Everyday English – 17, 000 plants, animals face extinction

• Source: Global Times
• [14:40 July 03 2009]
• Comments

More than 800 animal and plant species have become extinct in the past five centuries, with nearly 17,000 now threatened with extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported yesterday.

A detailed analysis of these numbers indicates the international community will fail to meet its 2010 goal of bolstering biodiversity, a commitment made by most governments in 2002.

“We don’t want to make a choice between nature and the economy; we just want to bring nature to the same level when you have to take a decision,” report editor Jean-Christophe Vie said in Switzerland.

“Jobs are important, but not jobs to the detriment of nature,” he said.

The analysis shows 869 species have become totally extinct or extinct in the wild since 1500, while 290 more species are considered critically endangered and possibly extinct.

At least 16,928 species are threatened with extinction, including nearly one-third of amphibians, more than one in eight birds and nearly a quarter of mammals.

The report said this is not a comprehensive list, with only 2.7 percent of the 1.8 million species analyzed.

The number of extinctions is “a gross underestimate, but it does provide a useful snapshot of what is happening to all forms of life on Earth.”

Reuters
 
Notes:

biodiversity – (noun) Diversity or variety in living things.

The Earth’s biodiversity is getting weaker because more and more animals and plants are becoming extinct.

detriment – (noun) Anything that causes injury or harm.

Listening to loud music for long periods of time can be a detriment to your hearing and you can go deaf at a young age.

amphibians – (noun) Any class of cold-blooded, scaleless vertebrates, like frogs, newts, toads and salamanders; creatures that begin life as tadpoles with gills and later develop lungs.

Some people don’t like amphibians such as frogs because they think they are slimy and like to eat insects.