Environmental issues: PART ONE

Why is RUBBISH one of the biggest issues?

Read the article below to help you answer the questions.

• A Third of turtles found dead on New Zealand beaches had ingested plastic

What is the first word that comes to your mind when you think of RUBBISH? The first word that enters my mind is Littering. Littering is very bad for the community because it makes the appearance of the environment in our Community very untidy. Littering is a action most people apparently do, dropping rubbish not only on ground but also underwater and that will kill the underwater life and everything living underwater such as underwater plants, the ocean and the fishes and sea creatures underwater. Rubbish can be found in any places. Underwater, on ground, underground, and up high in trees. When you litter, you make the environment in the community very unclean, and very unhealthy.

Write down 5 words that you find important and 5 words that you think are important to show the problem.  For each word, find the meanings.

Turtles

Plastics

Culprit

Against

Horrific death

Petition

Government

Huge range of species

Environmental groups

Signatures (10,400)

Write a summary that describes in your own words how plastic bags are affecting our environment. Plastic bags are now affecting our environment in our Community, dangerously killing our land and destroying the lives of living things such as plants, animals, sea creatures and life. Plastic bags not only float around on land but even underwater, making the appearance of sea life environment very unhealthy. Plastic in the underwaters kills underwater species and destroys the life of the underwater. Plastic bags are now being eaten by our critical sea creatures and they attend to start to slowly die. Turtles are the main underwater sea creatures that die by trying to digest plastic floating in the sea because to them they think it’s food but to us, its rubbish. Turtles thinks of plastic as jellyfish but when trying to eat it, they struggle trying to digest the plastic into their stomach and they struggle to swallow the plastic. Thousands of turtles are found dead on land and in sea because apparently the amount of plastic they eat stops their lungs from functioning properly, and they slowly start dieing. Plastics are found in not only turtle bodies but also inside of other types of underwater, on land species such as seabirds and wales. Plastic not only destroy the life of the under waters but also the life around us on ground. Plastics are floating around, and making the appearance of the environment in our Community very unpleasant and very untidy.

What were the two ways mentioned in the article, that people tried to stop selling plastic bags?  Do you think they will work?  Explain your answer.