Global Issues

Global problems are problems which are common for all people in the world.

There are many global problems all over the world. I will start with problems which            are connected with differences between the rich north and the poor south. These problems         are mainly hunger, unemployment, increasing criminality, spreading diseases, for example AIDS,malaria, but also growing population mainly in India, China and Africa. Another global problems are global warming, air pollution, water pollution, contamination of  food, cutting down rainforests. It causes many health problems,

including cancer, weak imunity system      and reducing animal population.

 Common – společný

Hunger – hlad

Unemployment – nezaměstnanost

Increasing criminality – rostoucí kriminalita

Spreading diseases – rozšiřjící se nemoci

Growing population- rostoucí populace

Global warming – globální oteplování

Pollution – znečištění

Contamination of food – znečištěné, zkažené jídlo

AIDS

AIDS started first in Africa. This disease is caused by virus H.I.V. Now billions of people   are infected all over the world. There isn’t any medicine to cure this disease. But there is some medicine which can help people to live longer , but it is very expensive and not everyone can afford it, mainly in Africa. Moreover, people in Africa are not informed about this illness. They do know anything about the prevention, they believe in magic ways of cure. (F.e. a man who is infected believes that he can be cured when having sex with a virgo. Thus many innocent girls are infected because rich men buy them to cure themselves)

People in Europe and America are not aware of the illness. However the prevention campaignes try to warn them to behave safely, a lot of people underestimate the danger of AIDS. They always think: “It can´t be my problem”

Disease – choroba

Cure – léčba

Afford – dovolit si

Virgo – panna

To be aware of – být si vědom, uvědomovat si

Underestimate – podceňovat

Terrorism

There has always been terrorism. But after the 11th September  2001 it has become the world´s problem. Nowadays, it is easier for terrorist to travel so that they can operate all over the world. They have also new types of weapons so they are more dangerous. The countries which are said to support terrorism are Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq.

Drugs

It´s a great problem mainly in rich countries, because of prices of drugs. But production is situated in poor countries and drugs are exported into the world. Well known drugs  are for example heroin, LSD or marihuana etc. It´s a problem mainly of young people.

They want to experiment, find inspiration, , live easier lives. Unfortunately, drugs could not bring hapiness. They usually make the matters worse and spoil the lives of their users.

Drug business is also connected with criminality. Mainly the South America and Africa are full of gangs buying and selling drugs.

Tsese drugs are also often  mixtures of drug plus some other stuff (látka) which can be dangerous for the user.

Make the matters worse – zhoršovat

Spoil - kazit

Poverty, starvation (chudoba, hladovění)
Problem especially in Africa or Asia.It is not possible to produce enough food in some countries while there is plenty of food in another countries. In Europe, 10% of food is thrown away, in the USA 30%

The poor countries have not enough money to grow plants, they do not have enough water or there are not enough people to work in the fields.

A lot of people in Africa and Asia have only one dollar per day which is really little money.

Racism
Is also a big problem. We can meet racists in all countries in the world, no matter what their race is. You can find racists among white, black as well as yellow. Racism is usually based on illogical prejudice.

No matter what – nezáleží na

Prejudice - předsudek

Ecological problems:

Air and water pollution

It´s caused by chemical industry. A lot of companies do not keep the laws which try to prevent pollution. They are given fines but these fines are too small and the money which the companies earn is very big.

But pollution  is caused also by traffic (fumes), factories etc.

Pollution – znečištění

Fine - pokuta

Acid rain
Some gases which are dangerous get into water in the atmosphere and then fall to the earth as acid rain. Acid rain damages trees and buildings, and can kill fish in lakes and rivers. Rivers can also be polluted by industrial waste from factories and chemical fertilizers and pesticides used by farmers.

Acid rain – kyselý déšť

Waste – odapad

Global warming
Global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere trap the Sun´s heat, and this is slowly making the Earth warmer. The result is a rising temperature. The temperature of the Earth could rise by 3°C over next 50 years.

global warming – globální oteplování

Greenhouse effect – skleníkový efekt

Result – výsledek

Ozone hole
Scientists have recently discovered holes in the ozone layer. Ozone layer helps to protect the Earth from the Sun´s ultraviolet radiation, which can damage our skin and cause cancer.

Ozone hole – ozonová díra

Recently- nedávno

Endangered species (animals in need) (ohrožené druhy)
Everyone knows "Red Book of Endangered Species". There used to be a lot of different kind of animals a few centuries ago. Indians hunted bison for food but when white men
came they hunted it for fun. People hunt whales of dolphins for money. There used to be a lot of elephants in Africa but humans nearly killed all of them. But it's better now than few years ago. Special organizations care about endangered species and try to save them. Poachers (pytlák) are punished (potrestáni) but sometimes it's not enough.

 Tropical forests
They are covering 7% land surface of the world and they are called “lungs of the Earth”, because of producing oxygen, which is very important and without it we can’t live on the Earth. Amazonian forests are full of many animal and plant species that we don’t know and which can be very useful and important. Burning of forests causes emissions of carbon dioxide.

Tropical forests – tropické lesy

Surface – povrch

Lungs – plíce

1 Which problems are influenced by the differences between people who have a lot of money and poor ones?

2 Can we cure AIDS? How is it possible that it is spreading so quickly?

3 Are you afraid of terrorists? Which countries maybe support the terrorists?

4 Do you think that drugs are the real problem in CR? Why yes? Why not?Should marihuana be legalized? Why?

5 Where can you find a lot of poor people?

6 Is racism a big problem in CR? Why ?

7 Why is acid rain dangerous?

8 Can you explain the principle of greenhouse effect?

9 Which animals are in danger?

10 Why are tropical forests important for us?

11 Can you think of any other global problems?