Transcript News on the Environment

News on the
Environment
By Cathy Chang
Migration
Starting Questions
 What
animals do you know migrate?
 Why do animals migrate to different
places?
 What are some environmental
advantages of these migrations?
“Vanishing Animal Migrations
Need Saving, Experts Say”
Habitat destruction and climate change are making
migrations increasingly difficult for many species, but
it's not too late to bring these visually spectacular and
environmentally critical mass movements back,
according to a new study.
Migrations are one of the animal kingdom's most
widespread phenomena.
They are seasonal tests of endurance, collective
journeys often taken at great costs by birds, whales,
land mammals, insects, and other creatures that are
wired to roam.
According to scientists, human actions are threatening
many migrations. Habitat destruction, the creation of
obstacles such as dams and fences, overexploitation
of natural resources, and climate change are
combining to make migrations increasingly difficult for
many species.
(Source)
Vocabulary
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Habitat 棲息地
Migration 遷徙
Visually 視覺上
Spectacular 壯觀的
Critical 緊要的,關鍵性的
Mass 大量
Widespread 普遍的;廣
泛的
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Phenomena
(phenomenon) 現象
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Endurance 耐久力
Collective 集體的
Wired 設計
Roam漫遊;流浪
Obstacles 障礙(物)
Dams 水壩,水堤
Fences 柵欄
Overexploitation 過於
的開發;開採;剝削
Icebergs
Starting Questions
 Where
do you usually find icebergs?
 Are they useful to the environment?
 If they melt, what would be some
consequences for the environment?
“Ice Adrift From Warming
Scrapes Antarctic Seabed Bare”
Rapid warming along the Antarctic Peninsula is causing more
skyscraper-sized icebergs to break free, drift, and scour
away practically all life along swaths of the seafloor,
according to a new study.
Ocean-bottom scrubbings along the West Antarctic Peninsula
will increase as temperatures rise, annihilating some animal
and plant populations but helping others by clearing the
habitat, the study said.
The study establishes for the first time the intimate link
between increased scouring and declines in winter sea ice
due to climate change, researchers said.
In the past, these icebergs were locked in place by winter sea
ice for longer periods and only free to crash into the seabed
in summer.
"Our results suggest that as the winter sea ice season
shortens, the thousands of icebergs that float around the
coastline of the Antarctic Peninsula will be free to move
around and collide with the seabed creatures with ever
increasing frequency," lead author Daniel Smale of the
British Antarctic Survey, said in an e-mail.
(Source)
Vocabulary
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Scrape 刮,擦;括
Seabed 海底;海床
Bare 光禿禿的
Rapid 快的,迅速的
Skyscraper 超高層大樓
Drift 漂,漂流
Scour 清除
Swath 長而寬的一長條
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Scrubbing 擦掉
Annihilating 殲滅,消滅
Intimate 親密的
Link 聯繫,關係
Coastline 海岸線
Peninsula 半島
Collide 碰撞
Frequency 頻率,次數
Plants
Starting Questions
 Do
you notice what kinds of plants
are around you?
 Are plants important to the
environment? How?
“Plants ‘Climbing’ Mountains
Due to Global Warming”
Like people vacationing in the mountains to escape
summer heat, plants are "climbing" to higher
elevations to cope with global warming, a new study
shows.
Previous research has suggested that many plant and
animal species have been shifting their ranges toward
the Poles as the planet warms.
Now scientists have found evidence that plants have
also been slowly moving into higher elevations to stay
within ideal temperature zones.
Each year this "escalator effect" is pushing plants
upward by about ten feet (three meters).
If global warming continues over the coming decades—
as researchers predict it will—the plants will continue
to climb.
But since some species move faster than others, this
shift could tear established ecosystems apart.
(Source)
Vocabulary
 Elevation高度;高地
 Cope
對付,妥善處理
 Shifting 移動;更換
 Range 生長區,分佈
區
 Poles (地球的)極
 Ideal 理想的
 Zone 地帶;地區;氣
候帶
 Escalator
電扶梯
 Decade 十年
 Predict 預言;預料
 Tear 撕開,撕裂
 Established 已建立
的
 Ecosystem 生態系
統
Reference
“Environment News.” National
Geographic. 12 Aug 2008.
<http://news.nationalgeographic.
com/news/environment.html>.