IELTS writing task 2: Explain some of the ways in which humans are damaging the environment. What can governments do to address these problems? What can individual people do?

Outline

Opening:

- Paraphrase: humans damage environment = environmental issues increase because of human hands

- actions can be taken

Body:

Problems: People corrupt environment in many ways

- more industrial zones -> air pollution

  -> air pollution also due to more private vehicles

  -> emission in Beijing and L.A. -> rising temperature -> threat Earth's inhabitants

- industrialization -> water sources <- waste dumped in water sources

- animals become extinct <- deforestation and urbanization take away habitats

Solutions: There are several solutions

- more funding for environment conservation

  -> spend more money to purify water

- build shelters for endangered animals

- punish illegal logging

- people should stop littering + tell others

   -> change <- awareness

Conclusion:

- Paraphrase opening

It is clear that environmental issues are inexorably piling up with the help of none other than the human hands. As severe as these issues are, a host of definite actions can be taken by both the world's authorities and its individuals.

People are corrupting the environment in numerable ways. The proliferation of industrial zones and manufacturing plants has driven air pollution to an alarming level. This is further contributed by an exponential increase in private vehicle ownership. The amounts of exhaust fumes emitted by streams of cars circulating daily in metropolises like Beijing or Los Angeles are causing an ever-rising global surface temperature, making climate change the most immediate threat to earth's inhabitants. Industrialization is also to blame for contaminating water sources, as an immeasurable amount of manufacturing wastes is dumped into rivers and lakes around the world everyday. Also, a growing number of animals, especially forest-dependent species, are under the threat of extinction as deforestation and urbanization deprive them of their living habitats.

However, several measures can be adopted to alleviate the situation described above. Governments could dedicate more funding to the conservation of the environment. In particular, more generous investments in water and air purification should be encouraged. Local authorities in various regions around the world could also provide shelters for endangered animals while at the same time administer severe punishments on illegal logging and wildlife smuggling offences. On the personal level, each individual must do away with littering and remind others to do the same. Changes are often initiated by awareness, thus more efforts should be put in by both governments and people to promote better stewardship of nature.

In conclusion, humans are to blame for the damages to the natural environment, and they are responsible for relieving these damages.

Word count: 294

Written by IELTS Fighters

Good vocabulary

- inexorable (inexorably): continuing and cannot be stopped

- proliferate (proliferation): to increase a lot and suddenly in number

- exponential increase: increase by multiple times

- contaminate (water): to make water poisonous

- deprive ... of sth: take away something from somebody

- alleviate: to make a bad situation better

- administer punishments: to make sure someone is punished

- do away with something: to stop doing something

- initiate: to start something

- relieve (damages): to deal with the negative consequences of something