Tips for cutting down waste – one for every day of the week

1. Send e-cards (for birthdays, etc.). The care is what’s important, not the material.

2. Give old toys to other families.

3. Reuse plastic bags. To help you remember to do this, keep some in your pocket or bag – they don’t take up much space.

4. Buy your fruit and vegetables from a local market.

5. Think before you print. How many times have you printed something and not looked at it again? If you need to print, use both sides of the paper.

6. Hire videos and DVDs instead of buying them.

7. Save about 40 litres of water a time by having showers instead of baths.

 

c) Write a paragraph about how much waste you produce and how you try to cut it down, if you do.

9. a) Several teenagers answered the question: “Do you worry about politics or the environment?” Read their answers.

 

Sarah, England

I am probably more worried about political dangers rather than environmental, mainly because with environmental, you have the option to change what's going to happen to the environment. You can try and change that as much as you can; whereas with political issues, you can't really change how a person thinks. You can try and change the political party that's in charge, but you can't really change how one person thinks. So, I think that's more unpredictable.

 

Lindsay, United States

I'm much more worried about environmental dangers. I feel like politically, we're going to be fine. I'm never going to go to these countries that are war-torn. I'm going to try and stay always in safe countries. But the environment, I feel like it affects everything, and the seasons are changing, and the icebergs are melting, and in the next twenty years, we're going to have some major problems.

 

Gareth, England

I'm more concerned with environmental dangers. This is because I believe it's like a snowball rolling down a hill. Once it gets going, it's very difficult to stop. And I believe that's the same for environmental issues; once these environmental issues start, it's going to be very, very difficult to stop them.

 

Tim, United States

Although I don't worry too much about political or environmental problems, I would say I'm more concerned about political problems, because they have the tendency to be more unpredictable and they can escalate very quickly unexpectedly; whereas with environmental problems, things usually happen more slowly and we can usually anticipate what's going to go wrong.

 

Antoinette, United States

I'm probably more worried about environmental dangers, because we, humans, are damaging the earth, and the damages that we do will affect generations and generations to come, so I probably think more about that.

 

b) Do you worry about your politics or the environment more? Why (not)? Write a paragraph in your notebook.

ROUND-UP

Translate the sentences from Russian into English. Use the Active Vocabulary.

1) Глобальное потепление — это увеличение средней температуры атмосферы и океанов, которое может привести к увеличению уровня морей и экстремальным явлениям природы.

2) Загрязнение воздуха и мирового океана, разрушение озонового слоя являются результатом небрежного (careless) обращения с природой, признаком экологического кризиса.

3) Воздух и вода необходимы для существования всех живых существ. Однако загрязненный воздух может послужить причиной болезни и даже смерти. Загрязненная вода убивает рыб и других морских животных. Кроме того, загрязнение окружающей среды портит природную красоту нашей планеты.

4) Проблема загрязнения окружающей среды сложна и серьезна. Автомобили загрязняют воздух, но предоставляют людям возможность передвижения.

5) Все люди могут вести себя таким образом, чтобы наносить меньший вред экологии планеты. Самое важное – начать с самих себя.

 

Change these sentences so that they are true for the place where you live.

 

In my city …

1) there’s a lot of ugly graffiti.

2) most of the canals, ponds and rivers are not clean.

3) my local park isn’t well-kept.

4) people often leave rubbish in the forest and in the streets.

Do you agree with these statements? Compare your opinions and discuss with a partner.

a) We can’t stop global warming. It’s too late.

b) Our government has been doing a lot to reduce global warming.

c) Nuclear power is the best way to replace fossil fuel power.

d) There should be an extra eco-tax on transport, especially flights.

e) The way I live my life is bad for the environment.