NATURAL DISASTERS

HURRICANES AND TORNADOES
Hurricanes and tornadoes are very strong and dangerous winds.

VOLCANOES
A volcanoe is a mountain with a large, circular hole at the top through which hot liquid lava and rocks pour. There are many active volcanos in the world, such as Mount Etna. 

AVALANCHE
An avalanche is a large amount of snow falling quickly down in a mountain.

TSUNAMI
A tsunami is a terrible wave that comes after an undersea earthquake.

DROUGHTS
Droughts mean no rain for a long time and often cause famine.

FREQUENT FLOODS
Frequent floods result from too much rain in a short period, causing damage to houses and land. Hundreds of people die from being underwater, drowning.

EARTHQUAKE
An earthquake is the shaking of the surface of the Earth. Many buildings are often destroyed, and many people get hurt.

IMMIGRATION
The process through which individuals become permanent residents or citizens of another country. People immigrate for many reasons, such as: economic or political reasons, family reunification, natural disasters, or the desire to change one’s surroundings.

Immigration can bring many advantages to the country, but there must be mutual respect, kindness, and tolerance between the migrants and the natives.

TERRORISM
It is a violent action for religious or political reasons. People who do this are terrorists. A common terrorist crime is planting bombs, putting bombs in public places often to kill innocent people.

Terrorists also hijack planes and buses. The people on the board become prisoners, also called hostages.

One of the worst terrorist attacks happened in the USA in New York on 11th September 2001 when members of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda hijacked 2 planes and crashed into 2 famous buildings called Twins. Several thousand of innocent people died in the ruins of these buildings. There have been a lot of terrorist attacks all around the world since then.

HOMELESSNESS
A homeless person is a person without a home, work, and money. They often live on the streets, sleep on the bench in parks, under bridges, or deserted houses and buildings.

They usually beg in the streets and try to find some food in a litter bin.

Reasons why a person becomes homeless: losing a job, domestic violence, divorce and family breakdown, drugs or alcohol problems, untreated mental illness

POVERTY

• is a worldwide problem
• leads to starvation and malnutrition
• increases crime
• poor people are on the margins of society
• mendicancy on the street

CIVILIZATION DISEASES AND EPIDEMICS
The last world threat is the COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic.

It was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Because it is a new virus, scientists are learning more each day. Although most people who overcame COVID-19 had mild symptoms, it can also cause severe illness and even death.

The virus spreads mainly when an infected person is in close contact with another person.

Symptoms of COVID-19 are variable:

• fever, cough, fatigue, breathing difficulties, loss of smell and taste  

Preventive measures include:

• physical or social distance, ventilation of indoor spaces, covering coughs and sneezes, hand washing, keeping unwashed hands away from the face, the use of face masks in public

ECOLOGICAL ISSUES

• the pollution of air, water and soil with chemicals
• global warming that causes weather changes and after that natural disasters
• deforestation – the destruction of forests for building materials or firewood
• consumer society that produces too much waste
• the greenhouse effect occurs when heat from Earth cannot escape from the atmosphere, and the temperature on Earth goes up
• the destruction of the ozone layer

Why is Ozone Layer important? 

Ozone protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays from the Sun. Without the Ozone layer in the atmosphere, life on Earth would be very difficult. Plants cannot live and grow in heavy ultraviolet radiation, nor can the planktons that serve as food for most of the ocean life.