Record fires sweeping across the Amazon this month have been grabbing global headlines as scientists and environmental groups are worried that they will worsen climate change crisis and threaten biodiversity.
As the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon is often called “the lungs of the world”. It is also home to about 3 million species of plants and animals, and 1 million native people. The vast areas of rainforest play an important role in the world’s ecosystem because they absorb heat instead of it being reflected back into the atmosphere. They also store carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, ensuring that less carbon is released, mitigating the effects of climate change.
“Any forest destroyed is a threat to biodiversity and the people who use that biodiversity,” Thomas Lovejoy, an ecologist at George Mason University told National Geographic. “The overwhelming threat is that a lot of carbon goes into the atmosphere,” he stressed. “In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity. The Amazon must be protected,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.
Data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) show that the number of forest fires in Brazil quickly increased by 82 percent from January to August this year from a year ago. A total of 71,497 forest fires were registered in the country in the first eight months of 2019, up from 39,194 in the same period in 2018, INPE said. “We estimate that the forest areas in the Brazilian Amazon have decreased something between 20 and 30 percent compared to the last 12 months,” Carlos Nobre, a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo, told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
Brazil owns about 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest, whose degradation could have severe consequences for global climate and rainfall. The extent of the area ruined by fires has yet to be determined, but the emergency has transcended (超出) Brazil’s borders, reaching Peruvian, Paraguayan and Bolivian regions.
【小题1】What is the second paragraph mainly talking about?| A．The effects of climate change. | B．The role of the Amazon rainforest. |
| C．The results of the Amazon rainforest fires. | D．The causes of the decreasing biodiversity. |
| A．The biodiversity makes the rainforests unique. |
| B．The rainforest fires result in serious consequences. |
| C．The global climate crisis brings more rainforest fires. |
| D．The dry weather leads to the rainforest fires. |
| A．To prove the importance of rainforest. | B．To show the influence of forest fires. |
| C．To explain the process of the research. | D．To present the reduction of rainforest areas. |
| A．The climate change crisis is worsening. | B．The forest areas are on the decline. |
| C．“The lungs of the earth” is burning. | D．The world’s ecosystem is under attack. |
