Environmental protection

Task 1

Think over the questions:

What must we do to save our environment?

Name main points of environmental protection.

Task 2

Read and translate the text:

NATURE PROTECTION

We live in a changeable world where it is very difficult to keep up with new ideas and inventions. Our life becomes more comfortable and more interesting. We get to know about the smallest details of a child’s birth and space, computers have become the part of everyday life, we use new devices which make housework much easier. But we seldom think that the majority of inventions, new technologies bring harm to a man.

Today the greatest problem for humanity is pollution. Pollution is the contamination of the environment including air, water and land. This problem is extremely topical for heavily industrialized cities and towns where metallurgical plants, steel mills, mines, chemical plants are situated. Uncontrolled emissions of harmful substances and dust pollute everything around us. Very often they are the reason of acid rains which fall miles away from plants and poison earth and water, destroy forests and even buildings.

It is worth mentioning that one third of all emissions into the atmosphere originates from automobile transport. That means that air pollution is not only the problem of big cities.

Thermal power plants are also a great source of pollution. During some period of time it was considered that nuclear power stations were safe. In 1986 Chernobyl disaster showed that nuclear energy can be extremely dangerous, research data show that significant areas of agricultural and forest lands of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia will remain unsafe for a man for eight thousand years.

Another problem of big cities is wastes. The wastes from plants and factories contaminate water and soil. It has become dangerous to drink unboiled water or eat vegetables and fruit. Household wastes such as all kinds of plastics, dead batteries and so on remain unruined for decades and it is very important to find the way of their recycling. Another reason of soil poisoning is the use of fertilizers which help agricultural products to grow fast and big but very often these products are harmful for a man.

These are only some of the problems of the environment. The list may be endless: greenhouse effect, ozone holes, etc. all of these factors threaten mankind and nature, reduce their life, even kill them. What can be done to protect them? It is very difficult to answer this question because millions of people all over the world fight against pollution for survival of everything alive on earth. There is a special green movement which calls for nature protection. But it is clear that it is necessary to use purification equipment at the plants and factories, look for wasteless technologies, learn to use natural sources of energy, such as wind, sun, etc., use new recycling technologies. It is very important that every person should be responsible for ecologically clean world and act correspondingly.

Task 3

Answer these questions:

1. What kind of world do we live in?

2. What is the greatest problem for humanity today?

3. What is pollution?

4. Where is the pollution problem extremely topical?

5. What pollutes air, water, soil in industrial cities?

6. What harm do emissions of different substances and dust bring to a man?

7. Where does one third of all emissions originate from?

8. What did Chernobyl disaster show?

9. How long will land of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia remain unsafe?

10. Why are the wastes a big problem for cities?

11. Why are fertilizers harmful?

12. What can be done to protect nature and human life?

13. What does green movement do?

Task 4.

Fill the gaps: (household, unruined, harm, endless, protection, pollute, topical, responsible, emissions, changeable, disaster, dangerous, contamination, recycling, poison, pollution)

   1. We live in a c… world.

2. We seldom think that inventions bring h… to a man.

3. Uncontrolled e… of harmful substances p… everything around us.

4. Green movement calls for nature p… .

5. H… wastes remain u… for decades.

6. In 1986 Chernobyl d… showed that nuclear energy can be extremely d… .

7. Fertilizers which help agricultural products to grow fast and big p… soil.

8. We should find the way of r… wastes.

9. The problem of p… is extremely t… for industrial cities.

10. Pollution is the c… of the environment, including air, water and land.

11. The list of ecological problems may be e… .

12. Every person should be r… for ecologically clean world.