News on the Environment

1. News on the Environment By Cathy Chang

2. Migration

3. Starting Questions • What animals do you know migrate? • Why do animals migrate to different places? • What are some environmental advantages of these migrations?

4. “Vanishing Animal Migrations Need Saving, Experts Say” Habitat destruction and climate change are making migrations increasingly difficult for many species, but it's not too late to bring these visuallyspectacular and environmentally criticalmass movements back, according to a new study. Migrations are one of the animal kingdom's most widespreadphenomena. They are seasonal tests of endurance, collective journeys often taken at great costs by birds, whales, land mammals, insects, and other creatures that are wired to roam. According to scientists, human actions are threatening many migrations. Habitat destruction, the creation of obstacles such as dams and fences, overexploitation of natural resources, and climate change are combining to make migrations increasingly difficult for many species. (Source)

5. Habitat 棲息地 Migration 遷徙 Visually 視覺上 Spectacular 壯觀的 Critical 緊要的,關鍵性的 Mass 大量 Widespread 普遍的;廣泛的 Phenomena (phenomenon) 現象 Endurance 耐久力 Collective 集體的 Wired 設計 Roam漫遊;流浪 Obstacles 障礙(物) Dams 水壩,水堤 Fences 柵欄 Overexploitation 過於的開發;開採;剝削 Vocabulary

6. Icebergs

7. Starting Questions • Where do you usually find icebergs? • Are they useful to the environment? • If they melt, what would be some consequences for the environment?

8. “Ice Adrift From Warming Scrapes Antarctic SeabedBare” Rapid warming along the Antarctic Peninsula is causing more skyscraper-sized icebergs to break free, drift, and scour away practically all life along swaths of the seafloor, according to a new study. Ocean-bottom scrubbings along the West Antarctic Peninsula will increase as temperatures rise, annihilating some animal and plant populations but helping others by clearing the habitat, the study said. The study establishes for the first time the intimate link between increased scouring and declines in winter sea ice due to climate change, researchers said. In the past, these icebergs were locked in place by winter sea ice for longer periods and only free to crash into the seabed in summer. "Our results suggest that as the winter sea ice season shortens, the thousands of icebergs that float around the coastline of the Antarctic Peninsula will be free to move around and collide with the seabed creatures with ever increasing frequency," lead author Daniel Smale of the British Antarctic Survey, said in an e-mail. (Source)

9. Scrape 刮,擦;括 Seabed 海底;海床 Bare 光禿禿的 Rapid 快的,迅速的 Skyscraper 超高層大樓 Drift 漂,漂流 Scour 清除 Swath 長而寬的一長條 Scrubbing 擦掉 Annihilating 殲滅,消滅 Intimate 親密的 Link 聯繫,關係 Coastline 海岸線 Peninsula 半島 Collide 碰撞 Frequency 頻率,次數 Vocabulary

10. Plants

11. Starting Questions • Do you notice what kinds of plants are around you? • Are plants important to the environment? How?

12. “Plants ‘Climbing’ Mountains Due to Global Warming” Like people vacationing in the mountains to escape summer heat, plants are "climbing" to higher elevations to cope with global warming, a new study shows. Previous research has suggested that many plant and animal species have been shifting their ranges toward the Poles as the planet warms. Now scientists have found evidence that plants have also been slowly moving into higher elevations to stay within ideal temperature zones. Each year this "escalator effect" is pushing plants upward by about ten feet (three meters). If global warming continues over the coming decades—as researchers predict it will—the plants will continue to climb. But since some species move faster than others, this shift could tearestablishedecosystems apart. (Source)

13. Elevation高度;高地 Cope 對付,妥善處理 Shifting 移動;更換 Range 生長區,分佈區 Poles (地球的)極 Ideal 理想的 Zone 地帶;地區;氣候帶 Escalator 電扶梯 Decade 十年 Predict 預言;預料 Tear 撕開,撕裂 Established 已建立的 Ecosystem 生態系統 Vocabulary

14. Reference “Environment News.”National Geographic. 12 Aug 2008. <http://news.nationalgeographic. com/news/environment.html>.