Unit I. The Environmental Crisis as International problem number one

Text A. The world is calling for changes.

What does the environmental crisis mean? To understand this we must begin at the source of life itself: the earth's thin skin of air, water and soil, bathed by the radiant solar fire. Life appeared here several billion years ago and was nourished by the earth's matter. Living things formed a global network of various habitats, where everything is directly or indirectly dependent on everything. This is the ecosphere (biosphere), the home that life has built for itself on the planet.

In nature all processes are in constant balanced interaction. There is no waste in nature. Nothing is created, nothing is lost. Everything is recycled endlessly. The environmental crisis means that this perfect and delicate balance has begun to break down, and the relationship between life and its earthly surroundings have begun to collapse.

The environmental degradation continues to accelerate. The ozone layer, vital for survival, is thinning. Acid rain is destroying huge areas of forest and tens of thousands of lakes. We pollute our rivers, lakes and oceans^ arid the sky, forgetting that we need water and air to live and breathe. We destroy rainforests, picturesque landscapes, and slaughter the world's most beautiful animals.

As a result of our new technologies of land use we lose soil, which is the basis of civilization. And, worst of all, the earth is steadily warming with potentially dangerous effects: That is why the environmentalists of the world call for fundamental changes now.

Drozdova T.

Berestova A.

Ex. 1. Read and translate the text.

Ex.2. Describe your understanding of the problem using the expressions: Environmental crisis; the source of life; to be nourished by; to depend on a global network of habitats; to be in balanced interaction; to create; to lose; earthly surroundings; collapse; to accelerate; the ozone layer; acid rain; to pollute; to destroy rainforests; technologies of land use; to be steadily warming with; dangerous affect; to call for fundamental changes.

Text B. The Ozone layer

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Предтекстовое задание. По своему выбору выпишите предложения, перевод которых соответствует грамматическим конструкциям, приведенным перед текстом. Обоснуйте в соответствии с грамматическими правилами.

Grammar: Prepositions.

Proper nouns.

The Present Simple Tense.

Ozone is a gas. It is present in very small amounts in the atmosphere, significant reductions or increases in this gas can have important environmental consequences.

Ozone occurring in the atmosphere, between 15 and 55 km above ground level forms a protective ozone layer, shielding the earth from extreme heat radiated by the sun. An international treaty signed in 1987 has restricted the production of some of the substances that have been eroding the ozone layer.

Ozone is in the stratosphere.

Ozone is a minor constituent of the earth's atmosphere, found in varying concentrations between sea level and a height of some 60 km. Most of the atmosphere's ozone is found in its two lowest layers: the troposphere, which extends up to 12 km above the earth's surface, and the stratosphere above it, which extends up to about 50 km.

The majority of ozone is found between 20 and 50 km above the ground, with the highest ozone concentrations, occurring between 20 to 25km.

Oxygen and ozone in the stratosphere absorb* ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun, preventing it from reaching the earth.

If radiation absorption did not occur, the consequences could be fatal for humankind. Ultraviolet light of wavelengths between 280 and 320 manometer capable of decomposing* living substances: a strong dose to human skin causes cancer*, and the small quantities that get through the ozone shield are an important cause of cancer in people. If we are to continue being able to walk around in the sunshine, then the stability of the ozone layer is essential.

Even a 1% thinning of the layer could result in an increase of thousands of skin cancer cases every year.

Ex.1.Read and translate the text.

Ex.2.Make up a summary of the text, using the words below. Learn them .

Amounts in; reductions in; increases in; environmental consequences; to occur; to shield the Earth from; to be radiated by; to restrict the production of; to erode the ozone layer; to be a constituent of; the troposphere; to extend up to; ultraviolet radiation from the sun; radiation absorption; to be fatal for humankind; to be capable of decomposing something; to be essential.

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Text C. The destruction of the ozone layer and consequences

Ozone in the atmosphere is broken down when it absorbs UV-B radiation. This natural process can be disrupted by the presence of pollutants. Chlorine* speeds up* the breakdown of ozone molecules, thus leading to a depletion* of the ozone layer. Chlorine is one of the constituents* of CFCs. CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons*. is man made and do not occur at all in nature. They have been used for many years as propellants in aerosols*, in the production of some foam* packaging* for food and as coolants*, in refrigerators*. When 'discovered' by the American chemist, Thomas Middley in 1930, CFCs were regarded as a wonder chemical, non-flammable*, nontoxic*, non-corrosive, stable and with thermodynamic properties. (CFCs mainly comprise methyl chloroform and carbon tetrachloride.)

In what two ways are CFCs harmful? Some CFCs are at least 10,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the earth atmosphere, thus contributing to the 'Greenhouse effect'. CFCs constitute another problem being the main cause of creating a hole in the ozone layer. As well as actual 'holes', there is a more general thinning of the ozone layer.

III.Small amounts — big effects. When strong sunlight hits

chlorofluorocarbons, some of their chlorine is liberated. This converts ozone to oxygen and, unlike ozone, oxygen is not a barrier to the sun's ultra-violet rays. Because chlorine is removed from the atmosphere only very slowly, much of it remains to destroy more ozone. So even a small amount of CFCs can have a massive effect.

Ex.1. Read the text and answer the question: What leads to the destruction of the ozone hole?

Ex.2. Find out 3 significant sentences, explaining the problem as a whole in short.

Text D. The discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole.

Предтекстовое задание. По своему выбору выпишите предложения, перевод которых соответствует грамматическим конструкциям, приведенным перед текстом. Обоснуйте в соответствии с грамматическими правилами.

Grammar: The verb “to be” and it’s functions.

Modal verbs and their equivalents.

The Past Simple Tense.

The discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole

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In 1974, scientists in the USA put forward their theory that CFCs could destroy ozone. In 1982, British Antarctic Survey scientists detected a fall in ozone concentrations above the southern ice cap.

The results were so unexpected as to be almost unbelievable. For two years the scientists checked and rechecked their findings. By October 1984, the 'hole' over Halley Bay showed a 30 per cent reduction in ozone.

Checks on the NASA satellite monitoring the area showed that it too had detected the ozone reduction, but the data had been automatically discounted by the computer as not credible.

It was decided to fly a converted U-2 spy plane over the Antarctic in 1987, in order to resolve the scientific doubts. Before the results of this research were available, however, 46 countries signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The intention was to reduce consumption of these products by 50 per cent by the end of the century.

The Montreal Protocol was signed on 16 September 1987. On 30 September, preliminary results from NASA's Antarctic flights were released. The NASA flights found that:

•the hole was about the size of the, USA, and height of Mount Everest;

•in the centre of the, hole at certain altitudes, 97.5 per cent of the ozone was missing;

•chlorine monoxide — one of the. Breakdown products from CFCs — was present at up to a thousand, times the background concentration at lower altitudes. 1 In 1989 ozone depleting substances were found over the Arctic. In late 1988 and early 1989, NASA-coordinated flights over the Arctic continued the 1987 program. The Arctic expedition discovered that large quantities of chlorine monoxide were found in the Arctic lower stratosphere. There may not yet be a hole in the Arctic ozone layer, but there is depletion of ozone in the northern hemisphere.

Ex.1. Read the text. Write out , translate and learn the words and expressions : to put forward something; to detect a fall in ; to check and recheck; reduction; in order to resolve the doubts; to be discounted by; to reduce; consumption; at certain altitudes; chlorine monoxide; depletion of ozone.

Ex.2. Having summarized the keyinformation from the basic texts A,B,C,D answer the problem question: What is the Engineering Protection Measure in the case with Ozone layer?

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