2017-11-01
712
Read the text and translate the italised extract in written form.
The First Initiatives – The Stockholm Conference
The origins of present day interantional cooperation on environment and sustainable development go back to the late 1960s, when Sweden took the initiative to palve the issue of environment on the agenda of the Unitied Nations. The background was an increasign awareness in the scientific community about the serious nature of the negative environmental side-effects of the technological and scientific advances after the Second World War. The initiative also reflected a realisation that environmental problems did not stop at national borders, nor did regional cooperation suffice to draw with them. Sweden thus proposed that a global United Nations Conference bo convened to increase awareness about the implications of this situation among governments and the public at large and to identify those problems which could only, or best, be solved through international cooperation.
The United Nations Conference on the Human environment convened on 5 June 1972 in Stockholm. This day in June is now yearly celebrated as the World Environment Day. The motto of the Conference was “Only One Earth”, a revolutionary concept for its time. The conference was attended by 113 countries at ministerial level and representatives of many internatyional organisations. There were also world leaders present, who set the stage for the next thirty years’ international deliberations by emphasizing the close interrelation between mass poverty and the environment.
The Stockholm Conference adopted a Declaration and an Action Plan, which established the basis for a new era of international cooperation on environmental issues. As a direct result of the Conference, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations with location in Nairobi, Kenia.
The Declaration and the Action Plan with 109 recommendations for international action provided the basis for the rapid development of international environmental law in the 1970s and the 1980s. In this connection, priniciple 21 of the Deckarationa has secial significance. It states that “States have... the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of the other States or of areas beyond the limits of National jurisdiction’.
From few in the 1960s,today more than 200 global conventions are in place. These are legally binding instruments, containing commitments by States. They have to be ratified by the legislative organs of each signatory State. Each convention is governed by a Cinference of the Parties (COP) and is serviced by a secretariat. UNEP has a special role in most cases to provide administrative and other kinds of support. The undertakings in the conventions are often amplified by special protocls that contain more detailed and, at times, time bound commitments. An example of one of the early convetions is the Convention on Wetlands, which was adopted in Iran in 1971.
As the globalisation process accelarated in the last 25 years of the 20th century, the Stockholm Conference was used as a model for a series of semelar United nations events to try to come to grips with interlinked and related problems of a cross-sectorial nature such as population, the food crisis, urbanisation, human rights, social dvelopment and gender.
2. GRAMMAR WORK
A. MAKE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES PASSIVE:
1. In 1989 the General Assembly decided to convene in 1992 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
2. Chemical substances had damaged the ozone layer and deserts were rapidly expanding.
3. The Rio Conference adopted three documents, the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21 and the Statement of Forest Principles.
4. The Declaration represents a delicate balance of principles considered important by both developed and developing countries.
5. The assessment reports of IPCC have greatly influenced the climate negotiations.
B. MAKE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES ACTIVE:
6. The 5th of June is now yearly celebrated as the World Environment Day.
7. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was attended by 113 countries at ministerial level and representatives of many international organizations.
8. The global conventions have to be ratified by the legislative organs of each signatory State.
9. At the time of the tenth anniversary of the Stockholm Conference in 1982, the question was how lost ground could be regained.
10. The findings have been contested by some scientists.
3. GRAMMAR WORK. WORD-FORMATION
A. TURN THE FOLLOWING VERBS INTO NOUNS:
1. to environ;
2. to aware;
3. to realize;
4. to convene;
5. to ratify.
B. TURN THE FOLLOWING NOUNS INTO VERBS:
6. globalization;
7. government;
8. development;
9. implication;
10. urbanization.
4. VOCABULARY WORK
A. MATCH SYNONYMS:
| 1. executive; 2. increase; 3. deficiency; 4. protect; 5. agreement; | a. inadequacy; b. preserve; c. amplify; d. administrative; e. convention. |
B. MATCH THE WORDS WITH THEIR DEFINITIONS:
| 1. environment; 2. deliberation; 3. nature; 4. agenda; 5. globalization; | a. the external world in its entirely; b. to make worldwide in scope or application; c. a list or outline of things to be considered or done; d. the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (as climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival; e. a discussion and consideration by a group of persons of the reasons for and against a measure. |
5. CHOOSE THE BEST VARIANT TO COMPLETE THE SENTENCES:
1. Principle 21 of the Declaration has special (importance, significance, meaning, sense).
2. (evolutive, development, developing, upcoming) countries generally emphasized that satisfaction of basic development needs must have priority.
3. World population had (enlarged, extended, intensified, increased) by 1.7 billion to more than 5 billion.
4. The Stockholm Conference (accepted, adopted, approved, took) a Declaration and an Action Plan, which established the basis for a new era of international co-operation on environmental issues.
5. Sweden took up the recommendation of the Stockholm Conference (to gather, to convene, to take place, to organize) another conference on the human environment.
B. MARK THE STATEMENTS AS TRUE (T) OR FALSE (F). CORRECT THE FALSE STATESMENTS:
1. The motto of the Stockholm Conference was “Only One Earth”.
2. UNEP was established by the General Assembly of the United Nations with location in Stockholm, Sweden.
3. The serious ozone problem was the subject of a convention signed in Vienna in 1985.
4. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is composed of the world’s most competent climate scientists, representatives of Government, and experts in the social sciences.
5. The purpose of the IPCC has been to carry out research on its own, to monitor and evaluate existing research, adding its own conclusions and presentations for policy-makers.
6. A. TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH INTO RUSSIAN:
1. The globalization process accelerated in the last 25 years.
2. UNEP has a special role in most cases to provide administrative and other kinds of support.
3. The Commission further underlined that safeguarding of the environment should not be seen as a sectorial interest, but as an integrated component in all economic and social development.
4. By maintain a certain dualism it could easier be made clear that the responsibility to take action against environmental destruction primarily rested with the industrialized countries which in their view had caused the problems in the first place.
5. As the perception of global threats to the environment became stronger in the 1980’s, the climate change issue came increasingly into focus.
B. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
6. When and where did the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (the Stockholm Conference) convene? What are the most significant results of the Conference?
7. What issues did the Brundtland Comission bring up?
8. Giving examples proved environmental deterioration in the 1990’s?
9. What documents did the Rio Conference adopt? Explain their purpose.
10. Why is the process of global warming dangerous?
VARIANT 2
- Read the text and translate the italised extract in written form.
