Chapter 4 Solutions — The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement’s Role

Several lines across the essay directly support the title by presenting the earth as a sick, deteriorating organism.

The most explicit statement is: 'The earth's vital signs reveal a patient in declining health.' This medical metaphor casts the planet as an ill patient whose condition is worsening.

Additional lines that reinforce the idea include the Brandt Commission's question — 'Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and ailing environment?' — and the description of the earth as 'a living organism' whose 'metabolic needs and vital processes' need to be respected.

The statistics about deforestation, the collapse of biological systems (fisheries, forests, grasslands, croplands), and the UN warning that the environment has deteriorated so badly that it is 'critical' in many countries all provide concrete evidence of the planet's declining health.

The author's reference to 'near catastrophic depletion of India's forests' and lands that are 'already virtually treeless' further anchor the title's claim that the planet is ailing.

Prima facie (Latin: 'at first face/appearance') means 'at first sight' or 'on the face of it'. It refers to evidence or a case that appears sufficient to establish a fact or raise a presumption of truth unless rebutted.

It is widely used in law: a prima facie case is one that, on initial examination, has enough evidence to proceed to trial.

The notice at the zoo in Lusaka, Zambia is a powerful symbolic statement. The cage appears to contain a dangerous animal, but inside there is only a mirror. When visitors look into the cage, they see themselves.

The signification is that human beings are the world's most dangerous animal. Of all the species on earth, it is mankind that has caused the greatest destruction — cutting down forests, over-fishing, polluting the environment, depleting natural resources, and driving other species to extinction.

The device of the mirror is deliberate: it forces the viewer to confront their own responsibility rather than search for an external culprit. The author uses this anecdote to emphasise that a new awareness has dawned upon mankind — the 'most dangerous animal' has now begun to realise the wisdom of shifting from a system based on domination of nature to one based on partnership with it.

The notice thus serves as a sharp, ironic reminder that environmental destruction is a human problem requiring a human solution.