Information
and Research Project
“The
Protection of the Environment”
Leaders of the Рroject:
Mariya
Plakhotnikova
Sofiya Sharaga
Coordinator of the
Рroject:
N. Petrova,
the English
teacher of the first category
April, 2016
Project type:
Information and research
Target group: 8
grade
Coordinator of the
project: N. Petrova
Institutional framework:
the English language, 8 grade
Justification of the
project: In recent years the
environmental problems have become extremely urgent and received a great
publicity. Today our planet is in serious danger. That’s why is very
important to draw public attention to ecological problems.
Objectives
of the project: to make students acquainted with the ecological
problems.
Work schedule:
First phase:
We chose a theme.
Second phase:
We searched information in the Internet.
Third phase:
We made a presentation of the project.
Contents:
·
Introduction
·
Main
part
·
Conclusion
·
Resources
Introduction
Our
planet Earth is only a tiny part of the Universe, but nowadays it’s the only
place where we can live.
People always polluted their surroundings. But until now pollution was not such
a serious problem. People lived in rural areas and did not produce such amount
of polluting agents that would cause a dangerous situation in global scale.
With the development of overcrowded industrial highly developed cities, which
put huge amounts of pollutants into surrounds, the problem has become more and
more dangerous.
Today our planet is in serious danger. Acid rains,
global warming, air and water pollution, and overpopulation are the problems
that threaten human lives on the Earth. In recent
years the environmental problems have become extremely urgent and received a
great publicity. In some way they are the result of scientific and
technological progress of the 20-th century. But people also do a lot of harm
to nature because they don't understand that the man is the part of
environment. The relationship between man and nature has become one of the most
vital problems facing civilization today.
That’s
why is very important to draw public attention to ecological problems. The
government must think of it, organize round tables on TV and radio. We must
teach children to protect environment because deeds are better that words.
In this project we
would like to remind you that the Earth is polluted, pollution is not reduced,
air, land and water are damaged.
People! Help the Earth!!!
Main
part
Environment is the natural habitat that surrounds us
everywhere. Over the last decades people have built so many harmful factories
that environment started to suffer. Some environmental problems are really
urgent in modern society. The problems we are facing air pollution, water
pollution, global warming, nuclear pollution, the disappearance of certain
animal species, etc. There are numerous reasons for such vast pollution of the
surrounding environment on our planet. First of all, today there are so many petrol-driven
cars in the streets. In search of newer and newer inventions people have
completely forgotten that natural resources are limited. We can’t continue
exhaling harmful gases into the atmosphere. Such human behavior leads not only
to air pollution but also to global warming. This problem really touches all
countries in the world and is considered to be global. We have never had such
warm winters before. Besides, the glaciers are melting. It is one of the most
serious problems in the modern world. Some scientists state that global warming
is the result of industrial revolution. Other urgent problems include water
pollution and waste of certain natural resources. Water pollution is mostly the
result of factory wastes. If we had reasonably treated such natural resources
as water, forest, soil, our planet would be in a better shape today.
Unfortunately, not everyone cares about nature and many people think that
natural resources will never end.
Ecological
problems
There are a lot of ecological problems. The most serious
ecological problems are: noise from cars and buses; destruction of wildlife and
countryside beauty; shortage of natural resources; the growth of population;
pollution in its many forms.
Water is everywhere, but there is no ocean
or sea which is not used as a dump. Many rivers and lakes are poisoned too.
Fish and reptiles can t live in them. People can't drink this water. So we have
to clean the water environment.
Another problem is air pollution. Air
pollution influents the health of people. For example: ultraviolet radiation
from the sun can cause skin cancer. Normally the ozone layer in the atmosphere
protects us from such radiation, but if there are holes in the ozone layer
ultraviolet radiation can get to the earth. Many scientists think that these
holes are the result of air pollution.
Also we have problem with nuclear
pollution. Nuclear pollution cannot be seen but its effect can be terrible.
To make air clear clean again we need good
filters at nuclear power stations, at factories, in cars and buses.
Another problem is growth of population.
They don't have enough places to live. They need more water, more food. So it
is the reason of the shortage of the natural resources. It is very difficult to
solve this problem.
Also one of the most serious problems is
green house effect. It works like this: sunlight gives us heat. Some of the
heat warms the atmosphere and some of the heat goes back into space. Nowadays
the heat can't go into space. That's why winter and summer temperatures in many
places have become higher. If the temperature continue growing up the snow on
the mountains and ice will melt, so the most of the earth will be under water.
So every person has to understand how
important it is to solve these problems, that endanger people's life.
People
have lived on our planet for many years. They lived and live on different
continents, in different countries. People depend on their planet, on the sun,
on animals and plants around them. People must take care of Earth.
Wildlife
Our
ecology becomes worse and worse with every new day. Many species of animals and
birds are disappearing nowadays. People destruct wildlife, cut down trees to
make furniture. They forget that people can’t live without trees and plants,
because they fill air with oxygen. And, of course, great problems are
population and animals destruction.
The main reason of pollution is rubbish.
Most of our rubbish goes to big holes in the ground, called ‘dumps’. But dumps
are very dangerous for our life ‘cause’ they are full of rats, which can carry
infections away from dumps. Another way to get rid of rubbish is to burn it.
But the fires make poisons, which go into the air and pollute it.
Pollution isn’t the only actual problem.
Every day a big number of animals disappeared. People kill animals for
different aims: e.g. people hunt whales for their meat and oil, elephants for
their tusks, crocodiles for their leather and so on. And also animals are used
for medical experiments. Modern life is bad for animals, birds, fish. The air
isn’t fresh and the water isn’t pure. They don’t have good meal and facilities
for the life. You can find their names in the Red Book.
Of course, people can’t stay indifferent
to these problems. There are a lot of special organizations, which try to save
our nature. The most known are: The Royal Society for the prevention of cruelty
to animals (The RSPCA), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Greenpeace.
The RSPCA tries to protect animals from
bad use. It operates big nation campaigns aimed at lost pets, circus animals.
The WWF rescued several species of
animals, mammals as well as birds. These organizations also helped to create
more than 250 National parks.
Greenpeace began its work 20 years ago
from saving whales. And now Greenpeace is a world-famous organization, which
saves plants, animals and people. These organization, want to rescue animals,
to help them to survive and to save jungle rain forests, which are in danger of
destruction. And they also help animals cause many of them have already gone as
they have nowhere to live. Their homes, the trees, have disappeared.
We must save wild animals. And we must
find the right way to save land, people and animals. We must take care of
nature, because we are part of it.
Since
ancient times Nature has served Man, being the source of his life. For
thousands of years people lived in harmony with environment and it seemed to
them that natural riches were unlimited. But with the development of
civilization man's interference in nature began to increase.
Air pollution
Large
cities with thousands of smoky industrial enterprises appear all over the world
today. The byproducts of their activity pollute the air we breathe, the water
we drink, the land we grow grain and vegetables on.
Every year world industry pollutes the atmosphere
with about 1000 million tons of dust and other harmful substances. Many cities
suffer from smog. Vast forests are cut and burn in fire. Their disappearance
upsets the oxygen balance. As a result some rare species of animals, birds,
fish and plants disappear forever, a number of rivers and lakes dry up.
The pollution of air and the world's
ocean, destruction of the ozone layer is the result of man's careless
interaction with nature, a sign of the ecological crises.
The most horrible ecological disaster
befell Ukraine and its people after the Chernobyl tragedy in April 1986. About
18 percent of the territory of Belarus were also polluted with radioactive
substances. A great damage has been done to the agriculture, forests and
people's health. The consequences of this explosion at the atomic power-station
are tragic for the Ukrainian, Byelorussian and other nations.
Environmental protection is of a universal
concern. That is why serious measures to create a system of ecological security
should be taken.
Some progress has been already made in
this direction. As many as 159 countries - members of the UNO - have set up
environmental protection agencies. Numerous conferences have been held by these
agencies to discuss problems facing ecologically poor regions including the
Aral Sea, the South Urals, Kuzbass, Donbass, Semipalatinsk and Chernobyl. An
international environmental research centre has been set up on Lake Baikal. The
international organization Greenpeace is also doing much to preserve the
environment.
But these are only the initial steps and
they must be carried onward to protect nature, to save life on the planet not
only for the sake of the present but also for the future generations.
Pollution of water and air is one of the
problems millions of people are concerned today. Acid rains, hydraulic power
stations, radioactive and other poisonous materials, disposal of wastes became
the global disasters. Cars are one of the most harmful and dangerous polluters
of air.
In more than a hundred towns and cities
the concentration of harmful substances in the air and water is over 10 times
the admissible level. Archangelsk is one of the most "dirty" towns of
the country. The Nothern Dvina - our main water source is fully polluted with
industrial and communal wastes - the result of side-effect in the work of three
giant pulp and paper mills. Water is not suitable for drinking.
Another problem is presence of dangerous
radioactive military objects and cosmodrom "Plesetsk". Besides we
must remember about ozone holes over our heads. The ozone layer doesn't protect
us from dangerous ultraviolet rays any more. They get through the atmosphere
causing skin cancer and other diseases.
All these facts make us become more
sensitive towards the environment. The trouble is that our local powers don't
realize enough the danger of the situation and don't pay much attention and money
for construction of cleanser enterprises. Various public organizations and
unofficial movement make their best to change official and public opinion on
the environmental problems. One of the most famous and strong organizations
nowadays is "Green peace". I suppose the solution of the problem
requires the cooperation the people's efforts in nature conservation.
The
word environment means simply what is around us. Some people live in a town
environment; for others, their environment is the countryside.
Water pollution
There is no ocean or sea, which is not
used as a dump. Many seas are used for dumping industrial and nuclear waste.
This poisons and kills fish and sea animals. "Nuclear-poisoned" fish
can be eaten by people.
Many rivers and lakes are poisoned too.
Fish and reptiles can’t live in them. There is not enough oxygen in the water.
In such places all the birds leave their habitats and many plants die. If
people drink this water they can die too. It happens so because factories
produce a lot of waste and pour it into rivers. So they poison water.
Most of the pollution in big cities comes
from cars and buses. More and more often people are told not to be in direct
sunlight, because ultraviolet radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer.
Normally the ozone layer in the atmosphere protects us from such radiation, but
if there are holes in the ozone layer ultraviolet radiation can get to the
earth. Many scientists think that these holes are the result of air pollution.
Both clean air and clean water are
necessary for our health. If people want to survive they must solve these
problems quickly. Man is beginning to understand that his environment is not
just his own town or country, but the whole earth. That’s why people all over
the world think and speak so much about ecology.
Since ancient times people have been
trying to produce more and more to increase human wealth. Nobody noticed that
we were destroying Nature by using it as the source of raw materials, and as
the garbage can for our waste. Nature seemed to be boundless and endless... Far
from it as it turned out. Millions of cars and smoky factories pollute and
spoil the air we breathe in. Pollution is hanging over big cities like an ugly
brown cloud. It is hurting our lungs as well as the life of animals, birds and
plants.
People need wood and paper, so we cut down
our forests. We don't know what to do with waste materials of our industry, so
we pour them into water, bury them into soil, shoot them into atmosphere. We
pollute the water we drink, and the land we live in. People build nuclear power
stations and carry out nuclear tests. As a result, radiation represents one of
the main problems nowadays.
The rapid growth of population in the
world may turn into another grave problem very soon. The speed with which we
are using up our non-renewable resources like oil and gas, is appealing. With
the development of our civilization we have become dangerous to the planet and
to ourselves. What must we do not to find ourselves in a dirty desert in the
near future? This question cannot be ignored.
Some scientists are pessimistic about our
problems. They suppose that we have already reached the point of no return.
Others are more optimistic and believe that our ecological problems are
solvable because more and more people begin to understand how dangerous they
are. There is increasing awareness of people of the real state of the planet.
In many countries environmental protection
agencies and research centers are set up. Such organizations as "Green
Peace" and "Friends of the Earth" try to put pressure upon those
governments that do not care for ecology in their countries. The humankind will
be able to survive only if we all understand that environmental protection is
our universal concern.
Global
warming
"Global
warming" has been introduced by the scientific community and the media as
the term that encompasses all potential changes in climate that result from
higher average global temperatures. Hundreds of scientists from many different
countries are working to understand global warming and have come to a consensus
on several important aspects. In general, Global warming will produce far more
profound climatic changes than simply a rise in global temperature.
An analysis of temperature records shows
that the Earth has warmed an average of 0.5°C over the past 100 years. This is
consistent with predictions of global warming due to an enhanced greenhouse
effect and increased aerosols. Part of the current global warmth is associated
with the tropical El Nino, without which a record global temperature would
probably not have occurred.
The Earth's climate is the result of
extremely complex interactions among the atmosphere, the oceans, the land
masses, and living organisms, which are all warmed daily by the sun's energy.
This heat would radiate back into space if not for the atmosphere, which relies
on a delicate balance of heat-trapping gases - including water vapor, carbon
dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane - to act as a natural
"greenhouse," keeping in just the right amount of the sun's energy to
support life.
For the past 150 years, though, the
atmospheric concentrations of these gases, particularly carbon dioxide, have
been rising. As a result, more heat is being trapped than previously, which in
turn is causing the global temperature to rise. Climate scientists have linked
the increased levels of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere to human
activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural
gas for heating and electricity; gasoline for transportation), deforestation,
cattle ranching, and rice farming.
As the Earth's climate is the result of
extremely complex interactions, scientists still cannot predict the exact
impact on the earth's climate of these rising levels of heat-trapping gases
over the next century. The current best estimate is that if carbon dioxide
concentrations double over preindustrial levels, according to the scientific
possible scenarios, an atmospheric doubling of carbon dioxide could occur as
early as 2050.
In 1995, scientists with the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - the authoritative international
body charged with studying this issue-reached a conclusion in the Second
Assessment Report, which summarizes the current state of scientific knowledge
on global warming, also called climate change.
For the first time ever, the Panel
concluded that the observed increase in global average temperature over the
last century "is unlikely to be entirely natural in origin" and that
"the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human
influence on global climate."
Many years ago people lived in harmony
with the environment because industry was not much developed. Now the situation
is quite different.
People all over the world cannot ignore
the problem of the protection of the environment because of modem industry and
the need for energy.
Newspapers and magazines write a lot about
water pollution, air pollution and land pollution. There are some laws and
decisions on this important question. There are state organizations and
international conventions which pay much attention to this problem.
Many parts of the world are crowded now,
much of our waste, especially waste from factories, electric power stations,
the chemical industry and heavy industry are very dangerous. Fish dies in the
lakes, rivers and seas, forest trees die too.
The problem of radiation has also become a
very important problem because it is very dangerous for health of people.
There is a science, named ecology, which
study the relation between people and their environment. But each of us also
must do everything possible to keep our environment clean for ourselves and for
the next generations.
Computers project that between now and the
year of 2030 we are going to have increase of the average temperature between
1,5-4,5 Degrees C. Sea levels would rise by several metres, flooding coastal
areas and ruining vast tracts of farmland. Huge areas would be infertile and
become uninhabitable. Water contamination could lead to shortages of safe
drinking water. It looks like the end of civilization on the Earth.
For hundreds of thousands of years the
human race has thriven in Earth's environment. But at the end of the 20th
century, we were at a crucial turning point. We have upset nature's sensitive
equilibrium releasing harmful substances into the air, polluting rivers and
oceans with industrial waste and tearing up the countryside to accommodate our
rubbish. These are the consequences of the development of civilization. We are
to stop it by joint efforts of all the people of the world.
The range of environmental problems is
wide. But the matters of people's great concern nowadays are atmosphere and
climate changes, depletion of the ozone layer, freshwater resources, oceans and
coastal areas, deforestation and desertification, biological diversity,
biotechnology, health and chemical safety. United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) concentrates its activities on these issues.
One of the most alarming forms of air
pollution is acid rain. It results from the release into the atmosphere of
sulphur and nitrogen oxides that react with water droplets and return to earth
in the form of acid rain, mist or snow. Acid rain is killing forests (nearly
every species of tree is affected). It has acidified lakes and streams and they
can't support fish, wildlife, plants or insects.
The protective layer of the Earth, the
ozone layer, which protects the Earth from the sun's destructive ultraviolet
rays, is being damaged by chlorofluorocarbons. They are released by the daily
use of industrial and household products: refrigerators, air conditioners, foam
insulation, cleaning chemicals, food packaging. In the ozone layer they attack
the ozone molecules making a "hole". This "hole" allows
more UV rays to penetrate to the Earth. It increases the risk of skin cancer,
weakens the immune system of people. Besides, UV rays influence the oceans, the
growth of plankton, an essential part of the marine-life food chain in the negative
way, reduce economically important-crops (rice, cotton, soy beans). The life
cycle is going to be undermined by the ozone.
It’s generally agreed that the destruction
of the tropical forest has a major impact on the world climate. The tropical
rain forest is a natural recycler, provider and protector for our planet. It
recycles carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, helps determine temperature, rainfall and
other climatic conditions and supports the most diverse ecosystem in the world.
Deforestation could cause one forth of all species on earth to vanish in the
next 25 years. These forests in Amazonia, South-East Asia and West and Central
Africa are being destroyed at an alarming rate of 42 million acres per year.
Conclusion
We
have only a few years to attempt to turn things around. We must review our
wasteful, careless ways, we must consume less, recycle more, conserve wildlife
and nature, act according to the dictum "think locally, think globally,
act locally". To my mind, we are obliged to remove factories and plants
from cities, use modern technologies, redesign and modify purifying systems for
cleaning and trapping harmful substances, protect and increase the greenery and
broaden ecological education. These are the main practical measures, which must
be taken in order to improve the ecological situation.
Some progress has been already made in
this direction. 159 countries-members of the UNO have set up environmental
protection agencies. They hold conferences discussing ecological problems, set
up environmental research centers and take practical urgent measures to avoid
ecological catastrophe. There are numerous public organizations such as
Greenpeace that are doing much to preserve environment. The 5th of June is
proclaimed the World Environmental Day by the UNO and is celebrated every year.
Nowadays people understand how important
it is to solve the environment problems that endanger people’s lives. The most
serious environmental problems are: pollution in its many forms (water
pollution, air pollution, nuclear pollution), noise from cars, buses, planes,
etc., destruction of wildlife and countryside beauty, shortage of natural
resources (metals, different kinds of fuel), the growth of population.
It
is interesting to note that people celebrate the Earth day. This day is
celebrated on the 22nd of April when people demonstrate their concern for a
better environment. It was first held in 1970.
Fortunately,
it’s not too late to solve the ecological problems. We have the time, the money
and the technology to make our planet a better, cleaner and safer place.
Resources
1. en.wikipedia.org
2. www.projectbritain.com
3. www.alleng.ru
4. Видео
фрагменты с Youtube от пользователя Watch Mojo
и Bibigon.ru
аудиоформат
Оставьте свой комментарий
Авторизуйтесь, чтобы задавать вопросы.