Hornbill The Ailing Planet - Revision Notes
CBSE Class 11 English Core
Recision Notes
CHAPTER – 8
The Ailing Planet : The Green Movement’s Role
This article written by Nani Palkhivala appeared in ‘The Indian Express’ on 24 November 1994. It's a sad commentary on the gradual deterioration of our environment.The planet Earth is no more a pleasant place for habitation. Fisheries, forests, grasslands and croplands need to be preserved and protected.Lets us avoid population explosion and stop perpetuation of poverty. The green movement is the only hope for this planet and the survival of the human race. It focusses on the deteriorating condition of the earth because of man’s growing lust to exploit all the natural resources. The earth has been turned in to a barren land. The Green movement is the only answer to solve many problems.
In the zoo at Lusaka city of Zambia there is a cage with the notice 'The World's Most Dangerous Animal': But inside the cage there is no animal.Most surprisingly you notice a mirror inside where you see yourself.This notice though looks quite humorous yet it speaks the reality.Man is responsible for the ailing planet.
With the increasing population of man,every step of his progress has been rendering earth with advancing deserts,impoverished landscapes and ailing environment.Man has been stripping the earth off its natural resources for his development.Mr. L.k.Jha a member of the International Brandt Commission opined,Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts?.
The entire human race is involved in the Green Movement which was started in 1972. There has been an irrevocable shift from the mechanistic view to a holistic and ecological view of the world. There is a growing world wide consciousness that the earth itself is living organism an enormous being of which we are the parts. But it has been deteriorated because of man's greed. The efforts of the environmentalists to preserve and conserve it, have gone futile.Environmental pollution has become a great menace to man which has given birth to so many health issues.
The protection of the environment is the duty of each and every inhabitant on earth.Man should act with wisdom and forsight.If he does not do so the fate that occurred to the dinosaur may also occur to him.Albert Schweitzer was pressimistic of the future of mankind.He said,'Man has lost his ability to foresee and foretell.He will destroy himself by destroying this planet.'Article 48 A of the Constitution of India proviedes that 'The state shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and safeguardthe forests and wildlife of the country.'But what causes endless anguish is the fact that laws are never respected nor enforced in India.
The immediate need is to promote the concept of sustainable development’ as mooted by the world commission on Environment and Development in 1987. The author feels that it is a matter of relief that the people have now started thinking of saving the planet by thinking of development as a means to control population, the mother of al l problems.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 dissociated collection of parts.
