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Climate Change (IPCC), by anywhere between 2.5 and 10.4 degrees
Fahrenheit (1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius) over the course of this century.
This warming is not, and will not be, uniform. Warming in the Arctic is
projected to be two to three times the global average; already, temperature increases in the region are far exceeding those in more temperate
zones. In Alaska and western Canada, winter temperatures have increased by as much as 5–7 degrees F (3–4 degrees C) over the past fifty
years; over the next 100 years, annual average temperatures are projected to rise 5–9 degrees F (3–5 degrees C) over land and up to 13 degrees
F (7 degrees C) over the ocean. Winter temperatures are projected to increase by 7–13 degrees F (4–7 degrees C) over land and by 13–18oF (7–
10 degrees C) over the ocean.
Sea Ice
Sea ice (literally, the frozen surface of the sea) is an essential element of the Arctic marine ecosystem. On its underside grows algae
which support the entire food chain. It provides shelter for species such
as arctic cod, and is an essential habitat for migratory birds, for seals and
walruses, for polar bears, and for Native peoples.
However, sea ice is in retreat throughout the Arctic. Over the past
thirty years, annual average sea ice extent has decreased by about" 8%,
or approximately 386,000 square miles (one million square kilometers),
an area the size of Texas and Arizona (or Norway, Sweden, and Denmark) combined. Additional declines of 10–50% in annual average seaice extent are projected by 2100, with summer sea ice declines projected
to be around 50%, and some models predicting near-complete disappearance of summer sea ice.
The remaining sea ice is also thinner. Reductions in average thickness levels across the Arctic are estimated at 10–15%, with some areas
showing reductions of up to 40% between the 1960s and late 1990s.
Glaciers
With increasing temperatures, most glaciers have been in retreat
across the Arctic since the early 1960s, a trend that sped up in the 1990s.
About half of the estimated loss of mass in glaciers worldwide is in
western Alaska, while seasonal surface melt on the Greenland ice sheetby far the largest area of land ice in the northern hemisphere-has been
increasing since satellite observations began in 1979. Climate models
predict that local warming over Greenland may be one to three times the
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global average, which additional models suggest could eventually lead to
a near-complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
Habitat Change
Climate change is projected to cause northward shifts in vegetation,
and because warmer temperatures favor taller, denser vegetation, boreal
forests will encroach on the arctic tundra, and the tundra will shift
northward into the realm of the polar desert. The consequences of such
change will be varied and sometimes seemingly contradictory: tree
growth rates will increase in some areas and decline in others; disturbances such as fires and floods will likely either speed up or inhibit forest
growth; and although the range of trees such as black and white spruce
may expand, higher temperatures and drier conditions will make them
more vulnerable to disease and to insect pests such as the spruce bark
beetle and the black-headed budworm, which in turn will benefit from
those changing conditions.
As a result of encroaching forests and rising sea levels, tundra area
is expected to shrink to its lowest extent in at least the past 21,000 years,
potentially reducing the breeding area for many migratory bird species
and the grazing areas for land animals that depend on the open landscape
of tundra and polar desert habitats.
Wildlife Impacts
Changes in habitat will inevitably affect distribution and abundance
of associated wildlife populations. For example, mosses and lichens are
particularly vulnerable to warming which, because they form the basis of
important food chains (providing, for example, primary winter food
sources for reindeer/caribou), will have significant repercussions
throughout the ecosystem. Caribou (the North American form of the
species Rangifer tarandus) and reindeer (Eurasian form of the same species) will be affected not only by declines in some of their food sources,
but also by increased difficulty in reaching some of those food sources as
a result of climatic changes. For example, numbers of Peary caribou on
Canada's arctic islands plummeted from 26,000 in 1961 to 1,000 by
1997, apparently largely as a result of autumn rains icing the winter food
supply and crusting the snow cover, limiting access to forage. Mild
weather and wet snow prompt the collapse of under-snow spaces that
provide burrows for lemmings and voles, affecting population cycles of
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those species and leading to declines in their populations, with impacts
on their predators, such as snowy owls, skuas, weasels, and ermine.
Changes in the thickness and extent of sea ice are likely to affect
the species which live on sea ice habitat, and indeed there is evidence
that such impacts are already occurring. For example, a 1999 study
showed that polar bears in Hudson Bay suffered 15% declines in average
weight and the number of cubs born between 1981 and 1998. These
changes are likely correlated to late sea-ice formation in fall and early
break-up in spring, which leads to a longer winter fasting period for females, for whom healthy fat reserves are essential to survival and reproductive success.
According to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a study conducted on behalf of the Arctic Council, polar bears "are unlikely to survive as a species if there is an almost complete loss of summer sea-ice
cover, which is projected to occur before the end of this century by some
climate models."
Human Impacts
Melting of permafrost – the layer of permanently-frozen soil that is
a defining characteristic of polar and alpine environments—is already
causing collapses in the ground above it, leading to structural failures in
buildings and roadways throughout the Arctic and subarctic. Continued
melting is likely to make construction and transportation in the region
increasingly problematic. Conversely, disappearing sea ice is likely to
lead to significantly more navigable seaways: for example, the navigation season for the Northern Sea Route (the passage across the north of
Russia from Novaya Zemlya to the Bering Strait) is projected to increase
from the current 20-30 days per year to 90–100 days by 2080. While this
may be a boon to international commerce, it will increase the risk of accidents, oil spills, and the chronic air and water pollution associated with
shipping activities.
Retreating sea ice and melting permafrost also increase the likelihood of erosion in many areas. In some coastal Arctic regions, retreating
sea ice has left low-lying coastal areas more vulnerable to storm surges,
with sometimes dramatic consequences. The village of Shishmaref, for
example, located on an island off the coast of northern Alaska, has been
increasingly battered and damaged bу storms. Several houses have been
evacuated and moved to high ground, and now the entire village is likely
to be relocated to the mainland.
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For many Native peoples of the Arctic, a warming climate and subsequent environmental changes are already profoundly altering their traditional, subsistence way of life. For example, predicted northward
movement of sea ice is expected to reduce the availability of seabirds as
food resources for many arctic communities, while reduced sea ice extent and thickness is also making it more difficult and dangerous to find
and hunt for marine mammals.
Global Consequences
At the same time, melting arctic ice, combined with increased precipitation and river runoff, may lead to a freshening of the ocean in the
North Atlantic, disrupting the critical salinity balance and leading to a
collapse in the ocean circulation pattern that brings warm water to Europe from the tropics. As a consequence, global warming could lead to
regional cooling in the Northeast Atlantic region.
B. GREENPEACE BRIEFING: NEWS AND VIEWS
CONSERVATION NOT EXPLOTATION
CETACEANS AND THE OCEANS CRISIS
As human activities continue to degrade the world's oceans, species
and populations of cetaceans (the collective name for whales, porpoises
and dolphins) are under increasing threat. Global warming, ozone depletion, toxic chemicals, noise pollution, over fishing and ship strikes all
impact cetaceans and are symptoms of a wider crisis in the oceans. In
view of the oceans crisis outlined above, Greenpeace believes that commercial hunting of cetacean species should be stopped and that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) should make conservation its primary focus to ensure that these animals are preserved for future generations.
Climate change and Ozone depletion
The devastating impacts of anthropogenic climate change are already being felt across the globe and the oceans and their inhabitants are
not immune. In particular cetacean species, which inhabit Polar Regions,
are likely to be severely impacted by the temperature rises predicted for
these areas. The Southern Ocean around Antarctica, where a large proportion of the world's great whales feed, is already being affected as ob-
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served by the substantial melting and collapses of the Larsen A and В ice
shelves. Higher temperatures are resulting in a reduction in sea ice, impacting the primary productivity of the region and consequently the entire Antarctic marine food web. Sea ice forms a highly productive environment, with phytoplankton growing in high densities under the ice.
The phytoplankton is grazed upon by substantial numbers of small crustaceans including krill, which in turn is the primary prey item of most
Antarctic species including the great whales.
Until recently a population estimate of 760,000 was generally accepted for the population of Southern Ocean minke whales, (the species
targeted by Japan's-called 'scientific' whaling programme in the Antarctic). However when the IWC Scientific Committee examined more recent data, they came to the conclusion that the real figure was 'appreciably' lower and might be less than half of what was previously thought.
The IWC scientists so far have not been able to agree an explanation for
the apparent decline but have not been able to rule out that a real decline
is occurring.
Unsustainable fishing practices
Of all the threats facing the oceans, over fishing is perhaps the single greatest threat. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 71–78% of the world's fish stocks are fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted. Cetaceans, far from being the cause
of collapsing fish stocks as claimed by the Fisheries Agency of Japan
and the pro-whaling lobby, are themselves the victims of over fishing
and industrialized fisheries.
There is evidence to suggest that industrial fishing methods and the
vast volumes of fish being removed from the oceans ecosystems is having major impacts on marine ecosystems and ecosystems dynamics. For
example, a study by US whale biologists suggests that the virtual removal of the North American Grand Banks stock of herring by over fishing
in the 1960s, removed a major prey source for baleen whales in the area.
Prey depletion is not the only impact of the vast expansion of the
global fishing industry on cetaceans. A more direct impact is that of incidental capture in fishing gear. Every year hundreds of thousands of cetaceans become entangled in fishing nets and drown. For example, by
catch of small cetaceans is an urgent problem in the North East Atlantic.
In the area of the English Channel, Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay an estimated 10,000 dolphins and porpoises are being killed each year.
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Of particular concern is the current situation affecting different
populations of harbour porpoises in the North Atlantic. A range of fisheries using gillnets off the coasts of the US, Canada and Ireland and
within the North Sea have all been shown to incidentally capture large
numbers of this species. For instance it is estimated that approximately
7,000 harbour porpoises are taken every year by the Danish set net fisheries in the North Sea.
Scientists estimate that this could represent as much as 5% of some
species' populations in this area being killed in fishing gear annually: a
rate of over 1% of a population is internationally recognized to be cause
for concern. Despite evidence that particular fisheries are directly responsible (such as the sea bass pair trawling fishery) and an obligation to
protect cetacean species under the EU Habitats Directive, no action has
been taken at EU level that will effectively stop this incidental killing.
Toxic pollution
The release of toxic chemicals into the marine environment present
a major and insidious threat to cetaceans. Of prime concern are the following groups of chemicals: persistent organic pollutants (POPs) which
including PCBs and DDT, heavy metals such as mercury and endocrine
disrupting chemicals.
Many POPs readily concentrate in fatty tissue such as blubber and
as a consequence high body burdens have been found in cetaceans,
which are positioned near the top of the food web, such as dolphins and
other toothed whales. However some baleen whales also carry significant loadings. Endocrine disrupters, which interfere with reproduction
even at very low concentrations, have immense potential for harm. There
is little published research identifying the impacts of endocrine disrupting substances on cetaceans, however as noted by an IWC Scientific
Committee workshop on chemical pollution and cetaceans '...wherever
endocrine disrupting chemicals have been sought within cetacean tissue
they have been found.'
The build up of toxic contaminants in cetacean species are also a
health risk for consumers of whale and dolphin products. Last year a
Norwegian scientific committee concluded that the 500 tonne stockpile
of frozen minke whale blubber which was being kept in the hope that it
could be exported to Japan was too toxic for human consumption.
Janneche Utne Skaare, deputy director of the National Veterinary Institute and a scientist on the panel was quoted by Reuters as saying that
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"Human consumption of whale blubber would lead to unacceptable levels of PCBs" and that a single gram of minke blubber would contain almost a tenth of the maximum weekly intake of PCBs under European
Union guidelines.
Ocean noise
Cetaceans are highly reliant on their hearing for their survival.
Many species have acute hearing and use sound for prey location, navigation and communication – often over considerable distances in the
case of several of the large baleen whale species. Many cetacean biologists are becoming increasingly concerned that noise pollution in the
oceans emanating from shipping, seismic surveys, oil drilling, marine
construction and active sonar devices may be negatively impacting cetacean populations. In extreme cases noise pollution may cause actual
physiological damage but more often it interferes with the natural behaviour of the animals.
One of the most worrying sources of marine noise pollution is the
deployment of low-frequency active sonar (LFAS). Developed by the
military to detect enemy submarines, LFAS uses the same low frequencies that whales use to communicate and are most acoustically sensitive
to. Although not the first case, the strongest evidence that high-power
"active" sonar systems can and do kill marine animals surfaced in March
of 2000, when a stranding of 14 beaked whales, along with two minke
whales and a spotted dolphin in the Bahamas coincided with the U.S.
Navy's use of extremely loud active sonar (mid-frequency sonar). Despite a marine mammal scientist's and others' attempts to save the animals, seven of them died. Autopsies showed that all but one of the animals suffered from hemorrhages in and around their ears. And in February 2001, it was observed that at least one of the whale species that
stranded in the Bahamas had virtually disappeared from the area, raising
questions about impacts well beyond initial strandings and deaths. That
LFAS can be lethal to cetaceans was given further credence when in
September 2002, 15 more beaked whales washed up on beaches on the
Canary Islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. NATO militaries, including ships from the U.S., were conducting a major naval exercise at
the time.
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Ship strikes
A more localized threat is that posed by ship collisions, however it
may be a significant threat to some local populations; for example there
is concern about the number of collisions between fin whales and high
speed ferries in the waters mid-way between the French mainland and
Corsica which are preferred summer feeding grounds for the fins. For the
North Atlantic right whale reducing ship strikes is essential if the species
is to survive into the next century.
Despite having been internationally protected from hunting since
1935, the North Atlantic right whale has failed to recover and is close to
becoming extinct. Only a few hundred animals remain and these are
found along the eastern shores of North America. The situation is made
acute by the fact that every year a number of these slow moving whales
are the victims of ship collisions and entanglement in fishing gear. With
such a small population, the death of even a single individual is of enormous significance.
Cetaceans on a knife edge
The western North Pacific population of gray whales is one of the
most threatened populations of whales and provides a useful case study
on how a combination of human-induced threats may actually push a
population over the brink. This population is facing 'an extremely high
risk of extinction in the immediate future'. Numbering fewer than 100
individuals, this poorly known population is genetically distinct from the
eastern population of gray whales, and shows no sign of recovery having
been heavily depleted in the past by commercial whaling. To date only
14 reproductive females have been identified in the population.
The greatest threat to this population are the oil and gas developments taking place to the Northeast of Sakhalin Island – the location of
an area, 5–10km wide and 70 km long, which constitutes the summer/autumn feeding grounds of the western North Pacific grays. The oil
and gas developments present a variety of threats to the western North
Pacific grays. Oil spills; routine pollution from drilling, increased vessel
and air traffic and seismic surveys could all have negative impacts.
This situation is exacerbated by the fact that many of the whales
are so called 'skinny whales', emaciated animals with their bones showing through their blubber suggesting that they are already having difficulty finding enough of the benthic organisms on which they feed. Such
'skinny' whales have also been observed in the eastern North Pacific
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population of gray whales and in 1999 a number of these emaciated animals were found dead along the eastern North Pacific coastline. It has
been suggested that the cause of these strandings was a reduction in the
availability of the whales' principle prey – amphipod crustaceans – in the
Bering and Chukchi Seas and this was linked to increased sea temperatures – a phenomenon concurrent with anthroprogenic climate change.
Strengthening the conservation agenda of the IWC
Last year's agreement to strengthen the conservation agenda of the
IWC makes it clear that conservation of whales, dolphins and porpoises
without lethal exploitation, is a legitimate position and focus for the
Commission and its Scientific Committee and favoured by the majority
of its members. The establishment and operation of the conservation
committee, which is strongly supported by Greenpeace, is likely to be
energetically opposed by Japan, its paid supporters and other prowhaling countries.
The conservation committee can build on the important conservation decisions taken by the IWC in the past and shift the focus of the
IWC from exploitation to conservation. By virtue of its global reach and
considerable scientific expertise, the IWC is in a unique position to deliver significant conservation benefits for cetaceans and the oceans as a
whole.
From the report Whales in a Degraded Ocean, Greenpeace 2001
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Приложение
КРАТКИЕ УКАЗАНИЯ ПО ПЕРЕВОДУ
С АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА НА РУССКИЙ
При переводе с английского языка на русский помните сле-
дующее.
Сначала прочитайте заголовок и постарайтесь догадаться, о
чем этот текст. После этого прочитайте весь текст, для того чтобы
составить общее представление о нем. Далее читайте текст по абзацам и переводите на русский язык.
Если текст содержит новые слова, о значении которых трудно
догадаться по контексту, пользуйтесь большим англо-русским словарем.
В словарях все слова даются в алфавитном порядке, при этом
учитывается не только первая, но и вторая, третья, четвертая и последующие буквы. Чтобы быстро найти слово, необходимо хорошо
знать английский алфавит.
Слово обычно сопровождается транскрипцией, с помощью которой можно правильно прочитать любое неизвестное английское
слово, а затем идет буква или сочетание нескольких букв, указывающих на то, какой частью речи является данное слово. Например:
book n (noun – имя существительное) или with prep (preposition –
предлог).
Слова в словаре даются в исходной, или основной, форме, то
есть существительные даются в единственном числе, глаголы – в
неопределенной форме и т. д. Таким образом, очень важно выяснить исходную форму слова, а затем уже искать ее в словаре.
Например, в тексте вы встретили слово remedies. В такой форме в
словаре его пет. Чтобы найти исходную форму (remedy), нужно отбросить окончание -es и заменить букву i на у (сравните: city –
cities).
Если вам нужно найти значение слова grabbed, то сначала
найдите его исходную форму (grab). Для этого вы отбрасываете -ed
(окончание прошедшего времени или причастия прошедшего времени) и букву b, которая появилась в результате удвоения конечной
согласной для сохранения краткости чтения гласных (сравните: stop
– stopped).
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