The Paris Agreement

This week in the news . . .

With the terrifying news that President Trump has decided to pull the USA out of the Paris Climate Agreement, let’s learn a few phrases about the environment . . . . . .before it’s too late.

Eco friendly, or Environmentally friendly:  Policies, services or goods that don’t harm the environment.  (Riding your bicycle to work is much more eco-friendly than taking your car.)

Eco bag:  A bag that can be used many times and does not harm the environment.  (Don’t forget your ecobag at Max-Valu, or you will be charged extra.)

Carbon footprint:  How much carbon dioxide (CO2) you produce in your daily life.  (I’m doing my best to reduce my carbon footprint, but it’s more difficult than I thought.)

Green: Something that is good for the environment.  (The Tokyo Olympics are trying to be a green olympics, do you think they will succeed?)

Renewable energy: Energy that is produced by sun, wind or water etc.  (A huge project is starting on the coast of Akita, hundreds of windmills for renewable energy.)

Deforestation: Overlogging that kills forests.  (Honduras has the worst deforestation problem in the world.  They have lost 37% of their forest cover in only 15 years.)

Desertification:  The growth of deserts in usable lands.  (The desertification of Northern Africa is a huge problem for all of us.)

Global warming: increase in the surface temperature of the earth.  (Trump speaking only adds to global warming!)

Greenhouse effect:  the warming of the atmosphere.  (All these cars in the world are adding to the greenhouse effect.)

I hope it’s not too late.  Will the future for our children and grandchildren, be this,

 

or this?

 

Joni Mitchell sang about this way back in 1970:

Big Yellow Taxi (click here to watch on Youtube)

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
And put ’em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half to seem ’em
No no no
Don’t it always seem to go,
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey farmer farmer
Put away the DDT
I don’t care about spots on my apples
Leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey, now they paved paradise
To put up a parking lot
Why not?
Listenin’ late