Creative Text Work: Respect the Land (with Exercises/ Communication Activities)

Sachanalyse

Die SchülerInnen sollen für das Thema Umweltgefährdungen sensibilisiert werden. Ein Vorverständnis zum Themenbereich Umweltverschmutzung und Umweltgefährdungen kann vorausgesetzt werden.

Naturgüter wie Luft oder Sonnenlicht galten lange Zeit als freie Güter und waren daher nicht Gegenstand wirtschaftlicher Überlegungen. Die bedrohlich zunehmende Umweltgefährdung hat jedoch deutlich gemacht, daß kein Umweltfaktor unbegrenzt zur Verfügung steht. Darum sind alle Umweltgüter als knappe Güter anzusehen, mit denen ökonomisch umzugehen ist. Dieser Tatsache ist lange Zeit keine ausreichende Beachtung geschenkt worden, darum konnte es zu dem bedrohlichen Zustand unserer Umwelt gekommen. Die Probleme der Umweltgefährdung sind allgemein bekannt, darum möchten wir hier nur einige stichwortartig nennen:

1. Zerstörung der Ozonschicht
2. Zerstörung der Landschaft (Waldsterben/ Abholzung/ Bodenversiegelung/ Straßenbau)
3. Luftverschmutzung
4. Bodenverunreinigung
5. Ressourcenabbau (Wasserknappheit/ Bodenschätze/ Luftqualität)
6. Wasserverschmutzung
7. Gefährdung der Pflanzen- und Tierwelt
8. Lärmbelästigung

Als hauptsächliche Verursacher dieser Umweltgefahren sind Industrie, private Haushalte und Verkehr anzusehen. Die wirtschaftliche Nutzung und damit auch die Belastung der Natur findet in unterschiedlichen Bereichen statt. Wichtig dabei ist, daß Natur nicht nur als Produktionsgrundlage unentbehrlich ist, sondern gleichzeitig auch Lebens- und Freizeitraum darstellt, den es zu schützen und zu erhalten gilt. Auf den Aspekt der Verantwortung für kommende Generationen soll ein besonderer Schwerpunkt gelegt werden. Durch Maßnahmen wie Recycling, Rohstoffeinsparung, Entsorgung etc. kann versucht werden, die Natur zu entlasten, so daß auch in Zukunft hoffentlich ein „funktionierendes Ökosystem“ unseren Lebensraum bildet. Dabei gilt: auch kleine Schritte (zum Beispiel im eigenen Haushalt) tragen zur Erhaltung der Natur als Lebensgrundlage bei!

Respect the Land

By treating our planet as a community, we can save our natural riches for future generations

When we consider a subject as sweeping as the environment, we often focus on its most tangible aspects - the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we put on the table. Those things are critically important. But to me the environment is also about something less tangible, though no less important. It is about our sense of community - the obligation we have to each other, and to future generations, to safeguard God’s earth. It is about our sense of responsibility, and the realisation that natural beauty and resources that took millions of years to develop could be damaged and depleted in a matter of decades. [...]

Today the threats to our environment are even clearer to see -and much greater in scope and number. We live in a world where climate change, deforestation, holes in the ozone layer and air pollution are growing sources of concern. Our challenge is to find new ways to address those problems by reaching back to our oldest values of community - by inspiring a greater respect for the land and the resources we share - even as economies and societies advance and develop around the world.

Fortunately, as I have raised a family of my own, I have learned that we have millions of powerful allies in this cause: our children. It is often children who remind their parents to recycle their cans, or to bundle their newspapers. It is often the children who remind their parents of the simple miracles of nature - the crops that come from our farms, the parks and lakes and campsites where families and communities gather.

If we are to protect and preserve our environment on a global scale, we all must do our part, as nations, as families and as individuals. The need for awareness has never been greater, and the opportunity for us to make a difference is just as great. If we practice and teach the right kind of care and commitment for our environment, it will continue not only to bring us its natural gifts, but also to bring us together.

Written by Al Gore (US Vice President), published in Time Magazine, special issue October 27th 1997

Annotations:

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

A. Pre-reading activity:

Cartoon: Stonehenge and the unspoiled countryside

Taken from: Sue O’Connell. Focus on First Certificate. Collins ELT. London: 1991.

What can you see in the picture?

What do think has happened?

B. Exercises:

1. Find words or phrases in the text which mean the same as the following:

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

2. True or false?

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

3. Lückentext: Fill in the gaps!

One of the crucial essentials of life is our (environment). We breathe the (air), we (drink) the water and we (eat) the food. It is our duty to protect nature for (future generations). We should offer them the opportunity to live in an (unspoiled) world, in which economies and societies can develop. If we think about our forests, (deforestation) is one of the major problems. Another reason for dying forests is (air pollution). Some people suffer from serious headaches in summer, because the (holes in the ozone layer) are growing. Powerful (allies) in the fight against pollution are the youngest (members) of society: our children. For them we have to (safeguard) nature. This is the main (challenge) for society, politicians and the business world.

C. Further activities

1. Write a dialogue with your partner.

First person: Try to imagine that you are a member of Greenpeace/Robin Wood. What arguments would you use to change people’s attitude towards nature? You can use the arguments in the text. Please note that you have 20 minutes time.

Arguments students might find:

- Unspoiled nature is critically important for human life.
- It is our responsibility to preserve the planet for future generations.
- Our challenge is to find new ways to address a greater respect for the land and the resources we share.
- Rain forests are important because there is a relation between deforestation and climate change.
- We need to recycle goods in order to save resources.
- If we carry on living like we did over the last years we will soon suffer from serious allergic diseases caused by environmental pollution.

Second person: You are the owner of GM (General Motors, car industry). Greenpeace demands that the company should be closed in order to stop environmental pollution. What arguments would you use to convince people of the necessity of industrial production of goods? Please note that you have 20 minutes time.

Arguments students might find:

- I caople wouldn’t risk that the people who work for me get unemployed.
- Our task is to increase society’s prosperity.
- Cars are the most important means of transportation in today’s world.
- We have made great efforts in order to make cars environmentally friendly.
- People ask for fast cars, because they like to drive fast - that causes air pollution, but it is not the fault of the car industry.
- Pe not spend more money for a car just because it is produced environmental friendly

Afterwards you have got to present your dialogue in class.

2. Discussion in class

Some questions that might help to get the discussion going: Do you agree with Mr Al Gore?

Think about pollution in Germany. Do you cause pollution in your household?

Do you recycle bottles and newspapers? How does the German recycling systems work? Do think of nature when you do the shopping? Do you buy special goods? Think of something you would never buy because it is not environmental friendly?

3. Focus on grammar: conditional 1

These are things which are possible and it is quite probable that they will happen.

Form: IF present form future form

Example:

If we do not preserve nature now, future generations will inherit a polluted planet.

Please complete the following sentences. Think of the meaning!

If we do not recycle our bottles,... (run out of resources in future).

We will suffer from serious diseases if... (do not care for our planet now).

Ausnahme für leistungsstarke SchülerInnen:

If we are to protect and preserve our environment on a global scale, we all... (have to do our part).

4. Activity in 4 groups:

Group water

1. Why is water crucial for life on Earth?
2. Think of important arguments.
3. What can you do to save water?

Please use the “Wandzeitung” to write down what you have found out. You can also stick pictures on the paper if you want.

Keep in mind that you should present the results in class!

Group Greenhouse effect

1. What reasons do you know for the increasing temperature?
2. What can you do to save the climate?

Please use the “Wandzeitung” to write down what you have found out. You can also stick pictures on the paper if you want.

Keep in mind that you should present the results in class!

Group rain forests

1. What functions have forests on Earth?
2. What can you do to save the forests?

Please use the “Wandzeitung” to write down what you have found out. You can also stick pictures on the paper if you want.

Keep in mind that you should present the results in class!

Group air

1. What reasons do you know for air pollution?
2. What can you do to keep air clean?

Please use the “Wandzeitung” to write down what you have found out. You can also stick pictures on the paper if you want.

Keep in mind that you should present the results in class!

We have found four newspaper articles we would use for this activity. All four articles were published in the Time Magazine, special issue, 27th October 1997.

Wells running dry

[...] The stark truth is that in much of the world there isn’t enough water, and where there is, it is being wasted, mismanaged and polluted on a grand scale. According to an April report from the United Nations and the Stockholm Institute, by the year 2025, two- thirds of the world’s population will be affected by water shortages.

In 1995, 20% of the planet’s people already had no access to clean drinking water and 50% lacked proper toilet facilities. “The world has got a very big water problem,” says Sir Crispin Tickell, former British ambassador to the U.N. and one of the organisers of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. “It will be the progenitor of more wars than oil.

World demand for water doubles every 21 years, but the volume available is the same as it was in Roman times. Something has got to give.” Global water use tripled just between 1950 and 1990. Increasing also is the disparity in water’s availability to rich and poor. While a U.S. family may rinse and flush away as much as 2.000 litres of water a day, families in some parts of the developing world survive on as little as 150 litres, and they often have to travel several kilometres to obtain the precious fluid. [...]

Written by Michael S. Serrill, published in Time Magazine, special issue October 27th 1997.

1. Why is water crucial for life on Earth?
2. Think of important arguments.
3. What can you do to save water?

Please use the “Wandzeitung” to write down what you have found out. You can also stick pictures on the paper if you want.

Keep in mind that you should present the results in class! Annotations:

Melt away future

[...] Up to a point, the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is benign - even essential - to life. When sunlight bounces off the earth, some of the resulting heat is trapped by carbon dioxide and other gases that envelop the planet, just as a greenhouse retains warmth that allows its plants to survive. Without any greenhouse effect, earth would be 33°C cooler than it is now.

But the sign are mounting that the planet’s protective blanket is getting too heavy. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the middle of the 18th century, levels of carbon dioxide have jumped 30%, nitrous oxide 15% and methane 100%. And the pace of change is accelerating as economic development speeds up around the globe. The U.S. State Department warns that unless significant steps are taken soon, greenhouse-gas concentrations will very likely triple in an hundred years, reaching levels higher than at any time in the last 50 million years.

The impact is just beginning to be felt: a 0,5°C warming over the last century. That increase may seem modest, but a 3°C cooling brought on the most recent Ice Age. Not only has the temperature risen on average, but the warming is becoming more intense. The sultriest three years in the century have occurred in the last decade, and the hottest year ever recorded was 1995. [...]

Written by Dick Thompson, published in Time Magazine, special issue October 27th 1997.

1. What reasons do you know for the increasing temperature?
2. What can you do to save the climate?

Please use the “Wandzeitung” to write down what you have found out. You can also stick pictures on the paper if you want.

Keep in mind that you should present the results in class! Annotations:

Ghosts of forests

[...] The latest report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, which tracks forests, disclosed that between 1991 and 1995, tropical rain forests were burned and bulldozed at a rate of 126.000sq km a year.

Nontropical regions gained 13.000 sq. km of forest a year, but that figure is deceptive because it includes industrial tree plantations and abandoned agricultural lands that have sprouted trees once again. There is no way to bring back virgin woodland with all the life it once supported. In the U.S., 98% of the forest has been logged at least once.

Just 40% of the world’s ancient forest cover remains intact, according to the World Resources Institute in Washington. In a recent report on what it dubs “frontier forests”, the W.R.I. calls for an emergency program to prevent the loss of the remaining pristine woodlands, two-thirds of which are in Canada, Russia and Brazil.

“People treat forests as capital to be liquidated”, says Dirk Bryant, the W.R.I. researcher who was the principal author of the report. “If we don’t do something dramatic in the next 10 years, it’s a lost cause.” Even forests not being logged are seriously threatened by air pollution. [...]

Written by Michael S. Serrill, published in Time Magazine, special issue October 27th 1997.

1. What functions have forests on Earth?
2. What can you do to save the forests?

Please use the “Wandzeitung” to write down what you have found out. You can also stick pictures on the paper if you want.

Keep in mind that you should present the results in class! Annotations:

The way of the west is poison

[...] Many Asians are slowly beginning to realise that the Western industrial strategy, with its heavy use of raw materials and energy, is a highly toxic model. The West has been able to reduce its pollution and make its cities liveable only because of the enormous investments it has made in pollution control and prevention since the 1960s. Moreover, the West has had a relatively stable population base. But with hundreds of millions of poor people aspiring to live like Westerners, most Asian countries want to adopt the Western model on the cheap, and process they may cook their own goose.

A fine example is demand for transportation in India. In the U.S., there is one car for every 1,6 people. If India were to have the same ratio, the number of cars in the country would have grown from 3 million to more than 550 million. That’s not likely to happen, but it’s entirely possible that in two decades Indians will be riding on hundreds of millions of motor scooters that burn a mix of gasoline and oil and are less friendly to the environment than regular autos. These Scooters account for 70% of the motor vehicles registered in India as of 1993, and most Asian cities are packed with similar smog-makers. If investments in highway and traffic infrastructure and smog-control technology lag behind, one can imagine widespread mayhem and pollution on the roads of the kind already seen in big cities from Bangkok to Delhi. [...]

Written by Anil Agarwal, published in Time Magazine, special issue, October 27th 1997.

1. What reasons do you know for air pollution?
2. What can you do to keep air clean?

Please use the “Wandzeitung” to write down what you have found out. You can also stick pictures on the paper if you want.

Keep in mind that you should present the results in class! Annotations: