The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role | Question Solutions
The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role | Question Solutions
The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role | Question Solutions
-Nani Palkhivala
The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role | Question Solutions
TEXTUAL QUESTION SOLUTIONS
Understanding the Text
Q.1. Locate the lines in the text that support the title The Ailing Planet’.
Ans: The lines that support the title ‘Ailing Planet’ is – ‘The earth’s vital signs reveal a patient in declining health.’
This line says that the chief systems of the earth like natural resources and their productivity are being depleted.
Q.2. What does the notice, “The world’s most dangerous animal’ at a cage in the zoo at Lusaka, Zambia, signify?
Ans: 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 a visitor sees no animal but the reflection of himself when he looks at the mirror. It signifies that man is the most dangerous species on the earth which is responsible for the depletion of the sustainability of the earth.
Q.3. How are the earth’s principal biological systems being depleted?
Ans: There are four chief biological systems of the earth as-fisheries, forests, grasslands and croplands. They form the foundation of the global economic system. In addition to supplying food, these four systems provide virtually all the raw materials for industry. In large areas of the world, human claims that 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.
Thus the earth’s principal biological systems are being depleted.
Q.4. Why does the author agree that the growth of the world population is one of the strongest factors distorting the future of human society?
Ans: The world population has been increasing at a fast rate and it has crossed five billion. The more population will require more food, more raw materials, more resources to live on. To produce more food for human survival, more pressure will fall on the earth. Due to the increase in the demands of mankind, the forests, fisheries, grasslands and croplands have been continually getting deprived of their sustainability and if this continues, the future generations will have nothing left for survival.
So the author of the article rightly agrees that the growth of the world population is one of the strongest factors distorting the future of human society.
ADDITIONAL QUE SOLUTIONS
Q.1. ‘We have not inherited this earth from our forefathers, we have borrowed it from our children.’ Explain.
Ans: Once Mr Lester Brown said, ‘We have not inherited this earth from our forefathers, we have borrowed it from our children.’
This statement signifies that the natural resources of the earth is valuable for the survival of human race. But the natural resources are limited. With the increase of population, their demands for more food for more people have also increased. Resultantly, pressure for growing more food falls on the earth. This pressure has destroyed the ecological balance of the earth and the earth has been losing its sustainability.
Hence the author has made us concious of the fact that we must take immediate measures to protect the earth with its natural resources for the survival of human race. He says that the earth is not our patrimony to be used and exhausted as we like. It is rather an asset that we have borrowed from our future generations. That means we must keep up the natural ecological balance of the earth for the healthy survival of the human race.
Q.2. ‘What goes under the pot now costs more than what goes inside it.’ Explain.
Ans: This is a very significant statement through which the author wishes to convey to us that the trees are being destroyed rapidly to meet the demand of firewood. In some countries, the cost of firewood is so high that the food we eat often proves to be cheaper than the fuel used to cook it.
Q.3. Name the earth’s four principal biological systems and their importance.
Ans: See Textual Que-Ans No. 4
Q.4. Write a note on ‘the concept of sustainable development’.
Ans: The concept of sustainable development was popularized in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development. In its report, it defined the idea as ‘Development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.’
Q.5. Write a note on the Green Movement.
Ans: The Green Movement started in 1972. The first nationwide Green Party of the world was founded in New Zealand. Since its inception, it has been catching the imagination of millions. The aim of this movement was to create environmental awareness among nations. It wanted to spread the message that the natural environment of the earth should not be deteriorated.
Q.6. Write a note on the Brandt Commission.
Ans: Brandt Commission was one of the early international commissions. It dealt, among other things, the question of earth’s ecology and environment. Mr L. K. Jha, a distinguished Indian was a member of the Brandt Commission. In its first report, the Brandt Commission raised the vital question of whether mankind would leave for their successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts, impoverished landscape and ailing environment.
Q.7. ‘Forest precedes mankind; deserts follow.’ Explain the statement.
Ans: The statement ‘Forest precede mankind; deserts follow’- bears the truth that before mankind came into existence, forest existed. They grew and flourished without being interrupted by man or animals. But with the emergence of the human race on the earth, they begin to use natural resources to meet their needs. Man have been exploiting natural resources and destructing the forests and grasslands. If these destructive activities continue then one day the earth would turn into a desert where no human civilization is possible.
Q.8. ‘No generation has a freehold on this earth. All we have a life tenancy.’ Elaborate.
Ans: ‘No generation has a freehold on this earth. All we have a life tenancy.’
The above-quoted statement was made by Margaret Thatcher during her Prime Ministership. Through this statement, she wants to convey to us that the earth does not belong to any particular generation. All the future generation will have as many rights over it as the past generations had enjoyed. The earth grants tenancy for a lifetime and that too with duties to repair any damage done to the earth. 0 0 0. The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role
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