Part 2. News reports.
A. Keywords.

deteriorating, health, physical.
Vocabulary.

vibrancy, coral reef, glacier, World watch Institute, State of the world 2000, Daimler-Chrysler, Shell oil.
Listen to the first news report, Supply the missing words while listening.
An annual study by the World Watch Institute here in Washington says with the boom in the information economy, Americans have lost sight of the deteriorating health of the planet.
State of the World 2000 says the fast growing information economy is affecting every aspect of life, from communication, commerce and work, to education and entertainment.
Leader author and World Watch President Lester Brown says while Americans generally feel a sense of optimism about the economy, the planet's health is suffering.
He says it is a mistake to confuse the vibrancy of the virtual world with the increasingly troubled state of the real world.
We give the Earth an annual physical, and this book is the result of the annual physical.
We check its vital signs.
And almost all those vital signs. whether it's the number of species, whether it's the stability of climate, whether it's the health of coral reefs, all those trends show deterioration.
Lester Brown says other warning signs are rising temperatures, falling water tables, melting glaciers, shrinking forests and collapsing fisheries.
He says the major environmental challenges in the 21st century will be to stabilize both climate and world population growth.
World Watch Institute president Lester Brown also points out initiatives by multinational corporations to seek energy alternatives.
For example, Daimler-Chrysler and Shell Oil are working the government of Iceland to turn that country into the first hydrogen powered economy.