ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS PAGE 1

What do you know about the most recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? What other
environmental disasters can you think of? Which disasters are depicted here?

Now match these descriptions to the disasters:

In 1989, the company responsible for this disaster paid out about half a billion dollars to victims.
In April 2010, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the site of this disaster and
described it as one of the worst environmental disasters of the world.
This disaster caused black rain to fall.
This remains the worst industrial disaster ever.
This disaster caused victims to suffer from nausea, blurred vision and a skin disease known as
chloracne.
Almost 4,000 workers still work on the site of this disaster.
This is the worst nuclear-power-plant disaster in history.
This is considered to be the largest man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Read the article and check your ideas.

TIME spill shows little sign of

abating, TIME takes a look
disaster in history. On April
26, 1986, one of the reactors
May 2010
back at history’s greatest at the Chernobyl power plant
Top Environmental environmental tragedies in Ukraine exploded, resulting
in a nuclear meltdown that
Disasters Chernobyl sent massive amounts of
As the Gulf of Mexico oil The worst nuclear-power-plant radiation into the atmosphere,
ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS PAGE 2
reportedly more than the As the 1991 Persian Gulf in severity.
fallout from Hiroshima and War drew to a close,
The Aral Sea
Nagasaki. That radiation Saddam Hussein sent men
In early April 2010, United
drifted westward, across to blow up Kuwaiti oil wells.
Nations Secretary-General
what was then Soviet Russia, Approximately 600 were
Ban Ki-moon traveled to
toward Europe. Since then, set ablaze, and the fires —
the Aral Sea or what used
thousands of children have literally towering infernos —
to be the Aral Sea. Situated
been diagnosed with thyroid burned for seven months. The
between Uzbekistan and
cancer, and an almost 20-mile Gulf was awash in poisonous
Kazakhstan, the Aral was
area around the plant remains smoke, soot and ash. Black
once the fourth largest lake
off-limits. Reactor No. 4 has rain fell. Lakes of oil were
on earth, as big as Ireland.
been sealed off in a large, created. As NASA wrote,
Since the 1960s, however,
concrete sarcophagus that “The sand and gravel on
when Soviet irrigation
is slowly deteriorating. While the land’s surface combined
projects diverted several of
the rest of the plant ceased with oil and soot to form a
its source waterways, the Aral
operations in 2000, almost layer of hardened ‘tarcrete’
has shrunk by 90%. What
4,000 workers still report there over almost 5 percent of the
was once a vibrant, fish-
for various assignments. country’s area.” Scores of
stocked lake is now a massive
livestock and other animals
Bhopal desert that produces salt and
died from the oily mist, their
Around midnight on December sandstorms that kill plant life
lungs blackened by the liquid.
2, 1984, an accident at a and have negative effects on
Union Carbide pesticide plant The Exxon Valdez human and animal health for
in Bhopal, India, resulted in On the night of March 24, hundreds of miles around.
45 tons of poisonous methyl 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil Mr Moon said of the visit: “It
isocyanate escaping from tanker ran aground on Bligh is clearly one of the worst
the facility. Thousands died Reef in the pristine waters environmental disasters of
within hours. More followed of Alaska’s Prince William the world. It really left with me
over subsequent months — Sound. The first of what would a profound impression, one of
about 15,000 in all. In total, turn out to be 10.8 million gal. sadness.”
about half a million people of oil began to spew forth
Seveso Dioxin Cloud
were affected in some way. into the cold waters. It would
On July 10, 1976, an explosion
Many of those who survived eventually spread almost 500
at a northern Italian chemical
suffered blindness, organ miles from the original crash
plant released a thick, white
failure and other awful bodily site and stain thousands of
cloud of dioxin that quickly
malfunctions. A shockingly miles of coastline. Hundreds
settled on the town of Seveso,
high number of children in of thousands of birds, fish,
north of Milan. First, animals
the area have been born with seals, otters and other
began to die. It was four
all manner of birth defects. animals would perish as a
days before people began
In 1989, Union Carbide paid result, despite the mobilization
to feel ill effects — including
out about half a billion dollars of more than 11,000 people
nausea, blurred vision and,
to victims, an amount the and 1,000 boats as part of
especially among children,
afflicted say is not nearly the cleanup. While the Exxon
the disfiguring sores of a skin
enough to deal with the Valdez oil leak is considered
disease known as chloracne
decades-long consequences. to be the largest man-made
— and weeks before the town
Bhopal remains the worst environmental disaster in U.S.
itself was evacuated.
industrial disaster ever. history, the Gulf of Mexico
spill may eventually surpass it
Kuwaiti Oil Fires
ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS PAGE 3
Discussion Which environmental disaster do you fear the most?

Vocabulary focus Complete the following sentences with words from the article. The section in
which the words appear is indicated.
1 The anchor broke and the ship ________________ away from shore. (Chernobyl section)
2 Success or _______________ depends on their ability to get the work done on time. (Bhopal
section)
3 We visited a local market which was ______________ with counterfeit goods. (Kuwaiti Oil
Fires section)
4 I dropped a glass of wine and _______________ the carpet. (The Exxon Valdez section)
5 Due to the road works, the traffic was ________________ along another route. (The Aral Sea
section)
6 The police ____________________ the building after the bomb threat. (Seveso Dioxin Cloud
section)

Language focus Look at these extracts from the article:

‘to form a layer of hardened ‘tarcrete’...’
‘their lungs blackened by the liquid.’
Here you see how you can make the adjectives hard and black into a verb by adding the suffix -en.
There are a number of words like this in English. Discuss the meaning of the words below and then
decide which ones can be put in the verb form by adding -en. In two of the cases you have to change
the spelling of the word slightly. How would you make the other words into verbs?

wide red bright broad cheap damp fright

dark deaf dry fat flat free tight
fresh deep large less light loose tough
long moist narrow quick quiet sharp white
short soft strong strange sweet thick worse

Practice Complete these sentences with the appropriate verbs:

1 The gap between the rich and poor is _______________________.

2 My teeth were a bad colour, so I went to the dentist to __________________ them.

3 The food was very bitter, so we _______________________ it with sugar.

4 This knife can’t cut anything, you need to ____________________ it.

5 I ate so much my trousers became tight and I had to ___________________ them.

6 The car drove over my hat and ____________________ it.

7 The ground was dry, so we put some water on it to ____________________ it.

8 They decided the trip was too long and _______________________ it by two days.

9 We ________________ the room by closing the curtains before we started watching the film.

10 He ________________________ the meat by marinating it.

ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS PAGE 4
Teacher’s notes
Total pages 4 / student pages 3 / week of 10.05.10 / mid-intermediate+ (B2+)
Make sure the students know which disasters the pictures depict before going on to the description-
match exercise. The disasters pictured are:
Row 1: Chernobyl - Bhopal - Kuwaiti Oil Fires
Row 2: The Aral Sea - Seveso Dioxin Cloud - The Exxon Valdez

Vocabulary focus
1 drifted
2 failure
3 awash
4 stained
5 diverted
6 evacuated

Language focus All can be made into verbs by adding -en except the following:
dry (dry) free (free) large (enlarge) long (lengthen)
narrow (narrow) strong (strengthen) strange (make strange)
*Point out that you have to double the ‘t’ for flat and fat and double the ‘d’ for red.
Practice
1 widening
2 whiten
3 sweetened
4 sharpen
5 loosen
6 flattened
7 moisten
8 shortened
9 darkened
10 softened