Track 29

Track 29

The environment

Are people in your country concerned about protecting the environment?

Does the responsibility for protecting the environment lie with governments or with individuals?

Does it help to educate young people on being green?

Pollution

What effects does pollution have on the environment?

Do you think we pollute more now than we did 50 years ago?

What do you think will happen if we do not reduce current levels of pollution?

Sample answers:

The environment

Examiner: Are people in your country concerned about protecting the environment?

Candidate: To be honest, no. I think the middle and upper classes are more interested in earning as much money as they can in order to buy as much stuff as they can. And there are many people in my country who live below the poverty line and they quite literally can’t afford to worry about the environment when they’re struggling to put food on the table and just survive.

Examiner: Does the responsibility for protecting the environment lie with governments or with individuals?

Candidate: In my view, the responsibility lies with all of us, However, individuals, at least in my country, aren’t taking action of their own accord, and nor are businesses; they’re just out to make a profit. Therefore, it falls to governments to force people to be more green, for example by fining companies that release toxic waste into our rivers, or incentivising ‘us to recycle.

Examiner: Does it help to educate young people on being green?

Candidate: Almost certainly it does, because it is the next generation wllo will have to take on the huge burden of saving the planet. This generation isn’t doing enough and is too worried about money, so I pray that the next one will see the urgency of the situation, and the way to get them to see is to teach them about the repercussions of a polluting lifestyle such as ours.

Pollution

Examiner: What effects does pollution have on the environment?

Candidate: Oh, I hardly know where to start! Pollution in the oceans kills fish and so unbalances the ecosystem, Pollution on land means that whole areas become unfit to live on or to farm. Habitats are destroyed, which leads to the extinction of hundreds of animal and plant species.

Examiner: Do you think we pollute more now than we did fifty years ago?

Candidate: Well, yes, overall. I’d say, though, that richer countries pollute less themselves but export their pollution elsewhere, by which I mean that they consume foreign products that have a large carbon footprint. It has become fashionable to be green in wealthier nations, especially Western ones, so people make an effort to cycle to work and recycle their waste. However, it’s quite a shallow attempt at being green, in my opinion, because they still live in big houses using lots of energy and go on holidays abroad, leaving a trail of pollution in their wake.

Examiner: What do you think will happen if we don’t reduce current levels of pollution?

Candidate: I read an article recently that claimed if we don’t change our ways, we will need a second planet to meet our needs as early as 2030. It’s frightening to think that we’re that greedy, and I’m sure I’m just as guilty as the next person. I do hold out some hope that things will get so bad that we will realise we really must act, and we will completely change our destructive habits just in the nick of time. If not, the planet will surely become uninhabitable.