The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role , Part One

The Ailing Planet: 

the Green Movement's Role,  Part One 

About the author

Nani Palkhivala

Nani Palkhivala, also known as Nanabhoy  Ardeshir Palkhivala ,was born on 16 January in 1920 in Mumbai , India.  He was a jurist ( an expert in law ) and  he was also an economist. He was educated at Master’s Tutorial High School, Mumbai. Then he joined St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He was an excellent scholar. He got his master’s degree in English  literature. Then he joined Government Law College, Mumbai.  Soon he became an excellent barrister of his time. He was also a leading interpreter of Indian Constitutional Law as well as  he was an Economist. This great Indian personality died on 11^th December, 2002, Wednesday.

The following article was written by Nani Palkhivala and

published in The Indian Express on 24 November 1994. The

issues that he raised regarding the declining health of the earth

continue to have relevance. (Close connection )

Para One           Green Movement

ONE cannot recall any movement in world history which has

gripped the imagination of the entire human race so completely and so rapidly as the Green Movement which started nearly twenty-five years ago. In 1972 the world’s first nationwide Green party was founded in New Zealand. Since then, the movement has not looked back.

Meanings

1. gripped                    (controlled)

2. Green Movement   (an environmental movement)

Para Two           Shift of View from mechanistic to holistic

We have shifted — one hopes, irrevocably— from the

mechanistic view to a holistic and ecological view  of the world. It is a shift in human perceptions as revolutionary as that introduced by Copernicus who taught mankind in the sixteenth century that the earth and the other planets revolved round the sun. For the first time in human history, there is a growing worldwide consciousness that the earth itself is a living organism — an enormous being of which we are parts. It has its

own metabolic   needs and vital processes which need to be respected and preserved.

Meanings

1. irrevocably  finally

2. mechanistic  connected with the belief that all things in the universe

                             can be explained as if they were machines

3. a holistic and ecological view    the total picture of the environment

including living and non-living organisms

4. perceptions                                 ( insight)

5.Copernicus                          Nicolaus Copernicus was a mathematician and astronomer who placed the sun at the centre of the universe. He was born in 1473 and died in 1543 in Poland

6. consciousness                             awareness

7. metabolic                                     related to the chemical process in

living things that change food into energy Para Three              Our Ethical Obligation

The earth’s vital signs reveal a patient in declining health. We have begun to realise our ethical  obligations to be good stewards of the planet and responsible trustees of the legacy to future generations. 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”, i.e., without stripping the natural world of resources future generations would need.

Meanings

1. ethical                                related with beliefs about right or wrong

2. obligations                         commitment

3. stewards                             marshal, a person who organizes large

                                             public events

4. trustees                               persons  to control money or property

5. legacy                                 inheritance

6. sustainable development growth involving the use of natural products and energy in a way that does not harm the environment

7. stripping                             taking  

Para Four                    Shift from Dominion to Partnership

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 you see yourself. Thanks to the

efforts of a number of agencies in different countries, a new

awareness has now dawned upon the most dangerous animal in the world. He has realised the wisdom of shifting from a system

based on domination to one based on partnership.

Meanings

1. Lusaka                              capital of Zambia

2. dawned upon                    began to realize

3. domination                       authority

Para Five            Sharing the Earth with other living species

Scientists have catalogued about 1.4 million living species with which mankind shares the earth. Estimates vary widely as regards the still-uncatalogued living species — biologists reckon that about three to a hundred million other living species still languish unnamed in ignominious darkness.

Meanings

1. catalogued                        listed

2. vary                                    differ

3. uncatalogued                    not listed

5. reckon                               think

6. languish                             suffer

7. ignominious darkness     disgraceful oblivion

Gist

Green Movement

Shift of View from mechanistic to holistic

Our Ethical Obligations

Shift from Dominion to Partnership

Sharing the Earth with other living species

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