Ecological problems are no longer a myth. The facts are ranged in such a manner that it is a clear statement. The way we are going right now, it is a disastrous path. But we call it “business as usual.” If we go with “business as usual,” the planet is in for a very serious turndown in the way it functions.

People say recycling, using alternative power and similar ideas will help. Yes, it will all help, but in a very minor way. Right now, all the alternate systems of power put together produce a few percentage points of the power requirement in the world. At this stage, it is more of an entertainment. I am not trying to beat it down. It is definitely needed, and even one percentage point is very big. But we are not looking for solutions yet, we are only looking to slow down the disaster. We want to gift the disaster to our children; we don’t want it to happen in our time.

If we as humanity are serious about this, one thing we need to understand is that all ecological problems have come because of irresponsible reproduction among human beings. When I say irresponsible reproduction, there is something called natural selection which nature is always performing. Today, with our intelligence and technologies, we are capable of seeing that every child that is born largely survives in most countries. The infant mortality rate has been considerably brought down in many countries though it still needs to be worked upon in many other nations, including India. Medical sciences have sort of postponed our death, but we are refusing to postpone birth. We have to some extent—women were bearing children at 14, now I think the average child-bearing age has become over 22, which is a little bit of a postponement, but at 7.2 billion people, it is not very effective.

It is very important that we understand the present situation we are in. The rate at which things are going, people say we have only 15-20 years left on this planet. The planet has enormous capability to recoup from the damage it goes through, but we have to allow a certain amount of time, otherwise it cannot. So, either we consciously handle this, or Mother Earth will do it to us in a cruel manner.

This possibility is looming in front of us, but we are in a mode of self-destruction. This is not meant as a doomsday prediction. The important thing is that we realise the gravity of what we are facing. You don’t try to lift a ton of weight with your little finger. But that is what we are trying to do right now. We are trying to handle a massive problem with small incentives here and there. That is not the way it needs to be addressed if you are serious about a solution.

There has to be more seriousness about the ecological solution. We are still trying to satisfy somebody. We want to look eco-friendly in front of somebody else. We are not looking at ecology, which is in a drastic situation right now. If we do not take corrective action right now, we will pass on a legacy which we will be ashamed of and which we will be accused of and hated for by our children and the next generation of people.

Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, a bestselling author and poet.

He was conferred the Padma Vibhushan in 2017. Isha.sadhguru.org