E-Waste Vocabulary exercises

Click on this link to view or print the worksheets.

A Message of Life

CLICK ON THE ARROW TO WATCH THE VIDEO.
Tasks after watching:

I. Discuss with your partner:
a. how the young man changes through different phases of his life;
b. a viewpoint of yours that has changed as you were becoming older.

II. Consider the following:
1. What is that that makes this video clip a commercial?
2. Do you think it is effective?
3. How can commercials influence those who watch them?
4. Are commercials more powerful on TV or in the print?

Say your opinion:
1. Do the young people today face more problems in the world than the older generations?
2. Does the individual behaviour impact the future of the world?
3. Does the technology make people happier?
4. What could be disastrous consequences of using too much technology?
5. Have you changed anything in your life that is now more environment friendly?

III. Compare:
1. the way people lived before and after the 4th (internet) technological revolution;
2. the way people communicated in the past and now;

IV. Speculate how people will live in the future if we don't stop the environmental degradation. In a group write a warning message to your Prime Minister.

IV. Listening comprehension / writing / reading
1. Write down the scrypt of this commercial. Ask your teacher for help in difficult spots. Print it out.
2. Cut the text in smaller segments and have your partner re-compose it.

Gorillas and cell Phones

Toronto Zoo has a cell phone drop off program called "Phone Apes". If you decide to take your class for a visit there,maybe you'll find this material useful not only to teach the language, but to instill some Earth watcher's ideas along.
Conservationists point out that recycling cell phones protects landfills from the many potentially hazardous chemicals found in the phones, including antimony, arsenic, copper, cadmium, lead, and zinc.

But cell phones also include coltan, a mineral extracted in the deep forests of Congo in central Africa, home to the world's endangered lowland gorillas.

Fueled by the worldwide cell phone boom, Congo's out-of-control coltan mining business has in recent years led to a dramatic reduction of animal habitat and the rampant slaughter of great apes for the illegal bush-meat trade.

"Most people don't know that there's a connection between this metal in their cell phones and the well-being of wildlife in the area where it's mined," said Karen Killmar, the associate curator of mammals at the San Diego Zoo.

Mountain Top Removals in West Virginia

Put the verbs in parentheses into the right form:


Last week, the state of West Virginia announced that it _________ (sue) both the Environmental Protection Agency and the the Army Corps of Engineers over mountain top removal mining regulations. It said they ___________ (be) "unlawful" and "based on inadequate science."

West Virginia's Gov. Joe Manchin accused the government that they purposefully__________ (delay) 23 pending mountain top removal mining permits and ___________ (harm) the state's economy in the process.

Manchin alleged that no specific law or government regulation __________ (keep) the permits from passing.

Solutions: would sue, were, delayed, harmed, had kept

Saving South African Leopards with Fake Fur

(adapted from www.care2.com)

Use the active or passive form of the verbs in parentheses:

 

This is one example of a major conservation blind spot in southern Africa right now: the widespread and rapid loss of leopard populations to an illegal yet culturally entrenched skin trade. The most frightening thing is not the rate at which these magnificent big cats ___________ (hunt), but just how little the public___________ (know) about the trade.

The major demand for skins ___________ (create) by the four million strong religious group known as the Shembe church. The Shembe ___________ (adopt) leopard skins into their ceremonial life from their traditional place in Zulu culture where for hundreds of years the skins ___________ (serve) as a sign of the royal family. Now, what was once the reserve of the elite ___________ (search) after by millions of people, and at a single gathering upward of 600 leopards skins can ___________ (see). In a country highly sensitive about race and culture, stopping a practice like this -- however illegal -- through the use of the law, is almost impossible. It is an accepted norm for too many people.

 

are being hunted, knows, is created, have adopted, served, is sought, be seen

Ocean Storm

Put connectors on the blanks:

(This is a modified passage from Rachel Carson's book "The Sense of Wonder")

One stormy autumn night ________ my nephew was about twenty months old I wrapped him in a blanket ________ carried him down to the beach in the rainy darkness. Out there, just at the edge of where-we-couldn't-see, big waves were thundering in, dimly seen white shapes _________ boomed ________ shouted _______ threw great handfuls of froth at us. Together we laughed for pure joy - he a baby meeting for the first time the wild tumult of Oceanus, I with the salt of half a lifetime of sea love in me. ____ I think we felt the same response to the vast, roaring ocean _______ the wild night around us.

Solutions: when, and, that, and,and, But, and.

Urban Forest

Put the verbs in parentheses either in an active or a passive form:

Toronto is a city of trees. More than three million trees ____________ (dominate) our ravines, ____________ (line) our boulevards and ____________ (beautify) our parks. Millions more trees____________ (locate) on private property.
Trees are the lifelines of our city. Trees____________ (beautify) neighbourhoods. The harsh texture of concrete buildings ____________ (soften) by trees. Trees ____________ (offer) privacy screens and ____________ (protect) people from the sun’s burning rays. Harmful gases and other pollutants____________ (absorb) by trees. Soils __________ (protect) from erosion. Trees ____________ (provide) a natural habitat for birds and wildlife, ____________ (cool) streets and homes in the summer, and ____________ (protect) us from winds in the winter.
Trees are the predominant contributor to Toronto’s image as a “green” and beautiful city.
Toronto’s trees along city streets, in parks, ravines and natural areas, in the front and back yards of homes, and in landscaped open spaces are collectively known as the city’s “urban forest”. It must ____________ (protect) and ____________ (grow) as a natural legacy for future generations to enjoy.

Green Canadian Future

This is an abridged excerpt from the article by Sidney Ribaux and Rick Smith from Toronto Star of June 2010.

There is a new and exciting story that Quebec and Ontario have just begun to tell, and one that we really have no choice but to fill out and embrace.A new low carbon economy is not only possible, but essential. With tremendous potential in renewable energy, an innovative workforce and good policy design, Quebec and Ontario can lead this story and invite others in.Ontario's Green Energy Act has already resulted in billions of dollars of new investments in renewable energy, with the promise of thousands jobs. The two provinces have signed a memorandum of understanding to co-operate on battling greenhouse gas pollution.
We have to stop sending billions of dollars to oil companies and instead create jobs at home by supplying electric vehicles manufactured here with renewable energy that we have produced ourselves.
This story will also tell about what kind of people we are, and about what really matters. It is a story about showing leadership in the world and about restoring Canada's reputation. It is a story about doing right for our children and grandchildren by building them a brighter future. It is a story about responsibility and caring for others.

Chemicals in your Home

Click on this link for an interactive quiz about the chemical burden in your home.Discus your results with those of your classmates.

Click on this link to find more about harmful chemicals in cleaning products.

PLASTIC BY THE NUMBERS

A very comprehensive article on the Greenopolis website, about recyclability of different plastic designations:

http://www.greenopolis.com/goblog/joe-laur/plastic-numbers-what-choose-what-lose

The Story Of Stuff

Please visit this link to see the compelling animation by Annie Leonard:

If you get a message that the link can't be opened, copy it and paste it in your browser and click enter.
Look for an extensive list of teaching handouts for higher levels related to this video, including the transcript:
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B-rWSJk57KV7NmRmZTBjZTYtMGRjOS00YTQ3LThmYWItMDAwMDA2OWEzNzBi&hl=en

Courtesy of Anne Cairns

CATTLEGATE

CATTLEGATE
I learned about this story in the book "Slow Death by Rubber Duck" by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie (2009)

It happened in 1973's on Rick Halbert's dairy farm in Michigan. His 400 cows were becoming increasingly sick. They decreased milk production and they showed some abnormal symptoms, such as hoof growth, hair loss and severe reproductive abnormalities. His veterinarian could not diagnose any disease. Halbert suspected his high-protein feed supplies by Michigan Farm Bureau Services. Halbert was no ordinary farmer – he was a chemical engineer too, and he had worked 3 years for the Dow Chemical Company. He spent $5,000 on his own testing of the feed.

PBB, which is a flame retardant for plastic parts by the Michigan Chemical Corporation, was found in the cow's feed. The same company also sold magnesium oxide to Farm Bureau Services, to add to dairy feed to increase cow's milk production. The PBB was confused for magnesium oxide when the company ran out of pre-printed bags. Between 225 and 400 kg of PBB were accidentally shipped to Farm Bureau Services and mixed with cow's feed.

The source of contamination was identified only 9 months after it entered the food chain. It took another year and a half to track down all the contaminated livestock and poultry. Several thousand farm families and wider public had consumed poisoned meat, eggs and milk in the meanwhile.

A study which has tracked health in Michigan points to the link between the PBB exposure and increased risk of cancers of breast and digestive system and higher rate of reproductive system complications. Five years after the incident about 97% of people in Michigan still had measurable level of the PBB chemical in their bodies.

At that time one of the most popular Michigan bumper stickers read "PBB-Cattlegate Bigger Than Watergate".

Conserving Nature for Future Generations

John Riley, NCC's chief science officer

When John Riley was a child,
there was a slogan: "Leave no child inside". He spent a lot of time exploring local wild places. It was popular among friends to know stuff about animals and trees. In his high school years, he hitchhiked to British Columbia and back twice, just for sport. Together with his siblings he took care of a big family garden that supplied food for the family.

Now John is the chief science officer at Nature Conservancy Canada. He takes care of spaces and species for future generations.

He says that Canada is multicultural and it is also multi-ecological. The best part of his job is that he can enjoy this diversity across Canada.

"It is urgent to get the job done, before it is too late – to be able to give such an assurance of successful conservation to our supporters and to the youth who are looking over our shoulders", says John.
"Let's make this a year that counts! For nature, for now, for ever." 

 
 

TASKS

1. Explain the meaning of the following words:

A

slogan

wild

popular

stuff

hitchhike

siblings

youth

 

B

species

multicultural

multi-ecological

diversity

urgent

assurance

conservation

looking over one's shoulder

 

2. Comprehension questions:

1. Who is John Riley?
   

1. What is NCC?
   
2. Why is Canada multi-ecological?
   
3. Why are youth looking over their shoulders?
   

   
    

   
    

3. Discussion questions

1. Which wild places in Canada do you know?
   
2. Check the NCC website and find what places and species they have put on their list.
   
3. Why is nature conservancy important for future generations?
   
4. How would you rank the importance of: individuals, conservancy groups and organizations and government in the role of nature conservation? Explain your point.
   

 

4. GRAMMAR

Use the past form of the verbs in brackets:

Beryl Ivey ______ (be) a passionate advocate for conservation, especially in her native South-western Ontario.

She deeply _______ (love) nature. She _______ (create) conservation areas along the Niagara Escarpment.

She _______ ( live) much of her life in London, Ontario. Her mother _________ (grow up) in England's Lake District and _______ (tell) Beryl stories about it. Mrs. Ivey _________ (pass) this passion down to her own four children.

Their work with the Ivey Foundation supports many causes, including the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Mrs. Ivey ____________ (pass away) on Christmas Day 2007. In her will, she _______ (make) a $1-million

bequest to NCC.

 

 

1. Order the words in this message:
   

   
    

environment     all     role     to     in     a     our

we         have     preserving        play

 

 

 

1. Supply these synonyms for the words underlined in the text:
   

 

cottage, generosity, researchers, endangered, shore, deciduous, properties, habitat, flora, honour, expeditions, Woods, fauna

Conserving nature for a lifetime and beyond ,

The Bickford Oak Forest (1) is one of the NCC pieces of land (2) that's benefited from Mrs. Ivey's passion and unselfishness (3) and is named in her family's respect (4): the Ivey Research Station at Middle Point Woods on the eastern coast (5) of Pelee Island. This mature, 69-acre (28- hectare) leaf shedding (6) forest growing on sand dunes provides essential home (7) for both rare plants (8)- including the nationally threatened Common Hoptree and Wild Hyacinth – and animals (9) - such as the endangered Smallmouth Salamander. It's also the location of a recently renovated country house,(10)

that can accommodate up to eight researchers on multi-day research and restoration trips (11).

Thanks to the financial contributions of Beryl and Richard Ivey, it will be home base for scientists (12)
to study and protect the ecologically diverse and threatened (13) area for many, many years to come.

Passive Voice

Use the Passive Voice of the verbs in brackets:

1. Millions of plastic bottles __________ (use) worldwide, leaving a heavy footprint on the planet.

2. The PET used for plastic bottles __________ (make) from petroleum.

3. By manufacturing PET plastic water bottles, greenhouse gas emissions four times weight of the bottles _________ (create).

4. In 2007, 130 million beverage bottles __________ (discard) in B.C.

5. Toxic metals and chemicals _________ (contain) in bottled water.

6. By manufacturing the PET, some cancer causing substances ______ (release) into the environment.

7. Our health _________ (affect) by the phthalates in bottled water.

8. By filling and transporting the bottles the total GHG emissions _________ (increase)

9. In making, filling and transporting of an average 500 ml PET bottle 16 – 28% of its volume of crude oil _________ (require)

10. Bottled water that _______ (sell) in Canada comes from both local bottling plants and international sources, including France and Fiji.

11. Bottled water _________ (produce) by some of the biggest companies in the world, including Coca Cola, Nestle and Pepsi.

12. More and more bottling plants _________ (locate) on pristine streams, causing reversals in groundwater flows.

13. About 72% of the bottles _______ (recycle) in B.C., and they mainly end up as carpets, fabrics or similar products that cannot ________(recycle) again.

Source: Toxic Free Canada 2009

Live Green!

Use the correct tense of the verbs in brackets:

1. If residents _____ (be) to eat 50 per cent of their food from a local source, the reduction of emissions _____ (be) similar to the family owning a hybrid.

2. If you ______(think) of installing a hardwood floor, ______ (consider) reclaimed materials or look for new wood products that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Canada.

3. If you ______ (use)use low-flow shower heads, you ______ (use) 70% less water than standard shower.

4. If you ________ (install) new kitchen cabinetry, _______ (avoid) those made with particleboard boxes that may leach harmful gases like urea formaldehyde resin.

5. If you ________ (plan) native flowers, trees and grasses in your garden, you ________ (minimize) the need for pesticides and watering.

6. If you _______ (have) a party, ______ (make) it a charitable affair!

These sentences can also be used for a Find a Partner game, so that they are split in halves and given out to students who have to find their matching half.

INDIRECT SPEECH

Mayor Miller on Toronto's Efforts
Insert missing links in these complex sentences:

Mayor David Miller said the international community is cool to Canada, _____ he said he was feeling love for Toronto at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, _______ he attended as co-chair of the C40 group of urban mayors.
The C40 group's goals were modest ______ Miller said they're moving to complete them, ________ signing a carbon funding pact _________ will allow municipalities _____ access green funding for projects ________ reduce their carbon footprint.
"Our goal here is two things: ______ to demonstrate _______ the cities are acting _____ national governments can act, and ________ to ask national governments to engage in this and resource cities."
Miller said in general, the conference has confirmed for him _______ Toronto is on the right track environmentally, __________ he noted _______ Copenhagen is much more bicycle friendly than Toronto _______ he was impressed with the larger reliance on wind power.
When asked _______ he would like to see more windmills in Toronto, Miller replied ______ the Island airport would be a good spot.

Answers: but, where/which, and, particularly, that, to, that, first, how, so, secondly, that, although, that, and, where, that.

Indirect Speech

Inuit Want Share of Global Fund
Turn the indirect speech into direct:
The head of Canada's main Inuit organization says her people deserve a share of any global fund created to help people adapt to a warming planet.
Mary Simon, in Canada's delegation to the Copenhagen climate conference, says money should be made available to populations at risk in both developing and developed countries.

Indirect Speech

Secretary General Optimistic about Deal
Turn indirect sentences from this text into direct, and direct into indirect:

UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, predicted yesterday that a robust agreement to combat climate change will be reached in Copenhagen and implemented immediately.
"From all corners of the globe we see unprecedented momentum for a deal", the UN chief told reporters. 'I'm encouraged and optimistic."
Ban said for the Copenhagen conference to be a success, the agreement must include ambitious reductions in carbon emissions by developed countries as well as ambitious actions by poorer developing countries to curb emissions.
Rich nations must also provide financial support and to help developing countries, he said.

Facts on Endangered Breeds of Livestock and Poultry

Sources: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), "The Chance to Survive" L. Alderson (www.rarebreedscanada.org)
About one third of the world's domestic animal breeds are now at risk of becoming extinct.

About 40 breeds of domestic animals contribute to 30-40% of the total value of food and agriculture production.

In 80% of the world's rural areas, the locally adapted breeds are superior to common modern breeds.

In North America, about 41 breeds are seen to be at risk.

Breeds can be lost when too much political and economic emphasis is given to one breed to the exclusion of others.

Sustainable, well managed use of animals in their environment will likely be the most cost-effective way of maintaining breeds for the future.

The Charolais was a rare breed 150 years ago; it is now a beef breed of international importance.

CHANGING THE FOOD SYSTEM IS JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED

BY Wayne Roberts

The most authoritative grouping of medical experts in the world released Policy and Action for Cancer Prevention, which identifies cancer as an environmental disease that can only be prevented by political and economic initiatives treating the “causes of causes” of a disease that kills 11 million people a year.

The World Health Organization gives the report published by the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research the same stature as the international panel on climate change, which settled the key scientific debates around global warming and moved the policy agenda toward corrective actions.


The report focuses on diet and fitness, and delivers a one-two punch to the food and auto industry.


The first punch comes in the opening line: “Cancer is a largely preventable disease.” Overwhelming evidence blames a third of cancers on cigarette smoking, the report says. Equally overwhelming evidence puts the combination of poor diet and insufficient exercise a close second. Without even counting the cancers caused by polluting carcinogens, these conclusive findings reframe cancer as an “environmental disease” -- in medical terms, one that comes from the environment external to the patient’s body and genes.


Punch two comes from the doctors’ orders that cancer must be treated by the political equivalent of chemotherapy: what it calls “the classic public health approach.” The public health measures that are usually credited with the major gains in the quality and length of life in industrialized countries over the last hundred years rarely cured the immediate causes of the “big killer” infectious and contagious diseases. Instead, they treated the first causes, such as overcrowded tenements and factory sweatshops, disease-festering water supplies and open sewers.


The standard “check-up and a check” recommended by mid-1900s cancer societies get short shrift, dismissed as “primary prevention” limited to early detection by primary physicians. The new science puts primary emphasis on what is called “primordial prevention,” directed at the deeper forces behind cancer.


During the era when “classic public health” was in its prime, substandard water suppliers were brought up to standard by public utilities that went to the enormous expense of cleaning and sterilizing water and delivering it virtually free to all residents. The analogy between what public authorities did and do for water treatment and what they should do for diet and exercise is repeated several times in the report. If people have a right to health, then government has a duty to provide the infrastructure, laws and regulations to protect health, the clear logic goes. The government doesn’t stop with information on the importance of drinking clean water; nor does it cut back because bottled water is available as an option. Neither factor absolves the state “from the obligation to ensure the provision of a safe supply of water.” Nor does anyone accuse governments of acting like a nanny state when water regulators insist on high standards.


Perhaps the very success of the classic public health movement and its first cousins in progressive social movements – women’s suffrage, abolition of child labor and workplace safety laws were standard accompaniments of public health campaigns of those days – led to the undoing of the classic heritage for a period of time.

When safer and better food, water, air and work led to longer and healthier lives for the entire population, the old-time (in the industrialized world) infectious and contagious diseases were largely marginalized. The new source of threats came from chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer.

Many of these new big killers – they’re still common causes of death in the poor countries of the Global South, where the majority of the world’s people live – were classified as “diseases of affluence.” This framing of chronic disease implied that more willpower and moral strength was needed to counter the by-products of progress and affluence -- too much salt, fat, sugar and starch and too little exercise. Governments had little role to play in this framing of chronic diseases, except to encourage individuals to opt for healthier lifestyles and nudge companies to voluntarily cut back on some harmful ingredients.


Only tobacco and alcohol addiction escaped this framing of health issues, probably because they cause problems for innocent others, through second-hand tobacco smoke, drunken driving and the like. They’ve been regulated with more or less classic methods, such as policies that reduce usage by raising prices and limiting availability and access. Aside from old-style safety measures, food and fitness matters have largely escaped such forceful government regulation and have almost totally escaped “classic” public health tools such as public infrastructure that ensures availability and access of high-quality options.

The report from the World Cancer Research Fund earns its place in public health history by arguing for forceful government actions that get to the causes of the causes – ending agricultural subsidies that make “junk foods” cheaper than unsubsidized healthier foods, for example, or undoing trade laws that prevent countries from restricting junkfood imports, or limiting unfettered access to children by junkfood advertisers or making healthful foods more available to people on low incomes. Getting to the causes of causes also requires infrastructure that overcome the carcinogenic infrastructure of suburbia with street designs that make walking or biking more pleasant, efficient and safer than driving a car.

The report also calls for treating farming practices from a classic public health perspective. “Air, soil and water need to be regarded as public goods, and their preservation and protection as essential to the health, welfare and survival of the human species and the living and natural world,” it says, meaning that agriculture departments beholden to interest groups no longer have the last say in regulating fundamental building blocks of life and health.

As might be expected by anyone following health advice over the last 50 years, the World Cancer Research Fund report comes out four-square in favor of breastfeeding and staying fit and trim, but against excess salt, fat, red meat, booze, sugar and processed meats.

“The supply and demand mechanism has not got it right,” Dr. Marmot says in his introduction to the report, a statement that may seem as obvious as recommendations to exercise more and eat less fat and sugar. But by identifying curative, restorative and preventative powers higher than individual lifestyles and self-regulated market choices, the report opens the door wide to entirely new ways of thinking about public choices that can prevent one of the most-feared diseases in modern history.
Read this report, and call me in the morning.
(Adapted from Now Magazine, March 5-11, 2009; Wayne Roberts is the author of The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food.)