首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Near the border between Florida and Georgia, lives a rare tree called a stinking cedar. Once common, Torreya taxi folia seems to
Near the border between Florida and Georgia, lives a rare tree called a stinking cedar. Once common, Torreya taxi folia seems to
admin
2017-12-31
29
问题
Near the border between Florida and Georgia, lives a rare tree called a stinking cedar. Once common, Torreya taxi folia seems to have got stuck in this tiny pocket as the continent warmed after the last ice age. It cannot migrate northward because the surrounding soils are too poor. Attacked by fungi, just a few hundred stinking cedars remain there. Rising temperatures now threaten to kill them off entirely.
Spying a looming extinction, a group of people is engaged in a kind of ecological vigilantism. The self-styled "Torreya Guardians" collect thousands of seeds a year and plant them in likely places across the eastern United States. Stinking cedar turns out to thrive in North Carolina. The Torreya Guardians are now trying to plant it in colder states like Ohio and Michigan as well. By the time the trees are fully grown, they reason, temperatures might be ideal there. Some are dubious. The Torreya Guardians were at first seen as "eco-terrorists spreading an invasive species", remembers Connie Barlow, the group’s chief propagandist. She rejects that charge, pointing out that she is only moving the tree within America. She also thinks that drastic action of this kind will soon be widespread: "We are the radical edge of what is going to become a mainstream action. "
Conservation is nearly always backward-looking. It aims to keep plants and animals not just where they are but where they were before humans meddled. The only real debate is over how far to turn back the clock. Scotland and Wales have been heavily grazed for centuries, giving them a bald beauty. Should they now be reforested, or "rewilded"? Should Wolves be encouraged to reclaim their ancient territory in America’ s Rocky Mountains? In a rapidly warming world, this attitude is becoming outdated. No part of the Earth can be returned to a natural state that prevailed before human interference, because humans are so rapidly changing the climate. Conservation is being overtaken by fast-moving reality. In future the question will no longer be how to preserve species in particular places but how to move them around to ensure their survival.
Global warming has already set off mass migrations. Having crossed the Baltic Sea, purple emperor butterflies are fluttering northward through Scandinavia in search of cooler temperatures. Trees and animals are climbing mountains. The most spectacular migrations have taken place in the oceans, says Elvira Poloczanska of Australia’s national science agency. Many sea creatures can move quickly, which is just as well: in the oceans it is generally necessary to travel farther than on land to find lower temperatures. Phytoplankton populations are moving by up to 400km a decade. Not all plants and animals can make it to new homes, though. Some will be hemmed in by farmland, cities or coasts. Animals that live in one mountain range might be unable to cross a hot plain to reach higher mountains. And many will find that the species they eat move at a different speed from their own: carnivorous mammals can migrate more quickly than rodents, which in turn migrate faster than trees. The creatures that already inhabit the poles and the highest mountains cannot move to cooler climes and might be done for.
It is not clear that climate change has yet driven any species to extinction. Frogs native to Central and South America have been wiped out by a fungus to which they may or may not have become more vulnerable as a result of changing temperatures. Yet the speed at which species’ habitats are shifting suggests they are already under great pressure—which will only increase in the next few decades. Chris Thomas, an evolutionary biologist at the University of York in England, has estimated that by 2050 between 18% and 35% of species could be on the path to extinction.
A few years ago Mr. Thomas helped transport hundreds of butterflies to Durham, at least 50km north of their usual range, and released them into the cooler air. The butterflies fared well. These days he thinks bigger. Why not move creatures farther, he suggests, to places where they have never lived? He suggests several candidates for "assisted colonization" to Britain. The Caucasian wingnut tree, which clings on in a few moist parts of Turkey and Iran, could probably be planted widely. De Prunner’s ringlet, an endangered butterfly native to southern Europe, feeds on grasses that are common in Britain. The Iberian lynx, an endangered cat, would find lots of rabbits to eat. Britain is a highly suitable ark for other countries’ endangered species: thanks to the Gulf Stream, its climate is expected to remain broadly constant over the next few decades.
The notion of deliberately moving species a long way from home is starting to look a little less heretical. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which shapes biodiversity policy, recently revised its guidelines, apparently giving a slight nod to such relocations. It insists upon great caution. But "if you have too much risk assessment, nothing will happen, and these species will go extinct," says Mr. Thomas.
Which of the following statements is in agreement with the main idea of the passage?
选项
A、Plants and animals can not find their new homes in spite of global warming.
B、Mass migration is the best way to save endangered species from global warming.
C、Climate change has driven more and more species to extinction.
D、Migration to cooler temperatures can help save more endangered species.
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/nMSO777K
本试题收录于:
NAETI高级口译笔试题库外语翻译证书(NAETI)分类
0
NAETI高级口译笔试
外语翻译证书(NAETI)
相关试题推荐
Howmuchphysicalactivityshouldteenagersdo,andhowcantheygetenough?Manyteenagersspendalotoftimebeingsedent
AlphaZeroseemstoexpressinsight.Itplayslikenocomputereverhas,intuitivelyandbeautifully,witharomantic,attacking
Theeraofdividedgovernmentbegins,inauspiciously.Willthepresidentbeabletoseethewoodforthesubpoenas?Isuspectth
Thetermsonwhichtheemergingundemocraticsuperpowerinvestsintheoutsideworldareofintereststoallcountries—particula
Onissuessuchasclimatechangeandtrade,ChinahasactedmoreresponsiblethantheTrumpadministration,seekingtoupholdgl
However,whatisagonizingandunbearableistheduplicityandinsincerityofthesemediawhorefusedtocriticizetheGermanpo
InDecember,WaymoLLC,theleadingdriverlesscarcompany,broughtouttheworld’sfirstcommercialrobo-taxiservice.Butfor
Thankyou,PrimeMinister,forthatremarkableintroduction.YouhaveverylucidlyprovidedthecontextforwhatIamaboutto
AboutthousandAmericantroopsarebasedinJapan.MinisterKoizumisentJapanesetroopstoassistrebuildinginIraq.AndJapan
Whatistheguideoftheorganizationaimedtoanswer?
随机试题
汤剂的优点是
慢性细菌性痢疾是指病程超过
A.医务人员在为病人服务过程中,处事慎重、严谨、周密、准确、无误B.医务人员在履行医德义务中所形成的道德意识C.医务人员心理性上自尊心的表现D.促使医务人员自觉履行医学道德义务E.医务人员在物质生活中和精神生活中,由于感受到或理解到职业目标和理想的
消除应力钢丝,是指钢丝在塑性变形下(轴应变)或通过矫直工序后,在适当温度下进行的短时()得到。
背景:A公司中标一城市主干道拓宽改造工程,道路基层结构为150mm石灰土和400mm水泥稳定碎石,面层为150mm沥青混凝土。总工期为7个月。开工前,项目部做好了施工交通准备工作,以减少施工对群众社会经济生活的影响;并根据有关资料,结合工程特点和自身施
在海运过程中,被保险货物被海盗劫持造成的损失属于()
如有两个以上申报价格符合集合竞价确定成交价原则的,深圳证券交易所取()为成交价。
已知某项目前5年的净现金流量如表7一2所示。注:19%的第1—5年的折现系数分别为0.8403、0.7062、0.5934、0.4987、0.4190。根据以上资料,回答下列问题。为了使负债水平不同和筹资成本不同的项目具有共同的比较基础,评估中需
①秋睡熟了一点便是冬,上帝不愿意把它忽然唤醒,所以做了个整人情,连带冬全部给了济南②上帝把夏天的艺术赐给瑞士,把春天的赐给西湖,秋和冬的全赐给了济南。秋和冬是不好分开的③请你在秋天来④可是,加上济南的秋色,济南便由古朴的画境转入静美的诗境中了⑤那城
Aftercompletingtheirmedical-historyforms,patientsattheHopeClinicforWomeninGraniteCity,111.areaskedanunusualq
最新回复
(
0
)