What can we save?

We save money, food, water, time, energy and so on because they are greatly important and precious.

We save people and animals when they are seriously ill, badly injured or in great danger.

What does it mean when we say we should save the earth? What’s wrong with our earth?

Carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and other types of contaminants pouring from industrial smokestacks contribute largely to the world’s atmospheric pollution. Carbon dioxide contributes significantly to global warming, while sulphur dioxide emissions are the principal cause of acid rain in northern and eastern Europe, and northeastern North America.

Smoke Billowing from Industrial Smokestacks

QUESTION:

What main problems does the text tell us?

• Earth becomes desert

• Air becomes polluted

• Water becomes polluted

The Gebi Desert in north-eastern China is a windswept, nearly treeless wasteland. The Gebi ranks as the coldest, northernmost desert in the world and covers more than 1,300,000 sq km (500,000 sq mi). The terrain consists mostly of dry, rocky, sandy soil. Only 5 per cent of the desert is covered with sand dunes.

Gebi Desert

Read and listen to the first part of the text and find the information that could be used in the following:

Damage to Earth:

•Cause:

•Solution:

too many cattle, eat up everything, land becomes desert; cut down trees, nothing to hold the soil, soil washed down the hills into the rivers and blown away by strong winds.

limit the number of the cattle;

protect the trees

EARTH

Large population

Raise more cattle

Rains fail to come

Cattle eat all grass

Grass never grow

Land becomes desert

Trees hold the soil

Trees cut down

Nothing to hold the soil

Rains wash soil down hills

Winds blow soil away

Good soil is lost

Problem : more people but less farmlandDiscuss: What’s the proper solution?

Great city

The Sizewell nuclear power plant in Suffolk, England, like other nuclear power plants, was built to harness nuclear energy. The first full-scale nuclear power plants began operating in 1956 in Britain. Subsequently, several other countries followed suit. Nuclear power is a controversial energy source: it is inexpensive and creates no air pollution, but the radioactivity released during accidents at nuclear power plants has caused deaths and environmental damage.

.

Nuclear Power Plant

A nuclear bomb releases radiation that can cause serious long-term injuries to individuals who survive the heat and blast of the initial explosion. Civilians of all ages were injured by the atomic bomb that the US dropped on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945.

Radiation Victims

Read and listen to the second part and get the necessary information to do the following:

Main causes of air pollution :

Results:

Smoke from factories, cars and power stations; accidents at the nuclear power stations.

Acid rains destroy trees in the forests and kill fish in the lakes; lots of deaths and illnesses.

Lake Baikal is the deepest freshwater lake in the world and the third largest lake in Asia. A large variety of plant and animal life is found in its clear waters. Many rivers, as well as more than 300 mountain streams, feed into the lake.

.

Lake Baikal

Read and listen to the last part of the text and finish the following:

Causes:

Results:

waste from factories;

accidents at sea.

water is polluted. As a lot of diseases are present in the water, it is not safe to eat the fish, and not safe for swimming.

SERIOUS ACCIDENTS:

Accidents Place Time ResultsAccidents Place Time Results

Radiation Russia 1986 125,000 deaths

releaseDangerous gas India 1984 2,500 deaths; hundreds of

from a factory thousands injured; many

lost their sight

Oil poured Alaska, 1989 34,000 birds,10,000 animals into the sea USA were killed; 4,800 square

kilometers of ocean were

polluted

Read the text quickly to find out the information to finish the note-making:

Damage to Caused by

Earth:

Air:

Water:

Not enough rain, too many cattle, cutting down trees, strong winds

Smoke from factories, power stations, cars, accidents at nuclear power stations and factories

Waste from factories and cities, accidents at sea

Homework:

1. Read the text again and again until you can retell it.

Homework: Say

something about one of the following.

1. Where does air pollution mainly come from?

2. Say something about the advantages and disadvantages of modern industry.

3. What can we do about air pollution?

Carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and other types of contaminants pouring fromindustrial smokestacks contribute largely to the world’s atmospheric pollution.Carbon dioxide contributes significantly to global warming, while sulphur dioxideemissions are the principal cause of acid rain in northern and eastern Europe,and northeastern North America.

Smoke Billowing from Industrial Smokestacks

Brief Information About the Accident

On December 3,1984,the accident occurred at a factory which made agricultural pesticides in northern India. The factory was surrounded by a densely populated area . The accident occurred at night when most people were asleep. As a result of the poisonous cloud of gas, over 3,000 people were killed and 200,000 people were injured, 50,000 of whom lost their sight and lots of animals nearby were killed by the poison.

Rainwater was once the purest form of water available but now is often contaminated by pollutants in the air. Acid rain is caused when industrial emissions mix with atmospheric moisture. Pollutants may be carried in clouds for long distances before falling, which means that forests and lakes far away from factories may be damaged by acid rain. In the near vicinity of the factories, additional damage is caused by the deposition of larger pollutant particles falling to the ground in dry form. Air pollution has been increasing since the Industrial Revolution but only recently have side effects such as acid rain become severe and widespread enough to evoke international concern.

Air Pollution and Acid Rain

Brief Information About the Accident

The power station was at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. On April 26,1986, an increase in steam pressure blew apart the reactor core,started fires and released a large quantity of radiative material into the atmosphere. As a result of illnesses caused by this accident,125,000 people died in Russia and 2,000,000 people were affected by the radiation. Radiation has been present in that town since the accident.