Under This Cloud, Life Chugs Along

This is an abridged article by Christopher Hume from Toronto Star of May 2010

Although volcanic ash from Iceland has paralyzed air traffic across Europe, it hasn't paralyzed Europe. But what if the jet stream flowed west, not east, and smoke was blowing across Canada? The results would be catastrophic.
Why? Because in North America, we have no other serious forms of transportation. Take aviation out of the picture and what's left? The answer, sad to say, is precious little. Other than cars and trucks, we would have few alternatives.
Europe, by contrast, is connected by formidable network of trains, high-speed intercontinental lines, intercity service and local commuter lines.
Despite what Canadians might like to believe, Europeans, whether Germans or Swedes, love their cars every bit as much as we do. But judging from the number of people in Berlin who get around by transit and ride bikes, which have their own lanes throughout the city, it's understood that one of the great advantages of urban life is that you don't have to drive everywhere.
In this way, the New World and the Old World have traded places.

Discussion questions:
1. What does author mind in North America?
2. What does he refer to as "precious little"?
3. What would have happened if the ash had blown west?
4. In which respect is the New World old now?
5. As a new Canadian, what do you think about driving everywhere?

Look at the phrases below and try to reconstruct the text that the author wrote in continuation of the above excerpt:



fall behind
lag technologically
distant past
antique system
sleeping ticket takers
outdated equipment
mechanical failures
Alberta tar sands

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Not So Sexy: Hidden Chemicals in Perfume and Cologne | Environmental Working Group

Not So Sexy: Hidden Chemicals in Perfume and Cologne | Environmental Working Group

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STORY OF BOTTLED WATER

The author of the Story of Stuff, having had about 10 million viewers,made another amazing video.
http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/

2. DILEMMA

1. MORNING RUSH

Open this comic strip and discuss the pictures. It is possible to exploit this visual material for the lowest levels as well as the highest ones. For those with better speaking skills, you can discuss what in Jo's morning is an environmentally friendly/unfriendly behaviour. For more on plastic bottles, look under the tag "Plastics" for more material. The comic strip number 2 is a followup to this one.

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

SPRING WORDS

These word clouds with spring vocabulary will be handy and fun for your literacy students. You can create your own on wordle.net.
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