There are three types of environmental pollution: air, ground, and water pollution.
Air pollution
Acid rain
Historically, air pollution comes from industries and transport. Factories, power stations and cars burn oil and coal. This rises into the air as different forms of sulphur and nitrogen. The sulphur and nitrogen combine with water in the air to make sulphuric or nitric acid. This falls to the ground as acid rain.
We burn large quantities of coal and oil, and this creates millions of tonnes of acid rain. The wind carries the rain long distances, and this creates problems. One country makes acid rain, and it falls to the ground in another country, for example, Canada gets a lot of acid rain from the USA, and Norway gets a lot of acid rain from Britain.
The greenhouse effect
Industrial countries also cause the greenhouse effect (also called “global warming” or “climate change”). Burning coal and oil produces carbon dioxide (CO2). The (CO2) increases in the Earth’s atmosphere, and retains heat from the sun (it works like the glass in a greenhouse- it lets heat in, but doesn’t let the heat out).
The Earth is getting hotter. Weather patterns are changing: some places have no water for years, and some places have floods. When a country has no water, the effects are very hard- in Chile in 1999, the result was electricity cuts around the country. There was no water for the hydro-electric power stations.
Ozone layer depletion
The ozone layer is a band of gas around the Earth. It protects us from dangerous ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. It is vital to human and animal survival.
Unfortunately, we are producing chemicals which destroy the ozone layer. The damage starts in the Antarctic and spreads. Sheep in the Magallanes are becoming blind because the ozone layer is thinner. In Australia, a lot of people are getting skin cancer from the sun.
Pre-reading
- Think of three environmental problems. Write:
- the name of the problems
- any information you have about the problems
While Reading
1- Skim the texts quickly. Which problems are described here? Is the writer worried or not worried about them?
2- Find these words in the text. Match them with their meanings.
Words
a) Pollution
b) Climate
c) Power station
d) Acid rain
e) Greenhouse effect
f) Radiation
Meanings
- A factory which produces electricity
- World’s weather patterns
- Energy from the sun
- Rising temperatures around the world
- Rain containing chemicals which pollute the environment.
- Something that makes the earth, air or water dirty and dangerous.
3- Are the statements True or False?
- ….. The page is from a magazine
- ….. The text describes different types of air pollution
- ….. Canada sends acid rain to the USA
- ….. Global warming is also called climate change
- ….. Industrial countries cause the “greenhouse effect”
- ….. You can see the effects of ozone layer depletion in Chile
- ….. Sheep are damaging the ozone layer
