The Liquid That Will Determine Our Future, The Telegraph

Many years ago, I came across this striking definition of ecological responsibility: ‘If we produce everything we want from within a limited area, we are in a position to supervise the methods of production; while if we draw our requirements from the ends of the earth it becomes impossible for us to guarantee the conditions of production in such places’.

This aphorism was coined in 1948, shortly after Independence, by J. C. Kumarappa, an economist who was part of Mahatma Gandhi’s inner circle...