Unit 5, exercise 20b avatar – Sanskrit alphabet – Greek boss – Dutch cotton – Arabic hamburger – German ketchup – Cantonese marriage – French opera – Italian plaza – Spanish robot – Czech sauna – Finnish ski – Norwegian shampoo – Hindi tsunami – Japanese yoghurt – Turkish Unit 11, exercise 25 George Monbiot George Monbiot is an English writer and environmental activist. After what he saw as the failure of the latest intergovernmental climate change talks, he became more pessimistic than ever. Monbiot thinks that we have already passed some of the tipping points, which means that even if we slow down or stop our carbon emissions, there will still be catastrophic results. But that isn’t what worries him the most. For Monbiot, the major concern is that we are focusing on the wrong thing. We might be able to change our energy systems, especially in transport, from fossil fuels to electrical power in quite a short space of time, but that will just introduce new problems. What about the mining of the elements and minerals that battery-powered cars need, for instance? This will exploit poorer countries and cause its own environmental and pollution problems. He thinks that we need a radical rethink of all our transport and communication systems, and that we should build into our cities the possibility of meeting all our needs – food, employment, education, entertainment – within walking distance. He is not hopeful that there is the political will for this to be done. Student A 1 Why does Monbiot think that we can’t avoid catastrophic climate change? 2 Why doesn’t Monbiot think that decarbonisation will solve our environmental problems? 3 What does Monbiot think might be a better solution, and is he confident it will be implemented? 4 Mark any points you agree and disagree with. been subjected to an unwanted sexual advance – 88% of these from a colleague, 70% from a superior and 49% from a client. Only one in three had filed a complaint. The same report also found 68% of women in the sector had been told they were “too aggressive” and 64% they were “too emotional”. Scaman has joined up with leaders from different bodies representing women in advertising, and said there is now a “coming together to talk about real change”. She would like to see the end of NDAs in cases of sexual harassment and assault in the industry, and the creation of an external body where harassment could be externally and independently reported and investigated. “When this stuff happens in agencies, the only route of escalation for women is to [an employer’s] human resources [department], but we all know that HR is not on your side, they’re there to silence staff and avoid scandal,” she said. “It would put the fear of God into the agencies if they knew that there was an unbiased third party that women could go to, and that they couldn’t control.” Scaman added that if advertising agencies are serious about tackling the problem, they should pay to fund such a body, rather than making an easily forgotten pledge. “I don’t care about promises and codes of conduct because they don’t mean anything,” she said. “They don’t work. What I really want to see is policy change.” 207 A Activities Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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