Global warming and climate change are the outcomes of human greed in the name of development, indicating…

Question

Global warming and climate change are the outcomes of human greed in the name of development, indicating the direction in which extinction of organisms including human beings is heading towards loss of life on Earth. How do you put an end to this to protect life and bring equilibrium between the society and the environment?

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Ending climate change needs a shift from greed to need, through individual restraint, corporate trusteeship, rights-based law and global climate justice. The Supreme Court in M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India (2024) recognised a right against the adverse effects of climate change under Articles 14 and 21.

**Introduction**

The WMO confirmed 2024 as the first calendar year above 1.5°C of warming, and the IPCC (2023) holds human activity unequivocally responsible. Gandhi's line that the earth satisfies every man's need but not his greed places the cure in values as much as technology.

**Ending Greed: Change in Individuals and Markets**

1. **Need over greed**: Mission LiFE (2022) promotes mindful consumption, echoing the Isha Upanishad's *tena tyaktena bhunjitha*, enjoy through renunciation.
2. **Trusteeship in markets**: SEBI's BRSR makes the top 1,000 listed companies disclose their environmental footprint, Gandhi's trusteeship in modern form.
3. **Ecocentric ethos**: The Bishnois of Khejarli (1730) and the Chipko Movement (1973) show communities as guardians of nature, and honest impact assessments carry that **intergenerational equity** into office.

**Restoring Equilibrium Through Law and Global Action**

SKETCH: venn | Equilibrium of Development
a: Society
b: Economy
c: Environment
overlap: Sustainable equilibrium

1. **Rights-based law**: *M.K. Ranjitsinh v. Union of India* (2024) recognised a right against the adverse effects of climate change under Articles 14 and 21.
2. **Clean growth**: India reached 50% non-fossil installed power capacity in 2025, five years ahead of its 2030 NDC goal, and has pledged net zero by 2070.
3. **Climate justice and life**: The Loss and Damage Fund (COP28, 2023) looks to historic emitters to pay for harm, and the Kunming-Montreal Framework (2022) protects 30% of land and sea for all species.

**Conclusion**

Greed cannot be legislated away, nor can private virtue alone save the climate; equilibrium comes when individual restraint, corporate trusteeship and just law reinforce one another. That is *Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam* in practice, the earth held in trust for generations yet unborn.

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