Part 1. Vocabulary
|
decade |
/ˈdekād/ n. - a period of
ten years He taught at
the school for nearly a decade. |
|
succession |
/səkˈseSHən/
n. - the action
or process of inheriting a title, office, property, etc. The new king
was already elderly at the time of his succession. |
|
trigger |
/ˈtriɡər/ n. - cause 9an
event or situation) to happen or exist An allergy
can be triggered by stress or overwork. |
|
conviction |
/kənˈvikSH(ə)n/
n. - a firmly
held belief or opinion She takes
pride in stating her political convictions. |
|
profound |
/prəˈfound/
adj. - (of a
state, quality, or emotion) very great or intense: The impact of
temperature rise has been profound. |
Part 2. Comprehension questions
What are the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN)
findings of the rising ocean temperatures?
What do coral reefs support?
What does the death of the reefs would trigger?
Why are coral reef systems remain at risk?
What is the article all about?
Part 3. Article reading
Over the course of a single decade, climate change
helped kill 14 percent of the world's coral reefs, a new study has found.
In its first global report since 2008, the Global Coral
Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) finds that rising ocean temperatures due to
climate change led to a succession of "large-scale bleaching
events" that resulted in the decline of coral reefs worldwide. “Large-scale
coral bleaching events caused by elevated sea surface temperatures are the
greatest disturbance to the world’s coral reefs,” the report states.
Coral reefs support over 25 percent of all marine species on
earth yet cover just 0.2 percent of the ocean floor. The death of reefs would trigger
the collapse of an entire ecosystem, scientists have long warned. The
GCRMN report, which drew its findings based on data compiled over 40 years in
73 countries, finds a marked spike in the number of algae on the world's coral
reefs in just a decade.
“While the results of the report are sobering, there are
examples of the ability of coral reefs to recover in the absence of major
disturbances,” Margaret Johnson, general manager of the Great Barrier Reef
Marine Park Authority in Australia, said in a statement accompanying the
report. “This reinforces our conviction that we need to step up and
accelerate efforts at all levels to address key threats and increase global
action at all levels to reduce the extent of climate change impacts.”
Despite the fact that they can rebound from individual
bleaching events, coral reef systems remain at risk because oceans absorb the
vast majority of heat caused by climate change. Last year, the oceans reached
their warmest temperature on record, and five of the warmest years
recorded have all occurred since 2015.
“Most of the excess atmospheric heat is passed back to the
ocean. As a result, upper ocean heat content has increased significantly over
the past few decades,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
says on its website.
Coral reefs, which require sunlight, are found in shallow
waters, where the impact of temperature rise has been profound.
“We are running out of time: We can reverse losses, but we
have to act now,” Inger Andersen, head of the United Nations Environment
Program, said in a statement regarding the report's findings.
Source: David Knowles, October 6,
2021, https://www.yahoo.com/news/climate-change-blamed-for-killing-14-percent-of-the-worlds-coral-reefs-in-just-10-years-181428341.html