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Some people called this scourge the "Black Death of the sea", for it recalled the epidemics of bubonic plague, or Black Death, that devastated Europe in the 1300s. In this tragic turn of events, a population of harbor seals once containing 18,000 animals has been cut to only 6000. This, the largest die-off of seals in recorded history, may be caused by the canine distemper virus. Biologists believe, however, that the virus is not working alone. Pollution in the seas, they say, may have greatly weakened the immune systems of the seals, making them vulnerable.

The North and Baltic seas have been polluted for years. The North Sea alone annually receives 60 billion liters (15 billion gallons) of waste water from factories and waste-treatment facilities in bordering industrial nations.

Germany's environmental minister argued that the industrial pollution is a principal cause of seal deaths and many biologists who are studying die off agree. The pollution problem in the North and Baltic seas, however, is compounded by the nature of the seas themselves. Both are shallow and cleanse themselves very slowly. The North Sea, in fact, renews itself only twice every ten years. The Baltic Sea turns over once every 20 to 30 years. Because of this, pollution levels can increase locally, causing adverse impacts on fish and wildlife, and, possibly, people.

Seals living in the waters off the coast of West Germany and the Netherlands are heavily contaminated with a toxic chemical called PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl), a substance once used as an insulator in electrical devices. The PCBs and possibly other chemical contaminants are believed responsible for the reproductive problems and the suppression of the seals' immune systems.

The seal plague may be the latest manifestation of a chronic pollution problem in the North and Baltic seas. Northern Europe and Scandinavia have taken steps to clean up the seas, but many key nations seem uninterested in helping. Great Britain, for instance, has been remarkably complacent about the seal deaths. East Germany and Czechoslovakia, two principal polluters, failed to attend the conference held in 1987in which most North Sea states agreed to cut industrial emissions to the rivers of Europe by half. Seal deaths off the coast of Europe are a symptom of a global problem. Similar events are occurring elsewhere. Since June of 1987, as many as four out of every ten dolphins off the Atlantic coast of the United States have perished. Studies of gulls in the Great Lakes have shown an alarming reproductive failure due to PCBs and other organic pollutants.

Despite an outpouring of laws to control pollution, America has hardly come to grips with the problem. Tens of thousands of hazardous waste sites litter the American landscape. Pollution control laws passed in the 1970s initially decreased water pollution nationwide, but since the early 1980s, pollution levels have remained more or less constant. Making matters worse, regulation and enforcement of hazardous waste laws has been lax.

William K. Reilly, Jr., former president of the World Wildlife Fund and the Conservation Foundation, notes that despite the successes of pollution control laws, America "faces an array of environmental problems even more daunting than [the] pollution crises of the past generation". Global climate change, acid precipitation, worldwide deforestation, and ozone depletion be says, are all unanswered by current policies.

Solutions to global problems require new laws and tighter controls. Critical thinking demands a search for additional solutions. New technologies, for example, can help us reduce waste and use the earth's resources more judiciously. Individuals can also chip in. A personal commitment to conserve, to recycle, to use renewable resources (for example, paper rather than plastic), and to limit family size can go a long way in helping to solve the environmental problems facing this nation. Individual actions, multiplied many times, must be a part of the solution. All of these efforts must be brought to bear on the global environmental crisis, making the world a healthier place for all life.

(From Internet)

EXERCISES:

1. Translate into Russian:

Mysterious disease; bordering industrial nations; suppressions of the seals; immune system; pollution control laws; require new laws and tighter control; manifestation of a chronic pollution problem; face an array of environmental problems.

2. Find in the text sentences containing the following word combinations and phases and translate into Russian: