The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role- Important Extra Questions Short Answer Type

           The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role

                                                  By- Nanipalkhivala

Short Answer Type Questions  (30 to 40 words) The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role

1.Comment on the title of the lesson The Ailing Planet.

Ans. Our planet, the Earth, is passing through a bad phase. Its health is declining. The sources of food and other factors necessary for healthy living are drying up. All four chief systems are depleting fast. Fisheries, forests, pasturelands and agriculture have been overtopped.

2. Which movement has gripped the imagination of the entire world today?

Ans. The Green Movement is gaining momentum in the world today. Started in 1972 in New Zealand, It has created awareness about saving the earth as a whole. Saving forests, fisheries and natural resources for future generations have become a grave concern.

3. There is a shift in human perceptions, a growing consciousness. What is it about?

Ans. There is a growing worldwide awareness that the earth is a living organism, and we humans are its parts. The earth has its own needs which should be respected. We have a moral duty to save the world from destruction.

4. What is our ethical obligation to the earth?

Ans. We, truly speaking, are not the absolute owners of this earth. It is common property. It belongs as much to us as to the future generation. We must not tap all its natural resources for our own consumption. We are just the trustees of this planet: so we should keep it healthy.

5. How does the author define the concept of sustainable development?

Ans. Our natural resources are not unlimited, except for the sun and the ocean. When we use the forests and fisheries and other resources we ought not to forget the needs of future generations. The two inexhaustible sources of energy are the sun and the sea. The forests are sustainable, they grow again if we do not destroy them mindlessly. Our development plans should be tailored in such a way that we do not rob our progeny of their share.

6. Man is the world’s most dangerous animal. How?

Ans. The notice in a cage in Zambia zoo blames a man for all the nuisance, destruction and dangers to life on the earth. He is over-greedy and ill-natured. He is harming the air, water and the soil. He is doing more harm to the planet than all the wild animals.

7. Man must change his ways to follow the principle of partnership rather than dominations. How and why?

Ans. Man is undoubtedly the master of the earth. He is guided by the principle of domination over wildlife, the minerals and food available on the planet. The fact is that he is sharing the earth with millions of other living species. He has no right to turn into deserts or wastelands. He has a moral duty to leave it in a healthy state for his successors.

8. What question was raised by Mr L.K. Jha in the Brandt Commission Report?

Ans. The international commission in its report posed a very poignant question to those who are plundering all the natural resources for their own use today. The Report raised a question as to what sort of world we are going to leave for our descendants. It seems we are going to pass on to our children only deserts and barren lands and unhealthy environment.

9. What according to Mr Lester Brown form the foundation of the global economic system?

Ans. The four principal biological systems, according to Mr Lester Brown, are fisheries, forests, grasslands and croplands. They supply our food in addition to providing raw materials for industry. Then there are minerals and petroleum which are extracted from deep inside the earth.

10. How is man depleting the sources of food and raw materials to an alarming level?

Ans. In large parts of the world, man is tapping all available natural resources to meet his needs. He is clearing the forests, overfishing in the seas, harming the pasturelands with his flocks of sheep and harvesting the maximum number of crops on the cultivable land.




11. What pressure are people building on forests and water bodies?

Ans. With the rapid growth of population, the requirement of protein has also gone up. Hence, overfishing has become intense and common. As for the forests, the people are destroying them for firewood and to create land for farming. With deforestation, many species of wildlife are also facing extinction.

12. What is the rate of decline or erosion in tropical forests in the world?

Ans. Forests have existed on the earth long before man came on the scene. But the way the trees are being felled, the deserts will overtake us before long. The world is losing forests at a rate of five crore acres a year. Actually, the loss is an acre and a half per second. The use of dung for burning instead of providing organic fertiliser to the soil is much to be blamed for a decrease in forests.

13. What does a recent report of our parliament’s committee highlight India’s forests?

Ans. According to figures collected, India is losing its forests at the rate of nearly 4 million acres a year. The actual loss could be eight times the rate shown in official figures.

14. What does article 48A of the constitution of India provide?

Ans. Article 48A of the constitution calls upon the states to protect and improve the environment, the forests and wildlife of the country. But this provision is rarely acted upon and enforced.




15. How are laws flouted openly in India?

Ans. Laws in our country are neither respected nor enforced. They are broken without any fear. For example, the constitution of India has abolished casteism, untouchability and bonded labour. But all these social evils are flourishing shamelessly even after seventy years of independence.

16. Which is the strongest factor in darkening the future of human society?

Ans. The strongest factor distorting the future of our race is the rapid growth of population. The world took one million years to reach the figure of 100 crores in 1800. But by 1900, the world population had doubled. In the twentieth century, the population rose by 3.7 billion. Today, the world population is about 600 crore.

17. How can the rapid growth of the population be checked?

Ans. Development or better standard of living is the most effective contraceptive to check population growth. Birth rate falls as education spreads and incomes rise. But the present increase in numbers puts the clock back. The poor beget more children than the rich. So they continue to be poor and unemployed. It is not possible to sterilise human beings compulsorily. Voluntary family planning alone can control the population and fight poverty.

18. What has NaniPalkhivala to say about India’s population problem?

Ans. The present population of India has crossed 100 crores. It is more than the entire population of Africa and South America put together. Millions would die of hunger or disease unless population control is enforced strictly.




19. What is meant by the holistic view of the world and our existence?

Ans. The world today is reduced to a village, thanks to the rapid means of transport and communication. Any problem affecting one part can spread like wildfire and affect the whole world. Hence, we have to tackle every problem on a big scale, involving the entire world. This is called the holistic view of the world. No country can stand apart in isolation; we are all inhabitants of the planet Earth.

20.  What role can industry play in saving the environment and the survival of our race?

Ans. The industry has to play a vital role in the survival of the human race. It has to shoulder the responsibility of keeping the industrial growth sustainable. This is because the industry has already taken a heavy toll on our natural resources.

21. Sum up the warning given and message conveyed by the BritishPrime Minister Mrs Thatcher.

Ans. Mrs Thatcher’s warning is very timely and life-saving. It says that no generation has the absolute ownership of the natural wealth on the earth and below the surface. We are here only as tenants. And to keep the earth in good form is our moral obligation.

In the words of Lester Brown, the present generation has not inherited the earth as their sole-ownership property from the forefathers. In fact, we have borrowed it from our children and we shall have to return it to them in a better condition.

22. Explain, ‘what goes under the pot now costs more than what goes inside it.’

Ans. Due to an extensive cutting of forests, firewood has become more expensive than the food being cooked in the pot.




Want to Read More Check Below:-

The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role- Introduction

The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role- Important Word-Meanings of difficult words

The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role- Short & Detailed Summary

The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role- Summary in Hindi – Full Text

The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role- Important Extra Questions Long Answer Type

The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role- Important Extra Questions Value-Based Answer Type

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