Project Green

ENA 7

Krista Kindt-Sarojärvi

Section 5
& Grammar

🌟 Boost Your Vocabulary in Today's Class! 🌟

Today's lesson is packed with new vocabulary! Every time you see this sign, it's your cue to read, translate, or watch a video—and pick out new and challenging words. 

Tip: Keep track of these words in your own vocabulary list, for example, in your Studeo notebook.
The more you engage, the more you learn!

 Your progress is in your hands—make the smart choice and expand your vocabulary! 💪

Watch this mockumentary below or on YouTube.
A mockumentary is a television programme  which takes the form of a serious documentary in order to satirize its subject.

When you've watched the video, translate this text orally.
 

Narrated by Academy Awards winner Jeremy Irons, Heal the Bay's "mockumentary" video shows the stark reality of California's plastic bag pollution situation. Heal the Bay, alongside a coalition of environmental and public health experts, pushed the State of California to pass a ban on single-use plastic bags: Prop 67 passed on Nov 8, 2017. But this plastic waste reduction legislation is only the beginning. Heal the Bay is on a mission to ban all single-use plastic.

Water is life! And more than that, the quality of water affects the quality of life for humans, the environment, ecosystems, and, of course, the waters themselves. The US federal government recognized this decades ago, and created the first major federal law in the US to address water pollution, called the 1948 Federal Water Pollution Control Act. However, this policy was ineffective owing to a lack of oversight and enforceability. Public pressure following a series of environmental plights (including the Cuyahoga River catching on fire) forced the US to reconsider its approach, leading to the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) Amendment. This amendment, among many upgrades, gave the EPA more regulatory control to enforce clean water requirements and achieve swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.  
[Read more]

• Translate the introduction.
  Add difficult words and phrases to your notebook!
• Do ex. 1 (just go through the statements and make sure you understand all the words!), 2 & 5 & 6

Climate tipping points (CTPs) are conditions beyond which changes in a part of the climate system become self-perpetuating. These changes may lead to abrupt, irreversible, and dangerous impacts with serious implications for humanity. (source)

[...] there are now 16 major tipping points, almost all of which could reach the point of no return if global warming continues beyond 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial levels. (source)

Section 5

Read up on WED!

link 1: World Environment Day 
link 2: worldenvironmentday.global

June 5th

You'll find even more interesting news at the Green Institute.

Pay attention to new vocabulary!

section 5.3: ex. 22: 

Listening comprehension:

Biodiversity Hotspots

Section 5.3

Are We Really Past the Point of No Return on Climate? Scientists Respond To Controversial New Study
(EcoWatch, November 2020)

Is the climate crisis pushing the world towards a ‘point of no return’?

A new study claims we may have already reached a hypothetical ‘point of no return’, but other researchers say this is ‘at odds’ with what we know about climate science.
(The Independent, November 2020)

Opinion: We are close to the point of no return

We must make 2021 the year when climate action came of age, or face disaster, writes Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme. (DW.com, January 2021)

'Past a point of no return': Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero still won't stop global warming, study says. (USA Today, 1 min video+text, November 2020)

Greenland's ice sheet melting has passed
the point of no return | Climate Change | GHG (1:41)

Continue working on your grammar in section 7.
If you've done all the exercises there, you can practice prepositions here:
100 phrases

330 prepositions
 

Section 7