Page 3 - Book VI Unit 3
P. 3

Reading and Thinking




               Discuss climate change


               1  Before you read, look at the graph and the picture below and discuss these
                   questions in groups.

                   1  What is the graph about? What information can you get from it?

                   2  Have you ever seen the photo before? What might be the story behind it?


               2  Read the text and answer the questions.

                   1  What happened to the polar bear in the photo? Why did the writer write about it?
                   2  Why is the “natural” greenhouse effect important and necessary?
                   3  What are the consequences of high greenhouse gas emissions?
                   4  Why did the author mention the climate scientists’ warning?
                   5  What is the author’s purpose of writing this text?



                   CLIMATE CHANGE REQUIRES THE WORLD’S ATTENTION



               We have known about climate change for decades. There is little doubt that Earth is getting
               warmer and warmer (see the graph). A warming ocean and atmosphere along with melting ice
               and rising sea levels provide evidence of a dramatic change in the global climate.


                         Global Surface Temperature: 1920-2016 Base Period
                   1.2
                    1
                  )  0.8
                    ( C
                  l y
                  a  0.6
                  m o n   A 0.4
                  Temperature Anomaly (℃)  r e t u r a e p m e T -0.2 0
                   0.2

                   -0.4
                   -0.6
                     1920  1928  1936  1944  1952  1960  1968  1976  1984  1992  2000  2008  2016
                                          YEAR


               In 2013, a lot of people were shocked by a news photo of a dead polar bear that was found on

               Norway’s Arctic island of Svalbard. According to the scientists who found its dead body, all that
               remained of the polar bear was “skin and bones”. An expert who has studied polar bears for
               many years said that from the position of its dead body, the bear appeared to have starved and

               died. Experts claimed that low sea-ice levels caused by climate change meant the bear could
               not hunt seals as before, so it had to travel greater distances in order to find food. This alarming
               case showed how the increase in temperature had an impact on Earth’s ecology.


               Then what is causing the increase in the global average surface temperature? Climate scientists
               often mention a key climate process called the “greenhouse effect”, which has two common
               meanings: the “natural” greenhouse effect and the “man-made” greenhouse effect. The “natural”





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