Hi everyone! We are students from Buenos Aires, Argentina. We want to tell you that we are worried because one of our most important rivers may get polluted.
The Uruguay River is between Argentina and Uruguay. And there is a real problem in that area because Uruguay wants to build two new pulp mills in Fray Bentos, and these mills will dump chemicals into the river. One of these chemicals is carbondioxide, which is toxic and dangerous for both people and animals, who will drink this water.
Nowadays, people are blocking roads connecting Gualeguaychú in Argentina with Fray Bentos in Uruguay, and they are writing letters to the presidents of these countries telling them about the problem. We think we should support them and cheer them up!
We should collect signatures asking the government of Uruguay not to construct the pulp mills on the coast of the Uruguay River.
We could also ask our president to talk to Uruguay's president and tell him about the consequences these pulp mills may bring.
Have you got another idea? Please, tell us!
J.A.R.
Jimena F., Andrea G. & Rocío D.
The Uruguay River is between Argentina and Uruguay. And there is a real problem in that area because Uruguay wants to build two new pulp mills in Fray Bentos, and these mills will dump chemicals into the river. One of these chemicals is carbondioxide, which is toxic and dangerous for both people and animals, who will drink this water.
Nowadays, people are blocking roads connecting Gualeguaychú in Argentina with Fray Bentos in Uruguay, and they are writing letters to the presidents of these countries telling them about the problem. We think we should support them and cheer them up!
We should collect signatures asking the government of Uruguay not to construct the pulp mills on the coast of the Uruguay River.
We could also ask our president to talk to Uruguay's president and tell him about the consequences these pulp mills may bring.
Have you got another idea? Please, tell us!
J.A.R.
Jimena F., Andrea G. & Rocío D.
2 comments:
Dear Eugenia, Soledad, Augustina, Nahir, Jimena, Andrea, Rocío, Alan,
Christian, Federico, Francisco, Gastón, Matías and anyone else I may have
missed,
I am a biology and environmental science teacher from a high school in New
York City and would like to thank you for telling us a little about some of
the problems with pollution that you are facing in your country. I agree
with you that noise pollution is a serious problem. Thank you for also
telling us about some of the problems that the pulp mills are causing along
the Uruguay River and the dumping of chemicals Riachuelo River.
Unfortunately, industrial runoff into our waterways continues to be a
problem all over the world.
I agree that you should write to your government and collect signatures
about these issues. However, before you write to them, you should research
the issue carefully, so you sound more credible. You also have to
understand that many people may want these pulp mills because they create
jobs that people want. The reality is that you can build pulp mills and
other factories like that if businesses learn to dispose of their waste
properly, and that includes not dumping it into the rivers. So instead of
protesting the building of these pulp mills, maybe they can have a
compromise to make sure that the government enforces the pulp mills to
properly dispose the waste. If the government is unable to do that, every
day citizens can organize watch groups to make sure that these companies do,
and if they do not, they can inform the government about it.
In the meantime I do recommend that you write letters and collect signatures
about this situation to let them know about concerns that you have. Civic
action has to begin somewhere, and sometimes it can begin with teenagers. I
included a letter that one of my students wrote to his City Council member
to get him to sign on to a bill that would propose New York City to buy more
land that would help maintain the quality of our drinking water.
Unfortunately, the bill has not been passed yet by the City Council of New
York, but this letter convinced his City Council member to sign on to this
bill. I hope it might give you some ideas.
If you do write these letters, I would love to read them. One of the things
I would like to see in this environmental forum is to get students and
teachers subscribed to this forum to take action and see what they can do to
improve the situations in their countries. It is nice that we are talking
about these issues, but it is even better for us to actually do something to
improve the situation. The way your government works is probably different
from the way my government works, so you have to figure out what strategy
will work best in your country. Buena Suerte y cuidade.
-Paz y palante,
Flora Huang
New York City
Dear Flora
Thank you for living us your opinion about the problems which are affecting our environment.
You mentioned that we should research more to sound more credible, but we want to let you know that the people in both countries (Uruguay and Argentina) already know about this issue because it represents a very serious problem which has very serious consequences. There are tv programmes and news everywhere about this issue, and there has been a documentary showing the consequences of a similar pulp mill in Spain which is owned by the same company. Some of the consequences are: poisoning, cancer and leukemia because of the water.
You also told us it was all right to collect signatures but now this is impossible because it is too late: the construction has already begun. Besides, the president of Uruguay has decided not to stop the construction of the pulp mills.
On the other hand, the King of Spain has offered to be a mediator between both countries. We hope that this mediation works and that the problem is resolved.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to write to you again until next year because classes are finishing (our summer holidays start in early December and finish in mid March). Anyway, we want to thank you for paying so much attention to our problem and sharing your opinion with us.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon,
Yours,
Agustina, Andrea, Eugenia, Jimena, Nahir, Rocío, Sol, Alan, Christian, Federico, Francisco, Gastón & Matías
INTERMEDIATE I
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