The Future of the Earth

1. As the temperature rises, the amount of water vapour in the air will increase and this too will absorb more of the Earth’s heat.

2. But each year, it seems to take longer for the healing to be completed.

3. The examples of this destruction are numerous.

4. And, if we are to survive, we all have to face the problem now.

5. The polar icecaps will start to melt and the oceans will expand as more snow and ice melt.

6. But we are stretching its capacity to recover to the limit.

7. We’ll never know precisely how many animals were affected, but it’s believed that hundreds of thousands of birds died. Millions of fish were poisoned, among them several rare whales.

8. Another problem is our damaging the ozone layer. In the past twenty years, scientists have discovered that some man-made gases, used in everything from refrigerators and aerosols to fire extinguishers, are floating up into the ozone layer and destroying the ozone.

I believe that there are very few people in the world that are not concerned about the future of the planet they live on. And we all have reasons to be worried about our common house. Due to people’s industrial and ‘conquering nature’ activities, the balance of nature has been disturbed. (1 - __) I would like to dwell only on two of them.

The first one is the so-called ‘greenhouse effect’. Most experts agree that it will bring significant changes to the Earth’s climate. (2 - __) Because the exposed ground, formerly covered in snow, won’t reflect the heat so well, it will absorb more sunlight and this will lead to even more snow melting.

It is predicted that the level of the sea will have significantly risen by 2050, and this will affect many low-lying areas of the world. Millions of people who live today less than one metre above sea level will have to change their places of residence. (3 - __) The oceans too will become warmer and store more heat, so that they increase the warming effect. We will have to get used to living in a hotter world.

(4 - __) The damage is worst over Antarctica, and near the North Pole, where scientists have seen small holes appear for a short time each spring since 1989. So far, these holes have healed up again within a few weeks by natural processes in the atmosphere that create more ozone. (5 - __) Also, all round the planet, there now seems to be less ozone in the ozone layer than even a few years ago.

Every year, the atmosphere will attempt to repair damage to the ozone layer caused by our pollution. (6 - __) If we stop using all ozone-destroying chemicals within the next five years, it is likely to be at least the middle of the 21^st century before the ozone hole stops forming over Antarctica each year. (7 - __)

TASK 7. Fill in the gaps in the sentences below with the verbs from the box in the right form.

to destroy	to recycle	to biodegrade	to contaminate	to pollute	to deplete
to cut down	to dispose	to overpopulate	to dump	to conserve	to emit

1. We disturb wildlife, ___________ air, drop litter and literally wear out everything beautiful around us.

2. The government will penalise activities which harm the environment or ___________ stocks of raw materials through taxation, so that prices reflect the damage the companies do.

3. The best rule is to ___________ energy and to increase funding for research into renewable energy sources.

4. Industrial poisons, oil spills, and an increasing amount of modern plastic debris foul the seas and rivers in which dolphins live, while pollution, hydro-electric dams, and forest clearance ___________ the natural habitats of river dolphins.

5. Most of the main Honduran forests ___________, but the Mosquitia region has been protected by its inaccessibility.

6. Nitrous oxide, commonly known as ‘laughing gas’ and once used as a dental anaesthetic, is a natural product of biological processes in soils and water but _____also ______ to the atmosphere by fossil-fuel burning, soil disturbance, the application of nitrogen based fertilizers, biomass burning and animal and human wastes.

7. The plant ___________ more than 40 000 tyres per week in a two stage process — shredding the tyres and then crumbling the rubber to provide the raw material for products such as carpet underlay, car mud flaps and bumpers and playground safety surfaces.

8. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun a massive effort to scrape up hundreds of truckloads of dirt and ___________ of it, either in waste dumps or by incineration.

9. The German government is afraid that very soon Berlin will become as ___________ as New York, Tokyo, Mexico City or Paris.

10. It is widely believed that farmers ___________ watercourses with fertilisers from the their fields every day in the normal course of their jobs

11. Because it ___________, plastic is a menace to the environment — it can also be undesirable from a human health point of view.

12. Scientists predict that Britain ___________ 50 per cent more radioactive waste this year than last.

TASK 8. Fill in the gaps with words from the boxes to read a text about environmental change.

Part 1

resources

destruction

ecology

environment

habitats

We have come to the end of a millennium of relentless and accelerating _______ (1) of the world around us. While human creativity and technology have blossomed, we have steadily been destroying the _______ (2) of the planet on which we depend for our survival. The sad fact is that every day the diversity of life on Earth gets poorer because of our overuse of _______ (3) and our disregard for the riches of nature. Ecologically, our natural _______ (4) provide services without which life on the planet would become impossible. When we experiment with the _______ (5), it is not just nature which suffers. Our own way of life is under threat.

Part 2

acid rain	ozone layer	changes in climate	greenhouse effect	storage sites
gases	toxic wastes	fossil fuels	pollution

Since the industrial revolution, man has burned ever larger quantities of _______ (6), first coal and then oil, with the result that the composition of the atmosphere has started to change. Burning these fuels produces _______ (7) such as carbon dioxide, which act in the atmosphere like glass in a greenhouse and trap the heat of the sun — this is known as the _______ (8). The overall global temperature has already begun to rise. Global warming is expected to lead to extreme _______ (9), with more frequent floods, droughts and heat waves. No person, animal, bug or bird will be unaffected.

In addition to greenhouse gases, industrial processes produce poisonous substances which can be virtually impossible to dispose of safely. If these _______ (10) are buried in underground _______ (11), there is the danger that they may leach¹into lakes and rivers, with serious long-term effects on living organisms. Emissions from industrial plants, such as sulphur², can also enter the atmosphere, where they can cause damage to the _______ (12) around the planet. They may also fall back to Earth as _______ (13) and destroy plants and trees. All these are examples of types of _______ (14) that could be prevented.

Part 3

deforestation	extinction	wetlands	endangered species	dying out
ecosystems	living organisms	wildlife	genetic engineering	resistant

We drain _______ (15) near rivers and coastal areas to create land for building. Through _______ (16), the large-scale cutting down of trees, the _______ (17) that allow species to survive are changed and the amount of land available for _______ (18) decreases. Some species are so reduced in number that they are in danger of _______ (19). At this stage they are known as an _______ (20) and are only one step away from total _______ (21). We are now beginning to manipulate nature in new ways, without thought for the possible consequences. Technology now allows us to create strains³of plants which are _______ (22) to diseases and which can survive extremes of temperature or salinity, that is, salt content. The danger of this process of _______ (23) is that producing new plants or other _______ (24) like bacteria may bring disaster as well as apparent advantages, as experience has already shown.

So, with the new millennium, we need a new beginning, a fresh start. We need to reverse the major threats to our environment. Above all, we need to understand that we cannot go on consuming and polluting with no thought for tomorrow.

TASK 9. Fill in the gaps in the sentences below with one of the phrases from the box. Translate them into your mother tongue. Options are possible.

exhaust fumes	harmful effects	adverse effects	greenhouse effect	noxious gases
tropical forests	infrared radiation	solar energy	natural resources	global warming
active volcano	hazardous substances	biodegradable products	ultraviolet rays	smoke emission

1. The Government plans further controls over chemicals to form a legal framework for the systematic evaluation of potentially ______________ of industrial chemicals on health and the environment.

2. Green consumers have already forced the shift from leaded to unleaded petrol, the replacement of ‘hard’ detergents with ‘soft’, more ______________ and the growing demand for health foods and organically grown produce.

3. In many areas of the country black clouds had completely blocked out the sun, and ______________ were making normal life impossible.

4. A number of ______________ are resistant to biodegradation.

5. Rescuers were last night battling to save a Hollywood film crew whose helicopter crashed inside an ______________.

6. Sailing, boating and water-skiing can also have ______________ on aquatic ecosystems both directly and indirectly.

7. Many chemicals are airborne ones, such as ______________ or solvents, which enter our bodies through the nose and lungs.

8. In these countries, both the exploitation of ______________ such as oil, copper and bauxite, and also certain key industries, are state owned.

9. The main concern is that the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — a by-product of our dependence on energy from fossil fuels — could trap ______________ near the surface of the Earth and warm the planet through the so-called ‘greenhouse effect’.

10. On a clear day on the equator, at noon, each square metre of the Earth's surface receives about one kilowatt (kW) of ______________; that is, one hundred kilocalories (kcal) per hour.

11. Whereas ______________ may contain hundreds of species of trees, temperate forests typically contain only a few species (oak with ash, yew with beech) or even only one (as in the redwood or cedar forests of North America).

12. ______________, unlike the sort of pollution that economists have traditionally thought about, does not arise in, and cause harm to, a single country.

13. However, emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) gases in the upper atmosphere have a ______________ which is 100 times more powerful than that of carbon dioxide (C0₂₎.

14. The reduction in the protective layer, which filters harmful ______________ from the Sun, prompted warnings from Government scientists yesterday that people should ‘take extra note’ of medical advice to avoid midday sun.

15. The main aim was to prevent excessive ______________ caused by the indiscriminate burning of industrial or trade refuse in the open.

TASK 10. Do the quiz below to find out how environmentally friendly you are and what to do improve yourself.