Unit 6. Man and Nature Part 2. Ecosystems Lead in
Below is a list of warnings. The Arctic ice-cap is undergoing changes and a number of Arctic wildlife species are facing serious challenges now. How can you associate the warming with survival problems for polar bears, walruses, several species of seals, caribou, Arctic foxes? Suggest your own theories.
G
uardian
Unlimited, August 21, 2000
All you need to know about the ever-growing hole in the middle of the Arctic Circle:
1. There's a bit of a problem at the top of the world. It's melting.
2. Global warming, caused by the so-called greenhouse effect, has already thinned the Arctic icecap by 50%.
3. It's not just the far north that is threatened. Further south there are melting glaciers and rising sea levels.
4. The implications are profound for northern Canada, and very nasty for Vancouver. Indeed, they are alarming for the entire world.
5. Arctic wildlife is also under threat, notably the polar bear.
6. In some places, the polar bear is having to learn to live without ice.
7. The walrus and the arctic fox are also feeling the heat.
8. The North Pole has been the inspiration for some of man's greatest adventures.
9. Now it is the focus for some urgent scientific research.
10. Oddly enough, there are still people who argue seriously that our best defence against greenhouse gases is to go on pumping them out.
How can these developments affect Eskimo communities?
Listen to a fragment of an article from the Observer of July 25, 1999. Before you do the actual listening, go over the list of words that follows. This will help in getting a better grasp of the contents. Take notes of what you hear under the categories listed below and compare your earlier guesses to the author's observations.
cod, algae, floes, unravelling, darn high, scant surprise, warm snaps, ice dens, cubs, permafrost, lichen, spruce bark beetle, plagues of the voracious bug, Alaska's Kenai peninsula, landed a whale, blubber, plywood house, walrus intestine, Arctic fox pelts
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The food chain links;
Reproduction challenges;
On-land animals' problems;
Eskimos' well-being;
Specificity of Arctic food chains;
Deep water;
Land parasites;
Ethnic culture prospects.
Now imagine that you, within a group of scientists and climate change experts, have conducted a research into Arctic ecosystems. You are to make a long-awaited report at a conference in a few days. For the moment, you are at the department manager’s office and the boss would like to make sure that nothing will be overseen and the report will include a careful account of the expedition. The boss will ask a number of questions, like "Will you include a general introduction about global warming? What specifically?" or "What will you say about unravelling food chains?, etc." You give brief information on different points of the forthcoming report. Act this conversation out in pairs to structure and consolidate all previous activities.
