Pollution

DISCUSSING POLLUTION

ENVIRONMENT AWARENESS

1. Work in small groups. Select an environmental problem that interests you (see Chapter 2). Frame a few yes/no questions to find out your classmates' attitudes toward this problem.

2. Move around the room and use these questions to interview other stu­dents in the class making a record of the responses.

3. Present your findings to the class.

4 THE FUTURE OF A RAIN FOREST

1. Work in small groups. You are an international panel of experts who must decide the future of a rainforest. Rank in order the top four state­ments which would persuade your group to save the forest. i ♦ To prevent local environment problems. When a forest is cut, prob­lems such as erosion — loss of top soil and runoff— occur, leaving the land infertile.

♦ To protect the indigenous. Indigenous people only know life in the forest and should have the right to the forests.

' ♦ To save tropical plant and animal species. Once the forests are de­stroyed, many plants and animals will be lost forever.

♦ To educate people. Many groups came to the rain forest to study how important it is.

* ♦ To maintain the primal forest. Even if reforestation occurs, it takes over 50 years for forest life to develop again.

♦ To control government policies. Governments in some countries destroy the forests in order to reduce their world debt.

2. Present your group's top four rankings to the rest of the class, and be prepared to defend your choices.

1. A class at Battersea County School in London is holding a discussion about pollution. Read about the discussion. What kinds of pollution are being discussed?

Interviewer: What do you think are the worst kinds of pollution?

Steve: Smoking and car fumes.

Interviewer: Do any of you smoke?

Steve: I used to. But it was getting expensive so I gave it up.

Julie: It was a craze. We all used to at one time. We did it to impress our friends. None of us smokes any more.

Interviewer: How do you think we can tackle the problem of car fumes?

Steve: It should be compulsory to have filters on exhausts. It's compul­sory in California. The majority of traffic offences over there are for people who haven't got filters on their cars.

Interviewer: What about the noise of cars?

Steve: I think the noise of airports is much worse.

Interviewer: And if you live on a noisy road?

Julie: I live on Battersea Bridge Road, which is one of the noisiest roads in London and it doesn't bother me. I don't really notice it.

Carol: We've got planes, coming over our house every minute and I don't notice it any more. You get used to it.

Interviewer: What do you think of clearing city centres of traffic?

Martin: It would be difficult in London because it's too big. It would work if there was a good public transport system...

Steve: But the public transport system here is terrible, so it would never work.

Interviewer: Are there any other kinds of pollution that affect you directly?

Julie: The smells from the factories. Gartons, a local factory, for instance, makes glucose and smoke pours out of their chimneys. Everyone in Battersea can smell it if the wind's drifting in the right direction. It's terrible smell.

Interviewer: What do you feel about pollution that really doesn't affect you directly? For example, the people who live near the nuclear power station in Cumbria are afraid of radiation and nuclear pollution. How do you feel about that?

Martin: If there is an emergency of some sort, I should think they'll be warned in advance.

Interviewer: Although there's no longer that terrible smog in London, there are still chemicals in the air. This may affect your health. Does this worry you?

Martin: I've never really thought about it. Over the years you grow ac­customed to the smells and things.

Steve: The only time you notice how bad the air is in London, is after you've been away for a while. You start coughing like anything!

Carol: People probably die younger in the cities.

Interviewer: Are you concerned about pollution that's happening in other countries?

Carol: I feel I don't know enough about it. Sometimes you read about it in the newspaper, but it's not enough somehow.

Steve: Yeah! They say aerosols are affecting the ozone layer. When that goes, we blow up, because it's the ozone that protects us from the sun. I'd like to know more about that. I tend to think "This little bit isn't going to make - much difference." But that's what everybody says and it builds up!

Carol: We seem to be brought up not to care.

Steve: Yeah... if it's not harming us, we needn't worry about it.

Interviewer: What do you do about litter?

Carol: I put it in my bag and wait till I find a bin or else I take it home. My friends laugh at me.

Steve: I feel a bit funny walking about with greasy bits of paper in pocket. I chuck them on the ground.

Julie: I chuck little bits down. But I wouldn't chuck a bottle down and let it smash. If I have an apple core or something, I chuck it in the gutter where it's easy for the roadsweeper to clean up.

Interviewer: In China, you have bins on the streets for fruit peel. These are collected and used for fertilizer.

Julie: It's good if you can get people to do that. In America, they have Walt Disney characters on the litter bin in the parks and the charac­ters speak when you put litter in the bin. This encourages the children to pick up litter. That would be good over here for the little children.

Carol: You've got to teach people to be conscious about the community.

Julie: Yeah! You always go all out for yourself, and don't think about anybody else.

Steve: I don't think there is anything an individual could do. I think it would have to be a group or a community.

Interviewer: If you object to something that directly affects you, what steps can you take?

Steve: You can start a petition.

Julie: That happened with Morgans — a nut and bolt factory near here. They were letting out too much smoke and putting their waste in the Thames. They didn't care about other people in the area. One of the housing estates started a petition and other groups joined in. In the end, after a twelve-year fight, they closed down. They had to move to Wales.

Carol: The trouble is, when they move to Wales, they're spoiling the coun­tryside. There won't be any countryside left if all the factories move out to those areas!

Interviewer: What's your attitude to waste and recycling things?

Martin: I'm in favour of recycling.

Julie: Bottles and cans can be recycled, as long as they devise a system for recycling them... which they don't do at the moment.

Carol: A lot of the packaging you get when you buy things, is just to make them look attractive. You can't use it again. You have to throw it away.

Interviewer: Nature always recycles everything. Nothing goes to waste. We seem to have got so far from that...

Steve: With people, the main idea is to get as much as you can. out of something and then dump the rest.

Interviewer: And what happens when everything gets used up?

Julie: You always think: "Oh, they'll stop it by then!"

Steve: Yeah! You think: "Someone somewhere is doing something about it." So you don't worry about it yourself.

2. Hold a group discussion. Exchange opinions and information on the same topic. Before beginning, follow the guidelines:

♦ choose an issue that worries you;

♦ think of facts to back up your opinion on it;

♦ formulate a discussion question on some aspect of the issue;

♦ join in the discussion with a question;

♦ listen carefully to the comments of others;

♦ if you agree, offer your comment to support the opinion;

♦ if you disagree, explain why.

6 THE WORLD OF TOMORROW?

1. Look at the sketch describing a very sad situation, indeed. It could be the picture of the world of tomorrow. A world in which there is no place for nature.

2. In twos discuss the sketch centering on the following questions.

♦ How do you feel looking at this sketch?

♦ What kind of relationship does man have with his surroundings, according to you?

♦ Do you have any green spots in your city? How are they used?

♦ How many times a year do you find the opportunity to go to the countryside? Why?

♦ Have you read any books or articles regarding man's relationship with nature? Which ones? Can you describe them?

3. Share your information with the rest of the class.

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