内容简介：世界森林的灰暗前景

Transcript:
Bleak outlook for the world's forests
Summary: An American-based environmental research group says that untouched forest areas are disappearing faster than was previously thought.
This report from Tim Hirsch.

The News 新闻

This alarming picture emerges from a two-year programme to map more than half of the world's remaining forests. The Washington-based environmental think tank the World Resources Institute found that many areas thought to consist of intact forests are in fact criss-crossed by roads, logging and mining activities.

Some of the biggest concerns are for Russian forests, still the largest in the world, but where only a quarter remain undisturbed. The report says without decisive action, intact forest landscapes could disappear from whole regions within a few years.

There's also alarm at the rate of deforestation in Indonesia. It's thought to have doubled in just two years, accelerated by illegal logging and corruption. Four years ago the same team estimated that around forty per cent of undisturbed forests would disappear within two decades if the rate of destruction continued as it was. They now believe that was an underestimate
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词汇：

think tank=a group of experts who consider various problems and suggest solutions

intact forests=forests that have not been touched by commercial activities

criss-crossed=if things criss-cross a place they create a pattern of crossed lines

logging=cutting down trees in order to sell the wood

decisive=if an action is decisive, it makes it certain that there will be a particular result

deforestation=if there is deforestation, all the trees in an area are cut down

accelerated=made it happen faster and faster

estimated=if you estimate an amount, you say what it is likely to be

rate=speed or frequency

underestimate=an underestimate happens when people do not realise how great or large something will be