PROTECTION OF SPECIES AND ECOSYSTEMS

Every year several hundred to several thousand plant and animal species bacome extinct, most of these in connection with tropical deforestation. Loss of forest cover it itself a major ecological problem because forests play a crucial role in regulating water cycles, local climate, and the balance of CO2 in the atmosphere. The genetic resources lost by extinction have both an economic value for medicine and agriculture and an ecological value because they increase diversity in ecosystems and are the basis for future evolution. We face difficult ethical questions about other species’ right to exist and the subjugation of nature as a basis tenet of industrial society.

Europe also has its share of endangered species and ecosystems, such as the wolf, certain birds of prey, virgin coniferous forest and various species of fish and marine mammals. Conservation of nature often conflicts with agriculture and forestry interests, making this a good topic for classroom discussions and debates. The conflicts of interest intropical deforestation could for example be compared with the situation in the students’ own country.

The ocean ecosystem is a vital resource for most European countries, but its ecological balance is threatened by the petroleum industry; fish farming; fisheries; pollution by industry, agricultural runoff and sewage; and depletion of the ozone layer. Marine pollution sometimes becomes dramatic, as it did in the spring of 1988 when the marine alga Chrysochromelina polylepis caused widespread fish death in the waters around Scandinavia. Research later showed that the alga becomes poisonous at particular concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, the result of agricultural and other pollution from Skagerak, the baltic Sea, and the northern Scandinavian coast.

LESSON 66

OUR EARTH IS OUR COMMON HOME

MAN AND ENVIRONMENT

PART I

1.Read and translate following international words paying attention to the parts of speech.

Solar, a; energy, n; fatal, a; radicaly, adv; negative, a; economic, a; biosphere, n ; result, n; ecological, a; technicism, n; oases, n; pl; objectively, adv; component, n; transform, v; typhoon, n; magnetic,a; radioactivity, n; cosmic, a; system, n; biological, a;compensate, v; ecologist, n.

2.Pay attention to meaning of following “false friends of translator” :

human progress – прогрес ( людського ) суспільства

activity – діяльність

effect – результат, наслідок; вплив, дія

realize – розуміти, усвідомлювати; виконувати, здійснювати

complex – складний, важкий

individual – окремий, людина

situation – місцеположення, стан

scale – масштаб, розмір

decade – десятиліття

character – характер, особливість

3.Remember pronunciation and translation of following words and word-combinations from the text:

exploration – дослідження

adverse – негативний, шкідливий

affect – впливати

take into account – брати до уваги

be concerned (about) – турбуватися про

turn into – перетворювати

threaten – погрожувати

destroy – знищувати, руйнувати

essential – обов’язковий, необхідний

exist – існувати

existance – існування, життя

disastrous – згубний

safe – надійний, безпечний

suitable – підходящий, пригідний

meet the needs – задовольняти потреби

purposeful – цілеспрямований

self-regulation – саморегулювання

harmful – шкідливий, згубний

warn –попереджати, застерігати

4.Name the ajectives having the same root with following nouns and translate them:

disaster, care, ecology,environment, harm, purpose, nature, possibility.

5.Give the Ukrainian equivalents of the following complicated nouns:

self-regulation, self-organisation, self-ignition (спалахування) , self-purification, self-pollution, self-help, self-monitoring(контроль).

6.Find the meaning of the following words in the terminological dictionary and check your understanding these words:

environment, environmental, consequence, interference, desert, impact, exert impact( influence), earthquake, hurricane, flood, drought, pollution, interaction, species, extinction, depletion.

7.Name the English verbs forming the following nouns and translate them:

exploration, interference,extinction,activity,depletion, radiation, transformation, production, regulation,interaction, existence, consideration.

8.Translate the following word-combinations:

1.tremendous,uncontroled, harmful, ecological, irreversible, adverse environmental – impact

2.intensive, current, purposeful, essential, outer space, careful, planned – exploration

3.main, depleted, valuable, individual, plant and animal – species

4.safe, natural, thermal, ecological, social – environment

5.ecological, adverse, various, irreversible – consequences

6.biological, massive, soil, natural resources – depletion

7.cosmic, water, atmospheric, chemical, environmental, radioactive, industrial – pollution

8.adverse, possible, disastrous, biological,environmental – effect