The Thing About Biodiversity

Hundreds of thousands of different species of animals and plants are facing extinction. The United Nations says that this is all because of human activity: all sorts of things we humans are doing.

Read the following words and phrases and their definitions.

• biodiversity - the existence of many different kinds of plants and animals in a particular area or in the world generally
• variety of all life - all the many different sorts of life on earth
• immense - very large
• secure - safe
• towering forests - forest with very tall trees
• pollinator - something, such as an insect, that carries pollen from one plant or part of a plant to another
• to keep in supply - to store something; to make sure there is enough of something
• coral reefs - larger areas of coral that can be found in warmer parts of the ocean
• mangrove swamps - an area of very wet, soft land where mangroves (tropical trees) grow
• to drop - to go down in number, to become less
• catastrophic - as bad as a big catastrophe or disaster

First read the assignment. Next watch the video. Take notes to help you do the assignment.

1. Complete the statement: The more biodiversity the more .......


2. Why do we humans need forests?


3. Why do we humans need pollinators, soil organisms and plankton?


4. Why do we humans need strange plants deep in jungles?


5. What is happening with biodiversity? It is:
   a. dropping,
   b. increasing,
   c. staying the same everywhere.