People and Nature – maturitná téma

People and Nature

The seasons of the year:

SPRING–spring is the most beautiful season of the year:
- the snow melts
- flowers and trees

- the birds return from the south
- people start working in the garden
- we have Easter holidays

SUMMER – it is the warmest season of the year. Everything is green, birds sing, the sky is blue. We don’t have to go to school in summer. People travel for a holiday in summer and they visit foreign countries – they go to the sea, to the mountains.

AUTUMN (Am: FALL) – it is the season when the leaves on the trees change their colors. At the beginning of autumn the weather is usually still nice and warm – we call this period Indian summer - the fruit ripens and people pick it from the trees. Later the weather gets colder, the trees shed their leaves and it rains a lot. Birds fly to the south.

WINTER – it is the last season of the year. It starts snowing and freezing. People can do winter sports, such as skiing, snowboarding and ice-skating. In December the Christmas time comes and people buy presents to each other.

1. When we talk about environment, we can talk about several problems:
   - acid rain
   - the hole in the ozone-layer

- the greenhouse effect
- global warming

Our life is dependent on 3 elements – the air, the water and the land.
a) Air pollution – it is the biggest problem in big cities where there are many factories and a lot of traffic - it is caused by smoke, dust, emissions, exhaust fumes - it later causes the acid rain and the greenhouse gases
Acid rain – chemicals mix with water in clouds (mraky) and make acid rain which damages (poškodzuje) buildings, kills trees and pollutes the soil.

1. 
   b)Water pollution– it is caused by the households and agriculture – we use detergents /čistiace prostriedky/ fertilizers /hnojivá/, pesticides /postreky/ and other chemicals. The water pollution can also be caused by big cargo ships and tankers – they can cause a catastrophe – for example the oil can get into ocean and kill fish and plants in the ocean.
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   c) Soil/ land pollution– it can be contaminated by chemicals or by individuals – we throw (zahadzujeme) out our rubbish and so on.
   
   The main problem is caused (spôsobený) by the greenhouse gases (plyny) - they influence (ovplyvňujú) the greenhouse effect and cause the global warming.
   Global warming causes big changes on the Earth: 
   - the temperature of the atmosphere rises (stúpa)

- the level of the oceans rises
- the glaciers melt (topia sa ľadovce) -which may cause floods (záplavy)
- the number of very hot days can increase (rastie) - this has an effect on the climate changes and the changes in the ecosystem => these changes can affect people’s health because we will have to change food and we can have health problems – for example the ultraviolet radiation causes the skin cancer, different allergies and eye damage
- the weather patterns change in many countries – for example the weather in the cold countries gets warmer and in hot countries – Africa – it can get colder and there can even snow
- global warming can cause droughts /suchá/
- some species of animals become endangered or extinct /they can die out/

- changes on the Earth may cause tornados, earthquakes, floods and droughts

3. To protect our environment,we should:
- use our cars and traffic more efficiently – for example 4 people can use one car together

instead of driving 4 cars to work or to school => we should use unleaded petrol and catalytic converters

- change travelling by car / bus to riding a bike or walking 
- save electricity - turn off the lights, TV, computers when we don’t need them
- save water – we should stop the water taps from dripping

- plant trees - a good way to reduce the greenhouse gases because they absorb the carbon dioxin and produce oxygen
- reduce and recycle and separate and reuse
o cans
o bottles
o plastic bags
o newspaper

- we should buy environmentally friendly products and green products – they are marked by a special mark – 3 arrows that make a circle /3 šípky, ktoré tvoria kruh/
- we should use alternative sources of energy to produce electricity and for heating – for example:
o geothermal energy 

o  wind energy
o  water energy
o  solar energy

 
- protect endangered animals and plants
- stop deforestation – we should stop destroying the tropical rain forests

 - create national parks and nature reserves 

1. 4.Ecological and environmental organizationsare organizations which look after and fight for the protection of the environment. These are for example Greenpeace, Children of the Earth. They organize public campaigns and they inform the people about the importance of the environmental protection. They also organize protests and help to eliminate the damages to the nature.