Editorial : Ensuring Climate Justice

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From the time of the Rig Veda till today, Bharat has been the home of different religions and the Indian genius adopted a policy of live and let live towards them. Bharateeya religious tradition admits all forms in which the single truth is reflected.
– A Hindu View of Life, Dr S Radhakrishnan

Climate is critical to human life. There are two types of climates. One is given by the nature and the other is camouflaged by human beings. This camouflaged environment is the root cause of all the problems. The problems of climate change and menace of terrorism are two classic examples of such camouflaged efforts. In Bharat, many people are also trying to camouflage the environment with the bogey of ‘intolerance’. Answers to all types of camouflaging lie in the integral philosophical traditions of Bharat, which is necessary for climate justice within and outside Bharat.    
United Nations has declared 2015 to be the hottest year ever. Due to climate change, we in Bharat are witnessing unprecedented flood situations in states like Tamil Nadu. So there should not be any issue on agreement to curb carbon emissions for all the nations. Unfortunately, rather than science, politics and economics guide the climate change negotiations. Developed countries who have optimally polluted the environment with exploitation of the developing world camouflaged the negotiations on principle of equal responsibility, denying equitable justice demanded by the developing world. Bharat is fighting for the cause this larger population of the world suffering under poverty and deprivation on the principle of Climate justice. Bharat has given its own commitments voluntarily and working hard to meet them. The developed world would like to retain their monopoly of development, and therefore, would not like to accept their essential responsibility towards ‘climate change’. The statement by US Secretary of State John Kerry that “India has been more cautious, a little more restrained in its embrace of this new paradigm, and it's a challenge” is essentially a reflection of that mindset.  Fortunately, he added that “We've got a lot of focus on India right now to try to bring them along,” which is a sign of realisation that Bharat has emerged and the countries like US have to accept this change. The intolerant monopolists who have camouflaged the intellectual and cultural environment of Bharat are perhaps not that open minded.  
The menace of terrorism and growing influence of Islamic State will certainly be another unifying factor in Paris after the unprecedented carnage. Again everybody will pay the lip service but will camouflage the issue of defining a terrorist or pin pointing a terrorist country. They cannot, because then they will have to accept the fact that this Frankenstein monster is the creation the same Western developed world. Whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria and soon may be in Pakistan, terrorism was nurtured or sheltered for furthering political and economic interests. Bharat is consistently saying that unless the epicentres of terrorism are curbed, terrorism cannot be mitigated. Hope the world accepts this position in the interests of humanity and get rid of double standards on terrorism.     
Interestingly, solutions to both these problems lie in the philosophy of Bharat, which is camouflaged as intolerant. The philosophical tradition of Bharat which is integral in nature accepts all ways of worship to be true and considered nature and humanity as complimentary to each other. People who are disconnected from indigenous thinking and camouflaged themselves under western ideas of development and divisive constructions have negated any space for this thinking for decades together. They want to claim freedom of expression, while denying the same who are countering them now. Voices that are rooted in the basic philosophy ‘Live and Let Live’ want to ensure intellectual climate justice for them. The monopolists will have to compromise with their selfish interests for some time. The trolling youth of Bharat do not want to live in the camouflaged climate. They want to find the answers to the problems of Bharat and humanity through integration of ‘Karma Yog’ and ‘Tantra Yug’.  Hope the intolerance brigade is ready to accept the tradition of climate justice.

 

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