The Ailing Planet : The Green Movement's Role
How are the earth’s principal biological systems being depleted?
Mr. Lester R. Brown has pointed out that there are four principal biological systems of the earth. They are fisheries, forests, grasslands and croplands. They are the foundation of the global economic system. They supply our food and provide raw materials for industry except minerals. But man’s demands on these systems are reaching an unsustainable level. Overfishing is very common. Local forests are disappearing to provide firewood and wood. The world is losing 40 to 50 million acres of forests a year. Similarly, grasslands and woodlands are being converted into deserts and wastelands.
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The phrase ‘inter alia’ meaning ‘among other things’ is one of the many Latin expressions commonly used in English.
Find out what these Latin phrases mean.
1. prima facie
2. ad hoc
3. in camera
4. ad infinitum
5. mutatis mutandis
6. caveat
7. tabula rasa
1. Locate the following phrases in the text and study their connotation.
1. gripped the imagination of
2. dawned upon
3. ushered in
4. passed into current coin
5. passport of the future
II. The words ‘grip’, ‘dawn’, ‘usher’, ‘coin’, ‘passport’, have a literal as well as figurative meaning. Write pairs of sentences using each word in the literal as well as the figurative sense.
Make posters to highlight the importance of the Green Movement.
Maintain a record of the trees cut down and the parks demolished in your area, or any other act that violates the environment. Write to newspapers reporting on any such acts that disturb you.
What is the Green Movement?
Describe the shift that has come in the viewpoint of man.
What is the holistic and ecological view of the world?
How do the earth’s vital signs ‘reveal a patient in declining health’?
What is the concept of sustainable development?
Who is ‘the world’s most dangerous animal’? Why did they put a mirror inside a cage in the Zoo at Lusaka?
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