he's really criticized than appointed well wrong in the reproach or you know with the same with issues and he has an impact now here's the sad facts George mumbling he's not a climate scientist this is also from he has no real formal education he is just a reporter he's a journalist what happens specialize in these areas your opinion and my opinion can never matter in the way George won't be his opinion matters never and if you take all that time I have a political science background I could go through the same reports from the United Nations I could probably do a better critique constructive criticism I could probably could do better than George Monbiot because George mom Bo is an idiot right you know I could go through the same staff so I could go through whether it's scientific reports political reports or you know panels drawing the clues I could play that role right but it wouldn't matter I would have more of a positive impact on ecology and global warming if I take that same time and knit my own socks because this is this is why I'm bringing up this why I'm bringing up philosophy of Cicero right this is part of the tragedy of living in a society which is still in bits and pieces aristocratic in its nature this guy has been given this you know status for life you know almost magically you know he's one of like five people in English people but maybe fewer I can't even name five you know gods of this he's he's a reporter on ecology and so he has that power if I wanted to have it was only a suit those issues the best thing I could do after doing that research would be to struggle to get that my research into the hands of short ROM Bo and pray that he reports on it pray that he reports on it and gives a citation to my blog or whatever I'm I'm gonna post it so that's that's the cold hard reality of how the establishment works in Buddhist studies how many white Western english-speaking people get to be a professor of Buddhism in each generation it's more than 15 but let's a handful you know and they really do have this power comparable to aristocrats and they leave a huge shadow over this generation and you know I mean that there are ways in which you know Western academia and even Western journalism start to resemble aristocracy start to resemble undeserved privilege just being assigned to people arbitrarily and then having these these kinds of impacts yeah I just want to say I was thinking about it recently you know your your mom sent you an email saying that she had just read about a report on sexual abuse in humanitarian workers right and she said this reminded me that you you wrote something along these same lines ten years ago you know why did that not get more coverage and right yeah I mean that's just how it is like you have written something like yeah okay writing is like some things that you publish are incredible yeah but how many people have read them how many people are going to read them and that's just how that's just how it is okay so I'll wrap the video with this but you know you make a good point although I disagree are seen from a different perspective she's talking about an article I did on corruption sexual exploitation you know employees of humanitarian agencies getting underage girls pregnant in this con this kind of situation in northern Laos so that article did make a big impact it made a huge impact with in Laos it made a huge impact on the charity agencies involved the agencies I was accusing I was pointed the finger at whatever want to say I was criticizing right and then it had a big impact via the newspapers in the donor countries so one of the agencies was from France and the store was picked up and run in France and then one was a Norway so in Norway Finland and Denmark I think the story got picked up also right so no so it's totally I told you why you see it that way you see it as me heroically writing this article and then not having anything I would totally understand but action but actually if you think about it this is an example of a powerless voiceless person having a huge impact especially where it mattered and then the ultimate impact was that it had an effect on the ocean government itself the government in that country Laos my message got through to them which is a communist dictatorship okay okay but this is my point before no no no no but it isn't of course there's limits I mean I don't have as much impact as George Monbiot or some other established journalist no question but my fundamental point throughout this video has been I don't respond to the existence of the establishment just with resentment nor with resignation right the point was for me to respond strategically and say okay where can I make a difference so when I when I moved to Canada last time when I moved to Saskatchewan my first thought was prison activism I'm gonna get involved in prisoners no no I know maybe I'm an unusual person nobody else does that so okay I want to get involved with prison activism prison education and this kind of thing political activism linked to prisons why this is somewhere I can make a difference and I would not have put the same time or energy or effort into global warming so again whether you see this as empowering or disempowering what your attitude is in response to the existence of the establishment because the establishment is real there is an establishment of Greek and Latin you know scholars do you see that as an opportunity because for me hey I'm a I'm a smart guy I could have gotten you know scholarship to study in Greek and Latin you could look at it positively say I can use the establishment as a ladder I can get ahead because this is this establishment already creates opportunities for me creates education for me whereas let me tell you something languages like poly lotion and Cambodian I taught myself with no teacher no textbook made my own textbooks and posed them to the Internet it was awful I'm wonderful it was wonderful also awful yeah you know with no establishment total autodidact total outsider you know very different situation but how can I make my word scandal how can I make my reading count how can I make my research count and in a very broad sense how can I make my activism count so I make those decisions strategically in response the existence that establishment whether or not you resent it ultimately is immaterial but no I'm neither taking on the George mumbos of this world nor am I taking on the global warming establishment and that's why that is not a major area of critique or commentary on this channel