Earth day20

Imagine a day when 500 million people from 184 countries around the world come together to celebrate and protest with a single purpose in mind. This is just what happened on April 22nd, 2000. The day was Earth Day, and the purpose that the people had in mind was to work for healthier and safer world for everyone. It was the biggest celebration of its kind in human history.

But April 22nd, 2000 was not the first Earth Day. In fact, it was the 30th anniversary of the first Earth Day celebration. In 1962, Gaylord Nelson, a US Senator, looked at the world around him and saw lakes and rivers polluted by rubbish and chemicals, forests that were slowly being destroyed every day, and towns and cities full of smog and car exhaust. Senator Nelson felt that the Government was not doing nearly enough to protect the environment. So he spent the nеxt eight years travelling round the USA and talking to all sorts of people about pollution and other dangers that were harming the planet.

Finally, on April 22nd, 1970. Senator Nelson and group оf university students organized the first Earth Day. The event was much more successful than the organizers had ever expected: over 20 million people - young and old, rich and poor, city people and country people - took part.

Today, Earth Day is celebrated all over the world, and some countries even celebrate Earth Week the week before April 22nd, and Earth Month throughout the whole month of April. Over 5.000 different environmental organizations are connected by the Internet, and they help people in their communities to plan demonstrations, campaigns, talks and other activities. But the idea is the same as it was in 1970, millions of people from all over the planet rich and poor, old and young who want to build healthier and safer world take part.

The problems that Gaylord Nelson saw everywhere in the 1960s still exist, and now we know about things like global warming and acid rain that most people could not even imagine 40 years ago. We need Earth Day today more than ever. So what can we do? Many young people participate through the schools on Earth Day. They organize clean-up campaigns or pick up rubbish in their communities. Others write letters to their Council asking for more environmental protection laws. Still others organize marches to promote recycling and other energy saving activities. But perhaps the best way to celebrate Earth Day is to follow the organizers' advice: "Do something nice for the Earth, have fun, meet new people, and make a difference".

Life with the box21

Television belongs to the twentieth century. John Baird from Scotland was one of the first men to send pictures of moving things by electric waves. His friends who lived a few miles away were able to receive these pictures at the same time.

In 1928 he showed that colour TV was possible. Although he had discovered all this, there were other people who also wanted to make television systems and later in 1936 a system from America was first used in Britain.

Today in Britain and the USA television is very popular. Ninety-nine per cent of all households own at least one TV set and over half of these also own video recorders. Television has an enormous effect on Americans. Politicians know all about this. They try to make their big public speeches at times when they can get the largest audiences on the evening news programmes. Advertisers, too, understand the power of television. They are willing to spend billions of dollars a year on television.

In Britain the average adult watches twenty-six hours of television a week and children watch about twenty hours. Some Americans watch twice as much! People say too much television is bad for children because they just watch the pictures and don't think - but they can also learn a lot from TV.

At present there are four television channels in operation: BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV and Channel 4. BBC1 concentrates more on programmes of general interest, such as light entertainment, comedy, sport or children's programmes. BBC 2 provides serious programmes: drama, documentaries, classical music, including occasionally full-length operas. If we watch the news programmes, we can see what is happening all over the world.

The news about American television is not all bad. For one thing, Americans themselves are turning off the more violent shows and watching more comedy and news programmes. For another, the news programmes themselves are becoming more interesting. The most popular is "60 Minutes". If you haven't watched it on Sunday, you won't know what your friends are talking about on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.