The Environment and Homo Sapiens

When the first astronauts circled the earth in their tiny craft, mil­lions of listeners heard them describe the beauty of this planet, "like a blue pearl in space", and were caught up in a moment of extraordi­nary human revelation.

We are told that Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden into the world. We have — ever since we started walking up­right — set about the task of banishing ourselves from our own Gar­den of Eden — our planet Earth. Perhaps banishment is the wrong word to use, for it assumes that there is somewhere else we can be banished to, and in our case, once we have ruined and used up this Eden, there is no other, no second world hanging in the sky that we can all blithely move to, as if we were changing houses. This beautiful and endangered planet is the only one we have.

We all worry about World War III and the possibility of it being a nuclear war. But we are already engaged in World War III, to paraphrase Professor Raymond Dasmann of the University of California, a war against our Earth — and we are winning it.

Every to the pressures of its environment Homo sapiens, on the contrary, has achieved the remarkable feat of being able to adapt the environment instead, overcoming many natural limitations, through the development of technologies and cultures. If we do not learn to live in harmony with our environment, we shall experience the laws of nature in full force. While nuclear war could readily kill two billion people, at least as many could die through freezing and starvation.

Environmental degradation is like a cancer, or many forms of cancer, spreading silently, unseen, through the body of our planet. If it were like a heart attack, its effect would be all too apparent, and we would swiftly take steps to remedy the problem. But it isn't and we don't. At the present rate of "progress", and unless something is done quickly, disaster stares us in the face. Erosion, desertification and pollution have become our lot.

Our silly behavior causes great damage not only to our planet, but also to ourselves as such.-Environmental changes are often the rea­son of many incurable illnesses, mental disorders, the stress we ex­perience.

Learn the vocabulary by heart:

Vocabulary

1) a tiny craft — дуже маленький космічний корабель

2) to describe — описувати

3) a pearl — перлина

4) to be caught up— бути зацікавленим

5) extraordinary — надзвичайний

6) revelation — одкровення

7) to banish from — виганяти

8) upright — прямо

9) to assume — припускати, мати на думці (увазі)

10) a case — випадок

11) blithely — щасливо, безтурботно

12) to be endangered — бути в небезпеці

13) possibility— можливість, ймовірність

14) to be engaged— тут: бути втягненим

15) to in—вигравати

16) species— рід

17) behavior— поведінка

18) pressure — тиск

19) environment — довкілля

20) on the contrary — навпаки

21) to achieve — досягати

22) a remarkable feat — визначне досягнення

23) instead — замість

24) experience — відчути

25) in full force — у (на) повну силу

26) a nuclear war — ядерна війна

27) freezing — переохолодження, замерзання

28) starvation — голод

29) cancer — рак (хвороба)

30) heart attack— серцевий напад

31) apparent— очевидний, явний, безперечний

32) swiftly — швидко

33) remedy — виправити

34) rate швидкість

35) to stare - пильно дивитись

36) desertification — процес спустошення

37) pollution — забруднення

38) lot — доля, жереб

39) damage — збитки, шкода

40) incurable illnesses — невиліковні хвороби