ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 502.

Gil Stern

The Earth is Our Home

Unit VIII

“Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom and lakes die.”

Pollution is the addition of any substance or form of energy (e.g., heat, sound, radioactivity) to the environment at a rate faster than the environment can accommodate it by dispersion, breakdown, recycling, or storagein some harmless form. A pollutant need not be harmful in itself. Carbon dioxide, for example, is a normal component of the atmosphere and a by-product of respiration that is found in all animal tissues; yet in a concentrated form it can kill animals. Human sewagecan be a useful fertilizer, but when concentrated too highly it becomes a serious pollutant, menacing health and causing the depletion of oxygen in bodies of water. By contrast, radioactivity in any quantity is harmful to life, despite the fact that it occurs normally in the environment as so-called background radiation.

Pollution has accompanied mankind ever since groups of people first congregated and remained for a long time in any one place. Primitive human settlements can be recognized by their pollutants--shell mounds and rubble heaps. As early as A.D.61, the philosopher Seneca was complaining about the smoky air emitted from household chimneys in Rome. And historians remind us that open sewers running down the streets were the principal mode of urban waste disposal and that typhoid epidemics were a penalty for water pollution.

But pollution was not a serious problem as long as there was enough space available for each individual or group. With the establishment of permanent human settlements by great numbers of people, however, pollution became a problem and has remained one ever since. Cities of ancient times were often noxious places, fouled by human wastes and debris. In the Middle Ages, unsanitary urban conditions favoured the outbreak of population-decimating epidemics. During the 19th century, water and air pollution and the accumulation of solid wastes were largely the problems of only a few large cities. But, with the rise of advanced technology and with the rapid spread of industrialization and the concomitant increase in human populations to unprecedented levels, pollution has become a universal problem. The various kinds of pollution are most conveniently considered under three headings: air, water, and land.

Vocabulary extension:

dispersion

breakdown

recycling

storage

sewage

fertilizer

depletion

shell mounds

rubble heaps

emit

noxious

fouled

decimating

concomitant

2. Use the Topical Vocabulary in answering the following questions:

1. What are the major environmental issues confronting human­ity today?

2. What is the global imperative for environment as you see it?

3. Why are many people concerned about ecology today? Why do we say that every man should be environment-conscious and environment-educated?

4. On what basis should the "man-na­ture "relationship function?

5. What are the steps undertaken by the governments (authorities) of many countries to protect envi­ronment?

6. What do you know about the practical results of the international cooperation in environmental protection?

7. How does the state control nature conservation and environmental pro­tection in our country?

8. What role should mass media play in en­vironmental protection?

9. Is there anything that an individual person can do about these problems?

10. How much does your country depend on nuclear power? Does it worry you?

11. What sort of waste do you recycle? Could you do more?

12. Is organic food just a fashion, or will it be the food of the future?

13. Would you ever join an environmental group like Greenpeace, or vote for a green party?