Handy Stuff 4 the English Class: 08/01/2023

Thursday 12 January 2023

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS TO SHARE IN CLASS by Rio

Recovery of the ozone layer due to bans on chemical substances

Today I want to talk about the recovery of the ozone layer. 35 years ago the Montreal Protocol was created to remove 96 chemicals that were causing a hole in the ozone layer. To know what we are talking about, the ozone layer is the area of the stratosphere that protects the Earth from ultraviolet rays. Latest reports confirms that the ozone layer is going to be fully recovered in 40 years. This document says that if current policies are still implemented, the ozone layer is expected to fully recover in the Arctic by 2045. Furthermore in 2066 the most damaged area (Antarctica) will recover completely. The scientific evaluation group confirms the positive impact of the Montreal Protocol, where in 2016 other substances such as hydrofluorocarbons were added, which are powerful greenhouse gasses but don't damage the ozone layer as much as chlorofluorocarbons. Personally, I believe that positive news helps us to realize that everything we do for the planet where we live pays off and that we must continue this wayto improve and never give up for a better planet for future generations. This article has been taken from the digital spanish newspaper El País.

Sunday 8 January 2023

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS TO SHARE IN CLASS by Amina

THE DIVINE MOVE At the end of 2022, after two years, was celebrated the COP15 in Montreal, Canada, where an agreement was signed by 195 different countries, but that document hasn’t changed and will not change anything. This fact is supported by Ecologistas en Acción, an organization of 300 groups all over Spain that really care about the environment. On their website, they have posted a piece of news about the inefficacy of this agreement, showing data that proves that our planet is dying and all of us with it. One of the data is the protection of 30% of natural areas, but the remaining 70% is not protected from poaching and people who don´t worry even if their forests were on fire. Another one is that scientists assert that we are on the sixth process of global animal extinction in world history, and if that wasn’t enough, the impacts are not regulated and the companies do whatever they want without any legal responsability. And the third one is that the early days before the COP15, in Egypt, a lot of citizens went out the streets to protest and many of them were arrested. Despite all of this, at least all the countries, that agreed on sign that document, had set up biodiversity global reserve zones to protect all the species, of which 3 of them disappear every hour.