首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
World leaders met recently at United Nations headquarters in New York City to discuss the environmental issues raised at the Rio
World leaders met recently at United Nations headquarters in New York City to discuss the environmental issues raised at the Rio
admin
2014-01-27
74
问题
World leaders met recently at United Nations headquarters in New York City to discuss the environmental issues raised at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The heads of state were supposed to decide what further steps should be taken to halt the decline of Earth’s life-support systems. In fact, this meeting had much the flavour of the original Earth Summit. To wit: empty promises, hollow rhetoric, Bickering between rich and poor, and irrelevant initiatives. Think U. S. Congress in slow motion.
Almost obscured by this torpor is the fact that there has been some remarkable progress over the past five years—real changes in the attitude of ordinary people in the Third World toward family size and a dawning realisation that environmental degradation and their own well-being are intimately, and inversely, linked. Almost none of this, however, has anything to do with what the bureaucrats accomplished in Rio.
Or it didn’t accomplish. One item on the agenda at Rio, for example, was a renewed effort to save tropical forests.(A previous UN-sponsored initiative had fallen apart when it became clear that it actually hastened deforestation.)After Rio, a UN working group came up with more than 100 recommendations that have so far gone nowhere. One proposed forestry pact would do little more than immunizing wood-exporting nations against trade sanctions.
An effort to draft an agreement on what to do about the climate changes caused by CO
2
and other greenhouse gases has fared even worse. Blocked by the Bush Administration from setting mandatory limits, the UN in 1992 called on nations to voluntarily reduce emissions to 1990 levels. Several years later, it’s as if Rio had never happened. A new climate treaty is scheduled to be signed this December in Kyoto, Japan, But governments still cannot agree on these limits. Meanwhile, the U. S. produces 7% more CO
2
than it did in 1990, and emissions in the developing world have risen even more sharply. No one would confuse the "Rio process" with progress.
While governments have dithered at a pace that could make drifting continents impatient, people have acted. Birth-rates are dropping faster than expected, not because of Rio but because poor people are deciding on their own to reduce family size. Another positive development has been a growing environmental consciousness among the poor. From slum dwellers in Karachi, Pakistan, to colonists in Rondonia, Brazil, urban poor and rural peasants a-like seem to realize that they pay the biggest price for pollution and deforestation. There is cause for hope as well in the growing recognition among business people that it is not in their long-term interest to fight environmental reforms. John Browne, chief executive of British Petroleum, Boldly asserted in a major speech in May that the threat of climate change could no longer be ignored.
The word "deforestation" in Paragraph 3 means______.
选项
A、forest damage caused by pollution
B、moving population from forest to cities
C、the threat of climate change
D、cutting large areas of trees
答案
D
解析
deforestation意为“滥伐森林”。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/M3Xd777K
本试题收录于:
公共英语五级笔试题库公共英语(PETS)分类
0
公共英语五级笔试
公共英语(PETS)
相关试题推荐
APowerfulInfluenceTherecanbenodoubtatallthattheInternethasmadeahugedifferencetoourlives.Parentsarewor
IncomeTaxFormanyyoungAmericans,graduatingfromcollegemeansfindingajob,movingoutofthedormroomandbeginning
DiscussionTopic:BuyingaHouseNow,...(saythenamesofCandidateAandCandidateB),hereisalistoffactorstoconsiderw
DiscussionTopic:BuyingaHouseNow,...(saythenamesofCandidateAandCandidateB),hereisalistoffactorstoconsiderw
Whatdoesthespeakermainlydiscuss?
Howmanylanguagesareusedthroughouttheworldtoday?
"Everythinghappensforthebest",mymothersaid(31)Ifaceddisappointment."Ifyoucarryon,onedaysomethinggoodwill(32
"Everythinghappensforthebest",mymothersaid(31)Ifaceddisappointment."Ifyoucarryon,onedaysomethinggoodwill(32
Itwasacoldday.Isatinmyroomwritingletters.Iglancedoutofthewindow.InthewindowdirectlyoppositemestoodHerr
Itwasacoldday.Isatinmyroomwritingletters.Iglancedoutofthewindow.InthewindowdirectlyoppositemestoodHerr
随机试题
钻床可采用220V照明灯具。()
法律和道德都具有规范社会行为、调节社会关系、维护社会秩序的作用,在国家治理中都有其地位和功能。两者的关系是()
患者,女,50岁。在家燃煤取暖突然昏迷,出现面色潮红,口唇呈樱桃红色,多汗,神志不清伴发热。确诊的检查是
犯罪嫌疑人刘某涉嫌故意杀人被公安机关立案侦查。在侦查过程中,侦查人员发现刘某行为异常。经鉴定,刘某属于依法不负刑事责任的精神病人,需要对其实施强制医疗。(2012年试卷二第95~96题)关于有权启动强制医疗程序的主体,下列选项正确的是:
关于房地产投资利弊的说法,错误的是()。
简述学生心理发展的基本特征。
我常常会感到很多字和词被造出来其实是一种浪费,因为所用极少,要么束之高阁英雄无用武之地,要么养尊处优一笔一画脂肪成堆;而其他一些字词则呈现出紧张,无数的含义引申义统统压在它身上,似乎让那个汉字不堪重负快要喊出声来。这是字义资源分配的不对称。这段文字
软件复用是使用已有的软件产品(如设计、代码、文档等)来开发新的软件系统的过程。软件复用的形式大体可分为垂直式复用和水平式复用。垂直式复用是指(66)中的复用,水平式复用是指(67)中的复用。为了提高构件的复用率,通常要求构件具有较好的(68)。为了将不同软
请在【答题】菜单下选择【进入考生文件夹】命令,并按照题目要求完成下面的操作。注意:以下的文件必须保存在考生文件夹下。文慧是新东方学校的人力资源培训讲师,负责对新人职的教师进行人职培训,其PowerPoint演示文稿的制作水平广受好评。最
Whohasauthorizedtheweatherbulletin?
最新回复
(
0
)