Classroom activities (1)

LEAD IN

1. a) Millions of species inhabit our planet, each living in a particular type of place. What does the term natural habitat imply?

b) Look through the list of animals, birds and plants below and indicate their natural habitat.

Model: The lion’s natural habitat is the savanna.

polar bear colibri tiger camel edelweiss

lion penguin blue whale cactus monkey

rain forest taiga jungle desert mountains

sea Arctic Antarctic savanna prairie

• Which of them are in danger of losing their natural habitat? What makes you think so?

• What do we refer to as human habitat?

• What is the most appropriate place for people to live in?

• What endangers natural habitat most: global warming, natural calamities, wars, terrorism, revolutions, nuclear explosions? What makes you think so?

2. A) Skim through the text and say what the message of the text is.

 (1.5 min.)

Up to 4 million people live in the Arctic, spread out between the eight countries – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. The Arctic tundra is expected to shrink over the century as climate warming causes the sea level to rise. Most scientists say climate warming can be attributed to human activities.

The UN Environment Program said in a recent report that widespread disintegration of permafrost in the Arctic can cause serious damage to buildings, roads, pipelines and other infrastructure in places such as Alaska and Siberia. The melting permafrost could also threaten a nuclear power plant near Murmansk. The plant, located on the Kola Peninsula, is the only one in the world built north of the Arctic Circle.

Warming could also have some economic benefits opening shipping lanes and access to valuable natural resources.

Melting ice could open polar passages historically clogged by ice. A revived Northern Sea Route could shorten the journey for goods and raw materials from North-East Asia to Europe by 40 percent.

Climate warming is likely to bring extensive fishing activity to the Arctic. Recent studies have also projected that in a few decades there could be lucrative fishing grounds in waters that were largely untouched throughout human history.

Russia is planning to develop Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea. The development costs are estimated at $15 billion to $20 billion. The field is reported to hold more than double all of Canada’s gas reserves.

As polar ice melts, nations stake claims to potential riches. As long as it’s ice, nobody cares except the indigenous people, because they hunt and fish and travel on that ice. However, the minute it starts to thaw and becomes water, then the whole world is interested.

(After The New York Times / The Moscow Times, 2004-200

b) Sum up the text in three sentences.

c) Scan the text for details.

d) Answer the teacher’s questions.