English

AILING PLANET: THE GREEN MOVEMENT'S ROLE

Introduction
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'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

● HISTORY
Introduction

Shift in perception

Beginning of a revolution

● BIOLOGY
Organism responsible for the Green movement

The Environmental Prospect

The Brant Commission

● STATISTICS
Rise In Global Temperature

Global Forest Laws

● CONCLUSION

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my gratitude towards my English teacher Sunita Nadar Mam for
the successful completion of the project. The completion of this project would not have
been possible without her able guidance and support. Her contribution is sincerely

appreciated and gratefully acknowledged.

Siddh Patel

XI Science

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 HISTORY

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 THE GREEN MOVEMENT

The Beginning
The contemporary environmental movement
arose primarily from concerns in the late
19th century about the protection of the
countryside in Europe and the wilderness in
the United States and the health
consequences of pollution during the
Industrial Revolution.

It started nearly 20 years ago, in 1972, with the world's first nationwide green party which
was founded in New Zealand.

Environmental organizations established from the late 19th to the mid-20th century were
primarily middle-class lobbying groups concerned with nature conservation, wildlife
protection, and the pollution that arose from industrial development and urbanization.

How did it started

The Green movement was started in 1972, New Zealand. The concept of sustainable
development proposes a way to meet the demands of the present generation while
keeping in mind the necessity of meeting the needs of the future generations
The first nod to the Green Movement came in 1285 when thick smog from burning coal
became an obvious health problem. In 1661, John Evelyn, perhaps the first most vocal
environmentalist, wrote, “Fumifugium, or The Inconvenience of the Aer and the Smoke of
London Dissipated”.

The need for Green Movement

The simple goal of Greenism is to raise awareness about the importance of environmental
conservation. It sheds light on how the environment is directly linked to human health and
the only way in which the environment can be restored is through the application of
science and conscious, sustainable, natural practices.

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 BIOLOGY

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Organism responsible for the Green
movement

The real reason for the green movement were us humans. Our need and desire for
everlasting greed paved the way for destruction
of both us Humans and Nature. In the past
100-200 years we have been exploiting the
resources like crazy, not only that but poaching of
animals and wars between us humans has put a
huge dent in our world.

The Environmental
Prospect

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 global economic system.
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, overfishing is
common every day. In poor countries, local forests are
decimated in order to procure firewood for cooking. Since the tropical forest is, in
the words of Dr Myers, "The powerhouse of evolution", several species
of life faces extinction as a result of its destruction.

The Brant Commission

Brant Commission was one of the earliest international environmental

commission. The first Brant report raised the question- "Are we to
leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts,
impoverished landscapes and ailing environment?"
It recognized that human resource development in the form of
poverty reduction, gender equity, and wealth redistribution was
crucial to formulating strategies for environmental conservation, and

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that environmental limits to economic growth in industrialized and
industrializing societies existed.

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 STATISTICS

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 Climate change

Temperature

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.

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 Forest loss
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.

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 CONCLUSION

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Our Earth is an enormous living organism, of which we are parts. This is our
planet, its destruction will make us all homeless. We are dependent on Earth
and not the other way round. However, the
thankless creature, man, is unconcerned about
the dangers that pose threats to our survival. The
article by Nani Palkhivala deals with the concerns
of the environmentalists at this eleventh hour
and talks about the new awareness that has
dawned upon our race. A holistic and ecological
view of the world has been brought into
consideration. The Green Movement launched in
1972 has never looked back. There is a growing
need for sustainable development, which was
popularized by the World Commission on
Environment and Development in 1987.
The author: Nani
Palkhivala

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