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
In popular discussions of emissions-rights trading systems, it is common to mistake the smokestacks for the trees. For example,
In popular discussions of emissions-rights trading systems, it is common to mistake the smokestacks for the trees. For example,
admin
2016-07-10
81
问题
In popular discussions of emissions-rights trading systems, it is common to mistake the smokestacks for the trees. For example, the wealthy oil enclave of Abu Dhabi brags that it has planted more than 130 million trees—each of which does its duty in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, this artificial forest in the desert also consumes huge quantities of irrigation water produced, or recycled, from expensive desalination plants. The trees may allow its leaders to wear a halo at international meetings, but the rude fact is that they are an energy-intensive beauty strip, like most of so-called green capitalism. And, while we’re at it, let’s just ask: What if the buying and selling of carbon credits and pollution offsets fails to reduce global warming? What exactly will motivate governments and global industries then to join hands in a crusade to reduce emissions through regulation and taxation?
Kyoto-type climate diplomacy assumes that all the major actors will recognize an overriding common interest in gaining harness over the runaway greenhouse effect. But global warming is not War of the Worlds, where invading Martians are dedicated to annihilating all of humanity without distinction. Climate change, instead, will initially produce dramatically unequal impacts across regions and social classes. It will reinforce, not diminish, geopolitical inequality and conflict.
As the UNDP emphasized in its report last year, global warming is above all a threat to the poor and the unborn, the "two parties with little or no political voice". Coordinated global action on their behalf thus presupposes either their revolutionary empowerment or the transformation of the self-interest of rich countries and classes into an enlightened "solidarity" without precedent in history. From a rational perspective, the latter outcome only seems realistic if it can be shown that privileged groups possess no preferential "exit" option, that internationalist public opinion drives policymaking in key countries, and that greenhouse gas reduction could be achieved without major sacrifices in upscale Northern Hemispheric standards of living—none of which seems highly likely.
And what if growing environmental and social turbulence, instead of stimulating heroic innovation and international cooperation, simply drives elite publics into even more frenzied attempts to wall themselves off from the rest of humanity? Global intervention, in this unexplored but not improbable scenario, would be silently abandoned(as, to some extent, it already has been)in favor of accelerated investment in selective adaptation for Earth’s first-class passengers. We’re talking here of the prospect of creating green and gated oases of permanent affluence on an otherwise stricken planet.
Of course, there will still be treaties, carbon credits, famine relief, humanitarian acrobatics, and perhaps, the full-scale conversion of some European cities and small countries to alternative energy. But the shift to low-, or zero-emission lifestyles would be almost unimaginably expensive. And this will certainly become even more unimaginable after perhaps 2030, when the combined impacts of climate change, peak oil, peak water, and an additional 1. 5 billion people on the planet may begin to seriously threaten growth.
According to the author, which of the following statements is true?
选项
A、International cooperation can help curb environmental and social crisis.
B、Innovation and cooperation in environmental issues are unlikely to happen.
C、Rich countries will possibly seclude themselves from the rest of the world.
D、Investment in environmental conservation will largely increase in selected areas.
答案
C
解析
推断题。题目问的是“根据作者,下面哪一句说法是正确的?”。由文章第四段第一句“And what if growing environmentaland social turbulence,instead of stimulating heroic innovation andinternational cooperation,simply drives elite publics into even morefrenzied attempts to wall themselves off from the rest of humanity?”可知:革新与合作有利于环境保护,这与A和B项内容相悖。此外,通过该句还可知:“elite publics”有可能进一步将其与其他人类社会隔离,这与C项内容相符。再由第四段第二句“Global in—tervention,…would be silently abandoned in favor of accelerated in—vestment in selective adaptation for Earth’s first—class passengers.”可知:如果不提倡国际干预,投资就会加速流向发达国家,这与D项内容不符。故选C。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/bsWd777K
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
Supermarketshoppershaveneverbeenmorespoiltforchoice.Butjustwhenwethoughttraditionalsystemsofselectivefanningh
WorldleadersmetrecentlyatUnitedNationsheadquartersinNewYorkCitytodiscusstheenvironmentalissuesraisedattheRio
Forhigh-riskpropositionsyieldinghighreturns,thereisnothingtobeatthehandfulcompaniesmarketingeternallife.(31)th
Forhigh-riskpropositionsyieldinghighreturns,thereisnothingtobeatthehandfulcompaniesmarketingeternallife.(31)th
AnswerQuestionsbyreferringtothebriefintroductionaboutfourdifferentcitiesintheU.S.Note:Whenmorethanoneanswer
It’s1997,andit’srainingandyou’llhavetowalktoworkagain.Anygivensubwaytrainbreaksdownonemorningoutoffive.T
Answerquestionsbyreferringtothefollowingdescriptionofthreeschools.Whichschool...AEllesmereCollegeisone
______itisthemostcommonformofmelanomainpeopleofcolor?______thistypeofmelanomaoccursmoreofteninfemalestha
Somechoicesmayberequiredmorethanonce.SectionAChangecanbeablessingoracurse,dependingonyourperspecti
随机试题
简述新闻采访的基本任务。
管理
急性心肌梗死出现以下哪些心律失常提示有发生心室颤动的危险
患者,男,40岁。有上腹受伤致肝破裂。意识清楚,上腹部明显压痛,面色苍白,四肢湿冷,脉搏130次/分,血压80/60mmHg,尿少,口渴,过度换气。立即给患者快速补充血容量,宜首先输注
近年来,导致全球交易所由会员制向公司制发展的因素有()。
以技术分析为基础的投资策略是在否定弱势有效市场的前提下,以历史交易数据为基础的调查研究模型。()
以下物权可以在同一物并存的是()。
下列各句中没有语病的一句是()。
新闻出版总署有关负责人的表态,让一度______的“记者黑名单”风波,有了一个官方定论。这位负责人说:“对新闻媒体存在的报道内容个别细节不准确的问题,不应该采取求全责备的态度。”新闻出版总署的表态,值得多方______。依次填入画横线部分最恰当的一项是(
中断是CPU与外部设备数据交换的重要方式。CPU响应中断时必须具备三个条件,分别为:外部提出中断请求;本中断未屏蔽;(4)。CPU响应中断后,必须由(5)提供地址信息,引导程序进入中断服务子程序:中断服务程序的入口地址存放在(6)中。
最新回复
(
0
)