Example:
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got ’till it's gone
They paved paradise and they put up a parking lot
(Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi)
Facts about the state of the global environment read like quotes on a poster for an epic Hollywood movie – expanding deserts in Africa, huge forest fires in Indonesia, serious shortages of fish in Europe, thousands of deaths from air pollution in Brazil, disappearing forests in the Amazon, melting ice-caps and increasing radiation levels in the polar regions. But just as there is no evil Lex Luther or Ernst Blofeld responsible for these disasters, there is no Superman or James Bond to save the world. The human race has caused these problems and we are going to have to work together to solve them.
However, many people feel that the governments of countries around the world are not taking environmental issues seriously enough. To allow the voices of concerned people to be heard, a large number of protest groups have been set up by ordinary people to raise awareness of the issues, and to put pressure on politicians to act before it is too late. A few of the organisations have become household names, particularly Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. Two smaller groups, Surfers Against Sewage and Reclaim The Streets, are less well known, but take themselves just as seriously.
Comprehension task: Answering the questions true or false
1. Surfers Against Sewage members like playing with guns.
2. Reclaim The Streets started in Cornwall.
3. The people who started Surfers Against Sewage like water sports.
4. RTS demonstrations are always peaceful.
5. The SAS organisation has been very successful.
6. Reclaim The Streets is against road building.
7. The SAS logo appeared in the film "The Beach".
8. RTS events sometimes attract thousands of people.
Speaking: What are your thoughts on the four organizations from the audio exercise?
Vocabulary:
- aquatic (adj): living or growing in, happening in, or connected with water
- blockbuster (n): a book, film, etc that is very popular and successful
- epic (n): a story or film which is very long and contains a lot of action
- Ernst Blofeld: the villain in some James Bond films
- found (v): to start an organization, especially by providing money
- household name (n): someone or something that everyone knows
- issue (n): an important subject or problem that people are discussing
- Lex Luther: the villain in Superman
- mar (v): to spoil something
- paddling pool (n): a shallow pool that small children can play in
- polar (adj): relating to the North or South Pole
- Russian roulette (n): a very dangerous game of chance where each player aims at their own head with a gun which has one bullet in it and five empty chambers (= spaces where bullets could go)
- status quo (n): the situation that exists now, without any changes
- tarmac (n): a thick, black substance that is sticky when hot and is used to cover roads
- toxic (adj): poisonous
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