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
The best estimate of humanity’s ecological footprint suggests that it now exceeds the Earth’s regenerative capacity by around 20
The best estimate of humanity’s ecological footprint suggests that it now exceeds the Earth’s regenerative capacity by around 20
admin
2022-06-24
30
问题
The best estimate of humanity’s ecological footprint suggests that it now exceeds the Earth’s regenerative capacity by around 20 percent. This fact is mentioned early on in the latest book from Lester R. Brown. The subtitle of Plan B 2.0 makes the bold claim of rescuing a planet under stress and a civilization in trouble. So will Brown’s Plan B work?
The green movement divides broadly into two camps technological optimists and social revolutionaries. For every person like Brown proposing new ways to produce protein, there is an indigenous movement in a developing country struggling for land redistribution. Another divide is between those who see the biggest environmental problem as population pressure in the developing South, and those who say it is consumption patterns in the rich North. When push comes to shove, Brown qualifies as a technological optimist who is worried about population. The giveaway is his eulogy to green techno-fixes, coupled with the fear of fast-growing developing countries copying Western consumer lifestyles.
His optimism, though, appears forced as he rolls out a depressing litany of statistics describing species extinction, water shortage, economic upheaval resulting from the eventual decline of oil production and, of course, climate change. And his rescue plans? Shoehomed into Brown’s book is a section headed "Eradicating poverty, stabilizing population". This relies heavily on the orthodox approach to human development that seeks to use aid to plug the income gap for poor countries. Enumerating the costs of attaining the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals on health, education and poverty reduction, Brown conveys a sense that a few new fiscal measures, combined with the goodwill of rich countries, will deliver. This is an approach that has been followed for the last three decades, and it has not worked. During the 1990s, the share of benefits from global economic growth reaching those living on less than a dollar a day fell by 73 percent, in spite of countless promises to end poverty. This is the problem with Plan B 2.0.
Brown’s picture of climate-change-induced chaos is terrifying and convincing. It includes the awful image of the world’s poorest people competing for food with an ever-hungrier bio-fuels industry, whose job will be to keep the developed world’s SUVs on the road as oil becomes ever more expensive and then runs out. The combination of industrial inertia and the influence of industry on lobbyists is making this vision increasingly plausible. The poor get a bad deal because the world is run by the economic equivalent of
gunboat diplomacy
, as the recent World Trade Organization talks showed.
Technologically optimistic visions often have too much faith that change will flow from a rational discussion about sensible policies, while tiptoeing around the real problems of power and politics. Even with Brown’s Plan B to tell us which renewable energy technologies to use and which resilient food crops to grow, we are going to need a way to deal with economic vested interests and the democratic deficit in global financial institutions that excludes the poor. For that,
we need Plan C
.
The phrase "gunboat diplomacy", (line 6, para. 4) means
选项
A、to deal with industrial relations in the automobile sector by way of lobbying.
B、to threaten to use force to make a smaller country agree to your demand.
C、to negotiate within the WTO framework in dealing with bilateral relations.
D、to use military force to settle international trade disputes.
答案
B
解析
gunboat意为“炮舰”,根据文章第四段最后一句话“The poor get a bad deal because the world is Flirt by the economic equivalent of gunboat diplomacy,…”可知,发达国家在与不发达国家的经济贸易中往往采取以武力相威胁而从中获利,故选B。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/MEPd777K
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
WhenwasthebabybornaccordingtoSarah?
Thereasonswhygamesfascinatestudentsarethefollowingstatementsexceptthat______.
Thereasonswhygamesfascinatestudentsarethefollowingstatementsexceptthat______.
In1490orso,themainprogressmentionedinthispassagewas______.Theword"scuba"is______.
In1490orso,themainprogressmentionedinthispassagewas______.Siebe’sinventionwasnotaperfectone,because______.
Mr.GallanthasmetMr.Brownbefore.
ConfucianismhasitsgreatesteffectamongEuropeancountriesin______.Confucianismhasitsmostinfluentialpoweruponforeig
ConfucianismhasitsgreatesteffectamongEuropeancountriesin______.Confuciushasbeengivenathoroughstudyandreviewfo
NoteveryPresidentisaleader,buteverytimeweelectaPresidentwehopeforone,especiallyintimesofdoubtandcrisis.I
YouwillhearaninterviewwithProf.JesseAusubelabouthisoptimisticattitudestowardsenvironmentalissuestoday.Asyouli
随机试题
刑法第20条第3款规定:对正在进行行闪、杀人、抢劫、强奸、绑架以及其他严重危及人身安全的暴力犯罪,采取防卫行为,造成不法侵害人伤亡的,不属于防卫过当,不负刑事责任。关于刑法对特殊正当防卫的规定,下列哪些理解是错误的?()(2005/2/59)
公共政策监控按照实施监控的时间先后为标准,分为________、_________、_________。
在Word2010中,有关艺术字的说法错误的是________。
甲亢病人在甲状腺大部切除术后出现呼吸困难最常见的原因是
外科手术前的营养通常不包括()。
女患者,32岁,每于两次月经中间阴道少量出血,色红,无血块,夜寐不熟,腰膝酸软,舌红,脉细数。治疗的最佳方剂是
以下属于醇苷的是()。
下列哪项不是急性胰腺炎的手术适应证
设A是n阶正交矩阵,λ是A的实特征值,α是相应的特征向量.证明λ只能是±1,并且α也是AT的特征向量.
Double-ChocolateCappuccinoCocoaPrepTims:20MinutesStarttoFinish:20MinutesServings:8(1cupeach)1cupwhipping(h
最新回复
(
0
)