1- Environmental problems
Our planet is in danger, but what are the main issues? Let’s read about the three principal environmental problems that the Earth is facing today.
1.1- Pollution
We can define pollution as every chemical substances or energy that cause damage to the environment. We usually think of trash or chemicals, but also energy such as noise, heat, or light can destroy our planet. The main sources of pollution on Earth are industries and traffic. Pollution can damage our health, so if we breathe polluted air, our organisms are decayed.
1.2- Plastic
As you probably know, plastic is damaging our planet significantly. Plastic is non-biodegradable which means that it never disappears! We use tons of plastic every day and these usually end up in the sea. If the sea is full of plastic, the animals eat that plastic, and that is harmful to their health and ours too if we eat fish full of plastic!
1.3- Global warming
As a consequence of pollution, our planet is getting warmer every year, this might not seem so serious, but it is. The icebergs are melting down because of the higher temperatures, if the icebergs meltdown, many animals lose their habitats.
The global warming also affects our weather, if the weather changes, our way of living changes too. Agriculture is highly affected by the droughts (no rain) and the higher temperatures.
We need to be aware of these situations and try our best to change and fix all the damage that we as humans had done to our planet. The consequences are not only bad for us but also all the other creatures that live on the planet too.
2- Cause and effect
To talk about a cause and effect relation, it’s common to use the “zero conditional”, this conditional stablishe a relation between two events. An EVENT A is the consequence of an EVENT B.
Also we use the “zero conditional” to talk about facts, events that always happen.
2.1- Structure
The “zero conditional” structure is the following:
| If + present simple, present simple |
Example: If you throw garbage away, the planet suffers.
The planet suffers if you throw garbage. (We don’t use a comma before IF).
*Also we can use WHEN instead of IF.
2.3- Present simple
Remember the rules for Present Simple:
For negative sentences we use:
don’t I, you, we, they
doesn’t he, she, it
With the pronouns he, she, it add a -s at the end of the verb.
2.4- Verb to be:
I am
You, We, They are / aren’t
He, She, It is / isn’t
