Unit 4 Environmental Pollution

Vocabulary list

environment

pollution

discharge

to cause

detriment

pollutants

impact

waste

to spew

навколишнє середовище

забруднення

викидання

причиняти

шкода

забруднюючі частки

вплив

відходи

вивергати

1. Answer the questions using the vocabulary list and words in the box.

1) What do you think about our environment?

2) Think of some reasons explaining why our environment is getting worse.

To pollute, hard to breathe, damage, release, to protect tress, to take care, to preserve a healthy and clean environment, not to pollute with, to keep clean, to collect rubbish(сміття), to affect harmfully, waste from chemical plant, to influence harmfully, to preserve the purity of water, to turn the land into desert, to recycle (вторинна переробка) , to purify (очищати), to reduce( скорочувати), to remove (видаляти) plants from the city, green zones, must be, create, noise.

2. Read the text and answer the questions.

1) What is environmental pollution?

2) What are the reasons for formations of smog in the Los Angeles and the pollution of large areas of the Mediterranean Sea?

3) Can technology help to solve some pollution problems?

4) What has resulted in an exponential growth in the production of goods and services?

5) Is pollution always considered to be primarily a local problem in polluted places?

Environmental Pollution

Environmental pollution is any discharge of material or energy into water, land, or air that causes or may cause acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term) detriment to the Earth's ecological balance or that lowers the quality of life.

Pollutants may cause primary damage, with direct identifiable impact on the environment, or secondary damage in the form of minor perturbations in the delicate balance of the biological food web that are detectable only over long time periods.

U ntil relatively recently in humanity's history, where pollution has existed, it has been primarily a local problem. The industrialization of society, the introduction of motorized vehicles, and the explosion of the human population, however, have caused an exponential growth in the production of goods and services. Coupled with this growth has been a tremendous increase in waste byproducts.

The indiscriminate discharge of untreated industrial and domestic wastes into waterways, the spewing of thousands of tons of particulates and airborne gases into the atmosphere, the "throwaway" attitude toward solid wastes, and the use of newly developed chemicals without considering potential consequences have resulted in major environmental disasters, including the formation of smog in the Los Angeles area since the late 1940s and the pollution of large areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Technology has begun to solve some pollution problems, and public awareness of the extent of pollution will eventually force governments to undertake more effective environmental planning and adopt more effective antipollution measures.