Sujet Bac Anglais, monde contemporain 2023 Métropole corrigé

Document A

Bruce Petush, The Daily Telegram, July 21, 2019

[Lake Erie is one of five large interconnected lakes known as the Great Lakes, located between the United States and Canada. They represent 84% of North America's surface fresh water.]

1 algae: aquatic plants

Document B

Lake Erie now has legal rights, just like you

It started in a pub. A handful of people, hunched over beers in Toledo, Ohio, were talking about a water crisis that had plagued the city in 2014. The pollution of Lake Erie had gotten so bad that it had taken a serious toll 1 on their lives. The government, they felt, wasn't doing enough to protect the lake. And so they wondered: What if the lake could protect itself? The idea they hatched that night ultimately resulted in a special election, which had the citizens of Toledo voting February 26 on a very unusual question: Should Lake Erie be granted the legal rights normally reserved for a person?

The measure passed easily, which means citizens will be able to sue on behalf of the lake whenever its right to flourish is being contravened 2 — that is, whenever it's in danger of major environmental harm. [...]

This was the first rights-based legislation aimed at protecting a whole US ecosystem: the lake, its tributaries 3, and the many species that live off it. The law isn't without precedent, though. It's part of the nascent rights of nature movement, which has notched several victories in the past dozen years. Rivers and forests have already won legal rights in countries like Ecuador, Colombia, India, and New Zealand. Activists in the movement often argue that the environment is the next frontier in humanity's expanding moral circle: over the centuries, we've extended rights to more and more beings, so why shouldn't nature itself be next?

They reject the conventional Western way of relating to nature — as property that is ours for the taking, as an object rather than a subject — but they recognize they're going to have to work within the existing Western legal system if they want that to change. They're betting that the best strategy for protecting the environment is to stretch our society's understanding of what counts as a person. It's a bold bet, but with climate change decimating the planet at such a ferocious rate, it might be the kind of innovative thinking we need.

www.vox.com, February 26, 2019

1 had a negative impact

2 violated

3 rivers flowing into a lake

Document C

Biden touts 1 $1 billion in funding for Great Lakes restoration, during trip to Ohio

President Biden visited Ohio on Thursday to tout $1 billion in funding from the bipartisan 2 infrastructure bill passed last year that will be used to clean and restore environmentally degraded sites around the Great Lakes, a major source of drinking water in the region.

During a speech in Lorain, which borders Lake Erie, Biden said the funding will accelerate an effort to restore sites known as "areas of concern" in the region that have been polluted by agriculture and manufacturing. The funding bolsters 3 an effort, known as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, that was launched in 2010. "It's going to allow the most significant restoration of the Great Lakes in the history of the Great Lakes," Biden told a crowd of about 60 guests, including members of Congress, local elected officials and labor leaders.

Biden said the additional funding would flow to sites in six states "making the water safer for swimming and fishing, drinking, providing habitats for wildlife and wildfowl 4." He said the Great Lakes provide drinking water for about 40 million people. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, who accompanied Biden on the trip, told reporters traveling on Air Force One that the infusion of new funding would be "a shot in the arm" for his agency's cleanup efforts. Of 25 sites that remain in need of restoration, the funding would allow the cleanup of 22 of them by 2030, Regan said. "For many areas throughout the Great Lakes region, including right here in Lorain, the dawn of industrialization left in its wake a disastrous legacy of pollution," Regan later said at the event. "Many of these former industrial sites have been abandoned and blighted for years, and the neighborhoods surrounding these areas and the people who live in them were also left behind."

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to date has provided nearly $3 billion for restoration projects throughout the Great Lakes Basin to address "algal blooms, invasive species, pollution, and habitat degradation." Thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law, this additional$ 1 billion will go a long way in strengthening the Great Lakes preservation and restoration efforts.

The Washington Post, February 17, 2022

1 proudly announces

2 supported by both Republicans and Democrats

3 supports

4 birds that live in the wild

Sujet 1 – Partie 1 (16 pts)

Prenez connaissance du dossier proposé, composé des documents A, B et C non hiérarchisés, et traitez en anglais le sujet suivant (500 mots environ):

Taking into account the specificities of the documents, say what they show about the way environmental issues are perceived and addressed in the Great Lakes area by citizens and authorities.

Document A

Bruce Petush, The Daily Telegram, July 21, 2019

[Lake Erie is one of five large interconnected lakes known as the Great Lakes, located between the United States and Canada. They represent 84% of North America's surface fresh water.]

1 algae: aquatic plants

Document B

Lake Erie now has legal rights, just like you

It started in a pub. A handful of people, hunched over beers in Toledo, Ohio, were talking about a water crisis that had plagued the city in 2014. The pollution of Lake Erie had gotten so bad that it had taken a serious toll 1 on their lives. The government, they felt, wasn't doing enough to protect the lake. And so they wondered: What if the lake could protect itself? The idea they hatched that night ultimately resulted in a special election, which had the citizens of Toledo voting February 26 on a very unusual question: Should Lake Erie be granted the legal rights normally reserved for a person?

The measure passed easily, which means citizens will be able to sue on behalf of the lake whenever its right to flourish is being contravened 2 — that is, whenever it's in danger of major environmental harm. [...]

This was the first rights-based legislation aimed at protecting a whole US ecosystem: the lake, its tributaries 3, and the many species that live off it. The law isn't without precedent, though. It's part of the nascent rights of nature movement, which has notched several victories in the past dozen years. Rivers and forests have already won legal rights in countries like Ecuador, Colombia, India, and New Zealand. Activists in the movement often argue that the environment is the next frontier in humanity's expanding moral circle: over the centuries, we've extended rights to more and more beings, so why shouldn't nature itself be next?

They reject the conventional Western way of relating to nature — as property that is ours for the taking, as an object rather than a subject — but they recognize they're going to have to work within the existing Western legal system if they want that to change. They're betting that the best strategy for protecting the environment is to stretch our society's understanding of what counts as a person. It's a bold bet, but with climate change decimating the planet at such a ferocious rate, it might be the kind of innovative thinking we need.

www.vox.com, February 26, 2019

1 had a negative impact

2 violated

3 rivers flowing into a lake

Document C

Biden touts 1 $1 billion in funding for Great Lakes restoration, during trip to Ohio

President Biden visited Ohio on Thursday to tout $1 billion in funding from the bipartisan 2 infrastructure bill passed last year that will be used to clean and restore environmentally degraded sites around the Great Lakes, a major source of drinking water in the region.

During a speech in Lorain, which borders Lake Erie, Biden said the funding will accelerate an effort to restore sites known as "areas of concern" in the region that have been polluted by agriculture and manufacturing. The funding bolsters 3 an effort, known as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, that was launched in 2010. "It's going to allow the most significant restoration of the Great Lakes in the history of the Great Lakes," Biden told a crowd of about 60 guests, including members of Congress, local elected officials and labor leaders.

Biden said the additional funding would flow to sites in six states "making the water safer for swimming and fishing, drinking, providing habitats for wildlife and wildfowl 4." He said the Great Lakes provide drinking water for about 40 million people. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, who accompanied Biden on the trip, told reporters traveling on Air Force One that the infusion of new funding would be "a shot in the arm" for his agency's cleanup efforts. Of 25 sites that remain in need of restoration, the funding would allow the cleanup of 22 of them by 2030, Regan said. "For many areas throughout the Great Lakes region, including right here in Lorain, the dawn of industrialization left in its wake a disastrous legacy of pollution," Regan later said at the event. "Many of these former industrial sites have been abandoned and blighted for years, and the neighborhoods surrounding these areas and the people who live in them were also left behind."

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to date has provided nearly $3 billion for restoration projects throughout the Great Lakes Basin to address "algal blooms, invasive species, pollution, and habitat degradation." Thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law, this additional$ 1 billion will go a long way in strengthening the Great Lakes preservation and restoration efforts.

The Washington Post, February 17, 2022

1 proudly announces

2 supported by both Republicans and Democrats

3 supports

4 birds that live in the wild

Partie 2 (4 pts)

Traduisez en français le passage suivant du document C (l. 5-10):

During a speech in Lorain, which borders Lake Erie, Biden said the funding will accelerate an effort to restore sites known as “areas of concern” in the region that have been polluted by agriculture and manufacturing. The funding bolsters an effort, known as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, that was launched in 2010. “It’s going to allow the most significant restoration of the Great Lakes in the history of the Great Lakes,” Biden told a crowd of about 60 guests […].

SUJET 2 — Relation au monde

Document A

Barbados parts way with the Queen and becomes world’s newest republic

After 396 years, the sun has set on the British monarchy's reign over the Caribbean island of Barbados, with a handover ceremony at midnight on Monday marking the birth of the world's newest republic. [...]

A solemn Prince Charles was on hand to witness the transition. “The creation of this 5 republic offers a new beginning,” he said in a speech to the ceremony. “From the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history, people of this island forged their path with extraordinary fortitude.” [...]

Announcing the decision to cut ties 1 with the monarchy in 2020, prime minister Mia Mottley, who led the ceremony, said the time had come for Barbados to “fully leave our 10 colonial past behind”, though some in the country said the moment had been long overdue. [...]

“It reduces you psychologically in terms of being a citizen of your nation, and then you have public officials who have to swear allegiance to this sovereign who is not a part of their reality,” [said Sir Hilary Beckles, a West Indian historian]. A comprehensive 15 survey of Barbadian attitudes to the royal family [...] suggested that more than 60% of Barbadians were in favour of becoming a republic, half of them enthusiastically, while about one in 10 people preferred to keep the status quo.

On an island whose anglophile tendencies once led it to be dubbed “little England”, where people still drive on the left, play cricket at Kensington Oval and bathe at 20 Brighton beach, the republic is part of a wider agenda building steam across the Caribbean to forge a future outside a British framework.

1 connections

The Guardian, 30 November 2021

Document B

With Queen gone, former colonies find a moment to rethink lasting ties

The British royal family reigned over more territories and people than any other monarchy in history, and among the countries that have never quite let go of the crown, Queen Elizabeth's death accelerates a push to address the past more fully and strip away the vestiges of colonialism. [...]

5 Many former British colonies remain bound together in the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 56 countries. The vast majority of them are connected by their shared histories, with similar legal and political systems, and the organization promotes exchanges in fields like sports, culture and education. Especially for smaller and newer members, including a few African countries that were not British colonies and joined 10 more recently, the group can confer prestige, and while the Commonwealth has no formal trade agreement, its members conduct trade with one another at higher-than-usual rates.

Most of the Commonwealth members are independent republics, with no formal ties to the British royal family. But 14 are constitutional monarchies that have retained the 15 British sovereign as their head of state, a mostly symbolic role. [...]

Though Prince Charles has now been proclaimed the new king for all these “realm and territories,” in many of them, the queen's death has been greeted with bolder calls for full independence.

On Saturday, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda announced plans to hold a 20 referendum on becoming a republic within three years. In Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada and Jamaica, debates that have simmered for years about their democracies' ties to a distant kingdom have started to heat up again. [...]

“The British monarchy has shown a capacity to evolve over the ages, from colonial to a post-colonial monarchy, and the queen undertook that re-creation quite well,” said 25 Robert Aldrich, a historian at the University of Sydney.

Unlike many of England's political figures, she was quick to accept former colonies' independence. [...]

But as the queen aged and receded from view, and as the world tackled a broader examination of the sins of colonialization, it became harder to keep the monarchy at a 30 benign distance from racism and the acts of empire. In former colonies worldwide, demands for a full accounting 1 of the pain, suffering and plundered 2 riches that helped contribute to the royal family's enormous wealth have been increasing. [...]

And yet, trying to decolonize — to free a country from the dominating influence of a colonizing power — is an empire of work in its own right. The queen gazes from the 35 currency of many countries, and her name graces hospitals and roads. Institutions like the Scouts have created generations who swore allegiance to the queen, and educational systems in many countries still prioritize the British colonial model.

1 recognition

2 stolen

The New York Times, September 11, 2022

Document C

The Council on Foreign Relations, September 9, 2022

Document D

Partie 1 [16 points]

Prenez connaissance du dossier proposé, composé des documents A, B, C et D non hiérarchisés, et traitez en anglais le sujet suivant (500 mots environ):

Taking into account the specificities of the documents, say what they reveal about the evolution of the relations between Commonwealth members and the United Kingdom, focusing on their common legacy and the current political challenges.