I - Texte : Environmental pollution

The fouling of the world’s land, air and water is the fastest-spreading disease of civilization. It
probably produces fewer headlines than wars, earthquakes, thunderbolts and floods, but it is
potentially one of history’s greatest dangers to humain life on Earth. If present trends continue for the
next several decades, environmental poisoning will accomplish what no war to date has : it will make
all the world’s cities, and most of the countryside uninhabitable.
In all the world’s great cities, toxic air borne gases and acid vapors visibly pit bronze statues
and stone buildings façades and cause the paint of autos to peel off. The effect on humans is almost as
devastating : each year thousands of people die from a pollution-aggravated lung disease called
emphysema.
The sharp increase in deadly water pollution is equally alarming. Every major river within the
developed countries is grossly polluted. Pesticides (principally DDT) and industrial wastes pouring
into the rivers killed about twenty million fish. Synthetic detergents pose still another pollution
menace. Unlike organic wastes, they cannot be decomposed by bacterial action, and many detergents
sink into the soil. As a result, in many areas there is scarcely a private well that does not have
dangerous amounts of detergent in its water.
Garbage, noise and nuclear fallout stand as other dangerous kinds of pollutions : dumping
garbage in rivers or seas, has served mainly to pollute our water; long exposures at much above 100
decibels threaten permanent impairment of hearing; and thrown high into the stratosphere by above-
ground nuclear tests, particles of radioactive matter continue to filter down to earth for years
afterwards.
So, it may be necessary, in the name of public health, for some industries to phase out –
perhaps with the help of tax enducements – whole lines of pollution-breeding manufacture. Above all
the health and safety of our citizenry – and that of mankind in general – must be placed at the center of
our anti-pollution effort and must be made “the measure of all things”.

Adapted from Saturday Review in Current

Economic Issues by Daniel Delporte, pp. 23-26.

Vocabulary :

To pit : (ronger)
Garbage : domestic waste
To phase out : to eliminate, to get rid of progressively
Headlines : (titres de journaux)
A trend : a tendency

II) Guided commentary

1) What will be according to the text, the major threat to the habitability of the Earth in the next
decades ? (2pts)
2) Referring to the text, give some of the consequences of pollution on humans and the
environement. (3pts)
3) What are the main pollutants of water in developed countries, according to the text ? (3pts)
4) What ideas are suggested in the text to eliminate pollution in the world ? (2pts)
5) Point out some of the major types of pollutants in Burkina Faso and suggest possible solutions
(10 lines at most) (5pts)

III) Translation (5pts)

Translate the first paragraph of the text into French.