English Unlimited HTL 4/5, Schulbuch mit Audio-CD und CD-ROM

146 Climate 11 LANGUAGE SKILLS EXPLORE EXTRAS Explore speaking: Motivating others to protect the environment Topic area: The environment Focus: Environmental protection Situation: You are a member of a local environmental organisation that motivates young people to protect the environment. Individual long turn (4–5 minutes): You have been asked to produce a short personal statement that is meant to motivate young people to protect the environment. You should deliver your statement in the form of an internet video clip to be shown on different European platforms. You’re rehearsing your statement for the recording. In your statement, you should:   argue why it is important to protect the environment (use the information in the text below).   suggest simple measures that everyone can easily integrate into their daily lives.   assess some ways of motivating young people to take action. Interaction (8–10 minutes): After having recorded your internet statement, you have an online conversation with a member of another European environmental network who also wants to raise awareness about voluntary environmental work. Both of you have decided to organise a small local charity event to raise money for environmental protection.   Discuss your ideas, for example: − name and type of event and location  − ways to raise money  − a slogan   Suggest ways of advertising and promoting the event.   Evaluate how a celebrity could help your cause. 31 Why do we have to protect the environment? What are we doing wrong? Mostly the problem is destruction of habitat by industrial pollution, mining, farming, and transporting species into habitats where they had not been. What are some of the consequences? One billion people in the world have no clean water. Two billion people have inadequate sanitation. One and a half billion people (mostly in large cities of newly industrialised countries) breathe air that is dangerously unhealthy. Hundreds of millions of poor farmers struggle to make a living on poor land. Whole countries are on the verge of famine. People don’t like to be ridiculed as ‘environmental wackos’ or ‘tree huggers’. But it is important to care about the environment. e human species needs food and water. We need energy. But we also need to protect the ecosystem niches that make the survival of our species possible. Why do niches need protection? Rich ecosystems are those with many occupied niches. A change in any one niche is likely to a ect other niches and their occupant species. Extinction is forever. We don’t get a second chance. Environmental pollution is dangerous. Especially our lakes and oceans have become dumping grounds for dangerous chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, oil and re nery products, industrial wastes, and heavy metals). Some of these toxins actually concentrate in food webs, such as mercury in sh. We have a moral obligation! Our species owes its existence to the living world that we share with other species. We can only pay this debt by protecting the environment.We humans are doing well as a species, but our success comes at the expense of other species. e United Nations World Conservation Monitoring Center predicts that 25% of all the Earth’s species of mammals may become extinct in the next 30 years. Over 10% of the bird species will face extinction in that time. Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv