Unit 6. Man and Nature Part 3. Man-in-Nature Lead in
Here come two quotations. They represent extreme and opposing views on the dilemma how Earth can be preserved as the Living Planet. Where do you stand on this issue?
Some literature includes a definition of human population growth as a 'cancerous tumour' or 'infestation', and the grotesque notion that the Aids catastrophe in Africa and elsewhere in the Third World is no more than Mother Earth's natural response to this human 'cancer'.
If the main proponents of people-free wilderness areas say that the world must have places that are untouched and where the non-human world can prosper, the main charge against them is that excluding people from living there is morally repugnant, ecologically incoherent, intellectually indefensible and politically dubious.
Which of the circumstances, movements and trends are the most and least conductive to life and conservation?
vegetarianism, pursuit of material affluence, overpopulation, hunting, Back to Nature Society, land development, environmental education and awareness, national parks and reserves, poaching, climate change, abuse of Earth’s resources, technological progress, poverty, spiritual values
Read the statements below and then listen to a discourse entitled Finite Oceans, looking at marine life. As you listen, mark the sentences as true or false. Later, provide comments for the "true" sentences and correct the "false" ones.
The depletion of the seemingly limitless supply of fish, culminated in a number of local crises today.
The notion, that the seas would endlessly replenish themselves with fish turned out to be misleading.
The 19thcentury naturalist claimed that there was likelihood of man's destruction of the entire species of marine animals.
It was recognised in 1995 that people's attitude towards marine resources was one of folly.
The current level of the world's fisheries could not be continued.
The wealth of the oceans can regenerate through the use of technology.
Vessels can locate specific areas of the ocean to within 500 feet.
Now there is over half a million fishing boats cruising the ocean for fish.
Wild fish stocks have dwindled, because 80 to 90% of some populations of fish are removed every 5 years.
Humans are newcomers to this world, but they have special immunity against extinction.
Outstripping the Earth's material resources is humans' major mistake.
The devastation that people are wreaking on animal populations won't add chances to our own survival.
We have to check our needs, because supplies are limited.
Imagine a situation when your friend and you find yourselves at a fishmonger's. The friend is shopping for some fish and makes some remarks. Some things are beyond his/her understanding. Below are the friend's observations and you are invited to give a comment in paired conversations. In your explanations use the language of the listening text.
Previously one couldn't find such a varied stock of seafood at any shop.
We really seem to be omnivorous in our food tastes – cuttlefish, mussels, scallops, etc.
Amazingly though, fish is becoming increasingly expensive.
Calamary was more plentiful before and you could buy it for a song. We always had some tins in stock at home.
They seem to have stopped fishing in nearby seas. When you read the products' labels you literary learn geography.
