15. Read the text and answer the questions. Wetlands need to be preserved

Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for some periods of time during the year, including during the growing season.

Wetlands such as swamps, mangroves, marshes cover about 6 % of the Earth's land surface. Wetlands play an important role by storing up to 20 percent of terrestrial carbon in the form of slowly decaying organic matter, containing about 771 billion tons of greenhouses gases - carbon dioxide and methane- which is amount similar to the one already in the atmosphere.

Just like the forests, wetlands are almost equally important in fight against climate change and need to be preserved. However this will not be easy since 60 percent of wetlands around the world have been destroyed in the past century in order to provide more space for farming. If this negative trend continues massive amounts of carbon will be released into the atmosphere which will increase concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and worsen the climate change consequences.

Scientists agree that wetlands preservation is vital for our planet's health but they are also aware that finding the right solution for their preservation will be a difficult task because as the Earth population grows there also grows the need for more farms which often results in man's destruction of wetlands.

Not only are wetlands important in storing up the carbon but also as professor Wolfgang Junk of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology said "Wetlands act as sponges and their role as sources, reservoirs and regulators of water is largely underappreciated by many farmers and others who rely on steady water supplies."

Therefore we definitely need to preserve our existing wetlands but the real question is how.

1. What is wetland?

2. Why are wetlands important?

3. What is happening to wetlands?

Work in groups. Group A reads the text A and Group B reads the text B. After reading exchange the information and discuss the problem.

Text A World's largest wetland disappearing

World's largest wetland is located in Brazil's Pantanal region but if advanced farms and industries continue their development in this nature's paradise this giant wetland (the size of England) could become nothing more than a fond memory. Economic progress has once again showed that it has devastating effect on environment causing massive environmental damage. This time on the economic progress is in form of increased export of beef, iron and soy that have put environmental issue in this Brazil's region to side because economy is as always the one that matters the most.

Pantanal wetland is not only huge fresh water reserve but also a real biodiversity heaven with many different animal and plant species, most known are probably the majestic jaguars and predatory caymans. This is really on the world's richest faunas and a place of immense beauty that needs to be preserved in all of its wild beauty.

But farms, industry and deforestation are working together in one joined action that could eliminate all the beauty and wildness from this region. Government is doing very little to stop this bad behavior mostly because Brazil's beef exports have more than tripled in five years giving huge profits to Brazil's economy.

Environmental groups have found that there are already signs of runoff water from nearby farms that is altering the ecosystem's sensitive balance. Fertilizers in water are causing earlier trees flower and birds breed, and things could easy turn into catastrophe in the next couple of years. Especially since many farmers seek for expansion of their farms in order to achieve even bigger profits. Government should act before it is too late.