GO GREEN or Technology and Progress
статья по английскому языку (10 класс)

GO GREEN or Technology and Progress

Environmental problems are, evidently,  the most important problems of our world. There are a lot of sources about modern ecological situation. People all over the world are concerned about our environment. Many lessons in our school curriculum are devoted to this topic too, so is the lesson in the 11ht form “Technology vs. Environment”.

         If we look at the apple and imagine it’s our Earth we can mentally divide it into 4 pieces. Three quarters of the Earth surface is water and only 1/4 is land. One half of it is habitable. The rest of the land is the deserts, mountains, frozen ice-caps and other places where people cannot live in. And now we can cut this half into four parts. It’s impossible to believe but only 1/32 gives us food and shelter. And it will be a catastrophe if we destroy it. So we should think over this problem much more seriously and find out ways to save our fragile planet.

Such lesson is better structured when it takes the form of a conference. The class is divided into 2 teams: Environmentalists and Technical Promoters. Students are given some time before the conference begins to prepare the material (quotations, poems, songs, interesting facts, etc.) for their respective teams.  Environmentalists give facts about global warming, pollution, and health hazards. Environmentalists’ motto is GO GREEN, LIVE GREEN. One of the emotionally appealing arguments was given by a student: “It's amazing how people can get so excited about a rocket to the moon and not give a damn about smog, oil leaks, the devastation of the environment with pesticides, hunger, disease. When the poor share some of the power that the affluent now monopolize, we will give a damn^[1]”. Technical Promoters give their arguments about the progress in different fields of our life (medicine, technology) to make life of men better. They talk about exploration of space, ocean, etc. LONG LIVE THE PROGRESS is the motto of their team.

The heated debate makes students come to terms and they formulate it as the necessity of progress, but its products should be environment-friendly and both teams jointly state that the progress is inevitable, but the ecological situation should necessarily be considered. Their ideas are supported by already existing facts form different Internet sources (e.g. EcoNews). For example, the invention of an eco-TV by Samsung. It is razor-blade thin and takes up 40 percent energy less than an ordinary LCD TV. Eco-cities and eco-tourism are also two attractive arguments. There is a holiday that should be celebrated by all the people of planet Earth – the Earth Day that encourages us to cherish our home.  

Organize all efforts to discard the waste,
EPA^[2] may be called to quench any quest !
Invite friends to attend the Earth Day Acts,
And define each role to convey all facts !
Reward the guys for a job well done -
To share the benefits and all the fun !

Well, now you really know what you have to do -
And celebrate "Earth Day" without further woo !!!

A lot of materials are available on the Internet:

http://www.go-green.ae/gogreen_extlinks.php?linkid=1536

http://www.go-green.ae/gogreen_extlinks.php?linkid=1534

http://www.go-green.ae/gogreen_extlinks.php?linkid=1533

Valentina Iavorciuc,

  “МБОУ СОШ №18”, Simferopol, the Crimea, Russia