Тема 19. Environmental protection in Ukraine
People all over the world are worried about what is happening to the environment1. Newspapers and magazines write about air pollution", land pollution and water pollution. They write that the Earth is our home and all people must take care of it. We must do everything possible to save the nature, to make our rivers and air clean. The importance of this task is pointed out3 by scientists. The branch of science that deals with the relation of living things to their environment is called ecology. From the point of view of ecology the mankind should first of all lessen pollution.
Forest areas and nature parks are of great importance for people's health. It's necessary to create nature parks. There are a lot of such parks in Ukraine. We have not only to protect them but to see that they multiply.
Considerable progress was made during the second half of the century: forest areas have been planted or replanted, millions of hectares of new forests are planted each year.
The closed cycle use of water by industry was put into practice. Each factory purifies and re-uses the same water, instead of taking more from river or lake. Most of the factories in the gas, iron, and steel industries now operate closed cycle water systems.
Nature has its rights, and it is the duly of man to respect and defend these rights.
environment [ln'vaiarэment — довкілля
pollution Грз'1u:/n] - забруднення
point out ['point 'aut] — вказувати
branch [bra:nt|] — галузь (науки)
lessen ['lesn] — зменшувати
closed cycle use — замкнутий цикл використання
purify['pjurifai] — очищати(ся)
For many centuries the people who lived on our planet before us had been trying to make their life easier and more comfortable. They thought that resources of the Earth were endless. They used those resources without thinking about the generations that would come after them. Our ancestors chopped down the forests, killed animals that lived there and invented machines and instruments that polluted the water, the air and the soil.
In the 19th century the word «ecology» was born, but the idea of environmental protection was not clear yet, and did not seem urgent for either the majority of the governments or common people. People still considered themselves «lords and kings of nature» and used its riches only as consumers.
In the 20th century, the rapid growth of science and technology resulted in an increasing negative effect on the biosphere of the Earth. Huge industrial enterprises pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land which gives us bread, vegetables and fruit. Their discharge of dust and gas into the atmosphere returns to the Earth in the form of acid rains. It also destroys the ozone layer of the Earth and causes «greenhouse effect». It effects forests, rivers, crops and people's health. This leads to the reduction of the life-span of man. People die younger because of cancer, AIDS and other diseases which are directly connected with the polluted environment they live in. Many species of animals and birds face extinction due to the pollution of the biosphere.
The world's oceans are in danger too. They are filled with poisonous industrial and nuclear waste, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The Aral Sea in Russia is already dead, the Mediterranean and the North Sea are slowly dying.
The worst situation with air pollution is in big overpopulated cities. In Cairo and Mexico City, for example, breathing is equivalent to smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day. The big industrial cities in Ukraine like Zaporizhiya, Donetsk, Kharkiv and some others have the same situation.
Another threat for the environment are nuclear power stations like Chernobyl. In April 1986 that nuclear power plant just north-west of Kyiv suffered the worst nuclear accident in history: dozens died immediately, tens of thousands were evacuated, while the long-term effects to human life are difficult to calculate. A large part of Ukraine, Russia and Byelorussia was polluted by radiactive substances.
Great damage was done to their economy, nature and people’s health. The problem of Chernobyl has not been solved yet because of economic difficulties Ukraine is having now. The power plant was closed on December 15, 2000.
Nowadays people of Ukraine, like most people in developed countries, realize that without solving environmental problems, the life of the future generations will be in real danger.