Question

“ Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and an ailing environment?”

Answer 1

Our natural resources are not only precious, they are invaluable! Man has been so much engrossed in his progress and prosperity; he does not have time to see the irreparable damage that he is doing to the health of planet earth. The present rate at which the natural resources are being used is quite alarming. The rate of consumption is faster than the rate of their natural replenishment. If the rate of consumption is not reduced, soon all the natural resources will be used up. There won't be left anything for the coming generations. Now the question arises; "Are we to leave a scorched planet to the coming generations?" We will be called highly selfish generation, if we don't leave any natural resources for the future generations. We need to put our acts together. We must follow the principles of sustainable development. After all it is our responsibility to bequeath a healthy and prosperous planet. Being parents it is our moral responsibility. Let's take care of our planet and use the natural resources wisely and frugally! Let's stop exploiting the mother nature in the excuse of development or progress!

Answer 2

Our dear mother earth, as the vital signs reveal, is a patient in a declining health. An ailing organism, of which we are parts; its metabolic needs and vital processes need to be respected and preserved. It is human, the most dangerous animal on the planet, which has been threatening the Earth and its ecology. Thanks to many agencies working across the globe that a new awareness has dawned and human has realised the wisdom of shifting from a system based on domination to one based on partnership. This partnership has to be developed not just between the Earth and the Human but also the present generation and the future generation. Mr. Lester Brown was correct in saying that “we have not inherited this earth from our forefathers; we have borrowed it from our children.”

We humans have become so selfish to cater our means that we harvested the earth's biological systems to such an extent that now they are declared to have reached an unsustainable level. Thus, the concept of sustainable development was popularised in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development. The idea of development that it defined was “that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”. It is a responsibility that we have to sustain, so that our interests do not sabotage the generations that are to come. We are not to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and ailing environment. We are to deliver them a land that is rich of flora and fauna and is rich with natural resources that will serve not just our immediate but more generations to come.