Comprehension check. 1) Look back in the text and find words that have similar meaning to:

1) Look back in the text and find words that have similar meaning to:

a) enormous (adj)

b) influenced (past participle)

c)very small (adj)

d) melt (v)

e)main (adj)

f) pollution (n)

g) harm (n)

h) leads to (v)

i) deactivate (v)

j) degree (n)

k) completely finished (past participle.)

l) serious (adj)

m) whole (adj)

n) widespread (adj)

o) result (n)

p) problem (n)

q) fall into pieces (v)

Focus on language

1. Complete the table. Turn the words given in the table into verbs, nouns and adjectives. Use a dictionary if necessary.

VERB	NOUN	ADJECTIVE
	damage
exhaust
	increase
	emission
absorb
		industrial
	extinction
		developing/developed
contaminate
contribute
	pollutant
decline
	harm
endanger
		expansive
	reaction

Practice

1. Fill in the gaps with the right form of the words in capitals.

a) Floods and droughts are serious issues in ……… countries.	DEVELOP
b) We are worried by the ……… amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.	INCREASE
c) There should be laws to protect ……… species from poaching.	DANGER
d) By the year 2030, 25% of all animals, birds, fish and insects may be ……….	EXTINCTION
e) Vehicle exhausts are the major ……… of the air.	CONTAMINATE
f) The ……… effect of deforestation on wildlife is growing bigger every year.	HARM
g) The ……… number of whales in the oceans is one of the major concerns for marine biologists,	DECLINE
h) I have never worked with such highly ……………. substances!	REACTION
i) It is very costly to restore historical structures and buildings ……… by acid rain.	DAMAGE

2. Read these sentences. What grammar rule do they follow?

§ Acid rain is strongly acidic rain which/that absorbs microscopic particles of nitric acid or sulfuric acid as it falls towards the ground.

§ In Asia, acid rain is having truly serious consequences in China, which is the second largest producer of coal in the world.

§ As the acidity level of soil increases, aluminum and other harmful metals contained in the soil begin to dissolve, which also contributes to the death of aquatic life.

Relative clauses with which, that, who, whose and where § If relative clauses give essential information they do not have commas. e.g. A good lab assistant is one whoseequipment works well.   § If relative clauses give extra information, and can be left out, they have a comma before the clause and a comma or a full stop after it. e.g. My junior brother wants to study in Boston university, where I did my postgraduate course.   § Which/thatcan be omitted if they are the object in a relative clause. e.g. The book (that/which) he is reading now is about great maritime explores.   § Whichcan be used in a relative clause to refer to the whole sentence. e.g. Acid rain makes soil highly acidic, which leads to the drying and death of forests.   § Whatis used in relative clauses to mean the thing that. e.g. What the lecturer said about the consequences of acid rain was shocking.

Practice

1. Put in which, what or that. Put comma if necessary.

a) She cycles to work every day, which makes her healthy.

b) Everything ………… he told us about water pollution made me upset.

c) Graffiti is vandalism. This is ……… we need to understand.

d) The world’s population is growing very fast ……… makes the world critically short for food and water.

e) Even with just an A-level in Biology I could understand ……… they were doing.

f) Planting trees is a great thing ……… also makes us feel better and encourage less littering.

g) I did everything ……… I could to save an entangled seal.

h) She joined a Girl Scout team ………… surprised us all.

i) Our modern lifestyle is destroying the fragile environment ………leads to the environmental catastrophe.

Get real

Search the environmental websites or specialized magazines to get information about the ways to solve the acid rain problem. Make notes on what you have found and report back to the class.

Listening

Recording 5.1

1. Discuss as a class.

§ Why is the word ‘green’ used when we speak about environmental protection?

§ What green organizations do you know? What are their purposes?

§ What a ‘green city’ would be like?

2. Work with a partner. Brainstorm as many environmental problems typical for big cities as you can. Compare your ideas as a class.

Example: bad s ewage water treatment, dumpsites/landfills, etc.

3. Check if you know what these phrases mean. Use a dictionary if necessary.

· reverse the effects	· black tar roof
· energy costs	· environmentally safe center
· renewable energy sources	· waste center
· urban heat islands	· to power up homes
· to release zero pollution	· green building methods
· rating systems	· environmental city planning
· solar (powered) water heaters	· a reduced property tax rate

4. You are going to listen to a radio programme on some steps that city governments are taking to protect the environment. As you listen take notes to answer the questions.

a) What is Kyoto Protocol aimed at?

b) Did the USA sign the Kyoto Protocol agreement?

c) What was the initiative of American mayors across the country?

d) How many cities and towns in the USA joined this initiative?

e) What does “going green” mean?

f) What can be done at the local level?

g) What are the strong and weak points of green buildings and systems?

h) What rating system for making environmentally safe buildings is used?

i) What kind of ratings does the Energy Star program give?

5. Listen to the programme again and complete the chart.

COUNTRY/CITY	INITIATIVE	AIM/PURPOSE
	replacing building's tar roof with …………………………
	a program to make compost fertilizer out of dead leaves, plants and food waste
		to create energy
	using hydrogen-powered buses
..........., Greensburg
	a Climate Change Action Plan
		helps to reduce...........................
	water heaters powered by.............
China	............... Dongtan
	the Masdar City project

What do you think?

Ø Do you think ‘green’ initiatives will become popular all over the world? Why?/Why not?

Ø Would you like to live in an eco-city?

Ø Have you ever participated in any ‘green’ activity?

Ø Do you think such initiatives can help to improve the community?

Speaking

Tool box: Presenting another point of view Some of the people think that … Each of the interviewees believes that … Most of the people agree/disagree that … Hardly anybody/Nobody feels that … According to the majority of people … Two of ten interviewees say … 50% of people point out that… Very few people/All the people claim that … etc.

Interview ten of your fellow students about the most serious environmental problems in your hometown. How different are their opinions? Discuss your findings as a class. Use the phrases in the Tool box.

Writing

Complete the bar chart below marking each bar with the results of your interviews. Summarize your findings in a paragraph.

Reading

1. Do you know what a greenhouse is? What for do we use it? What is the

Greenhouse effect and how is it related to global warming?

2. Work in groups. Brainstorm ideas about global warming: signs, causes and consequences. Discuss your ideas as a class.

3. Before you read the text match each word in A with its definition in B.

A	B
1) amount	a) to send out sth such as light, heat, etc.
2) effect	b) to have an influence on sb/sth
3) emit	c) a layer of a substance that has formed naturally underground
4) simultaneously	d) a result, influence of sth that has happened:
5) deposit	e) a quantity of smth
6) evident	f) happening or done at the same time as sth else
7) delay	g) a result, influence
8) affect	h) a substance added to soil to make plants grow more successfully
9) consequences	i) clear, easily seen
10) fertilizer	j) a period of time when sb/sth has to wait

4. There are some well-known facts as well as myths about the problem of global warming. Match each myth with the right fact below.

Global Warming: Facts vs. myths

a) The buildup of carbon dioxide will lead to a "greening" of the Earth because plants can utilize the extra carbon dioxide to speed their growth.

c) Human activities contribute only a small fraction of carbon dioxide emissions, an amount too small to have a significant effect on climate, particularly since the oceans absorb most of the extra carbon dioxide emissions.

b): Even if the Earth is warming, we can't be sure how much, if any, of the warming is caused by human activities.  

MYTHS:

e) Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere fairly quickly, so if global warming turns out to be a problem, we can wait to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions until after we start to see the impacts of warming.  

d) The warming cannot be due to greenhouse gases, since changes in temperature and changes in greenhouse gas emissions over the past century did not occur simultaneously.  

FACTS:

1. Over millions of years, animals and plants lived, died and were compressed to form huge deposits of oil, gas and coal. In little more than 300 years, however, we have burned a large amount of this storehouse of carbon to supply energy. Today, the by-products of fossil fuel use - billions of tons of carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide), methane, and other greenhouse gases - form a blanket around the Earth, trapping heat from the sun, raising temperatures on the ground, and steadily

changing our climate.

2. The slow heating of the oceans creates a significant delay between the time when carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere and the moment when changes in temperature occur. This is one of the main reasons why we don't see changes in temperature at the same time as changes in greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, there are many other factors that affect year-to-year variation in the Earth's temperature such as volcanic eruptions, etc. Still, scientific evidence points clearly to anthropogenic (i.e. human-made) greenhouse gases as the main reason for climate change.

3. Carbon dioxide, a gas created by the burning of fossil fuels (like gasoline and coal), is the most important human-made greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use is produced in huge quantities and can stay in the atmosphere for as long as 200 years. Thus we need to act now if we want to avoid the increasingly dangerous consequences of climate change in the future.

4. Before human activities began to dramatically increase carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from natural sources closely matched the amount that was absorbed through natural processes, for example, through photosynthesis. Some carbon is later released back to the atmosphere. This balance has now been upset by human activities, which since the Industrial Revolution, have put twice as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than can be naturally removed by the oceans and forests. This has resulted in carbon dioxide levels higher than they have been in the last 420,000 years.

5. Carbon dioxide can act as a fertilizer for some plant species under some conditions. However, in nature, plant nutrients like nitrogen as well as water are often in short supply. Thus, even if plants have extra carbon dioxide available, their growth might be limited by a lack of water and nutrients. Finally, climate change itself could lead to decreased plant growth in many areas because of increased drought, flooding and heat waves.

(Adapted from IPCC, 2001. Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis)

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