Loss of Nature Will Damage Economies

Section 4

Complete the passage below using the words given in the box. There are more words given than needed.

Loss of Nature Will Damage Economies

Affect(21)          at        facing       marine         effort            pollution          in     impact       deaths              history             pollutant       measures            actions                 framework            dead

We are causing so much damage to our planet that it will soon (21) ……… the global economy. This bleak warning is according to a new United Nations report called the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO). The paper says there are many important ecosystems on our planet that are (22) IN danger. These “tipping points” in our natural world are where man’s negative (23) IMPACT on nature will start costing national economies. Examples of these are the (24) DEATHS of coral reefs, the destruction of huge areas of forest, or major pollution of rivers. UN spokesman Ahmed Djoglaf said: "The news is not good. We continue to lose biodiversity at a rate never before seen in (25) HISTORY - extinction rates may be up to 1,000 times higher than the historical…rate."

Scientists are worried that governments will not do enough to try to reduce the damage to the tipping points. World leaders will soon meet in Nairobi to discuss (26) ACTIONS to tackle global biodiversity loss. They hope they can then create an international (27) EFFORT that will be adopted at a convention on biological diversity in October in Japan. The GBO report outlines how serious the threat is. It says huge numbers of species are (28) FACING extinction if we continue to pollute the environment. Over a quarter of corals may soon disappear. This will have a huge impact on (29) MARINE life and many fish species will also disappear. This will be fighting over much smaller stocks of fish. This problem will be made worse with the increasing (30) POLLUTION of the world’s rivers.