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

The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role

Part Two

Paragraph Six         Concerned Brandt Commission

One of the early international commissions which dealt, inter

alia, with the question of ecology and environment was the Brandt

Commission which had a distinguished Indian as one of its

members — Mr L.K. Jha. The First Brandt Report raised the

question — “Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of

advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and ailing

environment?”

Word Meanings and Explanation

1. inter alia                  among other things

2. ecology                     the relation of plant and living creatures to each other and to their environment ; the study of this

3. Brandt Commission           It is an independent commission first chaired by Willy Brandt in 1980. The report of this commission is known as The Brandt Report. This commission reviewed international issues.

4.scorched                     burnt or dry

5. impoverished           very poor

6. ailing                        sick

Paragraph Seven        Mr. Lester R. Brown’s Observation

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 foundation of the global

economic system. In addition to supplying our food, these four

systems provide virtually all the raw materials for industry

except minerals and petroleum-derived synthetics. 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, over-fishing is common every day. In poor

countries, local forests are being decimated in order to procure

firewood for cooking. In some places, firewood has become so

expensive that “what goes under the pot now costs more than

what goes inside it”. Since the tropical forest is, in the words of

Dr Myers, “the powerhouse of evolution”, several species of life

face extinction as a result of its destruction.

Word Meanings and Explanation

1. Mr. Lester R. Brown        Lester Russel Brown (born March 28, 1934) is a United States environmental analyst. Brown is the author or co-author of over 50 books on global environmental issues.

2. The Global Economic Prospect  a book by Lester R. Brown first published in 1978.

3. fisheries                    fish firm

4. petroleum-derived synthetics    artificial materials produced from petroleum by organic chemical synthesis.

5. impaired                  damaged

6. collapse                               fail or decrease suddenly

barren wastelands      infertile land that cannot used for growing crops etc.

7. deteriorate     to become worse

8. protein-conscious and protein hungry world              (here) the craze for eating fish

9. decimated                          severely damaged

“what goes under the pot now costs more than what goes inside it”. fuel (wood ) is costlier than food

10. extinction     stop existing

Paragraph Eight        Fast Eroding Tropical Forest

It has been well said that forests precede mankind; deserts

follow. The world’s ancient patrimony of tropical forests is now

eroding at the rate of forty to fifty million acres a year, and the

growing use of dung for burning deprives the soil of an important

natural fertiliser. The World Bank estimates that a five-fold increase

in the rate of forest planting is needed to cope with the expected

fuelwood demand in the year 2000.

Word Meaning and Explanation

1. patrimony                inheritance

2. eroding                     gradually getting destroyed

3. million                      ten lakh

4. fertilizer                    substance added toil soil to help plant grow

Paragraph Nine          Rapid Decrease of Forest

James Speth, the President of the World Resources

Institute, said the other day, “We were saying that we are losing

the forests at an acre a second, but it is much closer to an

acre-and-a-half to a second”.

Word Meaning and Explanation

James Speth       James Gustave Speth is an American environmental lawyer and advocate

Paragraph Ten       laws are never respected nor enforced in India

Article 48A of the Constitution of India provides that “the

State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment

and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country”. But what

causes endless anguish is the fact that laws are never respected

nor enforced in India. (For instance, the Constitution says that

casteism, untouchability and bonded labour shall be abolished,

but they flourish shamelessly even after forty-four years of the

operation of the Constitution.) A recent report of our Parliament’s

Estimates Committee has highlighted the near catastrophic

depletion of India’s forests over the last four decades. 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.

Word Meanings and Eplanation

1. endeavor                   to try hard

2. anguish                    severe pain or mental suffering

3. catastrophic            disasterous

4. depletion                 decrease

5. decades                     period of ten years

6. designated                officially said

7. virtually                    almost or very nearly

8. estimated                  made judgement without having exact details

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