The environment and the people

The Earth is the only planet in the solar system where there is life. For centuries man had lived in harmony with nature until industrialization brought human society into conflict with the natural environment. Today, the conflict between man and nature has acquired a dramatic character. With the development of civilization man’s interference in nature has increased. Every year the world industry pollutes the atmosphere with millions of tons of dust and other harmful substances. The seas and rivers are poisoned with industrial waste, chemical and sewage discharge. People who live in big cities are badly affected by harmful discharge from plants and city transport. The increased noise level is as bad for human health as lack of fresh air and clean water.

Among the most urgent problems are the depletion of the ozone layer, acid rains and global warming that lead to unfavorable changes in the world climate. Another serious problem is disappearance of forests. Some of them die from acid rains, others are cut down. Rain forests disappear at an alarming rate. If man continues to cut down rain forests, more than one million species of plants and animals will become extinct by the year 2030.

Water is often looked upon as a dumping place where sewage and industrial wastes can be washed away and hopefully disappear. As a result some rivers and lakes are so badly polluted that their water is unfit for bathing.

There are a lot of places on our planet that need immediate help. Our country is no exception. The nuclear accident at Chernobyl power plant has seriously aggravated the ecological situation in Belarus. The Chernobyl disaster in neighboring Ukraine in 1986 was the world’s worst nuclear accident. More than 60% of the fallout from the plant affected Belarusian territory.

Today people are aware that our life depends on the state of the environment. Pollution kills everything that is alive. So nature protection should become everybody’s concern.

II. Read/listen to the Dialogues. Learn underlined useful phrases. You can use them to discuss what businesses can do to protect the environment:

(Everyday Technical English)

Recycling. - Recycling is big business these days, isn’t it?

- Yes, it is definitely is a growing business.

- What do you recycle in your plant?

- Many plastics. Plastics aren’t bio-degradable – they do not break down easily in the environment - s o they shouldn’t be thrown away.

- How is plastic recycled then?

- Well, there are basically two methods. One is to break down the chemicals in the plastic into smaller chemical particles. These can then be used in the production of new chemicals.

- Is that the method you use here?

- No, we don’t do that here. We recycle polyethylene and we make it into other products.

- How do you do that?

- By melting it down and then reforming it. Our main products are bin liners for kitchen bins and carrier bags for supermarkets.

- Environmentally-friendly products. – You say products are aimed at the green

- consumer. In what ways are they environmentally-friendly?

- We produce household cleaning products – detergents and so on. They are all phosphate-free, which minimizes damage to the environment.

- What about the packaging?

- We try to use as little packaging as possible. Also, all our bottles are made of recyclable plastic and we use recycled fibre in our boxes. That is what our customers want.

Energy. – We’ve managed to reduce our energy consumption in our factory by

about 15 per cent in the last two years.

- That is excellent. How have you managed that?

- Mainly because we’ve invested in a heat recovery system.

- What does that mean exactly?

- Well, we use the exhaust gases from our printing presses to provide energy to heat our dryers.

- What other sources of energy do you use?

- We don’t use any fossil fuels. Most of our power comes from hydro-electric plants. We are hoping to use even more energy from alternative sources in the future – perhaps even wind power.