News%20on%20the%20Environment

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News on the Environment

• By Cathy Chang

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Migration
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Starting Questions

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

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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
  visually spectacular and environmentally critical
  mass movements back, according to a new study.
• Migrations are one of the animal kingdom's most
  widespread phenomena.
• 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)

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Vocabulary

• Habitat ???
• Migration ??
• Visually ???
• Spectacular ???
• Critical ???,????
• Mass ??
• Widespread ??????
• Phenomena (phenomenon) ??

• Endurance ???
• Collective ???
• Wired ??
• Roam????
• Obstacles ??(?)
• Dams ??,??
• Fences ??
• Overexploitation ?????????

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Icebergs
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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?

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Ice Adrift From Warming Scrapes Antarctic Seabed
Bare

• 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)

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Vocabulary

• Scrape ?,??
• Seabed ????
• Bare ????
• Rapid ??,???
• Skyscraper ?????
• Drift ?,??
• Scour ??
• Swath ???????

• Scrubbing ??
• Annihilating ??,??
• Intimate ???
• Link ??,??
• Coastline ???
• Peninsula ??
• Collide ??
• Frequency ??,??

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Plants
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Starting Questions

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

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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
  decadesas researchers predict it willthe plants
  will continue to climb.
• But since some species move faster than others,
  this shift could tear established ecosystems
  apart.
• (Source)

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Vocabulary

• Elevation????
• Cope ??,????
• Shifting ????
• Range ???,???
• Poles (???)?
• Ideal ???
• Zone ???????

• Escalator ???
• Decade ??
• Predict ????
• Tear ??,??
• Established ????
• Ecosystem ????

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Reference

• Environment News. National Geographic. 12 Aug
  2008. lthttp//news.nationalgeographic.
• com/news/environment.htmlgt.