New Home for Polar Bears 北极熊的危急栖息地
[audio]http://language.chinadaily.com.cn/bbc/media_english/assets_7655260/me_113_polar_bear_report_101126_me_113_polar_bear_report_au_bb.mp3[/audio][font=Verdana, 宋体, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][p=30, 2, left]Background: 美国政府指定阿拉斯加沿海的大片区域作为北极熊的危急栖息地。这片区域包括石油公司准备勘探的油区。环保人士希望这个举动能够挽救北极熊这个濒危物种的生存。[/p][/font][color=#333333][font=Verdana, 宋体, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][size=13px]Polar bears live and hunt on sea ice but the frozen Arctic Ocean is[b]melting[/b] at an [b]increasing rate[/b], a result, scientists say, of global warming caused by greenhouse gases.[/size][/font][/color][font=Verdana, 宋体, helvetica, arial, sans-serif][p=30, 2, left]Right now in an icy den in the Arctic, a polar bear is giving birth to cubs, or is about to. But the very survival of this [b]fearsome[/b], majestic species concerns many humans.[/p]
[p=30, 2, left]Now the US government [b]has designated[/b] nearly half a million square kilometres in Alaska as [b]critical habitats [/b]for the polar bear. It covers an area of roughlytwice the size of the United Kingdom, and it means any [b]proposed [/b]economic activity there must be [b]weighed against[/b] its impact on the bears’ habitat. It includes some of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, exactly where the oil company Shell wants to drill.[/p][p=30, 2, left]The designation itself doesn't [b]ban [/b]oil exploration, but it adds extra[b]hurdles[/b] that opponents say will harm the economy.[/p][p=30, 2, left][b]Environmentalists[/b] welcome the move, saying now, they can write a[b]recovery plan[/b] for polar bears, not an [b]obituary[/b].[/p][/font] obituary n 讣告 讣闻
Developing economy at the cost of the environment is very inadvisable. Sooner or later, human beings will pay through the nose. But this phenomenon is still very common around us, which is really regretful.
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