Text B. Destruction of the Rainforests

Two hundred years ago rainforests covered about 1,500 million hectares, an area the size of Europe, but today only 900 million hectares remain. Modern technology makes short work of clearing the rainforest taking less than an hour to clear one hectare. Exactly how much rainforest is disappearing is not known but it seems likely that over 20 million hectares are destroyed each year. At this rate there will be no rainforests remaining in 40 years. The rainforests of West Africa have seen very rapid destruction in recent times. Cote D’Ivoire originally had almost half its land area (160,000sq km) under rainforest. The latest figures (1998) reveal that this has fallen to 4,000sq km. Nigeria has only 10,000 sq km of its original 72,000 sq km of rainforest left.

Ranching. Large areas of rainforest are being burned down and converted into ranchland even though this is the worst possible use of the land. Central America has already lost two-thirds of its rainforest to cattle ranching. Where tropical rainforests have been cleared for pasture and cattle ranches established, the production of meat hardly reaches 50kg of meat/hectare/year whereas north European farms produce closer to 600kg of meat/hectare/year. The soil quickly loses its scarce nutrients and becomes useless. When this happens the land is abandoned and more rainforest is cleared. The quickest way to clear an area of rainforest is by burning, often by aircraft dropping firebombs. Sometimes defoliants are used first to strip the trees bare, poisoning many animals in the process. The timber, dried in the sun, quickly burns into a firestorm consuming all those creatures remaining.

Tree felling. Rainforests were spared from exploitation in earlier years because of their inaccessibility, the relative low value of most of the trees for timber purposes and the limited world demand. Recently this situation has changed and a wide variety of woods previously considered worthless are now used for pulp, chipboard or as cellulose for the production of plastics. With new machines and better transportation it has become profitable to remove trees from previously remote areas. Logging companies may be interested in only one or two hardwood species, such as teak, mahogany or sandalwood. Solid wood is still used for furniture but more often a thin sheet of hardwood, called a veneer, is stuck on to a cheaper material. As there may be only three suitable trees in a hectare, to remove them may not seem a threat. However, heavy machinery is needed to clear a path and when the tree is felled and dragged through the forest the amount of damage to other trees is enormous. It has been estimated that one tree in every two is destroyed or damaged by the machinery needed to drag the timber away. Sometimes areas of rainforests are totally cleared and replaced by trees whose products are wanted. Faced with a high demand for their forest prod­ ucts most countries with rainforests have been willing to sign over timber rights to foreign companies, hoping thereby to increase their national incomes. Unfortunately, most of these timber contracts contain few or no provisions for conservation.

Farming. Big companies or large landowners control much of the land, forcing people without land to spread into the rainforests. 5 to 10 million hectares of rainforest are felled each year for this purpose. Settlers make use of roads built by logging and mining companies to gain access to previously remote areas. Government policies often encourage people to settle in logged areas, however inappropriate they are for growing crops. The settlers move in and carry out shifting cultivation or slash-and-burn, cutting down the trees and other plants and making a bonfire of the unwanted vegetation. They grow vegetables in the clearing for a few years, then abandon it and move on. After two or three crops have been taken up from a plot of land the store of nutrients is used up and crop yields become very low. When the tree canopy is removed the fierce heat of the sun dries and hardens the soil and the torrential rain washes it away.

Mining. Many rainforests are rich in oil deposits and mineral reserves such as bauxite, coal, copper, diamonds, gold, iron ore, kaolin, nickel, tin and uranium. While mining is a minor cause of deforestation, land is cleared for access and the mines are often in areas which are the only habitats of certain animal species, so the small amount of deforestation can cause a disproportionate amount of damage. Mining often releases poisonous wastes into rivers destroying the animal and plant life.

V.Practise reading the following words:

hectare, to cover, to remain, an hour, to disappear, to destroy, destruction, to burn down, cattle, whereas, though, nutrients, strip, bare, timber, fire storm, to consume, inaccessibility, damage, sign, inappropriate, abandon.

VI.Give Russian equivalents:

an area the size of Europe, less than an hour, at this rate, to be burned down, it has become profitable, wood is still used for furniture, it has been estimated, government policy, cutting down the trees, to grow vegetables, to be cleared.

VII. Give English equivalents:

быть очищенным, выращивать овощи, размером с Европу, быть выжженным дотла, стало выгодным, дерево используется для изготовления мебели, политика правительства, стало выгодно, в этих масштабах.

VIII. Read and translate the sentences:

1. The tallest trees reach up to 40 meters and weigh over 100 tons.

2. Very little of the organic plant nutrients is stored in the soil, most being stored within the living vegetation itself.

3. Modern technology makes short work of clearing the rainforest taking less than an hour to clear one hectare.

4. Rainforests were spared from exploitation in earlier years because of their inaccessibility, the relative low value of most of the trees for timber purposes and the limited world demand.

5. With new machines and better transportation it has become profitable to remove trees from previously remote areas.

6. Faced with a high demand for their forest products most countries with rainforests have been willing to sign over timber rights to foreign companies, hoping thereby to increase their national incomes.

7. Fallow soil is the worst from the point of view of erosion, corn and cotton a close second, grass and alfalfa fairly good holders of soil and water.

IX. Answer the following questions:

1. How much has the rainforest range changed during the last two centuries?

2. What are the reasons of rain forests destroying?

3. What role does farming play in the destruction of land forests?

4. What role do governments play in deforestation?

5. What kinds of industry are being developed in the forests?

6. Can industry co-exist with forests?

X. Read and translate the following words, define their parts with their meanings:

- defoliant, destroy, destruction, decode, decompose, dehydrate, deodorant;

- inaccessibility, inappropriate, intolerant, invaluable, invisible;

- unarmed, unattached, unbelievable, unborn, unbroken, unfair, unfamiliar, unfriendly, unhappy, unusual;

-impossible, impolite, impatient, impure, improper.

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