Class 11 English (Hornbill Book) Chapter 5 - The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role By Nani Palkhivala
Class 11 English (Hornbill Book) Chapter 5 - The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role
By Nani Palkhivala
This chapter focuses on the factors that are responsible for the declining health of the earth. The chapter was originally an article written by Nani Palkhivala which was published in the newspaper ‘The Indian Express’ on November 23, 1994.
The writer discusses the Green Movement, how a zoo in Zambia declared human beings as ‘world’s most dangerous animals’. The writer also focuses on overpopulation, deforestation and what should be our responsibility towards the environment.
Summary
In this chapter, the writer raises an issue towards the deteriorating health of the earth. As human beings have been exploiting natural resources from decades, presently the condition has made the environment critical. In 1972, the Green Movement helped environmentalists to raise awareness about the harmful condition of the earth and since then there has been no looking back as the movement has been successfully educating people about the conservation of the environment.
Earth is like a patient whose health is declining and it is our duty to improve it. In 1987, the term Sustainable Development was used by the World Commission on Environment and Development. A zoo in Lukasa, Zambia has a cage in which a sign reads ‘The World’s most dangerous animal’ and inside there is a mirror. It gives a message that human beings are the most dangerous animals. Brandt Commission raised a question “Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and ailing environment?”
There are four principal biological systems that form the foundation of the global economic system - fisheries, grasslands, forests, and croplands. These four systems also provide food and raw materials for industries except for minerals and synthetics. With these systems becoming unsustainable, fisheries will collapse, the forest will slowly disappear, grasslands will turn into a barren wasteland and croplands will become worse.
In poor countries, forests are being cut down for fuelwood which is used for cooking purposes. There are some areas where the cost of fuelwood is more than the cost of food. It is leading to deforestation at an alarming rate.
One of the reasons for the exploitation of the environment is the increasing population. It is observed that about one million population is increasing in every four days. This is not a good sign. There is an urgent need to control overpopulation in the world. Development is the best contraceptive for this problem as it will help in reduction in fertility, increase in education and income and improvement in health.
We must see the world as a whole and not as dissociated parts. It is a holistic and ecological view. According to Lester brown, we have not inherited the earth from our forefathers but we have borrowed it from our future generations.
Text & word meaning
The following article was written by Nani Palkhivala and published in The Indian Express on 24 November 1994. The issues that he raised regarding the declining health of the earth continue to have relevance.
ONE cannot recall any movement in world history which has gripped the imagination of the entire human race so completely and so rapidly as the Green Movement which started nearly twenty-five years ago. In 1972 the world’s first nationwide Green party was founded in New Zealand. Since then, the movement has not looked back.
Gripped – clutch; hold
Green Movement – It is a movement which stresses people to follow environmentally friendly practices.
Ethical Obligation – when someone is required to do something based on a righteous standard of rules
In the zoo at Lusaka, Zambia, there is a cage where the notice reads, ‘The world’s most dangerous animal’. Inside the cage there is no animal but a mirror where you see yourself. Thanks to the efforts of a number of agencies in different countries, a new awareness has now dawned upon the most dangerous animal in the world. He has realised the wisdom of shifting from a system based on domination to one based on partnership.
Scientists have catalogued about 1.4 million living species with which mankind shares the earth. Estimates vary widely as regards the still-uncatalogued living species — biologists reckon that about three to a hundred million other living species still languish unnamed in ignominious darkness.
One of the early international commissions which dealt, inter alia, with the question of ecology and environment was the Brandt Commission which had a distinguished Indian as one of its members — Mr
L.K. Jha. The First Brandt Report raised the question — “Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and ailing environment?”
Dawned – begin
Inter Alia – among other things
Mr. Lester R. Brown in his thoughtful book, The Global Economic Prospect, points out that the earth’s principal biological systems are four — fisheries, forests, grasslands, and croplands — and they form the foundation of the global economic system. In addition to supplying our food, these four systems provide virtually all the raw materials for industry except minerals and petroleum-derived synthetics. In large areas of the world, human claims on these systems are reaching an unsustainable level, a point where their productivity is being impaired. When this happens, fisheries collapse, forests disappear, grasslands are converted into barren wastelands, and croplands deteriorate. In a protein-conscious and protein hungry world, over-fishing is common every day. In poor countries, local forests are being decimated in order to procure firewood for cooking. In some places, firewood has become so expensive that “what goes under the pot now costs more than what goes inside it”. Since the tropical forest is, in the words of Dr Myers, “the powerhouse of evolution”, several species of life face extinction as a result of its destruction.
It has been well said that forests precede mankind; deserts follow. The world’s ancient patrimony of tropical forests is now eroding at the rate of forty to fifty million acres a year, and the growing use of dung for burning deprives the soil of an important natural fertiliser. The World Bank estimates that a five-fold increase in the rate of forest planting is needed to cope with the expected fuelwood demand in the year 2000.
James Speth, the President of the World Resources Institute, said the other day, “We were saying that we are losing the forests at an acre a second, but it is much closer to an acre-and-a-half to a second”.
Precede – come before in order or position
Article 48A of the Constitution of India provides that “the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country”. But what causes endless anguish is the fact that laws are never respected nor enforced in India. (For instance, the Constitution says that casteism, untouchability and bonded labour shall be abolished, but they flourish shamelessly even after forty-four years of the operation of the Constitution.) A recent report of our Parliament’s Estimates Committee has highlighted the near catastrophic depletion of India’s forests over the last four decades. India, according to reliable data, is losing its forests at the rate of 3.7 million acres a year. Large areas, officially designated as forest land, “are already virtually treeless”. The actual loss of forests is estimated to be about eight times the rate indicated by government statistics.
A three-year study using satellites and aerial photography conducted by the United Nations, warns that the environment has deteriorated so badly that it is ‘critical’ in many of the eighty-eight countries investigated.
There can be no doubt that the growth of world population is one of the strongest factors distorting the future of human society. It took mankind more than a million years to reach the first billion. That was the world population around the year 1800. By the year 1900, a second billion was added, and the twentieth century has added another 3.7 billion. The present world population is estimated at 5.7 billion. Every four days the world population increases by one million.
Distorting – deform; disfigure
Fertility falls as incomes rise, education spreads, and health improves. Thus development is the best contraceptive. But development itself may not be possible if the present increase in numbers continues.
The rich get richer, and the poor beget children which condemns them to remain poor. More children does not mean more workers, merely more people without work. It is not suggested that human beings be treated like cattle and compulsorily sterilised. But there is no alternative to voluntary family planning without introducing an element of coercion. The choice is really between control of population and perpetuation of poverty.
Beget – give life to
The population of India is estimated to be 920 million today — more than the entire populations of Africa and South America put together. No one familiar with the conditions in India would doubt that the hope of the people would die in their hungry hutments unless population control is given topmost priority.
For the first time in human history we see a transcending concern — the survival not just of the people but of the planet. We have begun to take a holistic view of the very basis of our existence. The environmental problem does not necessarily signal our demise, it is our passport for the future. The emerging new world vision has ushered in the Era of Responsibility. It is a holistic view, an ecological view, seeing the world as an integrated whole rather than a dissociated collection of parts.
Hutments – collection of huts
Industry has a most crucial role to play in this new Era of Responsibility. What a transformation would be effected if more businessmen shared the view of the Chairman of Du Pont, Mr Edgar S. Woolard who, five years ago, declared himself to be the Company’s “Chief Environmental Officer”. He said, “Our continued existence as a leading manufacturer requires that we excel in environmental performance.”
Of all the statements made by Margaret Thatcher during the years of her Prime Ministership, none has passed so decisively into the current coin of English usage as her felicitous words: “No generation has a freehold on this earth. All we have is a life tenancy — with a full repairing lease”. In the words of Mr. Lester Brown, “We have not inherited this earth from our forefathers; we have borrowed it from our children.”
The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role Question and Answers
Understanding the text
1. Locate the lines in the text that support the title ‘The Ailing Planet’.
2. What does the notice ‘The world’s most dangerous animal’ at a cage in the zoo at Lusaka, Zambia, signify?
Ans: The notice ‘The world’s most dangerous animal’ signifies that human has deteriorated the planet from a long time that his own survival is under threat now.
3. How are the earth’s principal biological systems being depleted?
Ans: There are four principal biological systems - fisheries, grasslands, forests, and croplands. These four systems provide food and raw materials for industry except for minerals and synthetics. These systems have reached an unsustainable point where their productivity have impaired. As a result, fisheries are collapsing, deforestation is taking place, grasslands are turning into barren wasteland and croplands are becoming worse. Overfishing is very common nowadays where people are becoming protein-conscious. In poor countries, the forest is being cut down on a large scale to obtain wood for cooking. In some areas, firewood is more costly than food. Many species are under destruction in tropical forests.
4. Why does the author aver that the growth of world population is one of the strongest factors distorting the future of human society?
Talking about the text
1. Discuss - Laws are never respected nor enforced in India.
Ans: According to the Article 48A of the Constitution of India, the state should try to protect and improve the environment and must protect the forest and wildlife of the country. But the painful fact is that laws are not followed in India. For example – casteism, untouchability and bonded labour, are said to be abolished in India but are still in practice. Over the last four decades, India is losing forest at a harmful rate of 3.7 million acres a year as per the report of Parliament’s Estimates Committee. The large area of forestland is now treeless and the actual loss is estimated to be eight times the rate given by government statistics.
2. Discuss - “Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and an ailing environment?”
Ans: The above lines were mentioned in the first report of the Brandt Commission. With the rising scale of distortion of the environment, humans are going to leave a burned planet with aided deserts, poor landscapes and a poor environment for our future generations. Our earth is like a patient with declining health and it is not a good sign. Deforestation and over populations are some of the reasons behind the deterioration of the earth. We must realize our ‘Era of Responsibility’ before it's too late. We must conserve the earth as if we have borrowed it from our future generations.
3. Discuss - “We have not inherited this earth from our forefathers; we have borrowed it from our children”.
Ans: From many decades, humans are using the resources of the earth at a very alarming rate without worrying about future generations. Now the environment has become critical enough that humans must realize the era of responsibility towards it. With quite some time, human perception is changing and the earth is seen as a ‘holistic and ecological view’. Earth is seen as a living organism which has its own metabolic and vital needs. We must protect the resources for future generations. Use of ‘Sustainable Development’ which means meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising with future generations. Thus, the earth’s resources should be utilized in a way that doesn’t affect the future.
4. Discuss - The problems of overpopulation that directly affect our everyday life.
Ans: Overpopulation leads to many problems that are affecting mankind and natural resources. It leads to poverty and unemployment. The poor children are forced to live the same lifestyle as their parents did because of the lack of resources and facilities. Overpopulation leads to lesser education and low health facilities which results in more problems like the rise in harmful diseases and fertility rate. The natural resources are being consumed at a very fast rate to fulfill the need of the population throughout the world. Deforestation is one of the issues where forests are being cut down. All this results in global warming and if the population is not controlled, it will deplete the environment and earth.
Thinking about language
The phrase ‘inter alia’ meaning ‘among other things’ is one of the many Latin expressions commonly used in English. Find out what these Latin phrases mean.
1. prima facie
2. ad hoc
3. in camera
4. ad infinitum
5. mutatis mutandis
6. caveat
7. tabula rasa
Ans:
- Prima Facie – At first sight, before closer inspection
- Ad Hoc – for a specific purpose or situation
- In Camera – in secret
- Ad Infinitum – having no end
- Mutatis Mutandis – changing only those things which needs to be changed
- Caveat – a warning
- Tabula Rasa – without any prior knowledge
Working with words
I. Locate the following phrases in the text and study their connotation.
1. gripped the imagination of
2. dawned upon
3. ushered in
4. passed into current coin
5. passport of the future
Ans:
1. gripped the imagination of – received much attention
2. dawned upon – become apparent
3. ushered in – begin the new idea
4. passed into current coin – something which has been brought into use
5. passport of the future – a thing that makes something possible to happen
II. The words ‘grip’, ‘dawn’, ‘usher’, ‘coin’, ‘passport’ have a literal as well as a figurative meaning. Write pairs of sentences using each word in the literal as well as the figurative sense.
Ans:
Grip:
1) She held the balloon with a tight grip.
2) The movement of ‘Stop Rape’ has gripped the minds of people.
Dawn –
1) She waited for Ronald until dawn, but he never came back.
2) The idea of starting a new business dawned on him.
Usher –
1) The attendant ushered them to their seats.
2) The internet ushered in an era of mass communication.
Coin –
1) She asked him to give all the coins he had collected so far.
2) The term was coined by a famous Physicist.
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