The lines that support the title of the chapter are given below.
- “The earth's vital signs reveal a patient in declining health.”
- “Are we to leave our successors a scorched planet of advancing deserts, impoverished landscapes and ailing environment?”
- “…the environment has deteriorated so badly that it is „critical‟ in many of the eighty-eight countries investigated”.
-“When this happens, fisheries collapse, forests disappear, grasslands are converted into barren wastelands and croplands deteriorate.”
- “it has been well said that forests precede mankind; deserts follow”
- “ …. Several species of life face extinction as a result of its destruction.”
“The environmental problem does not necessarily signal our demise, it is our passport for the future.”