在线英语听力室

Climate Change Threatens Protected Spanish Wetlands

时间:2022-11-14 01:21:36

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

In southwestern Spain, close to the Atlantic Ocean, the Donana National Park is known as the nation's "crown jewel."

It is a protected wetlands area home to many animals, including birds such as flamingos1 and herons.

Now, after a summer of record-high temperatures and little rain, the wetlands are dry, brown and smelly.

Most fish and birds are gone, as well.

Bodies of water called lagoons3 are at the heart of the park. Most dry up and refill throughout the year. Santa Olalla is the park's biggest lagoon2. It traditionally has water year round. In the summer, it provides water to needy4 plants and animals.

But this year, Santa Olalla dried up.

Carmen Diaz is a biologist who studies the park. She showed a reporter from the Associated Press around and stepped into a muddy area with a little bit of water.

"Seeing this last bit of water makes me think that the entire park is dry," she said.

The park has been home to hundreds of thousands of birds that visit for the winter. Many others use it as a stopping place during migration5 from Africa to northern Europe. Five kinds of threatened birds, including the Spanish imperial eagle, live in Donana. There is also a breeding and rescue center there for the endangered Iberian lynx, an endangered kind of wild cat.

Diaz is a government researcher with the Spanish National Research Council. She said the time to save the park was 20 years ago, but, in her words "nothing was done."

"The environment always loses against the economy," she said.

The park is where the Guadalqivir River meets the ocean. The area was once along an important shipping6 route for Spanish explorers who sent silver back from the colonies in central and South America. Because of the plant and animal life, scientists and conservationists have studied the area for many years.

Carlos Davila is among them. His research centers on the imperial eagle. He said 2022 was a "disastrous7 year" for the birds. Only two babies were born from a group of eight mating pairs.

When rain comes, the area comes back to life. However, city development along the Atlantic coast and farms in other areas are putting pressure on the wetlands. Conservationists protest about the nearby city of Matalascanas, for example. Once a quiet fishing village, the town now is a popular center for beach vacations.

But scientists and environmentalists say that the town requires too much water from Donana. And, the European Court of Justice ruled that the city is making some of the park's lagoons go dry.

Farther away, in the area called Huelva, traditional Spanish olive crops have been replaced by berry farms. The berries bring in more money than olives, but they require more water to grow. The World Wildlife Fund says there are thousands of wells in the area taking ground water without permission. This means the water never makes it into the wetlands.

Felipe Fuentelsaz is an agriculture expert with the World Wildlife Fund in Spain. He says Donana National Park has a big problem from the severely8 dry weather. But he said the park is also suffering from poor supervision9. That permitted the building of illegal wells and other activity to redirect water resources.

While the government is working to close some of the wells, farmers are pushing back. They say they have always had the right to use water in the area and they are only taking what is theirs.

Spain's government is considering projects that would send some water from rivers in other parts of the country to help bring life back to Donana.

Words in This Story

breed –v. to produce young animals


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 flamingos 8ff667734ac0706d98599e1f6b6f6f49     
n.红鹳,火烈鸟(羽毛粉红、长颈的大涉禽)( flamingo的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Flamingos stand in a salt lake in Larnaca, Cyprus. 塞浦路斯的拉纳卡市一个盐湖中的火烈鸟。 来自互联网
  • The research started researchers studied greater flamingos and in a bird sanctuary in southern Spain. 研究人员在西班牙南部的一个鸟类保护区对大型火烈鸟进行研究。 来自互联网
2 lagoon b3Uyb     
n.泻湖,咸水湖
参考例句:
  • The lagoon was pullulated with tropical fish.那个咸水湖聚满了热带鱼。
  • This area isolates a restricted lagoon environment.将这一地区隔离起来使形成一个封闭的泻湖环境。
3 lagoons fbec267d557e3bbe57fe6ecca6198cd7     
n.污水池( lagoon的名词复数 );潟湖;(大湖或江河附近的)小而浅的淡水湖;温泉形成的池塘
参考例句:
  • The Islands are by shallow crystal clear lagoons enclosed by coral reefs. 该群岛包围由珊瑚礁封闭的浅水清澈泻湖。 来自互联网
  • It is deposited in low-energy environments in lakes, estuaries and lagoons. 它沉淀于湖泊、河口和礁湖的低能量环境中,也可于沉淀于深海环境。 来自互联网
4 needy wG7xh     
adj.贫穷的,贫困的,生活艰苦的
参考例句:
  • Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷,但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
  • They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。
5 migration mDpxj     
n.迁移,移居,(鸟类等的)迁徙
参考例句:
  • Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
  • He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。
6 shipping WESyg     
n.船运(发货,运输,乘船)
参考例句:
  • We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
  • There's a shipping charge of £5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。
7 disastrous 2ujx0     
adj.灾难性的,造成灾害的;极坏的,很糟的
参考例句:
  • The heavy rainstorm caused a disastrous flood.暴雨成灾。
  • Her investment had disastrous consequences.She lost everything she owned.她的投资结果很惨,血本无归。
8 severely SiCzmk     
adv.严格地;严厉地;非常恶劣地
参考例句:
  • He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
  • He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。
9 supervision hr6wv     
n.监督,管理
参考例句:
  • The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
  • The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。