Questions
Problems of world pollution
Study Sources A and Band then answer the questions which follow.
Source A
Description of some of the pollution in East Germany in March 1990
An environmentalist stood in an open field and pointed to an evil green liquid bubbling up in the middle of a brackish pool of water. It was the chemical outflow from a fertilizer plant which had sprung a leak and was poisoning the entire area. In the Harz Mountains the trees had been so damaged by acid rain and other forms of pollution that the bird population had fallen drastically. The field-mice who were the natural prey of hawks, owls and eagles were living and breeding almost without hindrance. Now they were beginning to constitute a plague of biblical proportions. A gynaecologist explained why she had been unable to set up in private practice ... the water supply in the town contained so much nitrate that it wasn't safe to treat patients there. The area around the town of Bitterfeld is perhaps the dirtiest in Europe ... Five employees of the pesticide factory have died of cancer within four years. Carbon disulphide escaping from the machinery in a plant that spins cellulose fibres has been measured at concentrations 90 times the danger limit. It can cause brain damage. Farmers outside Bitterfeld find it difficult to get their animals to breed. Children in the town are more than twice as likely as children elsewhere to contract respiratory diseases. Their bone growth is retarded.
Source: John Simpson, Despatches from the Barricades (Hutchinson, 1990)
Source B
Some information about nuclear power
There were doubts about the safety of nuclear power stations. High levels of leukaemia were found around plants such as Sellafield in England, and there were reports about leaks of radioactivity into the sea. The disposal of nuclear waste was also a problem. The Swedes held a referendum in 1980 which decided to phase out nuclear power by 2005. But other countries pressed on enthusiastically - Belgium in 1984 produced more than half its energy from nuclear fuel. Other countries carried out experiments with wind, solar and wave power.
Source: Jack B. Watson, Success in World History Since 1945 (John Murray, 1989)
(a) According to the sources, what are the main dangers threatening the world from pollution?
(b) Source B says that 'other countries pressed on enthusiastically' with nuclear power. Do you think this means that the writer of Source B was wrong to be concerned about the dangers of nuclear power?
(c) Since the 1970s, scientists have been aware of the damage being done to the world by pollution. Why therefore do you think so little has been done to control the damage?
