Leistungskurs Englisch, Jahrgangsstufe 13, Herr Lange
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Englisch
The Three Gorges Dam
General facts:
is the largest water conservancy project
→ the reservoir is over 600 kilometres long and can hold 39.3 km² of water
the dam wall is made of concrete & about 2,335 metres long & 185 metres high.
used 28,000,000 m³ of concrete,463,000 tons of steel and moved
about 134,000,000 m³ of earth.
the electric generating capacity will reach 22,400 electrical Watt
→ will be the largest hydro-electric power station in the
world
the Costs are about 23 billion US $
Main tasks
About three million people have been displaced by the dam Benefits are mainly in flood control, power generation and navigation improvement
Flooding is a major problem
The reservoir's flood storage capacity is 22 km²
With the dam, it is expected that major floods can be
controlled
the largest hydro-electric power station in the world
→ with an average annual output of 84.68 terawatt-hours
TGD will supply a large proportion of the electricity to East China & Central China
→ a replacement of 40 to 50 million tons of raw coal combustion each year.
this reliable, cheap and renewable energy will play a very important role in the development of economy +
Navigation Improvement:
The 660km long waterway from Yichang City to Chongqing Municipality will be improved
→ TGD making it possible for 10, 000 tons of barge to sail
upstream directly to the harbour of Chongqing
→ increase of annual one-way navigation capacity
an increase of the minimum flow downstream in the dry season
→ will improve the navigation condition in the dry season
irreparabel intervention in nature
→ the natural habitat of 2.859 botanical types,
300 species of fishes, 22 types of animals are destroyed
-human rights abuse → few million people has been displaced
Benefitis = die Leistung;
concrete = der Beton;
hydro power = Wasserkraftenergie;
govermental aid = staatliche Unterstützung;
submergence = das Untertauchen;
benefits = Leistung;
to force = zwingen;
average = der Durchschnittswert;
replacement = der Ersatz;
barge = Binnenschiff / Frachtkahn;
diversion channel = der Umleitungsweg;
discharge channel = Ableitungskanal;
human rights abuse = Verstoß gegen die Menschenrechte;
Cosima Rath
Julia W.
Coral Reefs
Reefs in General:
- they can live only in a delicate marine environment
- they require a lot of light and oxygen
- they need clear water, low nutrients, a steady temperature and stable salt content
- corals are extremely sensitive: slight changes may have detrimental effects
- they are one type of ecosystem that is neglected more than any other and is also one of the richest in biodiversity
Threats to Coral Reefs:
- global climate change: bleaching caused by elevated sea surface temperatures
- rising levels of CO2: when CO2 dissolves into the ocean, it produces carbonic acid
- overfishing: warps the food chain; includes destructive fishing practices (cyanide/ blast/dynamite fishing) which are quite common although illegal
- nutrients, chemical pollution&sediments: deforestation, mining, logging, slash&burn agriculture, erosion dirt, silt or sand can make the water cloudy, smothering to coral which then cannot get enough light to survive; oil, chemicals, human sewage, plastic bags dumped near coastal waters eventually find their way to the reef and poison corals
- careless tourism: boating, diving, snorkeling, fishing, feeding reef fihes, coral mining very damaging because a large amount of the most healthy corals is selected (e.g. for souvenirs)
- development of coastal areas: reefs provide a lot of benefits increasing human populations
- bombs: the Bikini-Atoll was location of 23 atmospheric atomic bomb tests (1946-1958), in 1995 France started testing its Nuclears weapons in the Pacific (destroying French Polynesia)
- natural disturbances: hurricanes or typhoons bring large and powerful waves which cause large corals to break
Future of Coral Reefs:
- more than half the world’s coral reefs will die in less than 25 years
- in the last 50 years up to 30% of the world’s coral reefs have died, another 30% are severely damaged
- corals are dying faster than previously thought: twice the rate of rainforest loss
Protect Coral Reefs:
- reduce emissions of CO2 as quickly as possible
- reduce the spillage and leakage of contaminant
- cleanup procedures must become improved
- refuse eating reef fish or fish that have their swim bladders ruptured
- do not buy souvenirs/jewellery made from corals or shells
- more species should be protected by international law
- choose more robust species for your aquarium
Johanna Göller
The Great Barrier Reef
General information
- location: on the north-east coast of Austrailia
- 3,000 reefs, 900 islands
- lengh: 2,600 km
- covered area: 344,400 sq km
- corals for 25 million years
- reefs for 600,000 years
Biodiversity
- thirty species of whales, dolphins and tortoises
- six species of seaturtles
- 5,000 species of mollusks
- 200 species of birds
- 2,195 known plant species
- 1,500 species of fish
- 400 species of corals
Threats
- mass coral bleaching due to high water temperatures
- experts predict total destruction of the reef until 2030
- crown-of-thorn starfish
- bad water quality
- overfishing
Protection
- 1975: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
- outlook plan every 5 years
Commercial use
- 2 million tourists a year
- income of 5.1 billion AU$ in 2005
- fishing employs 2,000 people
- annual worth: 1 billion AU$
Vocabulary
seaturtles - Meeresschildkröten
mollusks - Weichtiere
mass coral bleaching - Massen Korallen Sterben (die Korallen verlieren dabei ihre Farbe; bleach - bleichen)
predict - voraussagen
crown-of-thorn starfish - Dornenkronenseestern
von Theo Meier-Hans
Ivory poaching:
• 1979 to 1989 legal ivory trade
- african population of elephants from 1.3 million (1976) to 600,000 (1989)
scale of poaching threatened African economies
- fight against poachers (ivory wars)
• CITES tried - but failed - to control the legal ivory trade
• 1989, CITES agreed to place all populations of African elephants onto CITES Appendix I
• ban halted the devastation of elephant populations
• In 1997 CITES transferred the African elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe to CITES Appendix II.
• 2000 – 2003 CITES agreed to allow Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe to export more
than 60.000 t of ivory
• 2000 the South African population was also placed on Appendix II
• Asian population is now up to 50.000 elephants
IVORY, the ‘white gold‘ of animal world:
It‘s used For:
- art
- religious objects
- billard balls
- piano keys
• The new tool for fighting poaching:
scientists can identify where a tusk came from
differences:
-hardness
-translucency
-chemical composit
-reflection of the food eaten
The future for elephants:
Ivory could be the elephant‘s salvation, instead of its death, if profits from the strictly controlled legal sale of ivory were to go to local governments to fight against illegal poaching
von Florian Dohmann
The Baiji
About the Baiji
- they occure only along the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River
- reach a lenghts up to 2.5 metres, weigh around 160 kg
- live in freshwater
- bad vision and hearing --> depend on sonar
- critically endangered species since 1979
Recent Reports
Dezember 2006:
no Chinese River Dolphins were
detected in a six-week survey of the
Yangtze River
August 2007:
a Baiji has possibly been seen
in the Yangtze in Anhui Province
Causes of their decline
- human pressure on its freshwater habitat
- illegal fishing with electricity and rolling hooks
- industrial and agricultural pollution --> bad water qualtiy
- fishernets --> they drown
- „Three Gorges Dam“ and other damming projects --> increased ship traffic
- noise pollution --> collision with boats and their propellers
- „Great Leap Forward“: the Baiji was hunted for its flesh and skin
Baiji conservation efforts
- Freshwater Dolphin Research Centre
- Baiji reserves were arranged
- „Protection Station“
- Ex- situ and in- situ projects
- Baiji conservation dolphinarium
But: efforts were too late and too little
Vocabulary
reaches - Flussabschnitt
sonar - Echo
ex-situ - actions to save a species that take place outside their natural habitat
in-situ - opposite of ex-situ, actions inside the habitat
The Great Leap Forward - The Great Leap Forward was a campaign by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of the People's Republic of China from 1958 to early 1960 aimed at using mainland China's plentiful supply of cheap labor to rapidly industrialize the country
Julia Schnur
Melting Glaciers: Handout and List of Vocabulary
Glaciers
- Glaciers contain almost all of the fresh water present on earth
- Glaciers are formed in places that are extremely cold, especially in places that are high up in the mountains
- When the temeperature rises the glacier begins to melt
- The only way in which the glacier will be able to maintain itself and keep increasing in size year after year is that the amount of snow that falls on it must be more than the amount of glacier that has melted.
-
Do we need glaciers?
- Many people worldwide depend on melting glaciers for survival:
freshwater for drinking and irrigation
- If this fresh water source were to stop it will create chaos:
People will be forced to shift to places with other sources of freshwater.
- Certain nations depend a lot on the flow of this water for the production of electricity
Why are Glaciers Melting Faster Today?
- Glaciers are melting faster today as compared to the past many centuries
- The 'industrial revolution' is the main cause of this rise in average temperature.
- Reasons: burning of fossil fuels, coal and oil, increasing deforestation
- This reasons cause more heat in the earth's atmosphere and the global temperatures increase, glaciers are melting more than they actually should.
- Another reason: when a glacier melts fully, it exposes the earth below
- Glaciers absorb approximately 20% heat from the sun, reflecting back 80%. When the earth gets exposed this percentage gets reversed.
- In the future the global temperature will in all likelihood keep increasing, melting glaciers even faster than they are today.
Dangers of Fast Melting Glaciers
- Faster than normal melting glaciers will cause the streams and rivers to overflow causing flooding with the result that those living in close proximity to these rivers will need to relocate.
- Farmlands get destroyed in these flood waters.
- Once the glacier has totally melted, the streams and rivers will run dry.
- Farmland will turn dry.
- Those depending on freshwater from the melting glacier will have to relocate.
- Places that depend on the constant flow of this water for the production of electricity will
have to look for other sources to produce electricity which will cause further atmospheric
pollution and cost much more to produce.
- Sea levels that have already risen due to warmer waters will rise even further when all this
water from melting glaciers empty into the sea.
- These areas will get flooded and sweet groundwater will get polluted with sea water
making it unfit for human use.
- At immediate risk will be to those living in lowlying areas in close vicinity to seashores.
- All these people will have to relocate.
- Many animals, birds, and fish that depend on the fresh water from glaciers that empty directly into the sea will become endangered.
- Corals will suffer because of low sunlight due to increasing sea-levels.
- Fish feeding on these corals will in turn get affected.
- Animals and birds feeding on these fish will be affected.
- There are many more dangers that could crop up due to fast melting glaciers in the coming years if we do not do something to reduce the menace of global warming immediately
List of Vocabulary
amount Anteil, Menge
maintain aufrechterhalten
irrigation Bewässerung
shift Schicht, Veränderung
source Quelle
culprit Übeltäter
heat-trapping-gas Treibhausgas
expose herausstellen
absorb abschöpfen
approximately annähernd
excess Auswuchs
threat Bedrohung
affected beeinträchtigt
salinity Salzgehalt
mean Mittelwert
due Anteil
vicinity Nähe
menace Bedrohung
contain beinhalten
procure beschaffen
The Three Gorges Dam
Facts:
- it is a Chinese hydroelectric river dam which spans the Yangtze River in Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei province in China
- it is the largest hydroelectric river dam in the world
- the dam is made of concrete and is about 2335 metres long, 185 metres high, 115 metres wide on the bottom, 40 metres wide on top
- about 134 million cubic metres of earth was moved, 28 million cubic metres of concrete and 463 thousand tons of steel were used
- the reservoir is over 600 km long and can hold 39.3 cubic kilometers of water
- the original idea of this dam was created by President Sun Yat-sen in 1919
- construction began in 1994 and structural work was finished on May 20, 2006
- one function of the dam is to control flooding
- the installation of ship locks increase river shipping from 10 million to 50 million tonnes
- the world's largest hydro-electric power station by total capacity, which will reach 22500 MW
Effects on ecosystem and risks:
Sedimentation:
- the Yangtze River contents million tons of silt and sediment which causes the problem of silting up
- the held back silt is important for the agriculture downstream
Destruction of natural living space:
- involved are about 2859 plants and and 300 kinds of fish (for example the baiji)
- poison and garbage of factories is let ino the river
- upstream water quality has deteriorated because the flow is now too slow to flush pollution out of the river system
- because of the micro-biotic activity that occurs when the flooded plants rot, a lot of methane is produced
- because of the decreased flowing off, more saltwater of the pacific streams into the river
- 2 billions rats were forced into the farmland because of the rising water levels
Earthquakes:
- the dam was built near several seismic faults
- because of the high weight of the dam itself and the mass of water, it could redeem an earthquake
Landslipse:
- rising volume of water in the reservoir behind the dam has eroded the river bank along the Yangtze
- the shore had collapsed in 91 places
- a total of 36 km had already caved in
Effect on local culture and aesthetic values:
- permanently flooding of 32,000 hectares of farmland
- 13 cities, 1352 villages and 657 factories are flooded
- hundreds of archaeological relicts like the temple city of Fengdu are flooded
- about 2 million people were resettled to higher ground levels
Possible alternitives:
- several smaller dams in better positions
- reafforestation to prevent floods
Dajana Sobotta
Vocabulary> the air pollution from cars
domestic fire-Haushalt
pollutant-Schadstoff
emission-Ausstoß
average-Durchschnitt
counterpart-Gegenteil
exhaust-verbrauchen
evaporative-verdunsten
release-freigeben
combustion-Verbrennung
worn-Ventil
valve-Ring
seal-Dichtung
Julia Spilker