Chapter 5

The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement's Role Summary

The Green Movement started nearly twenty-five years ago. The world's first nationwide Green party was founded in New Zealand in 1972. Since then, the movement has not looked back. In fact, no other movement in world history has excited human race so much as the Green Movement.

For the first time, there is a growing awareness that the earth itself is a living organism.t has its own metabolic needs and essential processes. The signs pertaining to the Earth's life show a patient in declining health. People have now fully realised their moral duty to be good custodians of the planet and responsible trustees of the legacy to future generations

The World Commission on Environment and Development popularized the concept of sustainable development in 1987 t defined the idea as the development that meets the needs of the present with out endangering the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Man is the most dangerous animal in the world. Now he has realized the wisdom of shifting from a system based on domination to one based on partnership. Scientists have arranged list of 1.4 million living species on earth besides man. About three to hundred million other living species still stay unnamed in humiliating darkness

The Brandt Commission was the first International Commission to deal with the question of ecology and environment. The first Brandt report raised the question whether we were to leave our successors a dried earth of increasing deserts, poor landscapes and ailing environment.

Mar. Lester R Brown has listed Earth's four main biological systems. These are fisheries, forests, grasslands and croplands. They form the basis of the world's economic system. They Supply us food and raw materials for industry In large areas of the world, these systems are reaching unsustainable level. Their productivity is being damaged When this happens, fisheries break down forests disappear, grasslands are changed into barren wastelands and croplands become worse.

Over fishing is common in protein hungry world. In poor countries, local forest are destroyed to obtain fuel for cooking. Tropical forests are wearing away at the rate of forty to fifty millions acres a year. The growing

use of dung for burning deprives the soil of an important natural fertiliser

Over the last four decades India's forests have reached disastrous exhaustion. India is losing its forests at the rate of 3.7 million acres a year. Large areas, officially named forest land, are almost treeless. A UN study warns that the environment has deteriorated quite badly in many of the eighty-eight countries investigated.

The growth of world population is one of the strongest factors distorting the future of human society. Mankind reached the first billion mark in more than a million years. That was the world population in the year 1800. By the year 1900, a second billion was added. The twentieth century has added another 3.7 Billion. The present wold population is estimated at 5.7 billion. Every four days the world population increases by one million.

Fertility falls as income rises, education spreads and health improves. Development is the best contraceptive. However, development may not be possible if population goes on increasing at this rate. The population of India is estimated to be 920 million in 1994. It is more than the entire populations of Africa and South America put together. Unless population control is given top most priority, the hope of the people would die in their hungry hutments. There is no alternative to voluntary family planning without an element of coercion. The choice is really between control of population and continuation of poverty.

We notice a surpassing concern. People are worried not only about their

Own survival but that of the planet as well. People have begun to take an over-all view of the very basis of life. The environmental problem is our passport for the future. A new world vision has emerged. It has ushered in the Era of Responsibility. It is a holistic view, an ecological view. We now see the world as an integrated whole rather than separate parts.Industry has very important role to play in this new Era of Responsibility. Leading businessmen should excel in environmental performance. Then they can continue to exist as leadline manufacturers. The words of

Margaret Thatcher are used frequently. She remarked: No generation has a free hold on this earth. All we have is a life tenancy with a full repairing lease. Mr. Lester Brown , The author of ' the Global Economic Prospect' rightly observes , " we have not inherited this earth from our forefathers , we have borrowed it from our children."

We hope CBSE/MP Board Class 11th English "Hornbill" Chapter 5 "The Ailing Planet : The Green Movement's Role" will Help you.

Written By - Himanshu Sharma