Lesson 3                                                                                               October 1, 2001

FOCUS: Demography and Environment

ARTICLE 1

Golden Billion

We Live More Than Footprints

The human race hurtled past another milestone in 1999 when world population exceeded the six-billion mark, doubling in less than 40 years. Earth’s population is growing at an annual rate of 1.2 percent – 77 million new mouths to feed each year. Although the fertility rate has fallen sharply in some countries, large number of women are reaching childbearing age. By 2050, the United Nations estimates, the global population will number between 7.9 and 10.9 billion.

Of the 6.1 billion people sharing the planet, one-fifth – Golden Billion – lives in relatively affluent regions, including Europe, Japan, North America and Australia.

How much of the Earth do they use and pollute, compared with developed countries?

With less than five acres of productive land and water available per person worldwide for sustainable living, we are exceeding Earth’s regenerative capacity.

 

	резво проскочить очередную веху
	новые едоки
	коэффициент воспроизводства
	относительно изобильный регион
	устойчивая жизнедеятельность
	восстановительная способность
Hurtle [hэ:tl] – пролетать, с шумом нестись

ARTICLE 2

Urban Sprawl

The American dream

Has long promised life, liberty, and the pursuit of a spacious single-family home in the suburbs (with a pool, even). But as new generations of home seekers look for breathing room in the burbs and the lands beyond, the dream has been displaced by all too familiar words – places plagued by traffic jams, high taxes, and pollution: the irony of urban sprawl.

            When home developers built them, people do indeed come – and in record numbers to Loudoun Country, Virginia. One cost of sprawl: huge losses of farmland.

            In Las Vegas – the fastest growing metropolitan area in the country – new homes are as plentiful as public parks and other common areas are scarce: For every thousand residents, two acres of the city are devoted to open spaces; Phoenix offers 31.5 acres.

	разрастание городов
	погоня за
	просторный дом на одну семью
	места, измученные пробками
Sprawl [spro:l] – расползаться, разъезжаться

 

Assignment 1

Formulate problems outlined in the Texsts 1, 2;

Rank them according to their importance (1, 2 etc.)

Discuss the Problems with your Partner and elaborate joint List of Problems

 

 

PROBLEMS
№	Problem	Article №	Importance Rank
			Your	Joint
1.
2.
...

 

 

Propose solutions to the problems

 

SOLUTIONS
№	Solution*	Prob. №	Efficiency (%)
1.
2.
3.
...

*Examples of Solutions:

1. Prohibit astrology by law

                2. Create Special-Target International Monetary Fund

                3. Attack Iran

                4. Cultivate new patterns of sleeping (7 hours maximum).

                5. etc.

 

 

Assignment 2

Each of the following fragments proposes a solution to the Problems discussed in previous section. Define the solutions and classify them according to the table below.

 

1. 76 – year old sadhu in Mumbay

How they do not die?

“We go naked because we wish nothing of this world.” Thus Marco Polo quotes a holy man similar to the modern sadhu in Bombay, who has not worn clothes in 46 years. He owns only a bowl and a feather duster. “It is a great wonder how they do not die,” Marco wrote.

	старый бомбейский садху
	не хотеть ничего от этого мира
	метелочка из перьев

 

2. Company – subsidized vanpooling

Spaghetti Junction

Atlanta’s “Spaghetti Junction” gives many commuters indigestion, driving some to seek alternatives such as company – subsidized vanpooling. “You get to work a lot less stressed,” says Andrea Wall. “It’s a peaceful time.”

	развозка по домам, оплаченная компанией
	“спагетти перекрёстков”
	несварение
	заставляя некоторых искать
Commuter – городской работник, живущий в пригороде

 

3. Wish Upon a Star

Or Make a Dream Come True?

Ignoring alternative energy is no alternative.

Keeping pace with the world's accelerating demand for energy and supplying power to remote areas require Shell to pursue renewable resources like solar, biomass and wind energy.

We established Shell Renewables with a commitment to develop these opportunities commercially. One of our goals is to make solar energy cheaper, more efficient and more accessible, both for businesses and homes.

It's part of our commitment to sustainable development, balancing economic progress with environmental care and social responsibility.

So with real goals and investment, energy from the sun can be more than just a dream.

We welcome your input. Write to us at: "The Profits & Principles Debate", SHELL International, Shell Center, London SE1 7NA, UK

	мечтать о несбыточном
	заставляет Shell заниматься
	возобновляемые ресурсы
	устойчивое развитие
	находя компромисс между
	забота об окружающей среде

 

4. Lion and Cub

National Geographic Poster

A limited-edition print of Asiatic lions is available for $ 39.95 plus $6.50 for postage and handling ($9.50 for international orders).

We will produce only as many 24-by-30-inch posters as we receive orders by July 31, 2001. Each will be hand-numbered and embossed with the Society seal.

Shipping is scheduled for September 2001.

	Ограниченный тираж
	Выбитая медаль Общества

 

5. Cannon’s Look

Wildlife As Cannon Sees It

Cochran’s dwarf gecko

Size: Length, including tail, 62 mm

Weight: 0.8 g

Cochran’s dwarf gecko had not been seen by biologists for over 20 years until its rediscovery in 1997. On the hilltops, or mogotes, of Los Haitises National Park (Dominican Republic), this tiny gecko was found living among bromeliads, rainforest plants that have remained abundant on the undisturbed mogotes. The gecko hides between the leaves, and feeds on the nearly microscopic invertebrates also living amid this miniature ecosystem. The relative inaccessibility of the hilltop terrain has preserved these forest patches from agriculture, logging and human disturbance. Continued protection of the gecko’s forest habitat is vital to its future survival.

As a global corporation committed to social and environmental concerns, we join in worldwide efforts to promote greater awareness of endangered species for the benefit of future generations.

	карликовый геккон
	вновь открытый
	прятаться в опавшей листве
	сохранило эти участки леса
	от возделывания, вырубки и человеческого вмешательства
	жизненно важно для его сохранения
	осведомленность о видах, находящихся под угрозой
Log - бревно

 

6. Alternative Transportation

Doesn't always have to mean a boring government study about commuter trains.

The idea took shape during the energy crisis of '73. The result is an innovative, pollution-free, battery-powered city car. As part of an ongoing commitment to affordable alternative transportation for our consumers, FORD Motor Company will introduce the TH!NK city to the United States and Canada in 2002. The name itself asks you to consider what getting from here to there is all about every time you see one on the street.

	поезда для жителей пригорода, работающих в городе
	работающий на батареях
	доступный альтернативный транспорт

 A Crime In The Night

"There's no end in sight… We just keep moving until one of these days we'll all be rubbing elbows"

Radical environmentalists of the Earth Liberation Front spray-painted one home on Long Island, New-York, with “Stop Urban Sprawl” and burned several others. "The Earth isn't dying, it's being killed," says a communiqué from the group, "and those who are killing it have names and addresses."

	касающийся локтями
	разрастание городов
Rub - тереться

 

7. New-Fashioned Old

There is an alternative to mindless sprawl. Some people call it smart growth.

Front porches, plenty of sidewalks, more houses (and people) on each acre - such neo-traditional element define "new urbanist" communities like l'On Village near Charleston, South Carolina.

Such solution to sprawl aren't cheap: Homes here start at $300, 000 - hardly affordable to lower- and middle-income families.

 

	разрастание городов
	недоступно для семей среднего достатка
Porch [po:ч] – крыльцо, веранда

 

 

SOLUTIONS
№, Solution	Solution category
	R&D	Consumption restriction	Drawing peoples’ attention	Investments in environmental protection	Other (specify)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

 

 

Assignment 3

From the list of sentences you have written out during the lesson, mark with color several that you like most; Try to choose useful ones.

 

Assignment 4

Make sure that you understand all of the below sentences and notions.. Use them in the discussion;

 

Demographic explosion	Earth’s population is growing
Golden Billion	Developed and Developing Countries Relatively affluent regions
Urban Sprawl	Fast growing urban / metropolitan area
Scarcity of natural resources	Renewable natural resources Non-renewable natural resources
Pollution	Environmental care Radical Environmentalism
Over-consumption	Alternative power sources Affordable alternative transportation

 

 

 

Assignment 5

Give several examples for each of the notions listed below;

 

Golden Billion	Belongs	Doesn’t belong
	1.	1.
	2.	2.
	3.	3.
	4.	4.
	5.	5.
	6.	6.

 

 

Natural resources	Renewable	Non-renewable
	1.	1.
	2.	2.
	3.	3.
	4.	4.
	5.	5.
	6.	6.