IELTS COMPLETE 5-6,5 WB U5 READING

Summarize paragraph A

Scientists believe Russia's ancient forests are the country's best natural weapon against climate change, even though the stockpile of carbon beneath the ground also makes these areas vulnerable to carbon release. A recent study found that half the world's carbon is stored within land in the permafrost region, about two-thirds of which lies in Russia. Overlying former glaciers, they are a coniferous mix called the boreal forest. 'There's a lot of carbon there and it's very vulnerable.' says Josep Canadel co-author of the study. If the permafrost thaws, we could be releasing ten percent more carbon a year for several centuries more than our previous models predicted. It's going to cost a lot to reduce our emissions by that much -but it will cost more in damage if we don't.'

Summarize paragraph B

The study was published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles. Researchers found that the region contains 1,612 billion tons of organic carbon, much of it several feet underground, that 'would account for approximately 50 percent of the estimated global below-ground organic carbon'. Another paper published in Nature found that old forests, which make up perhaps half of the boreal forest, 'continue to accumulate carbon, contrary to the long-standing view that they are carbon-neutral'. Even though fires and insect infestations destroy entire swaths of forest and release into the atmosphere the carbon they contain, old-growth forests still take in more than these natural disturbances release, says lead author Sebastiaan Luyssaert, a biologist at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. 'This is all the more reason to protect Russia's boreal forests,' which take in 500 million tons of carbon a year, or about one-fifth of the carbon absorbed by the world's landmass, says Mr Canadell, who is executive director of the Global Carbon Project, based in Canberra.

Summarize paragraph C



Jing Ming Chen, a University of Toronto geography professor who specialises in climate modelling for the boreal region, says: 'Cutting boreal trees increases the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and it takes 50 to 100 years to put that carbon back in the ground.' Luysaaert and Chen argue there's a strong case for conserving the old-growth forests. 'It's better to keep as much carbon in the forest as possible right now,' Mr Luyssaert explains. "If we want to avoid irreversible processes like melting permafrost or changing ocean currents, we absolutely have to control our emissions in the next two or three decades. It's a case where you need to be short-sighted to be far-sighted.' 'The threats to the boreal forests don't seem significant right now,' explains Nigel Roulet, a carbon cycle specialist at McGill University in Montreal, 'but I'm convinced pressure will increase as the region gets warmer and it gets easier to operate there. Also, I expect these resources to become more valuable as others are exhausted.'

Summarize paragraph D



Jing Ming Chen, a University of Toronto geography professor who specialises in climate modelling for the boreal region, says: 'Cutting boreal trees increases the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and it takes 50 to 100 years to put that carbon back in the ground.' Luysaaert and Chen argue there's a strong case for conserving the old-growth forests. 'It's better to keep as much carbon in the forest as possible right now,' Mr Luyssaert explains. "If we want to avoid irreversible processes like melting permafrost or changing ocean currents, we absolutely have to control our emissions in the next two or three decades. It's a case where you need to be short-sighted to be far-sighted.' 'The threats to the boreal forests don't seem significant right now,' explains Nigel Roulet, a carbon cycle specialist at McGill University in Montreal, 'but I'm convinced pressure will increase as the region gets warmer and it gets easier to operate there. Also, I expect these resources to become more valuable as others are exhausted.'

Summarize paragraph E



Scientists say Russia and Kazakhstan could make a unique contribution to the fight against global warming by harvesting wild grasses that have overgrown 100,000 square miles of agricultural lands abandoned in the

nineties, and using them to make ethanol - or, better yet, burn them in coal-fuelled power plants. According to Nicolas Vuichard, principal author of a paper published in Environmental Science and Technology of Washington, DC, using the grasses to make ethanol would sequester in the ground, over 60 years, about 10 million tons of carbon a year-one-quarter as dead root matter in the soil and the rest in producing ethanol as a substitute for petroleum- based fuels. 'That's not huge on a world scale, but it's substantial,' he says. Fossil fuels emit about eight billion tons of carbon a year, of which about two billion tons are absorbed by plants and soil.