Answers For [Forecast Q2-2025] - Environmental Problems in Australia

Good morning everyone.

Last class, we were focusing on animal reproduction, and this class, we will study animal extinction, so that you can better understand how ecosystem works and some concerns we should not ignore nowadays.

I believe all of you have read the article I sent to you before class, which was a general introduction of extinction.

It includes major extinction events like the extinction of dinosaurs, which are nothing new. But today’s class, you will learn from various facts showing our planet is losing species at an alarming rate.

It’s mainly because of human activities.

Australia has many different species, many of which can’t be found anywhere else in the world.

However, in recent years, Australia has witnessed an increasing rate of environmental change and loss of biodiversity.

1Scientists have found that several frog species die out because they have lost their habitats due to human activities.

2About 75% of rainforests were lost during the last 200 years in Australia.

There are many other species that are facing extinction out there.

3The country has compiled profiles of some of the threatened birds.

Many of them are experiencing medical disorders.

So how do animals become victims of our behaviors?

There are a lot we do that can affect their life.

4For example, single crops farming, namely, growing a single crop on the same land repeatedly, can result in the change of the plant.

4Corn, for instance, is not beneficial for animals, such as cows, if it is grown in one-crop farming.

And there are more noticeable damages this could have done.

It’s a shame that these lovely creatures are slowly gone due to what we have done.

Yet many people still don’t realize this and are still doing things that put animals in danger.

5We need support from the media to improve people’s awareness.

If the media pay little interest in this, people would not join in the effort of protection for the endangered species.

On the other hand, if news agencies are irresponsible and report environmental incidents in an inaccurate way, people would react in the wrong way and some innocent species may suffer from this.

Yet, even though more and more people are paying more attention to save endangered animals, most of them only care about bigger animals or mammals.

It’s true that mammals are more noticeable to us.

6But the truth is there are more smaller animals dying out because of our activities.

6Insects, for example, people take them for granted. Unfortunately, many of them are gone in this recent decade.

7In the past, when people see animals they have never seen before, they will be in shock and fear.

Their first reaction is to fight against these alien creatures.

Then rare species are hunted and killed that way.

8Some animals were believed to kill livestock such as pigs or steal food, so people see them as our rivals, consequently these animals were often shot and trapped.

Why does the protection of the endangered species matter?

9Why do we need to prevent their extinction?

9A more complex ecosystem, which means it has more species, is more stable than a simple one which has lost a wide range of species.

And this stability is very important in the future.

Saving the endangered species and maintaining rich biodiversity has ecological significance.

10If the world has more species of living, they can purify the air, filter harmful substances, and even moderate climate, whereas the harmful environmental and climate changes can result in disasters, such as blood disorders.

The world is all connected to some extent.

So it’s really about time to all work together and improve people’s understanding of biodiversity and make the world a better place.

Next, we will look at some of the effective measures for animal protection…