2)
What do you do to prevent the environment from pollution?
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I recycle as much rubbish as I can and I walk when possible rather than driving or
taking public transport in order to reduce my carbon footprint.
3)
Are you worried about climate change?
Most definitely. In my country, the weather is changing because of global
warming and we get more bad storms than before. Governments and individuals
need to do more to combat climate change.
4)
Do you use renewable energy?
Not at the moment. I wanted to change my house to solar power but the panels are
too expensive for me to buy so, unfortunately, I still use fossil fuels.
5)
Do you take an interest in nature?
I love all wildlife. My garden is the perfect habitat for hedgehogs. They
are nocturnal but if I go out after dark with a torch I sometimes see one.
Part 2
Describe an environmental problem you’ve heard about.
You should say:
what it is
how long it has existed
how it affects people’s lives
and explain how you think the problem will develop in the future.
There are a number of serious environmental problems being covered by the media
at the moment but the one I’d like to talk about is the deforestation of vast areas of
rainforest to grow palm oil. I’m not sure when it started to become a concern
to environmentalist but I know that they’re increasingly worried about it.
This land clearance is on a huge scale and the forest is often just burned down. This
sends large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere which
contribute to global warming and climate change. This affects everyone on the
planet.
Just as important is the effect on the native wildlife. Deforestation to grow palm oil
in Borneo and Sumatra destroys the natural habitat of orang utans as well as many
other animals. Conservationistsestimate that unless the situation changes, the orang
utan and Sumatran tiger could become extinctin the wild in the next 5-10 years. In
fact, a third of all mammal species in Indonesia are thought to be
critically endangered because of this type of unsustainable development.
Furthermore, the oil palm plantations that replace the rich vegetation of the rainforest
support very low levels of biodiversity and create a totally a different ecosystem. I
don’t fully understand why the loss of biodiversity is such a problem but I did read
somewhere that it means that our food crops are more vulnerable to pest and diseases.
This could lead to serious food shortages in the future.
I think that the palm oil industry and its associated problems are going to be difficult
to change. Perhaps it’s consumers who can have the biggest impact by refusing to
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buy products containing palm oil which is in around 40-50% of common household
products in many developed countries. In the UK, there’s already one major food
retailer that has promised to ban palm oil in its own products. This I really
encouraging and I hope other companies will do the same soon.
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