Nani Palkhivala Notice these expressions in the text. Infer their meaning from the context. ³ a holistic and ecological view ³ inter alia ³ sustainable development ³ decimated ³ languish ³ catastrophic depletion ³ ignominious darkness ³ transcending concern The following article was written by Nani Palkhivala and published in The Indian Express on November . The issues that he raised regarding the declining health of the earth continue to have relevance.
O NE 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 the world’s first nationwide Green party was founded in New Zealand. Since then, the movement has not looked back. 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 T HE A ILING P LANET : THE G REEN M OVEMENT ’ S R OLE 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. 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 popularised in 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. In the zoo at Lusaka, Zambia, there is a cage where the notice reads, ‘The world’s