1.
Air Pollution
Gina: Wow! It’s such a beautiful day! The sky is so blue.
Oli: I guess… It’s been nice all summer, so I don’t notice it as much. Maybe I’m getting
spoiled!
G: I wasn’t expecting it to be like this. My Dad came here a few years ago and he said
the air quality was really bad.
O: He’s not wrong. It used to be terrible. In summer, you’d often get thick smog covering
the whole city, but it’s improved greatly in the last decade or so.
G: What changed?
O: I think it was driven by people’s attitudes. Ten years ago, no one was interested in
environmental issues, but nowadays there’s much more awareness of things like air
quality and how it can affect your health.
G: Sure, but that can’t be the only reason.
O: Well, no. The local government also brought in new laws and regulations. They
introduced restrictions on driving in the city centre, made it illegal to use wood or coal
fires for heating, and moved a lot of heavy industry away from the city. Plus, there are
much tighter regulations nationally, too, like with car emissions: compared to even ten
years ago, cars are much cleaner.
G: It’s impressive that they could make such a big change in a short time. Ten years
isn’t long for these things.
O: True, but there’s still more to do. It can still get hazy in winter. They’re investing in
public transport infrastructure, though, so I think it’ll carry on getting better.
In your hometown, is the air quality good, or do you have problems? Can you remember
any of the phrases you heard in the dialogue to talk about air pollution? You heard:
The air quality was really bad.
You’d often get thick smog covering the whole city.
It can still get hazy in winter.
‘Air quality’ is a useful phrase for this topic. You can use it with different adjectives. For
example:
The air quality is terrible.
The air quality is better than it was ten years ago.
The air quality is great for such a large city.
‘Smog’ is a thick fog, caused by air pollution. If the air is a little dirty, so that you can’t
see far, you might describe it as ‘hazy.’ Here’s a question: what do you think the
government, companies or individuals can do to minimise air pollution? In the dialogue,
you heard several possible solutions, such as:
The government brought in new laws and regulations.
They introduced restrictions on driving in the city centre.
They made it illegal to use wood or coal fires for heating.
They moved a lot of heavy industry away from the city.
‘Restrictions on driving’ could mean different things. For example, London has a
congestion charge, meaning that drivers have to pay every time they enter the city
centre. Some cities have banned vehicles with diesel engines, while others have
created large pedestrian zones. Let’s practise! Here are three questions for you.
1. What’s the air quality like in your city?
2. What is your local or national government doing to improve air quality where you
live?
3. What do you think is the best way to reduce air pollution?
Pause the video, think about your answers, and write them down or say them out loud.
If you need more help, review the dialogue and this section. There are many words and
phrases you can use. Ready? Let’s move on to our next point on talking about the
environment.
2. Waste and Recycling
Oli: Whoa! What are you doing?
Gina: What do you mean?
O: You can’t throw that in there!
G: Why not? It’s garbage.
O: Yeah, but it’s recyclable. It goes in the blue bin.
G: You mean, I have to put all recyclable stuff in the blue bin?
O: Not all. Plastics go in the blue bin, paper and card in the brown bin, and bio-waste in
the green one.
G: ‘Bio-waste?’
O: You know, food waste and stuff like that.
G: Is that it?
O: The black bucket is for glass and tins. Do you not recycle?
G: In my hometown you can recycle a few things, like glass, but we don’t sort our
garbage like this. It seems very complicated!
O: Then what, all of your rubbish just goes into landfill?
G: I guess… I’ve never thought about it. I just throw stuff away and forget about it.
O: It was the same here not so long ago, but now we’ve got used to sorting our rubbish
and recycling as much as possible. It’s much more environmentally friendly.
G: I’m sure you’re right.
In the dialogue, we mentioned several different types of garbage. Quick question: can
you remember three of them? By the way, the words ‘garbage’, ‘rubbish’ and ‘trash’ all
have a similar meaning: they all mean the stuff which you throw away. If there is
recycling in your city, you might need to sort your recyclable garbage, meaning you put
different things in different bins. Generally, you can sort garbage into recyclables and
non-recyclables. Recyclable garbage might include glass, tins, cans, paper, card,
plastic, and bio-waste. Waste which is not recycled is often sent to landfill. This means
the waste is buried in a big hole in the ground.
Sometimes, waste might end up in a dump. A dump is like a landfill, but it isn’t buried,
so it’s just a big pile of garbage on the ground somewhere. Now it’s time for you to
practise. Here are another three questions for you:
1. In your city, do you sort your garbage? If so, how?
2. What waste is commonly recycled in your country?
3. What happens to non-recyclable waste?
As before, pause the video and make your answers. Practise them a few times before
you continue. Let’s look at our next topic on talking about the environment.
3. Talking About Food Safety and Farming
Gina: That book looks interesting. What’s it about?
Oli: This? It’s by a Japanese writer. It’s about farming and how we could make farming
more sustainable.
G: OK… You’re a graphic designer. Why are you reading about farming?
O: It’s interesting! Farming produces the food you eat. It’s not like it doesn’t affect you.
G: What’s his idea?
O: He’s basically saying that modern farming methods can produce more in the short
term, but in the long term they degrade the land and end up costing more.
G: Mmm…
O: One thing he talks about is pesticide use. If farmers use pesticides and herbicides,
then they create an ecosystem which depends on those artificial products, which are
often harmful for the environment. If you grow food organically, using more traditional
farming methods, you can grow the same amount of food without using pesticides at all.
G: So he thinks we should go back to mediaeval farming or something?
O: Not exactly. I can see you’re sceptical, but I think you should read it, too. It’s not just
theory, by the way. He’s used his ideas to set up several farms in different countries,
and they work just like he says.
G: Hmm… I have been thinking about these things, actually, especially with meat. I saw
a documentary about livestock farming and slaughterhouses, and it was shocking. I
guess most people just buy the food and don’t think about where it comes from.
O: Right, so you’ll definitely like this book, too. You can borrow it once I’ve finished.
G: What’s it called?
O: “The One-Straw Revolution.”
Do you think about where your food comes from, and how it’s produced? Modern
farming is heavily mechanised—it depends heavily on machinery, automation, as well
as chemical products like herbicides and pesticides. Herbicides kill weeds, meaning
unwanted plants. Pesticides kill insects and small animals which might try to eat food
crops.
Farming needs to be sustainable. ‘Sustainable’ means that something can continue. For
example, if you earn $1000 a month and spend $2000, that isn’t sustainable. Maybe
you can do that for a few months, but you can’t do it long term. In the same way, some
farming methods are unsustainable. In this case, farming can degrade the land,
meaning that, over time, it becomes more and more difficult to grow anything.
On the other hand, some farming is organic. ‘Organic’ means that food is grown without
using any artificial chemical products. Of course, farming isn’t just about growing plants.
There is also ‘livestock farming’: raising animals for meat, eggs or milk. Animals which
are raised to provide meat are generally killed in a slaughterhouse.
What about in your country? Think about these questions:
1. Are farms usually bigger and more mechanised, or are they mostly smaller, using
more traditional methods?
2. Do you think it’s worth paying extra to eat organic food? Why or why not?
3. Is it important to know how your food is produced? Give a reason!
Pause the video and think about your answers. Write them down, say them out loud, or
do both. Let’s look at our last section.
4. Climate Change
Oli: Do people ever talk about global warming in your country?
Gina: For sure! It’s a big issue. We have a long coastline, and a lot of the land is close
to sea level, so the dangers feel very real.
O: I feel like people often don’t pay attention to these things until it’s too late.
G: It’s already happening, though. There’s more flooding than there used to be, and
older people, like my grandparents for example, all say that summers have got much
hotter than they were 50 years ago.
O: That’s kind of scary. I read somewhere that even if we cut carbon emissions to zero,
global warming would continue for at least fifty years, because of the greenhouse gases
that are already in the atmosphere.
G: The big topic for us is sea levels. If the ice caps melt, they say sea levels will rise by
two or three metres. For some countries, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but we’d lose
almost half of our land.
O: I don’t think any country will be immune from the problems if it continues. So, do you
think there’s a solution? It doesn’t look optimistic from what I’ve heard.
G: I mean, people talk about things like carbon taxes and reforestation programs, which
are helpful, but I don’t think there’ll be any real progress until there’s true international
cooperation. So far, I don’t see any sign of that.
In the dialogue, you heard us talking about climate change. Can you remember climate
change vocabulary and phrases we used to describe the causes and effects of climate
change?
By the way, you can use the terms ‘global warming’ or ‘climate change’. People use
them with the same meaning. Climate change is caused by increasing levels of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The main greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, or
CO2. Sometimes, instead of talking about carbon dioxide or CO2, people will just refer
to ‘carbon’. You can hear things like: ‘We need to cut carbon emissions significantly.’
Climate change may lead to several problems, particularly flooding caused by rising sea
levels. Although there aren’t clear solutions, some people suggest that carbon taxes or
reforestation programs are good ways to combat climate change. A ‘carbon tax’ means
that companies would have to pay the government if their operations released CO2 into
the atmosphere.
Let’s see: can you use some of this language? Here are three questions for you.
1. Are you worried about global warming? Why or why not?
2. How would your country be affected if sea levels rose significantly?
3. What do you think is the best way to deal with climate change?
Our planet Earth is only a tiny part of the universe, but nowadays it's the only place where we can live.
People have lived on our planet for many years. They lived and live on different continents, in different
countries. People depend on their planet, the sun, animals and plants around them. Environment is
everything in the world around us that surround and affects all life on earth, including the air, food,
water, plants, animals and other.
Environment is the place where we live. Since ancient time nature has served man, being the source of
his life. For thousands of years people lived in harmony with environment and it seemed to them that
natural riches were unlimited. But man's interference in nature began to increase with the development
of civilization. Our ecology becomes worse and worse with every new day. Many species of animals and
birds are disappearing nowadays. People destruct wildlife, cut down trees to make furniture. They
forget that people can't live without trees and plants, because they fill air with oxygen.
There are a lot of ecological problems. The most serious ecological problems are: noise from cars and
buses; destruction of wildlife and countryside beauty; shortage of natural resources; the growth of
population; pollution in its many forms. Water is everywhere, but there is no ocean or sea which is not
used as a dump. Many rivers and lakes are poisoned too. Fish and reptiles can't live in them. People
can't drink this water. So we have to clean the water environment. Another problem is air pollution. Air
pollution influents the health of people. For example: ultraviolet radiation from the sun can cause skin
cancer. Normally the ozone layer in the atmosphere protects us from such radiation, but if there are
holes in the ozone layer ultraviolet radiation can get to the earth. Many scientists think that these holes
are the result of air pollution. Also we have problem with nuclear pollution. Nuclear pollution cannot be
seen but its effect can be terrible. To make air clear clean again we need good filters at nuclear power
stations, at factories, in cars and buses.
Another problem is growth of population. They don't have enough places to live. They need more water,
more food. So it is the reason of the shortage of the natural resources. It is very difficult to solve this
problem. Also one of the most serious problems is greenhouse effect. It works like this: sunlight gives us
heat. Some of the heat warms the atmosphere and some of the heat goes back into space. Nowadays
the heat can't go into space. That's why winter and summer temperatures in many places have become
higher. If the temperature continues growing up the snow on the mountains and ice will melt, so the
most of the earth will be under water. So every person has to understand how important it is to solve
these problems, which endanger people's life.
Key Words:
Pollution, environment, the ozone layer, global warming, acid rain, car exhaust fumes, dumping
industrial waste in seas and rivers, aerosol can, CFCs, to recycle, natural resources, human resources.
Pollution – загрязнение окружающей среды;
Environment – окружающая среда;
The ozone layer – озоновый слой;
Global warming – глобальное потепление;
Acid rain – кислотные дожди;
Car exhaust fumes – автомобильные выхлопные газы;
Dumping industrial waste in seas and rivers – cброс промышленных отходов в моря и реки;
Aerosol can – аэрозольный баллончик;
CFCs – химикат, содержащийся в аэрозольных баллончиках, способный разрушать озоновый слой;
To recycle – перерабатывать;
Natural resources – природные ресурсы;
Human resources – человеческие ресурсы.
Important definitions of the key words:
People are more worried about the environment (the air, water, and land around us) as a result of the
harmful (dangerous/damaging) effects of human activity. Some of these activities cause pollution (dirty
air, land and water) and some are destroying the environment (damaging it so badly that soon parts will
not exist).
The Greens is a short name of the organization called Green Peace. It's an international organization
whose members work actively to protect the environment from damage caused by industrial processes
or military activities. It is known especially for using its own boats to try to prevent governments from
testing nuclear weapons, to prevent companies from pouring poisonous chemicals into the sea, and to
try to save whales and other sea animals from being killed.
Here are some of the problems:
The ozone layer: a layer of gases. It stops harmful radiation from the sun reaching the earth; recent
research shows that there is now a hole in parts of the ozone layer;
Global warming: an increase in world temperature caused by an increase in carbon dioxide;
Acid rain: rain that contains dangerous chemicals; this is caused by smoke from factories;
Smoke from factories;
Car exhaust fumes;
Dumping (throwing away) industrial waste (unwanted material) in seas and rivers;
Aerosol cans (usually called sprays); some of these contain CFCs (a chemical) which can damage the
ozone layer;
Cutting down tropical rainforests (e.g. The Amazon); this increases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
How can we help?
Don't throw away bottles, newspapers, etc. Take them to a bottle bank or newspaper bank, and then
they can be recycled (used again).
Plant more trees.
Don't waste (use badly) resources, e.g. water, gas. Try to save them.
Note: a resource is a valuable possession. There are natural resources, e.g. water or gold; and human
resources, e.g. knowledge and skills. The word is usually plural.
The given text is a sample text and we recommend you to use it while getting ready with your own
stories on the topic.
Environmental Protection.
Economists have long thought of the environment as an unlimited source of resources. For
thousands of years people lived in harmony with the environment but with the industrial revolution our
negative influence on Nature began to increase. Large cities with thousands of steaming, polluting plants
and factories can be found nowadays all over the world. The by-products of their activity pollute the air
we breathe, the water we drink, the fields where our crops are grown.
There are many consequences of damaging the environment. One of them is «acid rain». Cars with
their engines and factories have become the main source of air pollution in industrial areas. When
factories send gases and chemicals into the air, they mix and the mixture is carried for hundreds of miles
by the wind and finally, it falls back to earth. This «acid rain» kills fish and trees and slowly it kills
everything.
Another consequence is destroying the ozone layer of the Earth.
The third problem is damage to wildlife. Vast forests are cut down in Africa, South America and
Asia for the needs of industries in Europe and in the USA. As a result, some species of animals, birds, fish
and plants have disappeared and keep disappearing.
Another problem is damage to water and soils. Dumping wastes into lakes, rivers, seas and oceans
causes water pollution. Harmful wastes may also get into the soil or drain off fields that have been
sprayed with pesticides.
There is another aspect of the environmental problem, the importance and urgency of which
steadily grow. How country disposes of its waste may have a major effect on its future and the future of
the world, too. Recycling waste and rubbish receives ever-greater care in Europe. Cans, paper and
empty bottles and other things we call rubbish are accumulated in every home. Recycling process has
double effect, the other part of it being – saving energy, which would have been necessary for producing
new things.
In Russia and the former Soviet republics there are some areas where the environment is in a poor
state. Some of them are the Aral Sea, Lake Baikal, the Kuzbass, Semipalatinsk and Chernobyl. Cotton
growing in the region of the Aral Sea has used huge quantities of water, and the level of the sea has
fallen by 14 yards. For decades nuclear weapons were tested near Semipalatinsk, and the ground is
contaminated with radiation there. More than twenty years ago a pulp-and-paper factory was built on
the shore of Lake Baikal. As a result of the pollution, more than 50 per cent of the world's purest water
has been ruined. The whole ecological system of the lake has changed greatly. After the disaster in
Chernobyl the inhabitants of the nearby towns and villages had to be evacuated. Some of them died and
some became invalids.
Problems of environment are no longer problems of one particular country or one particular
region of a country.
One of the most serious environmental problems in large cities in Britain is sick fog, which the
British so often have in autumn and in winter. In London the fog is sometimes so thick that cars run into
one another. For many centuries, during the cold time of the year, the English people used coal in their
fireplaces in private houses, though smoke from factories contributed a great deal to the trouble too.
This kind of fog the English people used to call smog. Unusually thick smog in London in 1962 caused the
death of some 4000 people. A Clean Air Act was passed in 1956, which prohibited the use of open coal
fires at homes and in the city area.
Today, many scientists and ordinary people realize that the Earth is in danger. Either we stop killing
the Earth or we kill ourselves. The protection of the environment is a universal concern. Active measures
should be taken to create an international system of ecological security. Some progress has been made
in this direction. Many people belong to Green organizations in countries all over the world. Groups like
«Green Peace» have already helped to stop some animals hunting but there are so many things to be
done on our planet and our life on the Earth depends only on ourselves.
