Technological development and ecology problems

For millennia man had to struggle against nature in order to survive and develop. For many thousands of years man remained weak while nature was omnipotent. However, as economy developed and the scientific and technological revolution took place, the correlation of forces between man and nature changed. Man gradually grew so strong that he dared to declare himself the “king of nature” and contemplated conquering and remoulding nature to his liking. In his conquer of nature man became so great that his economic achievements began to have an increasingly negative effect on nature, on the biosphere.

Road and factory constructions, industrial development take away to seven million hectares of land every year. Forest disappears at a rate of 20 hectares a minute. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 76 animal species and several hundred plant species of the Earth became extinct in the last 60 years alone.

Today, animals and plants perish not so much due to their physical extermination by hunting, fishing, or open-cast mining, as due to the production of chemical and other industrial pollutants, poisoning the biosphere.

Each year the world economy ejects into the atmosphere over 200 million of carbon monoxide, more than 50 million tons of diverse hydrocarbons, 120 million tons of ash and nearly 150 million tons of sulphur dioxide. They fall back upon the Earth in the form of “acid rains”.

Expansion of man’s activities in outer space and mastering nuclear energy make the relationship between man and nature still more complicated. In view of this, nature and environment protection becomes one of the major ecological problems. Today it is clear that economic, social, technological and biological processes are closely interrelated. We must consider modern production as a complicated ecological and economic system. It is only a strictly scientific approach to the industrial and technological development that can solve ecological problems.

Nature and environment protection must become one of the major functions of the state, reflecting the concept of society’s attitude to the environment. It has to be a constitutional principle when government agencies together with public organisations supervise permanently ecological conditions in the country and support initiatives and proposals on nature conservation. Today more and more people in various countries begin to understand that countries both far and near one another are ecologically interdependent. Therefore all nations must cooperate in solving global problems of ecology.

Task 5.

Find in the text English equivalents to the following Ukrainian words and word combinations:

боротися, вижити, розвиватись, науково-технічна революція, економічні досягнення, будівництво доріг, хімічні та промислові забруднювачі, чадний газ, відкритий космос, атомна енергія, відношення суспільства до навколишнього середовища, конституційний закон, екологічно взаємозалежні країни.

Task 6.

Translate the following English words and word combinations into Ukrainian:

in order to, to be omnipotent, the correlation of forces, to declare, conquering and remoulding nature, at a rate of, animal species, to become extinct, to perish, hunting, fishing, open-cast mining, diverse hydrocarbons, acid rain, nature and environment protection, global problems of ecology.

Task 7.

Explain the following words and word combinations in English:

protection, pollutants, biosphere, ecologically interdependent, outer space.

Task 8.

Translate the following word combinations into Ukrainian, paying attention to adverbs:

gradually grew, increasingly negative, closely interrelated, strictly scientific, permanently supervise, ecologically interdependent.

Task 9.

Translate the following sentences into English:

1. З розвитком науки та техніки людина змогла підкорити природу до своїх уподобань та потреб.

2. Щороку через людську діяльність зникають сотні гектарів лісів, багато видів рослин та тварин.

3. Промислові та хімічні забруднювачі погіршують стан навколишнього середовища.

4. Держава має створити єдину промислово-екологічну систему для контролю стану навколишнього середовища.

Task 10.

Put the verbs in brackets into Past Simple or Past Continuous Tense:

1. Students (to spend) 3 weeks at the research laboratory last winter.

2. The environmental situation in Ukraine (to get worse).

3. The state (to carry out) different laws, reflecting the concept of society’s attitude to the environment.

4. It (to rain) all day and the roads were very wet.

5. Last spring (to be) wonderful. The sun (to shine) and the birds (to sing).

Task 11.	First, fill in the table with the necessary verb forms. Then choose five verbs and make up sentences using the Past Simple:
	Infinitive		Past Simple		Past Participle
	be
	become
	begin
	do
	get
	go
	have
	keep
	make
	write

Task 12.	Prove the statement: At present the nature and environment protection is one of the major tasks of mankind.
Task 13.	Write a short essay on the topic: Negative effects of industrial development on nature.

Such words may be useful:

road and factory constructions, industrial development, production of chemical and other industrial pollutants, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, sulphur dioxide, acid rains, take away, forest, to disappear, animal species, plant species, perish, poisoning the biosphere, to eject, complicated ecological and economic system.

Words and word combinations to be memorized:
	ash	зола, попіл
	conquer	підкорення, завоювання
	constitutional principle	конституційна норма
	to contemplate	розглядати, вважати
	correlation of forces	співвідношення сил
	to dare	насмілюватись
	to declare	проголошувати, наголошувати
	to disappear	зникати
	diverse	різноманітний
	environment protection	захист навколишнього середовища
	factory constructions	будівництво заводів
	industrial pollutants	промислові забруднювачі
	interdependent	взаємозалежність
	millennia	тисячоліття
	omnipotent	всемогутній, величезний
	open-cast mining	відкрита розробка
	to remould	змінювати, підлаштовувати
	to perish	гинути, зникати
	physical extermination	фізичне винищення
	plant	1) рослина, 2) завод
	to remain	залишатися
	scientific approach	науковий підхід
	to struggle	боротися
	to survive	вижити, продовжити існування
	weak	слабкий

UNIT 6	ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY II
Task 1.	Discuss with the partners in your group what pollution is. What can be polluted?

Task 2.

Think of the possible measures for nature protection and present your thoughts in a few sentences.

Task 3.

Pay attention to the pronunciation of the letters ‘wh’:

a) what, when, where, why, wheel, overwhelming, while, whale;

b) who, whose, whom, whole, wholly, wholesale, whoever.

Task 4.

You are going to read about pollution in Ukraine. Six sentences have been removed from the text. Choose from the sentences (A-G) the one which fits each gap (1-6). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. The first has been done for you.

A. Other Ukrainian cities with major chronic air pollution problems include Kyiv, Komunarsk, Makiivka and Odesa.

B. The majority of states support initiatives and proposals of our country on Nature Conservation.

C. Hundreds of small rivers supply water for three-quarters of the villages and half of Ukraine’s cities.

D. Moreover, surface runoff from industrial territories is highly contaminated.

E. As a result the sea’s salinity has increased by more than 40 per cent since the 1950s.

F. Such contamination originates from human activities that create waste products.

G. Almost all surface waters of Ukraine belong to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov basins.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16