The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement's Role — Class 11 English

Nani Palkhivala's article, first published in 1994, argues that the earth is like a patient in declining health and that humanity must shift from exploiting nature to caring for it. He traces the rapid spread of the Green Movement since the founding of the world's first Green party in New Zealand in 1972, and welcomes the change from a mechanistic to a holistic, ecological view of the world — a shift he calls as revolutionary as Copernicus's. He explains the concept of sustainable development, defined by the World Commission as meeting present needs without compromising future generations. Using the striking image of a Lusaka zoo cage that contains only a mirror labelled "the world's most dangerous animal," he stresses human responsibility. He details how the earth's four principal biological systems — fisheries, forests, grasslands and croplands — are being over-used and depleted, and laments how forests are vanishing at alarming rates while laws like Article 48A of the Indian Constitution go unenforced. He warns that runaway population growth, especially in poor countries, distorts humanity's future, and that development is "the best contraceptive." Closing on hope, he speaks of an "Era of Responsibility," urging industry and individuals to act, and quotes that we have borrowed the earth from our children rather than inherited it from our forefathers.