Lecture Ready 2: Strategies for Academic Listening and Speaking

Chapter 6: Lecture

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How is everybody today? Lets begin because weve got a lot to cover. Today, we are
going to look at the problem of air pollution. And to understand air pollution, I want to
look at one of the particularly harmful gases that causes it. So, thats where well start,
and then well move on to discuss trees. Yes, thats right, trees. And well look at how
trees are a great low technology solution to air pollution. OK. So we have these two
areas to cover.
Lets start by looking at air pollution in urban areas . . .that is, cities. What we see in
urban areas is that air pollution can be especially intense because the human
population in cities is so big. When we look at population statistics for an urban area
worldwide, these numbers are interesting. The world population is over six billion in
2005, and of this six billion, almost fifty percent live in cities. Another way to say that
is more than 3 billion people, three billion, live in cities!
Why am I telling you these numbers? Let me explain why. It is important to
understand these urban population statistics because when we look at the problems
caused by air pollution in urban areas, we can see that in cities a huge number of
people are affected by pollution. And we also see that it is this same huge number of
people that cause the pollution as well. So cities are key places to look at the causes
and effects of air pollution.
So, lets move now to look at some of the specific causes of air pollution. In order to
give us an idea of how air pollution works, I want to explain the impact of one
pollutant on air quality. The pollutant is a gas, a gas called sulphur dioxide. How many
of you have heard of this? The chemical symbol for this is SO2. Sulphur dioxide is a
mix of sulfur . . . the chemical symbol is S, and oxygen molecules. The chemical
symbol is O2. The sulfur we are talking about is present in fuel. What I mean by fuel is
material that is burnt to supply heat or power, like oil and coal. OK. Lets look at how
SO2 is formed then. Let me put a slide up for you to look at while I explain the
process. OK? Here it is. This shows four steps or so of the process.
First, we have a fuel that contains sulfur, and it is burned. The sulfur is released into
the air. You can see it coming from these factories here. Next, the sulfur then mixes
with oxygen in the air. This becomes SO2sulfur dioxide. So, that is how it is formed,
but, lets look at what happens next. The SO2 then rises into the air. At this point, it
mixes with water in the clouds. The mix forms a substance called sulfuric acid. And
now, the sulfuric acid interacts with other gases in the air to form something called a
sulfate.
The fourth step shows that sulfuric acid then falls with the rest of the water in the
clouds as something called acid rain. Youve probably heard of this. This acid rain is
extremely dangerous to the environment, land, and water. So, thats the process of
how SO2 is formed and becomes acid rain. Let me spell out the problems sulfur
dioxide can cause for both people and the environment.

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Lecture Ready 2: Strategies for Academic Listening and Speaking

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People exposed to SO2many of them living in citieshave a difficulty with things

like this . . . difficulty with breathing, watering eyes, and burning nose and throat. For
some these effects are temporary, but in other cases SO2 can actually cause permanent
damage.
Now, lets look at the effects on the environment. Here are some examples. Sulphur
dioxide in acid rain damages forests and growing things and even changes the soilin
other words, the ground the plants grow in. It also increases the acid level in water. By
water I mean . . . oceans, and lakes, and streams. It makes them so acidic that fish and
other living creatures cannot live in them.
I think Ive painted a general picture of how serious air pollution is. You have a pretty
good idea of how terribly it affects every living thing. So, lets turn our attention to
whats being done about this problem. Lets turn our focus to one unique solution.
Lets talk about trees. Trees provide both environmental services and economic
benefits. What does this mean? It means that trees actually help save money.

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I want to talk now about how trees help in and around densely populated urban areas.
Let me start by defining an important term . . .and that is, urban forest. The term urban
forest means planting and maintaining individual trees and small forests in and
around urban areas. For example, an urban forest can be tree-lined streets, trees in
school yards, trees in downtown parks, and trees along the highways. You get the
picture.

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So, let me explain what these trees do to reduce pollution. First, trees absorb polluting
gases through their leaves. They take in pollutants and break them down so that
theyre less harmful. You can think of trees working kind of like a sponge for various
forms of pollution. So trees help reduce existing pollution.

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Trees are also helpful in preventing pollution from occurring. Trees actually help cities
stay cooler by reducing high temperatures in general. How does this work? Trees as
you know, provide valuable shade. And shade is good because once the air is cooler,
there is less of a need for using air conditioners. Some urban forest organizations
claim that just threeonly threewell-placed trees around a home can lower air
conditioning bills by up to fifty percent. This is amazing! Lowering home electricity
bills is just part of the story of how trees help. Power plants that produce electricity are
one of the biggest sources of SO2.

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Urban forestry is an international effort that you can see in cities all over the world.
Let me give you a few examplesBeijing, China; Dublin, Ireland; and Mexico City,
to name just a few, all have significant urban forestry programs.

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Im going to stop here today. But I hope to leave you with an understanding of one
polluting gas, sulfur dioxide, and the advantages of trees and the urban forest.

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Lecture Ready 2: Strategies for Academic Listening and Speaking

Notes

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Lecture Ready 2 - Chapter 6 - Unique Solutions to Pollution

1. air pollution
a. one harmful gas - SO2
b. trees - low technology solution

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2. urban areas
a. high pop. = high pollution
b. 50% of worlds pop. (3 bill. in 2005) lives in cities
c. cities are important in solving air pollution
3. causes

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a. SO2 (1 sulfur + 2 oxygen atoms) from fuel

4. SO2 process
fuel is burned, S goes into air, mixes with O SO2 , mixes with water in clouds sulfuric acid,
mixes with other gases sulfates acid rain harms fish and ecosystems
5. effects of SO2 on people

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a. breathing, watering eyes, burning nose and throat

b. temporary or permanent damage
6. effects of SO2 on environment
a. plants, soil
b. acidic water harms fish

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7. solutions
a. trees in urban areas, urban forests - ex. school yards, parks, along highways
b. trees absorb polluting gases, like a sponge
c. cooling effect, so less air conditioning used, so less SO2 from electricity generators
d. Beijing, Dublin, Mexico City - urban forestry programs

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2013 Oxford University Press

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