Sujet Anglais LV1 — Terminale — Métropole — Bac 2018

Document 1 Is this the world’s greenest family? Bea Johnson’s Californian home takes minimalism to a stark new level. Under the kitchen sink is a single bottle of white vinegar. Upstairs, in Bea’s teenage sons’ bedrooms, the wardrobes contain four meagre piles of folded clothes, bike and baseball helmets, and a suitcase. 5 Bea, who is French by birth, has been pioneering a zero waste existence for her family since 2008 with impressive results. Last year she was able to fit the family’s annual domestic waste into a half litre jar1. “Life is so simple now; I can’t imagine going back to the way we used to live,” she says. “We don’t have less options in life, we have more because we are more creative.” 10 In her six-inch heels and leather trousers, Bea cuts an unlikely eco warrior. “I’m no hippy,” she says. “Before I started this I was having Botox, wearing fake nails and dyeing my hair Barbie blonde.” But her waste-free lifestyle, based around five R’s — refuse what you don’t need, reduce what you need, reuse what you consume and recycle or rot (i.e. compost) the rest — and her blog and subsequent book have inspired 15 a global movement. The Johnsons’ transformation from all-American family to Zero Waste pioneers didn’t happen overnight. Bea, who came to America as an au pair aged 18, admits she was sucked in by the American dream of enormous refrigerators and SUVs. After marrying Scott in her early twenties she became, she says, the ultimate soccer mum. They lived 20 in a large house in the suburbs and sent Max, now 14, and Leo, 15, to private schools. Then, six years ago, they sold up to buy a smaller home in Mill Valley, an upmarket San Francisco neighbourhood. “We lived in a tiny rented apartment with most possessions in storage,” Bea says. “We didn’t miss our things at all. We had space in our lives for what mattered most: spending time together, hiking, picnics.” 25 Once installed in their new home, she resolved to change the emphasis of their lifestyle from one of “having” to one of “being and experiencing.” She banished packaging and set about editing the family’s possessions to the bare minimum. “We only ever use 20 per cent of what we have,” she explains. “The rest is for the 'what ifs’: what if I lose weight, what