People live in a town environment; for others, their environment is The word environment means simply what is around us. Somethe countryside. But the air we breathe, the soil2 on which we stand20Read the textTHIS FRAGILE PLANETand walk, the water we drink are all part of the environment.vironmental problems that endanger people's lives. The most seriousNowadays people understand how important it is to solve the en-environmental problems are:• pollution in its many forms (water pollution, air pollution, clear pollution);• noise from cars, buses, planes, etc.;• destruction of wildlife and the beauty of the countryside;• shortage of natural resources (metals, different kinds of fuel);• the growth of population.A. ...“Water, water everywhere, not any drop to drink, " said the sail-or from Coleridge'st poem describing to a friend how awful it wasto be without drinking water on a ship in the middle of the ocean.It is strange to think that the water around his ship was probablyquite safe to drink. It was salty - but not polluted. Sea water todayis much more dangerous.There is no ocean or sea which is not used as a dump. The Pa-cific Ocean, especially, has suffered from nuclear pollution becausethe French Government tested nuclear weapons there. Many seas areused for dumping industrial and nuclear waste. Britain dumps a lotof its industrial waste straight into the North Sea. This poisons andkillsfish and sea animals. "Nuclear-poisoned" fish can be eaten bypeople.Many rivers and lakes are poisoned too. Fish and reptiles can'tlive in them. There is not enough oxygen in the water. In suchplaces all the birds leave their habitats and many plants die. If peo-ple drink this water, they can die too. It happens so because facto-ries and plants produce a lot of waste and pour it into rivers. Sothey poison the water. Factories use clean water. After the wateris used it can become poison which goes back into rivers and seas.​