Environmental Pollution

Read through the following text and list the causes of environmental pollution.

READING ONE

Starter activity

Section 1. Environmental Pollution

Translate from Russian into English using your functional vocabulary.

1. Доктор Нил считал, что все дети талантливы от природы и задача школы – дать толчок развитию этих талантов.

2. В этой школе детям из неблагополучных семей уделяется особое внимание.

3. За последние 10 лет количество выпускников средних школ сократилось.

4. Планы внеклассных мероприятий, разработанные этим учителем, были утверждены директором школы.

5. Целый ряд исследований, проведенных в Великобритании, не дали убедительных доказательств того, что общеобразовательная школа сдерживает развитие одаренных детей.

Unit V. Environmental protection

In what ways do people pollute the environment? Do you pollute your environment?

Do you pay attention to the increasing rates of environmental pollution?

Environmental pollution is one of the most serious problems facing humanity today and it calls for immediate actions as it causes global warming, destruction of the ozone layer, and other potentially disastrous processes. Air, water, and soil – all harmed by pollution – are necessary to the survival of all living things.

Badly polluted air can cause illness, and even death. Polluted water kills fish and other marine life. Pollution of soil reduces the amount of land available for growing food. Environmental pollution also brings ugliness to our naturally beautiful world.

People pollute their surroundings in many different ways. They dirty the air with gases and smoke, poison the water with chemicals and other substances, and damage the soil with too many fertilizers and pesticides. People ruin natural beauty by scattering rubbish and litter on the land and in the water and operate machines and motor vehicles that fill the air with disturbing noise. Nearly everyone causes pollution in some way.

But pollution can be gradually reduced in several ways. Scientists and engineers can work to find ways to lessen the amount of pollution that such things as cars and factories cause. Governments can pass and enforce laws that require businesses and individuals to stop, or cut down on certain polluting activities. And finally, individuals and groups of people can work to persuade their representatives in government, and also persuade businesses, to take action toward reducing pollution.

People have always polluted their surroundings. Since prehistoric times they put wastes in water and caused smoke by burning fuel. But throughout much of history, pollution was not a major problem. Most people lived in uncrowded rural areas, and the pollutants they produced were widely scattered. People had no pollution-causing machines or motor vehicles.

Pollution problems first arose during ancient times, when large numbers of people began living together in cities. As cities grew, pollution grew with them. But environmental problems seldom became extremely serious or widespread until the 1700's and early 1800's, during a period called the Industrial Revolution.

The development of crowded industrial cities made pollution a major problem. People and factories in these cities put huge amount of the pollutants into small areas of the environment. By the 1930's, smoke and soot from still mills, power plants, railways and home heating plants filled the air over many cities. Pollution had affected the water in every major lake and river and the air over every major city in industrial countries. Dense fogs, with visibility down to a few meters, became common.

Since 1950's, air pollution from coal burning has been greatly reduced in most parts of the world. Nearly all railways and many industries and home heating plants now use cleaner fuels, such as oil and natural gas. In addition, many industries that still use coal have taken steps to control the pollution from their furnaces. Epidemics from disease-carrying germs in city water supplies are also no longer a major problem in most parts of the world. Cities now treat their water and keep it as free from germs as possible.

Despite these improvements, environmental pollution has become increasingly serious and widespread.

Pollution problem is as complicated as it is serious. It is complicated because much pollution is caused by things that benefit people. For example, exhaust from cars causes a large percentage of all air pollution. But the car provides transportation for millions of people. Factories discharge much of the material that pollutes air and water, but factories provide jobs for people and produce goods that people want. Too much fertilizer or pesticide can ruin soil, but fertilizers and pesticides are important aids to the growing of crops. Thus, to end or greatly reduce pollution immediately, people would have to stop using many things that benefit them. Most people do not want to do that, of course.

Technological advances in agriculture, industry, and transportation have greatly improved our way of life. But most of the advances were made without consideration of the effects they would have on the environment. Many of them bring about harm to the environment. Others just increase the use of natural resources. As people have more and more baths, kitchen taps, washing machines, etc. the demand for water increases. Then there is paper: more and more people reach higher and higher standards of education, and educated people want to read books and magazines. Paper is often made from wood, and its manufacture therefore depletes forests. More and more cars mean that we have to draw on the world's reserves of metal ores and oil at an increasing rate.

And one can give an almost unending list of other resources: animal, vegetable and mineral that we are using up faster and faster each year. In addition, there are economic and social causes of pollution.

Many pollution problems have developed because methods of preventingpollution are expensive. Many waste products can be reused in some way. However these practices have seldom been followed, in part because of high costs involved in reprocessing waste products.

Another cause of pollution is our desire for convenience. Many synthetic materials that pollute the environment were developed to save people time, work, or money. With effort, some of the pollution from these materials could be eliminated. But, just as prevention of pollution is often considered too expensive, it is often considered too inconvenient. The use of throwaway packaging materials is an example of how demands for convenience cause environmental pollution. Such forms of packaging as aluminium and steel cans and glass bottles could be saved and reused. Cans can be melted down, bottles refilled, or they can be ground up and used as a raw material again. But many people prefer to throw away containers rather than save them and return them for reuse. Thus, metal and glass, which are difficult to dispose of, pile up in dumps and litter streets and countryside.

Nowadays urban areas continue to develop and cars and new inventions make pollution steadily worse. Dramatic environmental tragedies, nevertheless, have pointed up the seriousness of the problem and public concern over environmental pollution gradually grows. Since the late 1960's, millions of people have become alarmed by the dangers of pollution and large numbers of people are now working to reduce pollution and clean up the environment. People also start to understand that conservation does not only concern itself with trying to guarantee the survival of the human race, it also tries to give us a pleasanter environment to live in, by limiting pollution, ugliness, overcrowding, stress and tension caused by the world around us. This is perhaps its greatest service to the present generation of men and women.

World Book

Дата добавления: 2017-01-14