Is the Earth Getting Hotter?

A: Do you know anything about the “greenhouse” effect?

B: Certainly, I do. I’ve heard that it will soon begin altering the Earth’s climate.

A: Can you say when this effect occurs?

B: It happens when CO₂ and certain other gases in the atmosphere allow the sun’s ultraviolet rays to penetrate and warm the earth, but then the absorbed infrared energy is radiated from the earth back into space.

A: Oh, I see that it is like glass in a greenhouse. It forms a kind of “thermal blanket” around the planet.

B: Yes, that’s right. The thing is that the greenhouse effect will cause not only hotter summers and milder winters, but it may alter rainfall, affect crop yields and raise sea level.

Lesson 30. Other Ecological Problems

30.1. Усна тема. Інші екологічні проблеми

Прочитайте деякі факти про тварин, що знаходяться на межі вими-рання.

Pandas. Fewer than 1,000 giant pandas remain in the wild in their home-land, Western China.

Black rhinoceros. Fewer than 2,000 of them remain in the wild. That’s a 95 percent decline since 1970. Most are killed for their horns, which are ground into powder for medical purposes in Asia.

Tigers. Only 67,000 wild tigers remain. Tigers are hunted and killed for their body parts, which are used in oriental medicines.

Chimpanzees. Chimps and other primates are on the verge of becoming extinct, primarily due to the destruction of tropical rain forests, which are home for 90 percent of all primates.

Elephants. In the last 20 years, half the African elephants have been killed off. The Asian elephant population has shrunk even more. Elephants are killed for their ivory tusks, most of which are used for making jewelry.

Визначте, чи є вірними такі висловлювання.

1. Pandas live in India. 2. Rhinoceros are killed for their skin. 3. The horns of rhinoceros are ground into powder for medical purposes. 4. The number of wild tigers is less than 30,000. 5. Tigers are hunted for their fur. 6. Chimpanzees live in rain forests. 7. The population of African and Asian elephants has increased in the last 20 years. 8. Ivory is a precious material for making jewelry.

30.2. Письмові завдання

Вправа 1. Перекладіть текст письмово рідною мовою.

Bees Are in Danger

Since the 1980s, beekeepers and observers of nature have been noticing that bees are disappearing, particularly in Europe and the United States. The phenomenon reached a peak during the winter of 2006–2007, when one quarter of all domesticated honey bees in the US died out, according to a report from the US Congress.

Scientific experts blame a combination of stress factors, including climate change, the use of neurotoxic insecticides, viral and fungal infections, and lack of genetic diversity among domestic bee populations.

Thanks to pollinators such as insects, birds and bats, the world’s flowering plants are able to reproduce and bear fruit. Bees are among the most active pollinators, alone responsible for as much as 70–80% of reproduction in the plant world, according to a study by the France’s national institute for agri-cultural research, INRA. Their disappearance would put the survival of wild plants and commercial crops at risk.