Waste production

British Columbians produce one metric tonne of solid waste per person each year, two thirds of which is paper prod­ucts and «yard waste» (grass clippings, leaves, etc.). Medical facilities generate about 7 kg of solid biomedical waste per hospital bed per day, of which about 10 per cent is classified as infectious.

Much toxic waste is generated by industry, but we as indi­viduals also contribute to the toxic waste load with household chemicals.

Water quality

Marine pollution is increasing from direct sources such as municipal sewage, industrial effluents, intentional oil discharge by ships, and accidental oil spills. About 83 per cent of marine pollution is from land-based activities, and approximately 20 per cent of that is sewage.

Other pollutants reach the sea by indirect routes including agricultural runoff, urban runoff, and logging and mining. Direct dumping of toxic, solid, and radioactive wastes causes further damage.

Our freshwater resources are being polluted in a similar manner.

Land use

Desertification is the movement of desert conditions into formerly fertile land. The true cause of the African famines is desertification: the Sahara desert is growing southward at the rate of 60 kilometres each year.

Erosion has similar results. The soil of Madagascar is being eroded into the Indian Ocean as a result of clearcut logging; the sea around Madagascar is rust-red in color for dozens of kilo­metres offshore. A new island is forming in the Bay of Bengal, as a result of deforestation and ensuing erosion in Nepal.

Similar erosion problems are anticipated or are already occurring on every continent except Antarctica.

(From a leaflet of The Environment Protection Organization).

Human legacy of chernobyl

The April 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl atomic power plant (or Nuclear Power Plant — NPP) was the world's worst recorded nuclear accident and the gravest cataclysm for Ukra­ine since World War II. Radiation contamination made near­ly 100 settlements uninhabitable and affected more than 2,000 settlements. Vast territories, including the immediate 30 km exclusion zone around the reactor, were rendered unusable for agriculture, forestry and recreational use for generations. People, evacuated from the zones of greatest contamination, including the entire population of the city of Prypiat, lost their dwellings, jobs and personal property, along with their estab­lished economic and community ties. Data from the Ministry of Chernobyl reveal little clear-cut evidence of health effects directly linked to the Chernobyl disaster. For example, in the regions most severely affected by Chernobyl's fall-out the number of cancer in children recorded after the accident is from 6.5 to 10 times higher than that in the previous period and illness amongst pregnant women is also higher. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) data, Ukrainian children suffer the highest rate of congenital anomalies among the countries of the former Soviet Union. According to statis­tics, the State is paying compensation benefits to approxi­mately 1.5 million persons, while there are 405,576 persons registered as victims of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

While the Chernobyl exclusion zone is a subject of special concern, it represents an extreme risk to the environment, as to the 800 radioactive waste storage sites that contain 40 mln m³ of solid waste.

In an historic April 1995 decision, the Ukrainian Government agreed, as a commitment in principles, to cease operations at the two remaining Chernobyl nuclear reactors «at the earliest possibles date. Developing an alter­native energy modernization programme, thereby imple­menting the agreement to close down Chernobyl, will take a number of years and require financial assistance from Western nations, the World Bank and the European Redevelopment Bank.

Word List

deteriorating — worsening, smth that becomes poorer;

degenerate — deteriorate, become worse;

garbage — litter, waste;

concerns — worries, problems;

manage — to direct;

pollute — make dirty and harmful, soil;

average — typical, ordinary;

flooding — covering with a layer of water;

marine — living in the seas;

deplete — reduce in amount, use up;

damage ~ harm, destruction;

entirely — at all;

fertilizers — chemicals used in agriculture;

effluent – liquid waste;

solid – hard ;

acid — chemical compounds containing hydrogen;

discharge — exhaust, pour, throw out;

waste – unnecessary use;

poison – substance which makes you ill if it is swallowed;

environment – surroundings;

benefit – profit;

generation – all people born about the same time;

demand – asking for smth;

crisis – critical moment;

mutual – felt/done by two people to each other;

cause – thing which makes smth happen;

concern – worry, interest.

Ex 5. Make three lists of harmful effects caused by people to air, water and land.

Ex 6. Speak about the importance of:

• the Green Peace movement;

• creating Zoos, preserves and sanctuaries for rare ani­mals and plants;

• ecological education;

• ecological legislation and regulations.

Ex 7. Most cities of Ukraine are great industrial centres, proud of their industries. Speak about the ecological situation in them. How does it effect the residents?

Ex 8. Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Imagine the world in the 21st century, write a composition.

Ex 9. Hold a discussion on the point:

• They say that our planet is our common home. Agree or disagree.

• Which formula do you prefer: «Man is a master of nature» or «Man is a son of nature»? Give your rea­sons.

• Nowadays a lot of ecologists are speaking about «the ecology of our soul». What do they mean?

• «We can't wait for favours from nature, our task is to take them from it». This motto was very popular a few years ago. Do you think it can work wonders and make all of us happy?

• How'd you comment on the saying: «We're all in one boat»?

• Why are «the Greens» green?

Ex 10. Read the poem by William Blake; think it over and share your view:

«To see a world in a grain of sand

And Heaven in a wild flower;

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour».

Ex 11. Hold a discussion on the point:

• Have you heard anything about the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant?

• How can you explain the cover-up of the true infor­mation which the Government opened in Vienna?

• Why was the 30km «exclusion zones enforced after the explosion in 1986?

• Why did the explosion become a real tragedy for the whole of Ukraine?

• Why is it difficult to exaggerate the aftereffects of the tragedy?

• Why do residents keep coming back to their villages in spite of a high level of radioactive contamination of the area?

Ex 12. Make a written summary, using the most of the vocabulary. A plan may help you.

1. The date of the explosion.

2. What the place is looking like now.

3. The circumstances which brought about the tragedy.

4. The official cover-up over the Chemobyl.

5. The damage caused by the explosion.

6. The aftermaths of the catastrophe.

7. The fate of the people living in the area.

8. The impact of the event on the life of Ukraine.

9. Your thoughts and suggestions.

Outstanding people of Ukraine

YAVORNYTSKY'S COMEBACK

The first volume of Dmytro Yavornytsky's «History of the Zaporozhian Cossacks» was published in Ukraine a few years ago. The book was to become a great event in the cultural life of our country.

One of the most authoritative his­torians of the Zaporozhian Sich, Dmytro Yavornytsky (1855-1940) spent more than 60 years of his life studying the Ukrainian Cossacks, investigating and explaining this unique phenomenon of world history.

A remarkably versatile scholar and a man of truly encyclo­pedic knowledge, he was a historian, archeologist, ethnogra­pher, folklorist, lexicographer and geographer rolled into one. His works encompass a broad range of scholarly problems, widely varied in subject matter and investigation technique, whose sole common denominator is their relation to the Zaporozhian history. He wrote about the territory of the Zaporozhian Sich, its population, natural environment and economy, its leaders, culture, folk arts, conditions of everyday life, customs and other aspects,

Among historians of the Sich Yavornytsky remains unsur­passed to this day in the number and the scope of sources which he amassed for information and reference. He used an enormous number of documents from official and private archives, chronicles, memoirs and other accounts. Material and cultural vestiges of the Zaporozhian Cossackdom collect­ed and preserved by Yavornytsky over several decades of truly heroic effort also served as important historical evidence, as did archeological finds from his own excavations. Yavornytsky visited nearly all of the places where Cossacks were known to have lived, coming back to some of them again and again, recording legends, songs and ballads and even firsthand testi­mony of the first generation of Cossack children to be born after the Sich was disbanded.

In 1924 Yavornytsky was elected a corresponding member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and was granted full membership in 1929.

The 1930s were the hardest years of his life. His scholarly interests and the very personality of the «Zaporozhian Sorcerer» did not agree with the stifling vulgarity of Stalinist dogmas. Persecuted and living in poverty, Yavornytsky was removed from the directorship of the Dnipropetrovsk Museum of History and Archeology, which he had helped to set up and had headed since the beginning of the century. Today this museum is named in his honour.

Today Dmytro Yavornytsky has been restored to his right­ful place in Ukrainian history and culture, and his works are being made available to the reading public.

Word list

investigate — to study, to examine;

unique — rare, the only in the world;

versatile — many-sided;

encompass — embrace, include, cover;

denominator — the common feature;

unsurpassed — unique, the best;

scope — multitude;

source — document, manuscript;

evidence —proof, grounding;

disband — brake up, cease to exist;

sorcerer — wizard, magician;

amass — collect and study.