“The Earth is Not Ours” is a thought-provoking and impactful documentary that examines the pressing issues of environmental degradation and climate change. Through a combination of stunning visuals, expert interviews, and compelling storytelling, the film emphasizes the interconnectedness of all life on Earth and highlights the urgent need for global cooperation to address these challenges. Read More Class 11 English Summaries.
The Earth is Not Ours Summary
The Earth is Not Ours Summary in English:
This chapter contains the inaugural speech delivered by Kofi Annan, the then Secretary General of UNESCO, at the 55th session of the General Assembly in 2000. In his speech, Kofi Annan says that the world has become interconnected as it never before was. Groups and individuals can interact almost freely across borders. The entire world can be treated as the field of an activity. We can call it ‘globalisation’.
Globalisation is a new trend. It has its dangers as well as benefits. There can be an increase in crime, terrorism and smuggling of weapons and narcotics. But globalisation has a number of benefits also. It can lead to a better understanding between nations.
It can help us to tackle global issues more effectively. It can lead to new opportunities, faster growth and higher standard of living. Thus globalisation can help to fight the problem of poverty in the world. Then Kofi Annan groups global issues under three headings :
- Freedom from poverty
- Freedom from fear of wars
- Freedom for the future generations to survive on this planet.
First of all, Kofi Annan talks about freedom from poverty. He says that at present, half of the human race is living in poverty. Over a billion people don’t get even two meals a day. They don’t get safe drinking water. They have to live in very dirty conditions.
Kofi Annan wants the world to have freedom from poverty. Then he talks of freedom from fear of wars. Man has always been in the fear of wars. Previously, there were wars between states. But now there are internal wars. Different groups in a country fight among themselves.
Such wars result from unfair distribution of power and wealth. Most of the internal wars are fought in poor countries or in countries that are badly governed. In the last decade, more than five million lives were lost in internal wars. Many times that number were made homeless. We need freedom from this fear also.
Then he talks about the pollution and destruction of natural resources. Due to overconsumption, our forests, fisheries and various species of wildlife are being destroyed. An old wisdom says that the earth is not ours. It is a treasure we hold in trust for our descendants.
Therefore, we have no right to destroy our children’s heritage. We must preserve it with all care. But we are doing quite the opposite of it. We are plundering this treasure thoughtlessly. In the end of his speech, Kofi Annan says that the United Nations has a significant role to play to solve these problems.
The utility of the United Nations will be judged on how these problems are handled. The United Nations was founded in the name of common people. Therefore, it must listen to what the people are saying, “Our past achievements are not enough. We must do more, and do it better.”
The Earth is Not Ours Translation in English
In a partly symbolic gesture, in 1998, the General Assembly of the United Nations Organisation (UNO) decided that its fifty-fifth session would be designated?, ‘The Millennium Assembly of the United Nations’. This Millennium Summit was held from 6 to 8 September 2000.
The following passage is an extract from the inauguraf address given by Kofi Annan, the then Secretary General of the UNO. The Millennium might have been no more than an accident of the calendar. But you, the Governments and peoples of the world, have chosen to make it more than that an occasion for all humanity to celebrate, and to reflect.
If one word encapsulates the changes we are living through, it is ‘globalisation’. We live in a world that is interconnected as never before one in which groups and individuals interact more and more directly across State frontiers, often without involving the States at all.
This has its dangers, of course. Crime, narcotics, terrorism, disease, weapons all these move back and forth faster, and in greater numbers, than in the past. People feel threatened by events far away.
But the benefits of globalization are obvious too : faster growth, higher living standards, and new opportunities not only for individuals but also for a better understanding between nations, and for common action
One problem is that, at present, these opportunities are far from equally distributed. How can we say that the half of the human race, which has yet to make or receive a telephone call, let alone use a computer, is taking part in globalization ? We cannot, without insulting their poverty.
The overarching challenge of our times is to make globalization mean more than bigger markets. To make a success of this great upheaval we must learn how to govern better, and, above all, how to govern better together.
What are these global issues? I have grouped them under three headings, each of which I relate to a fundamental’ human freedom freedom from want, freedom from fear, and the freedom of future generations to sustain-1 their lives on this planet.
First, freedom from want. How can we call human beings free and equal in dignity when over a billion of them are struggling to survive on less than one dollar a day, without safe drinking water, and when half of all humanity lacks adequate sanitation ?
Some of us are worrying about whether the stock market will crash, or struggling to master our latest computer, while more than half of our fellow men and women have much more basic worries, such as where their children’s next meal is coming from.
The second main heading is freedom from fear. Wars between States are mercifully less frequent than they used to be. But in the last decade internal wars have claimed more than five million lives, and driven many times.
that number of people from their homes. Moreover, we still live under the shadow of weapons of mass destruction. We must do more to prevent conflicts happening at all. Most conflicts happen in poor countries, especially those which are badly governed or where power and wealth are very unfairly distributed between ethnic or religious groups.
So the best way to prevent conflict is to promote political arrangements in which all groups are fairly represented, combined with human rights, minority rights, and broad-based economic development.
The third fundamental freedom is one that is not clearly identified in the United Nations Charter, because in 1945 our founders could scarcely imagine that it would ever be threatened. I mean the freedom of future generations to sustain their lives on this planet.
Even now, many of us have not understood how seriously that freedom is threatened. If I could sum it up in one sentence, I should say we are plundering our children’s heritage to pay for our present unsustainable practices.
We must preserve our forests, fisheries , and the diversity of living species, all of which are close to collapsing under the pressure of human consumption and destruction. In short, we need a new ethic of stewardship.
Summary The Earth is Not Ours
We need a much better informed public, and we need to take environmental costs and benefits fully into account in our economic policy decisions. We need regulations and incentivest discourage pollution and over-consumption of non-renewable resources, and to encourage environment-friendly practices.
And we need more accurate scientific data. Above all we need to remember the old African wisdom which I learned as a child that the earth is not ours. It is a treasure we hold in trust for our descendants
Those are the. problems and the tasks which affect the everyday lives of our peoples. It is on how we handle them that the utility of the United Nations will be judged. If we lose sight of the point the United Nations will have little or no role to play in the twenty-first century.
Let us never forget, that our organisation was founded in the name of “We, the peoples”. We are at the service of the worlds peoples, and we must listen to them. They are telling us that our past achievements are not enough. They are telling us we must do more, and do it better.
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