Natural environments

NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS

This documentary type book, wrote by Joanna Burgess, is about ecosystems (an area where people, animals and plants live together), how human activity, which is the main cause of pollution and climate change, influences them and how people are trying to protect them.The introductory part describes how the water and carbon cycle work. The book is divided into 4 parts, along with suggestions about what we can do in order to protect the environment, each one for a specific ecosystem.

ABOUT THE BOOK

carbon cycle

water cycle

FORESTS

Forests have a very important role on Earth : the trees, during a process called photosynthesis, absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), sunlight and water from the atmosphere. They use them to make sugars (their energy source) and release oxygen back into the air. Of all the species of plants and animals we know about, 90% of them live in these ecosystems. Forests can change the geography of the area, they provide wood and can also help in medical research (a lot of plants are used as medicine).

Verbs

word bank

SPECIES: a group of plants/animals with the same characteristics. DEFORESTATION: when trees are cut down to clear the land that people want to use. CROPS: products that farmers grow and sell. LOGGING: activity where trees are cut down to sell the wood. ROOTS: underground parts of a tree. LANDSLIDES: movement of a large quantity of soil.

To absorb/absorbed/absorbed: assorbire To release/released/released: rilasciare To pollute/polluted/polluted: inquinare To melt/melted/melted: sciogliere

FORESTS

However, deforestation is putting the forest at risk: less trees mean less oxygen in the atmosphere and an increase of CO2. A lot of species also lose their home and, with less roots to hold the soil together, there are more landslides. Due to the increase in global temperatures, the soil in the Russian taiga may melt: if that happens, an even stronger greenhouse gas than CO2, methane, will be released. In addition, if pollution enters the water cycle, it will cause acid rains. Fortunately, many organizations like WWF and UNEP are trying to help and protect these ecosystems, by either afforestation (replanting trees) or sustainable forest management.

TYPES OF FORESTS

BOREAL FORESTS: they are found in cold countries such as Russia (where they are called taiga) and Canada. The trees are evergreen (they don't loose the leaves in winter) and there are about 250-500mm of rain every year.TEMPERATE FORESTS: they are found in USA and Western europe, where the temperature is about 10°C for more than half of the year and where there is more than 400mm of rain every year. The tees are deciduous( they loose the leaves in winter).TROPICAL FORESTS/RAINFORESTS: They are found around the equator. the climate is hot, the trees are evergreen and there are more than 2000 mm of rain every year. Small plants are difficult to grow there becouse not much sunlight reach the soil.

OCEANS

More than 70% of the surface of the Earth is covered by ocean, divided by scientists into five parts: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern ocean. Seas are connected to oceans, but they are smaller and have more land around them. These ecosystems have salty water (due to minerals that have entered the sea), influence the temperature of our planet and also possess the greatest variety of organisms, from sharks to phytoplankton (they are little plants that produce a lot of energy with photosynthesis and serve as food for biggest organisms).

Verbs

word bank

ORGANISM: a living thing. WAVES: movement on the ocean's surface when wind transfers energy to the water. TIDES: regular changes in the level of the sea. FISHERMEN: people that catch fish. CORAL REEF: coral that forms a barrier. SUSTAINABLE: a thing that doesn't damage the environment.

To reduce/reduced/reduced: ridurre To decrease/decreased/decreased: diminuire To monitor/monitored/monitired: monitorare, sorvegliare To possess/possessed/possessed: possedere

OCEANS

Oceans are used for transport, tourism, and fishing. The tides and waves can be used to produce renewable energy as well. Even though fishing is a useful activity, it becomes a problem when fishing methods damage the ecosystem or when the number of some species of fish (the ones most required by people) decrease too much. This is called overfishing. Transportation or extraction of oil is dangerous too: if it gets into the water after an accident, many species will die. Large amounts of rubbish, mostly plastic, are also thrown into the oceans. The coral reefs around the world are in danger as well.

OCEANS

To reduce overfishing, the Common Fisheries policy union controls the amount of every species of fish catched by the fishermen, and sustainable fishing methods are taught. Good management is important to protect the reefs and, on World Ocean Day (every 8th June), there are many activities to involve people in the oceans, such as cleaning beaches and sailing competitions.

POLAR REGIONS

These areas are the coldest on Earth (to the point where the ocean is frozen for many months). They are situated at the extreme north( the Arctic) and extreme south ( the Antarctic), and at their centre there are the north and south poles. In these ecosystems it's always only light in summer and only dark in winter.

Verbs

word bank

ALTITUDE: the height of a point from the sea level. WILDLIFE: animals and plants that live in natural conditions. FRESHWATER: water with no salt in it. FOSSIL FUELS: substances that we burn for heating, industry and trasport. GREENHOUSE GASSES: gas in the air that warms a planet by trapping heat; global warning happens when there are too many greenhouse gasses. GOODS: Personal property or things which are made to be sold.

To extract/extracted/extracted: estrarre To endure/endured/endured: sopportare To migrate/migrated/migrated: migrare To sign/signed/signed: firmare

POLAR REGIONS

Antarctica is colder and more distant from other continents than the Arctic. This land has the highest altitude on Earth as well. There are no plants, the few species that managed to adapt, such as penguins and seals, migrate to the north during winter and no human lives permanently here.In the Arctic there is a big difference between summer and winter temperatures and therefore less than half of the land is covered in ice, while the rest is tundra. People live here and there is more wildlife because more species of plants and land mammals can endure these conditions (the arctic fox and polar bears for example). However in winter, when the conditions are too extreme, they migrate to the south.

POLAR REGIONS

Polar regions are very important: not only do they store about 2% of the planet’s freshwater, but they are a possible source of oil and gas. The ice is used for scientific research,too. Since many different countries govern the polar regions it is difficult to control the activities there. Pollution from industry is a problem, especially in the Arctic, where it causes frost fog and other weird weather conditions. Companies extract fossil fuels from the Arctic soil and are attempting to do the same from the Arctic Ocean.As a result of Antarctica tourism, there are ships that transport people and goods, but that can be an issue: the ice could damage them and oil could end up in the water. Global warming is also melting the ice in the polar regions: that leads to a rise in the level of the sea and the ocean’s water loses salinity.

POLAR REGIONS

Luckily, the information collected by scientists and researchers can help the future of the ecosystem. The Antarctic Treaty, signed by 46 countries, controls the activity in Antarctica, and the countries who signed the Kyoto protocol must reduce the amount of CO2 and greenhouse gasses released into the atmosphere.

DESERTS

The deserts are very dry areas where there are strong hot winds. They are situated along the tropical zones, near the equator. Tthe Sahara is the hottest one, while the Gobi desert and Antarctica are the coldest ones. In deserts there are dunes of sand, which are made when the rocks are broken by the water inside of them that repeatedly freezes and melts.

Verbs

word bank

DIMS: barriers that stop the movement of rivers or other areas with water. EQUATOR: imaginary line around the Earth which is halfway between the North and the South pole. DROUGHT: a long period of time without rain. RENEWABLE ENERGY: energy that doesn't cause pollution and that can be reused.

To alter/altered/altered: alterare, cambiare To cut/cut/cut: tagliare To set up : organizzare

DESERTS

The plants that live in deserts, such as cacti, absorb as much water as possible from the soil and store it; the animals, like the african squirrel and the fennec fox, have found ways to maintain the same safe body temperature. Even some people have adapted to living in deserts: in the Sahara desert there are the Tuareg people and in South Africa there are the San people.

DESERTS

Because of human activity, the quality of the soil at the edges of the deserts (people are nomads, but they are able to stay for longer periods there) is getting worse and those lands are turning into deserts: this is called desertification. The soil is used to build houses and grow crops, but it can also be damaged by animals or when the trees are cut down for wood (they protect the soil and without them there is even less water). People also altered the water cycle by building dims so they always have available water and by using it too much for farming. That, along with global warming, might cause more droughts as well as the extinction of some organisms.

DESERTS

In order to protect the ecosystem, organisations set up small projects which involve local people and help them in difficult situations (when there was a drought in Ethiopia in the early 1980s for example). In some countries people are trying to work with sun energy rather than using wood and they are planting more trees to protect the soil ( like in China, where they are making a 5000 km barrier of trees to defend the cities from the Gobi desert's sand). It is also important to manage water sustainably, by storing the mountain’s water or collecting rain.

my opinion

I thought the book was quite enjoyable and easy to read. In particular I liked the part which describes the life of polar bears and the history of the Tuareg people. I found some parts a little boring because global change is a very discussed and repeated topic nowadays, and some suggestions at the end of each chapter are difficult to follow. Despite the little criticisms, I would still recommend this book because it describes important scientific events, political questions and interesting facts in a quick, simple way.