Program for June 28, 2009

REDUCING AIR POLlUTION IN OUR CITIES

In recent years, poor air quality in cities across Vietnam has been a major concern. It affects our health and makes our cities less attractive to foreign tourists. Most importantly, the effects on our environment may not be easily reversible, and they will be a burden for many future generations to bear.

Not waiting for the government to provide an easy answer, many for-profit and non-profit organizations have taken initiatives to reduce air pollution in our cities.

One example is a business that buys excess straws from farmers to produce electricity. The excess straws will not need to be burned and therefore will not create a haze that can cover the whole city. Some other non-profit organizations are trying to educate people about the need to choose clean energy sources, reduce wastage, and only buy products and services from businesses that don’t pollute the air.

Group Discussion

1. What sources of air pollution can you identify? Among those sources, which ones are the most important?
2. Imagine that your group is an organization trying to fight air pollution. Please choose a single source of air pollution and try to get the whole group to come up with a solution to eliminate or reduce air pollution coming from that source.
3. Each group will prepare a detailed plan to implement the solution.
4. Please make sure the plan is feasible by thinking of difficult questions about the plan in advance (so you can defend the plan in your presentation later).

Presentation

Each group will present their detailed plan. The audience will ask questions, and the group will try to defend their plan.