The living environment not only in towns and villages but also in open areas has been in danger for almost half a century. There are lot of human activities today, aimed at protection of enviroment. All over the world there are people polluting the land, the sea, and the air. The main reason for pollution is waste – something which is no longer needed. It can be yesterday’s newspaper, an old car, dirty bath water, smoke from a factory chimney. Some waste is dangerous because it contains poison. It is toxic waste. There are five billion people in the world. They all need to eat, dress and travel about. They buy new things and throw their old things away. Farms and factories, cars, trains, buses, planes produce the things and the waste too. Some poisonous gases go up to the air and make acid rain which kills treees and pollutes water and ground. Power stations produce smoke and toxic gases. There are technologies that can change waste into something different and useful. This is called recycling. For example old newspaper can be made into new paper. Recycling is more expensive than dumping. In Africa people wear shoes madd from old tyres or collect and dry cow dung and use it for heating. Recycling reduces pollution, conserves energy and materials and savec money. Plastic is longlasting material and its recycling is very difficult. Recycling at home is very important. Don’t waste food, water, energy, materials. We say that a person who cares about enviroment is green.

Hole in the sky
This satelline photograph shows the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. The hole is pink and white on this computer photograph. The ozone layer stops some of the ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Ultraviolet radiation causes a suntan. Too much ultraviolet radiation causes sunburn and skin cancer. CFCs in the atmosphere have caused the hole. Scientists first discovered the hole in 1982, and it is getting bitter. Thirty per cent of CFCs come from aerosol cans, thirty per cent from fridges and air-conditioning, and thirty-four per cent from the manufacture of some plastic products. The greenhouse effect
1. sunlight gives us heat. Some of the heat warms the atmosphere, and some of the heat eseapes back into space.
2. During the last 100 years we have produced a huge amount of carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere works like the glass in a greenhouse. It allows heat to get in but it doesn’t allow much heat to get out.