NarratorListen to part of a lecture about the environment study in Biramichi Ri

Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture about the environment study in Biramichi River.
Professor
Good morning everyone. First of all I’d like to thank Professor Johnson for giving me the opportunity to talk to you about my research on fishing in Biramichi River. Well, in a world today of immense technology, increasing population and flourishing economies, investigations have shown that the global economy is outgrowing the earth’s ecosystems. The whole industrial process which makes many of the goods and machines we need and use in our daily lives, is bound to create a number of waste products which upset the environmental balance.
    There are some serious problems in the Biramichi River. The local Chamber of Commerce, which represents the industries in the area, hired me as a consultant to do a one-year study on fishing in the Biramichi River and write a report for them. This is my report.
    One of the major problems in the Biramichi River, is that the level of the oxygen in the water is too low. Several chemicals have displaced the oxygen. This chemical pollution has two sources: the factories which dump polluted water directly into the river, and the local community, which dumps untreated human waste into the river. The local town government has already spent 2 million dollars on waste water treatment projects. But it would cost another 27 million to complete the projects. It would take at least 15 years for the town to collect enough revenue from taxes to complete these projects. The factories here employed 17 000 people, and in the area where there is very little alternative employment, it is not economically practical to close or relocate the factories. Also, the factories can not afford to finance chemical treatment plants by themselves.
    Another problem is that the members of the Biramichi fishing cooperative are over-fishing. Fish are caught when they are on the way upstream to lay eggs. Consequently, not enough fish are left to reproduce in large numbers. The members of the cooperative say that they have already reduced their annual catch by 60 percent. However, my study indicates that they took fewer fish because there were fewer fish to catch, not because they were trying to preserve the fish.
Now get ready to answer the questions. You may use your notes to help you answer.
30. What was the speaker assigned to do in the past year?
31. What is one of the problems in Biramichi River?
32. What aspect of the factories along the river does the professor mainly discuss?
33. What does the professor imply about the fact that the annual catch of fish in the Biramichi River has been reduced?
34. What does the professor imply when she says this?
Professor
The members of the cooperative say that they have already reduced their annual catch by 60 percent. However, my study indicates that they took fewer fish because there were fewer fish to catch, not because they were trying to preserve fishes.