Lesson 15

Environment. Global Issues

Aims and objectives:

• developing basic skills

• developing personal awareness

Equipment: handouts, writing paper

Sequence

I. Warming-up

Quiz "Do you worry about the environment?”

1) Imagine you are on a holiday abroad. You drink water from a plastic bottle, but there is no rubbish-bin to put it. What do you do?

a) Keep the bottle with you until you see a bin. (3)

b) Throw it on the ground. It’s not your fault there aren’t enough rubbish-bins. (1)

c) It depends. If there’s a lot of rubbish on the ground you might "drop it accidentally”. (2)

2) On the way home you get very thirsty. What do you buy?

a) Something in a non-recyclable plastic bottle. (1)

b) Something in a glass bottle or aluminum can. (3)

c) Something in a carton. (2)

3) Your walkman always needs new batteries. What do you buy?

a) Buy rechargeable batteries. (3)

b) Throw away old batteries and buy new ones. (1)

c) Buy new ones and take old ones to a recycling centre. (2)

4) You live near a beach. A new fast food restaurant is opened there. How do you react?

a) Pleased but also worried about more rubbish on the beach. (2)

b) Pleased. Now you can eat burgers on the beach. (1)

c) You never eat at fast food places because there is too much packaging. (3)

5) You buy a few things in a shop. The cashier offers you a plastic bag. What do you say?

a) "No, thank you”. (You have brought a bag from home.) (3)

b) Nothing. You let him / her put the things in the bag. (1)

c) It depends on whether you can carry the things easily without a bag. (2)

6) There are a flies in your room. They are annoying you. What do you do?

a) Try to kill them with a newspaper. (2)

b) Try to kill them using aerosol. (1)

c) Hit the air with a newspaper so they leave you alone. (3)

7) You are writing a letter to a good friend. You’ve made several mistakes and need to cross things out. What do you do?

a) Start the letter again on another piece of paper. (1)

b) Continue writing, your friend will excuse your mistakes. (3)

c) Continue writing, but if you make any more mistakes, start again. (2)

Add up your score and read the analysis.

• 7–10: You do not worry about the environment at all. You think pollution is someone else’s problem, not yours. You think recycling and saving energy resources have no sense.

• 11 –17: You care about the environment and you have some good habits, which help save it. However, there are probably a few more things you could do.

• 1 8–21: You definitely care about the environment. You think about it when you make everyday decisions.

The teacher asks the students to compare the results of both quizzes.

II. Main part

1. Checking on Homework. Speaking

The students first give their answers to task 1, then — task 2. The teacher encourages discussion in both cases. For task 2 there should be created some joint class decision, which would be nice to note down either on the blackboard or on an A3 paper and post in the classroom for further work.

2. Group work

1) Our whole planet is in trouble. Every day we hear more and more about the destruction of the environment. Make a list of the three most important problems facing the survival of our planet today.

2) In groups compare and discuss your three most important problems connected to the Earth today. Try to reach a consensus on the top three problems. Then try to think of possible solutions to the problems. The solutions should be realistic (for example, "not drive cars anymore” is not a realistic solution.)

3) Read the following situations. What do you think of them? Are these situations problems or not? Write a sentence or two stating your reaction and any supporting idea.

a) The world’s population has already reached 6 billion and is expected to grow by another billion in about 10–12 years. About 93 per cent of this growth will be in the developing countries.

b) The number of living species on earth is up to 80 million, but only 12. 4 million have been briefly described. 25 per cent of them are at risk of extinction during the next 20 to 30 years.

c) By the end of the 20th century the 33 developing countries that export forest products were reduced to less than 10. The hardwood resources in Asia will last for about 40 years, Africa — 85 years, and Latin America — about 150 years.

The teacher guides the discussion encouraging the students to share their opinions.

3. Vocabulary practice

Read the key word in the left column. Find the word in the other three columns that is related to the key word.

Key

1 b, 2 a, 3 c, 4 c, 5 a, 6 b, 7 a, 8 a, 9 c, 10 b, 11 a, 12 b, 13 c, 14 a, 15 c.

After the task is finished, the students get in groups and using the vocabulary create sentences concerning environmental problems on the planet and possible ways of solving them.

The sentences are shared and discussed in the class.

III. Summary

IV. Homework

Developing the general competence. The students have to find examples (one each) of the already solved environmental problems and prepare a brief report.

1. When did it happen?
2. Where did it happen?
3. What was the problem?
4. How did it influence the environment?
5. How was it solved?

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