Министерство образования республики Беларусь

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ БЕЛАРУСЬ

УО «Белорусский государственный экономический университет»

Т.Г. Корепанова

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

УСТОЙЧИВОЕ РАЗВИТИЕ

Электронное учебно-методическое пособие по дисциплине «Иностранный язык (английский)»

Минск 2009

Рецензент: зав.кафедрой теории и практики английской речи БГЭУ, кандидат филологических наук, доцент Т.Ф. Солонович.

Рекомендовано кафедрой теории и практики английской речи БГЭУ

Корепанова Т.Г.

Sustainable Development = Устойчивое развитие: электронное учеб.-метод. пособие / Т.Г. Корепанова – Минск: БГЭУ, 2009. – 19 c.

Учебно-методическое пособие содержит лексический материал, тексты для чтения и комплекс упражнений и заданий для формирования англоязычных коммуникативных навыков студентов в рамках актуальной темы, предусмотренной типовой программой по дисциплине «Иностранный язык». Предназначено для студентов БГЭУ дневной формы обучения.

Sustainable Development

Mother planet is showing us the red warning light –

“be careful” – she is saying. To take care of the planet

is to take care of our own house.

The Dalai Lama

GETTING STARTED

Discuss the following issues in small groups and then exchange your opinions with the whole class.

1) Why are people all over the world concerned about the future of our planet?

2) Do you agree that we are interdependent on the planet?

3) The natural resources are boundless, aren’t they? What should be done to reduce insatiable consumption of natural resources?

DEVELOPING VOCABULARY

Nouns

aspiration challenge complementary community diversity deterioration engagement ethos fiber framework imperative lot pursuit scope standpoint sustainability sustenance threshold

сильное стремление; желание вызов; сложная задача; проблема взаимозаменяемость сообщество, содружество разнообразие ухудшение, изменение дело, занятие, обязательство моральная цель древесина структура, рамки, пределы, основа обязанность, долг доля, судьба преследование, поиски, занятие размах, охват, сфера точка зрения устойчивость, возoбнoвляемость средства к существованию, жизнеобеспечение порог

Adjectives

durable equitable finite inherent irreversible non-linear pristine sustainable

прочный, долговечный справедливый, равный ограниченный, имеющий предел необъемлемый, присущий необратимый обширный первобытный устойчивый, воспроизводимый, возобновляемый, экологичный, стабильный, сбалансированный

Verbs

alleviate coin compromise embrace enhance encroach entail further merge monitor preserve replenish resolve revive

уменьшать, облегчать создавать новые слова, выражения пойти на компромисс принимать (веру, теорию) увеличивать, усиливать вторгаться, посягать влечь за собой продвигать, содействовать сливать(ся), соединять(ся) контролировать сохранять пополнять, возобновлять решать восстанавливать, возобновлять

Adverbs

therein в течение того или иного времени

1. Complete the sentences with the words below. Mind the form of the words challenge, to monitor, to preserve, to replenish, to merge, to enhance, sustainability

1) …. is a process which tells of a development of all aspects of human life.

2) We must … natural resources for future generations.

3) Three small companies … into a large one.

4) The technology of production will … the resource base.

5) Reducing unemployment will be the main … for the new government.

6) When natural resources are used too fast they can’t be ….

2. Using a dictionary complete the table.

Verbs	Adjectives	Nouns
		challenge
diversify
	sustainable
		resolution
preserve
		engagement
	depletive

3. Make nouns from the following verbs

to diversify

to engage

to aspire

to sustain

to preserve

to merge

4. Form meaningful word combinations using the words from both columns and translate them into Russian.

sustainable finite equitable reviving to further to enhance irreversible

growth rights resources process forestry progress the case of peace

READING

Text 1

1. Read the text with the focus on the following points:

- a growing interest in sustainable development in the temporary world;

- the concern of European countries for sustainable forestry in the 18^th and

19^th centuries;

- the meaning of the word “development in the context of sustainable

development”.

The History

Sustainable development is a buzzword found in much environmental and some economics literature these days. Certainly the idea of sustainable development has become increasingly popular in the contemporary world. New books on sustainable development have been appearing with increasing rapidity since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June of 1992.

The questions are, what is all the fuss about? What is sustainable development anyway? And more importantly, why does sustainable development matter?

The word sustainable comes to us from the foresters of the 18^th and 19^th centuries in Europe. At that time much of Europe was being deforested, and the foresters became increasingly concerned since wood was one of the driving forces in European economy. Wood heated homes and factories, became furniture and other articles of manufacture.

Forests were best harvested from an economic standpoint using clear-cutting techniques. This meant that loggers moved into a tract of a forest and removed all of the trees in the tract. The foresters and especially the German foresters, in response to this crisis developed scientific or sustainable forestry. The idea at that time was simple. If enough trees were planted to replace the wood provided by the trees that were harvested every year, and the growth rate of the entire forest was scientifically monitored to ensure this happened, then the forest would be sustainable. It would always grow enough wood fiber to replace the wood fiber lost to harvesting.

Thus, in this original idea, sustainable means that as a resource is used, it is replaced by growing additional amounts of the resource. In the modern context of the word, sustainable, this is a difficult context because there are many resources, such as oil or iron ore, that cannot be grown. Still, these resources, like trees in Europe’s forests are finite. If all the oil is extracted, there will not be any oil. Still, if humanity is to survive with a civilization for another 1000 years, we are still going to need to heat our homes and fulfill many of the same purposes that oil now fulfills.

The word development, at least as it is used in the phrase sustainable development, has a different history. During the cold war the United States needed to respond to the communist challenge in the Third World that said that communism would bring with it a new standard of living. Walt Rostow, a prominent US government official and economist, developed a competing ideology that he called economic development. Rostow’s answer to the Communist challenge was that it was the civilized world’s task to economically develop the Third World. Thus, according to his model, the poor would be much better off in the long run by embracing democracy and capitalism. If the Third World country would remain anti-communist, they would receive foreign aid, at some point in future, take off and become equal to the economies of Western Europe, the US and Japan.

Thus, development, in the context of sustainable development, means the Third World’s economies will become equal to the developed world’s economies. This, in turn, will alleviate poverty and suffering in poor countries and make the world more equitable for all human beings.

2. Read the text again and say if the following statements are true or false.

1) The idea of sustainable development is not popular in the contemporary world.

2) Oil was the driving force in European countries in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

3)The English foresters developed a new technology to harvest forests.

4)Natural resources are finite.

5)A French government official developed a competing ideology that he called economic development.

6)According to the new ideology the rich would be better off.

3. Scan through the text again searching for the English equivalents for the following collocations:

современный мир; устойчивое развитие; движущая сила; неистощительное лесопользование; темп роста; дополнительное количество; одинаковые цели (задачи); холодная война; уровень жизни; правительственный чиновник; цивилизованный мир; изделия производства; с экономической точки зрения; в ответ на; древесина; иностранная помощь.

Text 2

1. Read the text and complete the outline of its contents given below; some items are suggested to you.

A Short Story of Sustainable Development as a Policy Concept

The report by the United Nation’s Brundtland Commission (1987) marked the beginning of the sustainable development concept. The Commission’s report started the process of making sustainable development an important issue on the world stage.

The Commission identified a number of “common challenges” facing the earth: population and human resources, food security, species and ecosystems, energy, industrial development and urbanization. In the context of these challenges they discussed international environmental problems, what successes had been registered in trying to address those problems, the scope and nature of the environmental problems still facing the world community, and the role of the world’s economic system in developing solutions to these problems.

The Commission presented and defined the phrase, sustainable development. “Sustainable development requires meeting the major needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a better life”. Sustainable development, as a concept, has two primary pillars: economic development and the consumptive use of the world’s natural resources in ways that are sustainable.

The Commission outlined a series of “strategic imperatives” or “critical objectives”, inherent in their concept of sustainable development. These included:

reviving growth;

changing the quality of growth;

meeting essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water and sanitation;

ensuring a sustainable level of population;

conserving and enhancing the resource base;

reorienting technology and managing risk, and

merging environment and economics in decision-making

The Earth Summit

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was held from 3 June through 14 June in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. One hundred and fifty nations sent representatives, 1,400 non-governmental organizations were in attendance.

The major accomplishmentsof UNCED centered around the creation of United Nation’s organizations. The most important of these bodies is the Sustainable Development Commission that was given the task of furthering the work of creating sustainable development policies and procedures throughout the world.

The Summit also adopted the Rio Declaration that includes 27 principles. These principles are especially significant since they represent a series of difficult –to – reach compromises between industrialized and developing countries. Much of the developing world feels that the industrialized countries have used up the world’s environmental resources in the pursuit of development and now wish to protect what environment resources are remaining at the expense of the possibility of economically improving the lot of poor nations. These principles, then, provide a framework for the world’s diplomats in their efforts to improve both environmental and economic conditions around the world. The Rio principles included:

a state’s sovereign right to exploit its own resources in accordance with its own policies, without harming the environment elsewhere; the right to development; environmental protection as an integral part of development; sustainable development that requires reducing “unsustainable patterns of production and consumption” and that promotes “appropriate demographic policies”; access to information and citizen participation… and the polluter pays principles, including the internalization of costs and the use of economic instruments.

Outline

1. The Report by the United Nation’s Brundtland Commission.

1.1. Identification of acute matters facing the mankind.

1.2.

1.3. The definition of sustainable development.

1.4.

2. The Earth Summit.

2.1.

2.2. The principles outlined by the Earth Summit.

2. Match the terms with their definitions.

	challenge	a	keeping sm/sth safe so that he/she it is not harmed or damaged
	issue	b	your aim or purpose
	access	c	a strong desire to do smth
	aspiration	d	the act of using, eating, etc. smth
	objective	e	the chance or right to use or have smth
	consumption	f	the range of subjects that are being discussed or considered
	scope	g	something new and difficult that forces you to make a lot of efforts
	protection	h	a problem or subject for discussion

3. Summarize the context of the text.

Text 3

1. Read the text and focus on the following points:

· the definition of sustainable development

· the definition of sustainability

· three constituent parts of sustainable development and their concerns

Scope and Definitions

The term sustainable development was used by Brundtland Commission which has become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

The field of sustainable development can be conceptually divided into three constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and social-political sustainability.

Sustainability is a process which tells of a development of all aspects of human life affecting sustenance. It means resolving the conflict between the various competing goals, and involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity, of keeping the environment as pristine as naturally possible.

An “unsustainable situation” occurs when natural capital (the sum total of nature’s resources) is used up faster than it can be replenished. Sustainability requires that human activity only uses nature’s resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally.

Economic sustainability is not just about achieving economic growth year on year. It’s about understanding that economic growth is only sustainable if it is simultaneously improves our quality of life and the environment. Economic sustainability can be applied to individuals, families, small and large businesses, communities, governments or world wide organizations.

If environment protection is concerned with the preservation of our natural environment and resources, and economic sustainability is concerned with seeking durable growth solutions therein, then the social – political sphere can be thought of as representative of the more purely human element in the equation. Social-political sustainability too is very much concerned with physical and material standing of peoples, but further that it is concerned with the state of their civil society. Social-political development entails not only the engagement of institutional mechanisms, but also their modification and advancement. Social-political sustainability thus seeks pathways to durable social enrichment and development via the vibrancy and health of a society’s political process.

2. Match the halves.

1.	Sustainable development meets the needs of the present	a	when natural capital is used up faster that it can be replenished.
	Environment protection is concerned	b	pathways to durable social enrichment and development via the vibrancy and health of a society’s political process.
	An unsustainable development occurs	c	not only the engagement of institutional mechanisms but also their modification and advancement.
	Social-political sustainability seeks	d	with the preservation of our natural environment and resources.
	Social-political development entails	e	without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
	Economic sustainability is not just about achieving economic growth	f	to individuals, families, small and large businesses, communities, governments or world wide organizations. world wide organizations.
	Economic sustainability can be applied	g	it is about uderstanding that economic growth is only sustainable if it is simultaneously improves our quality of life and environment.

3. Give Russian equivalents to the following word combinations

an often-quoted definition; to meet one’s needs; constituent parts; economic

prosperity; competing goals; social equity; economic sustainability; physical

and material standing; durable social enrichment; social-political sphere;

social enrichment; via vibrancy and health of a society’s political process

Text 4

1. Read the text and discuss the questions given after it.

Sustainability and Business

The Natural Step (TNS) is a non-profit-making organization founded in 1989 to encourage business to think about sustainability. The objective is to reduce the long-run costs to society of production and distribution. Great care is taken to avoid using resources which cannot be replaced and creating environmental problems generally.

The organization has offices in nine countries including the UK. It works from within companies to change thinking about sustainability. The Natural step asks business to consider four questions.

Does your organization systematically decrease its economic dependence on:

- underground fossil fuels, metals and minerals?

- long-lived unnatural substances (which become hazardous waste)?

- activities which encroach on productive part of nature?

- using a large amount of resources in relation to added human value?

The TNS philosophy aims to integrate sustainability into corporate culture so that it becomes recognized aim for as many forms as possible in the hope that future generations will have access to the resources they need.

The Natural Step is a method of working with a business in order to educate the workforce and management and ‘fit’ the new approach into the actual ethos of the company. This is the hard part. It is often easier to ignore the negative externalities that occur when pollution or other kinds of environmental degradation place, costs on the community as a whole. Such problems are costly to avoid and can make the product less profitable.

The ultimate aim of any business in the commercial world has to be profit maximization, but a relatively new concern for environmental issues could cause businesses to rethink their short-term aims. The money for putting measures into place, to monitor and stop pollution has to come either directly from the consumer in the form of a price rise, making the product less competitive, or from the profits.

Markets are becoming more competitive and production processes more efficient, but on the other hand, the consumer, as one of the most important stakeholders in a business, is becoming more aware of environmental degradation, Can firms now afford to risk not being environmentally aware?

The word ‘sustainability’ is being used more frequently in the world of business. Modern consumers are aware of the issues but still want cheap, good quality products. Economic theory suggests that in a market economy firms that provide the cheapest, and best quality, products will be the survivors. However, this may not always be the case. Today’s consumers want more, and are often willing to pay more.

Ethical trading is becoming a selling point. Good communication with consumers and the right promotional techniques mean companies can charge more for their products without losing customers. Ethical trading is now one of the recognized ways to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

1) What is the objective of the Natural Step?

2) Now many questions should businesses consider concerning sustainable development?

3) The Natural Step is a method of working with a business in order to educate the workforce and management, isn’t it?

4) What is the ultimate aim of any business?

5) Where does money for putting measures to monitor and stop pollution have to come from?

6) What helps companies to charge more for their products?

2. Give a gist of the contents of the text.

Text 5

1. Read the text and entitle it.

Sustainable development looks at now and the future. It involves the things

taken for granted - such as clean air and a healthy water supply - balanced with a growing society. It is also about leaving enough natural resources, a well-managed economy and a healthy environment for future generations.

Ultimately, sustainable development will result from our individual and collective efforts to find solutions to development challenges, solutions that are good for our communities, good, for the economy, and good for the environment.

To a large extent, what can you do depends on where you live and what you do in your daily life. For example, someone living near the Atlantic coast must be involved in shoreline conservation activities, while a prairie resident might have an interest in seasonal wetlands. Rural communities usually face a different set of sustainability issues than their urban counterparts. And high-school students will likely have interests and abilities that are different from business people. But we can do more to live sustainably.

SPEAKING

1. Discuss the following questions in groups and exchange your opinions.

1) What should be done to preserve our environment for future generations?

2) What are sustainability issues facing your community?

3) What can you do to improve ecology in the place you live?

WRITING

1. Write an essay on the topic “Sustainable Development in the context of contemporary world”.

An essay should consist of:

Introduction	State the purpose and context of your report
Development	Summarize your information in 2 – 3 paragraphs
Conclusion	End with a general conclusion

Remember to use the appropriate linking words and phrases: to start with, in the first place, secondly, thirdly, what is more, furthermore, especially, on the whole, however, on the other hand, finally.

2. Note down a few of the suggestions on improving the ecological situation in your region.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Text 1

The Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement negotiated as an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, which was adapted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992). All parties to the UNFCCC can sign or ratify the Kyoto Protocol, while non-parties to the UNFCCC cannot. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the third session of the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan.

The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement under which industrialized countries will reduce their collective emission of greenhouse gases by 5.2% compared to the year 1990 (but note that, compared to the emissions levels that would be expected by 2010 without the Protocol, this limitation represents a 29% cut).

The goal is to lower overall emissions of greenhouse gases averaged over the period of 2008-2012. National limitations range from 8% reductions for the European Union and some others, to 7% for the US, 6% for Japan, 0% for Russia and permitted increases of 8% for Australia and 10% for Iceland.

Most provisions of the Kyoto Protocol apply to developed countries. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to set a common but differentiated responsibilities.

The parties agreed that:

1. The largest share of historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases originated in developed countries;

2. Per capita emissions in developing countries are still relatively low;

3. 3. The share of global emissions originating in developing countries will grow to meet their social and development needs.

In other worlds, China, India, and other developing countries were not included in any numerical limitation of the Kyoto Protocol because they were not the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions during the pre-treaty industrialization period. However, even without the commitment to reduce according to the Kyoto target, developing countries do share the common responsibility that all countries have in reducing emissions.

Text 2

UN Environment Programme

The UN Environment Programme (of UNER) coordinates United Nations environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and encourages sustainable development through sound environmental practices. In was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in December 1972 and is headquartered in Gigiri, Nairobi, Kenya. UNER also has six regional offices and various country offices.

Its activities cover a wide range of issues regarding the atmosphere, marine and terrestrial ecosystems. It has played a significant role in developing international environmental conventions, promoting environmental science and information and illustrating the way those can work in conjunction with policy, working on the development and implementation of policy with national governments and regional institution and working in conjunction with environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

UNER has been active in funding and implementing environmentally related development projects. UNER has aided in the development of guidelines and treaties on issues such as the international trade in potentially harmful chemicals, transboundary air pollution, and contamination of international waterways.

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