Ecology at a glance lesson 1

Ecology is a global problem of today. What ecological issues trouble you personally?

How can you define the term 'ecology'? Discuss your definition with your groupmates. Consult dictionaries. Describe the role of ecology in modern global society.

Is the place you live in effected by industry? Describe the ecological problems of your region.

DISCUSSION

Read the following quotations and proverbs. Do you agree with each of them? Why? Why not? What do they mean to you personally? How do they relate to your own experience?

1) Nature is not a temple, but a workshop, and man's the workman in it. (Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons)

2) Before Man made us citizens, great Nature made us men. (James Russell Lowell, On the Capture of Fugitive Slaves)

3) Man is Nature's sole mistake! (W.S. Gilbert, Princess Ida)

4) Nature will have her course.

5) Nature is the true law.

6) Nature is conquered by obeying her.

TEXT l

Read the text, define its main idea. Find the answers in the text to the following questions:

1. What measures suggested in the text could be introduced in Russia?

2. What ideas described in the text appeal to you? Be argumentative.

What have you, or I, actually done about it?

I was sitting around with some friends recently when one of the party mentioned that she now has four dustbins. This caused some hilarity, but when she explained that one was for paper, one for glass, one for tins and the fourth for everything else, we were all stunned into silence. Here was someone actually taking action in the most direct way - not just reading about it and discussing it endlessly on the lines of'isn't it dreadful, but what can we do?' Of course, I don't know whether her council is one of the few enlightened ones who will actually be able to recycle the rubbish she is so painstakingly assembling - if they're not, she's probably bombarding them with letters making sure they soon are! And her plan is certainly worth it. In Britain it is estimated that up to half of our rubbish could be recycled - less than 10 per cent is.

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We all know what to do: magazines, newspapers, radio and television have banged on endlessly at us all year, but I think many of us are sunk in what I call 'the diet book syndrome⁵. You buy the book, read it through once and sometimes convince yourself you've done something about your weight. You haven't, and neither have the vast majorities of consumers switched over to a way of life that will save the planet.

Over two million people (15% of those who voted) went and cast their vote for the Green Party in the European Elections last June. That's the highest percentage vote ever achieved by any Green Party in the world in a national poll. Stupendous, amazing, the greatest support the Party has ever had - but it makes you wonder why at least 15% of people in Britain aren't buying and acting Green in their everyday lives.

Harking back for a moment to my friend with her four rubbish bins. She wouldn't be considered anything out of the ordinary in many European countries. In Austria they automatically deliver two separate bins for each household, one for paper and one for bottles. And in New York State they have strict laws to encourage the separation of household rubbish.

In Germany one-sixth of all cleansing products sold are ecologically sound. Here we have Green products on the shelves and not enough people buying them. I am delighted to go into a shop and find one or two products by Ecover and others, but I would be even more pleased if I could choose between half a dozen sorts of ecologically sound washing powder, not thrilled to have found just one amongst all those still polluting the environment. Ecover, who are at the forefront of the ecological products movement, believe that their turnover this year will be around 10 million $. That's wonderful, but Lever Bros - who make many of the advertised brands - will have sales of around 270 million $.

We can all make a contribution to whether the planet lives or dies in all areas of our lives: what we eat, wear, how we live and our transport. Under a three-stage plan which is now under way in California, there are measures to promote car sharing, limitations on the ownership of cars and enforceable pressure on companies to switch to 'clean' cars. In this country it's been difficult enough to persuade people of the benefits of lead-free petrol and the best incentive the Government could come up with was to lop 10 p off the price in the last budget.

But then we can't really expect help from the Government - this is one revolution that has to be consumer-led, and it can be done. In Sweden consumers became aware of the dangers to their health and the environment from the dioxins produced by bleaching paper products. They protested so vociferously that they were able to force the manufacturers to change their processes so that today 95% of paper products in Sweden are made using chlorine-free pulp.

The growth of the number of outlets for organic food shows what people are looking for, but the Government isn't putting any money 6

into supporting or developing organic farming. Instead we are still pumping funds into supporting the market price of surplus food growth with fertilizers that an increasing number of consumers just don't want. Have you got a Green supermarket in your town? No, nor have I, but they have in Holland where attitudes to conservation are very different to ours.

It's not our education that needs changing on the ecological front - it's the ingrained attitudes that are so hard to break. Since World War I we have been the ultimate consumer generation and it is hard to go back to the pre-war attitudes that became unfashionable, and unnecessary, in the midst of such seeming plenty. 'Waste not, want not' doesn't just apply to your household rubbish, but to so many other things: washing out carrier bags and reusing them, saving paper bags, switching to products in glass instead of aluminum, switching off lights, turning down the heating.

So what are we going to do? Talk or act? We don't have time to debate while the earth is dying - either we get involved now by conserving all the energy we can, discriminating in favour of all ecologically sound products and giving back to the earth instead of just talking. Or we resign our own and our children's futures right now. ("Вокруг света". Май 2004)

Explain the words, translate them into Russian. Quote the sentence in which they occur.

Hilarity, to be stunned into silence, to enlighten, painstakingly, to assemble, to bang on, the diet book syndrome, stupendous, to hark back for, cleansing products, ecologically sound, turnover, lead-free petrol, consumer-led, bleaching paper products, vociferously, organic farming, fertilizer, to pump funds into, ingrained attitudes, to resign one's future.