Муниципальная научно-практическая конференция учащихся
"Futurum"
Работа «Экология Великобритании»
Секция: Английский язык: страноведение (Актуальные проблемы современности. Взгляд в будущее).
г. Саратов
Ecology of Great Britain
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................2
CHAPTER 1: AIR POLLUTION...............................................3
CHAPTER 2: NOISE POLLUTION...........................................5
CHAPTER 3: WATER POLLUTION……………………………..5
CHAPTER 4: LAND POLLUTION……………………………….6
CHAPTER 5: ACID RAINS.......................................................6
CHAPTER 6: GREENHOUSE EFFECT.................................. 7
CHAPTER 7: LITTER.............................................................. 7
CHAPTER 8: TIPS FOR RESCUING THE PLANET...............8
CHAPTER 9: ECOLOGICAL MOVEMENTS AND
ORGANIZATIONS……………………………………………9
CHAPTER 10: СONCLUSION.................................................10
BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................11
INTRODUCTION
There are a lot of problems facing people on the planet Earth nowadays. But the most important problem concerning the people of the whole world is an ecological problem. If many years ago people lived in harmony with the environment, today the interference in the Nature has reached such a degree that it becomes dangerous for their lives.
People have been polluting the world around them for thousands and thousands of years. But until now pollution was not such a serious problem. In the past, there were not many people and lots of room in the world, so they can move to another place when their settlements became dirty. Now many parts of the world are overcrowded, people live in big cities and much of the waste, especially waste from factories, electric power stations, the chemical industry and heavy industry are very dangerous.
For a long time too little attention was paid to the environment. Today the situation is quite different. In the last few years situation with the ecological problems became worse. And if the same tendencies remain for the next years our planet will soon become uninhabited. The ecological problems are not the problems of a single isolated country. They are global in character and involve all countries in the world. People all over the world are worried about what is happening to the environment because of modern industry and the need for more energy. Since the late 1960’s people have become alarmed with the danger of pollution. Newspapers and magazines write about air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution.
Pollution is as complicated as serious problem. Automobiles are polluting the air, but they provide transportation for the people. Factories pollute the air and the water but they provide jobs for people and produce necessary goods. Fertilizers and pesticides are important for growing crops but they can ruin soil. Thus, people would have to stop using many useful things if they wanted to end pollution immediately.
The environment in Great Britain is also really in great danger.
The range of environmental problems is wide:
pollution,
smog,
noise,
acid rains,
global warming,
“holes” in the ozone layer,
the greenhouse effect,
ultraviolet light
CHAPTER 1: «AIR POLLUTION»
The main problem is the air pollution. In many towns and cities the concentration of harmful substances in the air is over ten times the admissible level, because with the development of civilization man’s interference in nature began to increase. Large cities with thousands of smoky industrial enterprises appear all over the world today. Environmental problems are very acute in densely populated regions. Every year world industry pollutes the atmosphere with about 1000 million tons of a dust and other harmful substances.
There are 5 big cities which pollute the air in Great Britain: Birmingham, Scunthorpe, Liverpool, London and Edinburgh. There are a lot of industrial enterprises in these cities which pollute the air. By quantity of thrown out harmful substances cities are allocated in Great Britain:
Scunthorpe – 17.757 thousand tons a year
Edinburgh – 2.243 thousand tons a year
Birmingham - 11.628 thousand tons a year
Liverpool - 51.263 thousand tons a year
London - 6.716 thousand tons a year
Polluted air can cause illnesses and even death.
Many cities suffer from smog. It is the most important problem of big cities. In big cities thousands of automobiles add tons of poison to the atmosphere every day. Cars are the biggest polluters today; maybe we should use public transport more often because it is more environmentally friendly than cars.
CHAPTER 2: «NOISE POLLUTION»
One form of large urban cities is noise, a special kind of environmental pollution and most of it is made by transport, especially by city traffic, by trucks, trains, sea and river boats in ports, planes near airports, by locomotives and passing very badly for health of people, destructing a person’s mind.
Noise pollution negatively affects our health and well being. The problems related to noise include: hearing loss, stress, high blood pressure, sleep loss, destruction, lost productivity, and a general lowering of the quality of life.
Every year railway enterprises throw into the atmosphere nearly 40 thousand tons of harmful substances and 300 kinds of harmful substances which change the structure of air. These substances get into the water, so many rivers, oceans and lakes are much polluted. Near the railway stations the concentration of soot and carbon is much high than the admissible level.
CHAPTER 3: «WATER POLLUTION»
Another great problem is water pollution. The greatest environment disaster afflicting the planet is the scourge of dirty drinking water. It kills 2.2 million a year in developing countries. Most victims are children.
40% of people live in countries where water is scarce: by 2025 this is expected to rise to 66%. About 1.2 billion people do not have safe, clean water to drink.
In Great Britain there are 35 rivers. The general extent of the rivers makes 4012 kilometer.
The largest lakes in Great Britain are Loch Ness (about 400 sq. Km) in northern Ireland, as well as Loch Lomond and Loch Ness in Scotland.
There is a tendency to worse of the quality of water in all rivers, lakes of the country last years. In addition to this, the debris in the UK's oceans has a serious impact on marine life. Debris is such a major problem in the oceans because it destroys marine life and causes fatal consequences for countless sea creatures.
CHAPTER 4:" LANDS POLLUTION"
The next problem is the land pollution because good plants can’t grow on the polluted land. Every year more than 20 billion tons of precious topsoil is blown or washed off the land. 70% of the dry lands used for agriculture - nearly a third of the world`s land area - is threatened by being turned into desert.
In the UK the worse of fertility is connected with the bad agricultural cultivation of land, using of chemicals, and pollution of land with oil products and even heavy metals.
The environmental safety of nuclear and hydroelectric power engineering is beginning to assume paramount importance, because when people built and exploit hydroelectric power stations they change the structure and properties of soil and water.
The most horrible disaster which happened in April 1986 befell Belarus and Ukraine and their people. As a result of the Chernobyl tragedy Belarus and Ukraine was polluted with radioactive substances. Great damage has been done to the agriculture, forests and people’s health.
CHAPTER 5: «АСID RAINS»
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 kills forests, lakes and rivers.
The protective layer of the Earth the ozone layer which protects the Earth from the sun’s destructive UV (ultraviolet) rays, is being damaged by CFCs (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. The destroying of the ozone layer is dangerous, because it protects the Earth from the space radiation, which is one of the most dangerous things.
CHAPTER 6: «GREENHOUSE EFFECT»
The atmosphere pollution is also dangerous because of the greenhouse effect. It means that climate becomes warmer and warmer every year. As long ago as 1960s Professor Bert Boblin predicted "global warming", caused by an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and would lead to significant changes in the Earth climate. At the time his predictions were regarded as science fiction. But most experts now agree that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will double in the next 50 years and the temperatures worldwide will rise. This is dangerous because it courses the melting of Arctic ice and the level of the Ocean can become higher. So, water will cover some land.
Many experts believe that the greenhouse effect will bring significant changes to the Earth`s climate though they don`t all agree how long this will take, or what form it will take.
CHAPTER 7: «LITTER»
Another problem of big cities is sewage systems. The sewage from many houses pollutes rivers and lakes and may even make them die. There is a lot of waste in such cities as London, Liverpool.
Litter is another issue that people face in big cities. Many countries bury and forget about millions of tons of rubbish every year. It is known that in a year a family with two children throws away about 50 kilos of paper and about 60 kilos of plastic.
The Green World reports say that in on year the average person throws away about 70 food cans, 34 cans of pet food, about 70 drink cans. Every year each person produces about 57 kilograms of plastic waste. As a result of it big cities today look more like garbage dumps.
Rubbish is very harmful for the atmosphere so we should not leave it anywhere we want.
CHAPTER 8: «TIPS FOR RESCUING THE PLANET»
It seems that it is difficult to stop pollution and all countries must work together to solve this problem.
That is why Great Britain is cooperating in the field of environmental protection with the USA, Canada, Norway, Finland and other countries. People must discuss different ecological problems and make correct conclusion. Only common efforts of all the people of the world will help to stop further pollution of the Earth.
It is necessary for young people to participate in the environmentalist movement to save our Earth from catastrophe. We must take care of it for ourselves and for the next generation. Each of the land, the air and the water must be clean. Our Earth is in a very dangerous situation and we must do everything possible to save our Earth.
There is a good formula of RRR: it is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
We should not cut trees and other plants, because deforestation alters the amount of water in the soil and groundwater and moisture in the atmosphere.
Plant a tree, because trees are great source of oxygen.
We must collect waste properly so it does not get into water or land.
We can reduce the usage of electricity. Just by lowering the
Temperature in your house by 2C you can save a lot of energy. Switch off light bulbs when you are not in the room, and computers, TVs and stereos when you leave them overnight.
Use less drinking water. For example, when we clean teeth and let the water run, we lose two or three liters of water. If you multiply 3 litters by the number of people in you city you will see that it is a lot. So don`t leave the tap running when you brush your teeth. Take showers, not bath. Wash the dishes by hand.
We can reduce the usage of packing and buying things in plastic packs. It is not difficult to avoid products with unnecessary packaging. Take your own shopping bag to the supermarket, rather than using up countless flimsy plastic ones, or use boxes.
We can recycle paper, aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles.
Walk, don`t drive. Vehicles are amount the worst sources of air pollution. Walk short distances, ride a bicycle, or use public transport if it is available.
Avoid products that are dangerous to the ozone layer. Look for ozone-friendly sprays and keep away from genetically modified food.
These things are very easy and every man can help a lot to protect nature. It is a duty of all people. Nature is a source of our life and destroying it we destroy ourselves. People forget that natural resources are not endless ever though they seem unlimited.
CHAPTER 9: «ECOLOGICAL MOVEMENTS AND ORGANIZATIONS»
It is not enough to speak, it’s more important to do something. People are beginning to realise that environmental problems are not somebody else’s. They join and support various international organizations and green parties such as “Greenpeace” and “Friends of the Earth”, “The World Wild Fund”. They carry out numerous campaigns against the global environment pollution. Due to such organizations many laws aimed at environmental protection have been passed. For example:
Monitoring of land,
Monitoring of woods and forests,
Monitoring of animals world,
Monitoring of air condition,
Monitoring of water,
Monitoring of radiation and so on.
CHAPTER 10: CONCLUSUON
To draw a conclusion I can say that it’s up to choose what to do to contribute to the saving of our planet. I want everybody on the Earth to stop further pollution of our planet.
I have chosen this topic because it worries me and all people of the whole world. It is the most important problem nowadays.
I conducted a survey among my classmates: "What can be done to improve the environment."
-to form ecological culture – 100%
-participate in environmental protection activities – 93%
-participation in cleaning the school grounds - 62%
-throw garbage in strictly designated places – 76%
-help in the improvement of the territory adjacent to the house -50%
People must remember: the planet Earth is only a tiny part of the Universe, but it`s the only place where human beings can live!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. The textbook for pupils of 10 - 11 classes of educational institutions of profile level in 2 parts. General biology. P. M. Borodin, L.V.Vysotskaya, G. M. Dymshits. 2008
2. Nesterova N.M. Country Geography: Great Britain. - M.: Phoenix. - 2006
3. "Environment and health". G.P.Zarubin. M: Knowledge. 1999.
4. "City ecology: Urboekologiya". G. S. Kamerilova. M: Education. 1998.
Internet. Used resources of the Uniform collection of digital educational resources (http://school-collection.edu.ru)
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