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Sea,” by Jacques Cousteau, the French oceanographer and conservationist and check your answer.

The Bounty of the Sea by Jacques Cousteau

Cousteau’s essay was written in 1966, at a time when fishermen’s trawlers were destroying the ocean floor. Since then, many national and international agencies – such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency located in London – have worked hard to protect our waterways.

1.During the past thirty years, I have observed and studied the oceans closely, and with my own two eyes I have seen them sicken. Certain reefs

that teemed with fish only ten years ago are now almost lifeless. The ocean bottom has been raped by trawlers. Priceless wetlandsИhave been destroyed by landfill. And everywhere are sticky gobs of oil, plastic refuse, and unseen clouds of poisonous effluents. OftenДwhen I describe the symptoms of the ocean’s sickness, I hear remarks like “they’re only fish” or “they’re on-

ly whales” or “they’re only birds”. But I assure you that our destinies are linked with theirs in the most profoundАand fundamental manner. For if all the oceans should die – by which I mean that all life in the sea would finally cease – this would signalбthe end not only for marine life, but for all other animals and plants of this earth, including man.

2.With life departed,иthe ocean would become, in effect, one enormous cesspool. Billions of decaying bodies, large and small, would create such an insupportableСstench that man would be forced to leave all the coastal regions. But far worse would follow.

3.The ocean acts as the earth’s buffer. It maintains a fine balance between many salts and gases which make life possible. But dead seas would have no buffering effect. The carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere would start on a steady and remorseless climb, and when it reached a certain level a “greenhouse effect” would be created. The heat that normally radiates outward from the earth to space would be blocked by the CO2 (carbon dioxide) and sea level temperatures would dramatically increase.

4.One catastrophic effect of this heat would de the melting of the icecaps at both the North and South Poles. As a result, the ocean would rise by 100 feet or more, enough to flood almost all the world’s major cities. These rising waters would drive one-third of the earth’s billions inland, creating famine, fighting, chaos, and disease on a scale almost impossible to imagine.

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5.Meanwhile, the surface of the ocean would have scammed over with a thick film of decayed matter, and would no longer be able to give water freely to the skies through evaporation. Rain would become a rarity, creating global drought and even more famine.

6.But the final act is yet to come. The wretched remnant of the human race would now be packed cheek by jowl on the remaining highlands, bewildered, starving, struggling to survive from hour to hour. Then would be visited upon them the final plague, anoxia (lack of oxygen). This would be caused by the extinction of plankton algae and the reduction of land vegetation, the two sources that supply the oxygen you are now breathing.

7.And so man would finally die, slowly gasping out his life on some barren hill. He would have survived the oceans by perhaps thirty years. And

his heirs would be bacteria and a few scavenger insects. Available fresh water would be just over a teaspoon, less thanИone half of 1 percent of the total. About 97 percent of the water on our planet is seawater. Another 2 percent is locked up in ice caps and glaciers.ДThe rest is under the earth’s surface, too difficult and expensive to extract.his predictions? А

a.__________________________________________________

b.__________________________________________________

c.__________________________________________________

d.__________________________________________________

e.__________________________________________________

f.__________________________________________________

45. Does this essay focus more on the causes or the effects of sea pollution?

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46. Fill in the causal chain used in the text. The Oceans Die

1.the sea is a cesspool → _______________ → ____________________

2.dead seas won’t act as a buffer → _____________ → _____________

→ flooding of coastal cities → ____________________

3.no rain → _____________________ and ___________________

4.the end of sea algae and land vegetation → ____________________

47. Tell about the pollution using your notes.

48. What are the most well-known ecological threats in Russia? Are people in Russia environmentally conscious? Is there the Green Party in Russia? How is the rubbish dealt with? What recycling facilities are there in Russia? Read the questions and choose the answer you agree most with. Are your answers mostly a, b or c? See the key to find out how green you are.

3. If you were inСthe middle of a city and wanted to go somewhere one or two kilometers away, would you …

a) take a taxi? b) take a bus? c) walk/cycle?

4. If you had a picnic on the beach, what would you do with rubbish? Would you …

a) leave your rubbish on the beach?

b) put your rubbish in the first bin you found? c) take your rubbish home?

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5. If you had £1,000 to spend, would you …

a)buy a fur coat?

b)go on a safari?

c)adopt a dolphin?

49. In groups, write a Green Party manifesto, giving your proposals for an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

A paper factory is planned for your town, which is very beautiful but high

in unemployment. There are concerns from the local community about pollution and the destruction of an ancient forest nearby.

local hotel owners are againstбthe factory.

Some people in the town are in favour of the factory. They are: the mayor,

Allocate these roles sand role-play a public consultation meeting to listen to the local views.

Think about pollution, visual impact, tourism, jobs and effects on the local businesses.

50. Be ready to discuss some environmental problems.

Student A, B, C, D, you are biologists (you will have to prepare a short presentation concerning global warming and its effects),

Student E, you are a politician (you will talk about some measures various governments take to protect our environment),

the rest of the group, you are residents (you will have to prepare some questions to the speakers).

The information below can be helpful.

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Climate change: Uncharted waters?

By Alex Kirby

BBC News Online environment correspondent

Climate change is our biggest environmentalАДchallenge said the UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair. His chiefбscientific adviser, Sir David King, called it a far greater global threat than international terrorism.

As part of Planet Under Pressure, a BBC News series looking at some of

the biggest environmental problems facing humanity, Alex Kirby explores the implications of climate change (pic. 223 - 225).

Life on Earth exists onlyиbecause of the natural greenhouse effect, the ability of the atmosphere to retain enough heat for species to thrive (and no more).

It is certainly possible that warming temperatures could take the Earth into uncharted waters, even though nobody can say exactly how fast it may happen and whoСwill be most affected.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a consortium of several thousand independent scientists, says rising levels of industrial pollution are unnaturally enhancing this effect, with increasing amounts of heat trapped near the Earth instead of escaping into space.

The main culprits, it says, are the burning of fossil fuels - oil, coal and gas - and changes in land use.

The chief greenhouse gas from human activities is carbon dioxide (CO2). Before the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric CO2 concentrations were about 270-280 parts per million (ppm).

They now stand at almost 380ppm, and have been rising at about 1.5ppm annually.

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