Our changing climate: climatologists forecast completely new climates

Our changing climate

I. Before you read. Answer the questions:

1) What do you know about climate changes?

2) Have you personally or your parents observed or experienced any of the climate changes recently?

II. Read the text to understand what it is about. While reading pay attention to different tense forms of the verb. Discuss their use and translate.

III. Checking understanding. Answer the questions.

1) What changes our climate?

2) What impact can global warming have on our planet?

3) How does the change of climate influence animals and plants?

4) What will happen to climate if global warming isn’t stopped?

5) How the research is done?

6) Why do we have more CO2 in the air?

7) What are the ecological consequences of global warming?

IV. Read and translate part of the text in class.

V. Do the written translation of the text.

VI. Do the written translation of the text. Check, compare and discuss your translation. Choose the best variant (variants).

VII. 1) Comment on the content of the text.

2) What about Ukrainian animals? Are there endangered species in Ukraine? Why?

3) What should be done to change the situation? What can you, your parents do to help the green solve the problem of greenhouse effect?

Key words: gas emission, to emit, climate zone, shift, swath, anticipate, worldwide, crops, impact, vegetation, to adapt, rapid, biodiversity, approximately.

Our changing climate: climatologists forecast completely new climates

September 1, 2007 — Geographers have projected temperature increases due to greenhouse gas emissions to reach a not-so-chilling conclusion: climate zones will shift and some climates will disappear completely by 2100. Tropical highlands and polar regions may be the first to disappear, and large swaths of the tropics and subtropics will reach even hotter temperatures. The study anticipates large climate changes worldwide.

The eastern United States has a mild, humid, temperate climate, while the western United States has a dry climate, right?

Well, according to climate models, global warming could change our current world climate zones, which would affect where crops are grown and even drive some plant and animal species to extinction, all in the next 100 years.

Al Gore brought the issue to the big screen. Global warming — what impact could it really have on our world? Geographer Jack Williams says, based on his new analysis of climate forecasting models, we’re headed for major change — fast.

“One of the things that we can definitely say that the more carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere, the models very clearly show more of a warming that takes place in the U.S. and worldwide”, said Williams, of the University of Wisconsin.

How much warming? With levels of CO2 continuing to rise, Williams suggests areas of the world that currently have a tropical climate will be much warmer and drive vegetation and animal life north. Williams believes these changes would lead to the spreading of Malaria northward, more catastrophic natural disasters and overall greater human health risks.

“Even a few degrees Celsius can make a major difference in terms of where species grow and how well they thrive”, Williams said.

As North America came out of the last Ice Age, spruce trees moved northward. Williams said the same thing will happen, potentially driving plant and animal species into extinction if they can’t adapt to the changes fast enough. “Species can migrate in response to climate change, but there’s the question of how quickly can they migrate, and will these climate changes over the next century be so rapid that species will be unable to keep up”, Williams said. Williams said that’s why we need to take action now — because later will be too late.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14