The Ailing Planet: The Green Movement’s Role

Nani Palkhivala

Principal biological systems of the earth

• Four biological systems referred by Mr. Lester R. Brown in hisbook “The Global Economic Prospect’ namely : fisheries,forests, grasslands and cropland

• They form the foundation of the global economic system

• Apart from supplying food, the four systems provide virtuallyall the raw materials for industry except minerals andpetroleum- derived synthetics

• Productivity is being impaired

• Fisheries collapsing and forests disappearing

• Grasslands converted into barren wastelands

• Croplands deteriorating

• Over-fishing common in protein-conscious and protein-hungry world

• Forests being decimated in poor countries for firewood

• Several species of life face extinction as a result of destruction of tropical forests

• World’s ancient patrimony of tropical forests is eroding at the rate of forty to fifty million acres a year.

Human claims on these systems reaching unsustainable level.

• Growing use of dung for burning deprives the farmlands as an important natural fertilizer

• A five-fold increase in the rate of forest planting needed to cope with expected fuel wood demand in the year 2000.

• James Speth, the President of World Resources Institute declared that we are losing the forests at an acre-and-a-half to a second’.

Constitutional & legalaction -a farce

• Laws are never respected nor enforced in India

• Article 48A of the constitution provides for the state toprotect and improve and converse forests and wildlife, but thetruth is quite contrary

• Report of Parliament’s Estimates Committee highlights nearcatastrophic depletion of India's forest at the rate of 3.7million acres a year

• Unofficial reports indicate 8 times the rate indicated bygovernment statistics

• A 3-year study conducted by Unites States using satellites andaerial photography warned of the ‘critical condition’ of theworld environment

• Growth of world population jeopardizing the future of humansociety. Took one million years to add the first billion and atpresent the world population increases by a million every 4days with total population of 5.7 billion

Present scenario highly deplorable

Population control – the only solution

• Development is the best contraceptive

• Fertility falls as incomes rise

• Education spreads and health improves

• No development possible due to population explosion

• Rich get richer, poor beget children condemned to remainpoor

• Compulsory sterilization not suggested but voluntary familyplanning should be promoted

• Choice to be made between control of population andperpetuation of poverty

• Population control to be given top priority in India

Why is our planet damaging• Mankind is now the number one cause of all the

destruction happening on Earth. As well as trying to destroy each other on the battle-field, we are the cause of a series of other disasters, beginning

• with the industrial exploitation of the resources of the Earth.

• This has become especially bad since the population of the Earth has trippled in the last fifty years to a point which, even with more efficient means of distribution, there is simply not enough food to go around.

Population Growth

Environmental

Pollution

Resource Depletion

Industrialization

Ozone Depletion

Global Warming

Emission of Waste water,

Waste gases,

Hazardous waste,

Ecological imbalance

Release of Radioactive rays dangerous for health

Increase salinity and

Reduced vegetation

Easy! 8 Ways to save our planet

1. RECYCLE GLASS

Recycled glass reduces

related air pollution by

20 percent and related

water pollution by 50

percent. If it isn't

recycled it can take a

million years to decompose.

2. TURN OFF COMPUTERS AT

NIGHT

By turning off your computer

instead of leaving it in sleep mode,

you can save 40 watt-hours per

day. That adds up to 4 cents a day,

or $14 per year. If you don't want to

wait for your computer to start up,

set it to turn on automatically a few

minutes before you get to work, or

boot up while you're pouring your

morning cup ‘of tea.

3. RECYCLE NEWSPAPER

There are 63 million

newspapers printed each day

in the U.S. Of these, 44

million, or about 69%, of them

will be thrown away.

Recycling just the Sunday

papers would save more than

half a million trees every

week.

4. WRAP CREATIVELY

You can reuse gift bags,

bows and event paper, but

you can also make

something unique by using

old maps, cloth or even

newspaper. Flip a paper

grocery bag inside out and

give your child stamps or

markers to create their own

wrapping paper that's

environmentally friendly and

extra special for the recipient.

5. RETHINK BOTTLED WATER

Nearly 90% of plastic water

bottles are not recycled, instead

taking thousands of years to

decompose. Buy a reusable

container and fill it with tap

water, a great choice for the

environment, your wallet, and

possibly your health. The EPA's

standards for tap water are more

stringent than the FDA's

standards for bottled water.

6. PLANT A TREEIt's good for the air, the land, can shade your house and save on cooling (plant on the west side of your home), and they can also improve the value of your property.Make it meaningful for the whole family and plant a tree every year for each member.

7. PLASTIC BAGS SUCKEach year the U.S. uses 84 billion plastic bags, a significant portion of the 500 billion used worldwide. They are not biodegradable, and are making their way into our oceans, and subsequently, the food chain. Stronger, reusable bags are an inexpensive and readily available option.

8. LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE WALKING—ONLINEConsider if you really need a paper phone book. If not, call to stop phone book delivery and use an online directory instead. Some estimate that telephone books make up almost ten percent of waste at dump sites. And if you still receive the book, don't forget to recycle your old volumes.

Drive Less and Drive Smart• Less driving means fewer emissions. Besides saving gasoline, walking and

biking are great forms of exercise. Explore your community mass transit system, and check out options for carpooling to work or school.

•

• When you do drive, make sure your car is running efficiently.

• For example, keeping your tires properly inflated can improve your gas mileage by more than 3 percent. Every gallon of gas you save not only helps your budget, it also keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.