Environmental problems

The poisoning of the world’s land, air and water is the fastest-spreading disease of civilization. It is the greatest danger to human life on earth.

Overpopulation, pollution and energy consumption have created such planet-wide problems as massive deforestation, ozone depletion, acid rains and the global warming that is believed to be caused by the greenhouse effect.

The seas are in danger. They are filled with poison: industrial and nuclear waste, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The Mediterranean is already nearly dead, the North Sea is following. The Aral Sea becomes extinct. If nothing is done about it, one day nothing will be able to live in the seas.

Every ten minutes one kind of animal, plant or insect dies out forever. If nothing is done about it, one million species that are alive today will have become extinct twenty years from now.

Air pollution is a very serious problem. In Cairo just breathing the air is life threatening – equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

Industrial enterprises emit tons of harmful substances. These emissions are very dangerous to our planet. They are the main reason for the greenhouse effect and acid rains.

An even greater environmental threat is nuclear power stations. We all know about Chernobyl disaster.

People are beginning to realize that environmental problems are not somebody else’s. They join and support various international organizations and green parties. If governments wake up to what is happening perhaps we’ll be able to avoid the disaster that threatens the natural world and all of us with it.

Exercises

I. Find English equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

– промышленные и ядерные отходы

– быстро распространяющееся заболевание

– защита окружающей среды

– перенаселённость

– быть вызванным парниковым эффектом

– загрязнение воздуха

– наполнены ядом

– кислотные дожди

– Средиземное море

– быть мёртвым

– потребление энергии

– являться угрозой жизни

– уничтожение лесов

– вымирать

– глобальное потепление

– удобрение

– вредные вещества

– угроза окружающей среде

– атомные электростанции

– промышленное предприятие

– вступать в экологические партии

– угрожать дикой природе

– быть основной причиной

– избежать катастрофы

II. Answer the following questions to the text:

1. What is the fastest-spreading disease of civilization?

2. Which environmental problems are there on our planet?

3. Why are the seas in danger?

4. Is air pollution a very serious problem? Prove it.

5. What happens every ten minutes on our planet?

6. What is the global warming believed to be caused by?

7. What do industrial enterprises emit?

8. What is the main reason for the greenhouse effect and acid rains?

9. What are people beginning to realize?

10. People join and support green parties, don’t they?

III. Complete the words and word combinations using the given words:

extinct, effect, warming, depletion, disaster, enterprises, disease, fertilizers, rains, substances, stations, consumption, parties, threatening.

1. ozone …	8. acid …
2. chemical …	9. to avoid the …
3. to become …	10. global …
4. to be life …	11. energy …
5. industrial …	12. green house …
6. harmful …	13. the fastest-spreading …
7. green …	14. nuclear power …