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
Our trouble lies in a simple confusion, one to which economists have been prone since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution
Our trouble lies in a simple confusion, one to which economists have been prone since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution
admin
2019-06-10
73
问题
Our trouble lies in a simple confusion, one to which economists have been prone since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Growth and ecology operate by different rules. Economists tend to assume that every problem of scarcity can be solved by substitution, by replacing tuna with tilapia, without factoring in the long-term environmental implications of either. But whereas economies might expand, ecosystems do not. They change — pine gives way to oak, coyotes arrive in New England — and they reproduce themselves, but they do not increase in extent or abundance year after year. Most economists think of scarcity as a labor problem, imagining that only energy and technology place limits on production. To harvest more wood, build a better chain saw; to pump more oil, drill more wells; to get more food, invent pest-resistant plants.
That logic thrived on new frontiers and more intensive production, and it held off the prophets of scarcity — from Thomas Robert Malthus to Paul Ehrlich — whose predictions of famine and shortage have not come to pass. The Agricultural Revolution that began in seventeenth-century England radically increased the amount of food that could be grown on an acre of land, and the same happened in the 1960s and 1970s, when fertilizer and hybridized seeds arrived in India and Mexico. But the picture looks entirely different when we change the scale. Industrial society is roughly 250 years old; make the last ten thousand years equal to twenty-four hours, and we have been producing consumer goods and CO
2
for only the last thirty-six minutes. Do the same for the past 1 million years of human evolution, and everything from the steam engine to the search engine fits into the past twenty-one seconds. If we are not careful, hunting and gathering will look like a far more successful strategy of survival than economic growth. The latter has changed so much about the earth and human societies in so little time that it makes more sense to be cautious than triumphant.
Although food scarcity, when it occurs, is a localized problem, other kinds of scarcity are already here. Groundwater is alarmingly low in regions all over the world, but the most immediate threat to growth is surely petroleum.
What does the author think of ecosystems?
选项
A、They may deteriorate.
B、They may benefit from the economy.
C、They are associated with productivity.
D、They are closely related to technology.
答案
A
解析
本题是作者观点题,考查对第一段中作者表达的观点,尤其是第一段第四句的理解。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/svUO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Thefirsttwostagesinthedevelopmentofcivilizedmanwereprobablytheinventionofprimitiveweaponsandthediscoveryoff
Inpolitics,inthecourts,evenontheubiquitousTVtalkshow,itisgoodformtopickanintellectualfight.Peopleattackea
Withgreateffortsofthepeace-lovingpeopleallovertheworld,Iraq______thewar.
Histheories,thoughcriticizedbyeconomistsofmoreorthodoxbent,havehadenormous______ongovernmentfiscalpolicy.
Anyhopeofafountainofyouthtostoppeoplefromgettingolderisalongwayoffwithsciencejustbeginningtounderstandth
Don’tcallhimjustacollegeprofessor.Internetentrepreneur,TVpersonality,advisortopresidents,andfriendtotherichan
Language,culture,andpersonalitymaybeconsidered______ofeachotherinthought,buttheyareinseparableinfact.(2010年厦门大
Itisour______policythatwewillachieveunitythroughpeacefulmeans.(2002年上海交通大学考博试题)
Hesaiditwouldnotbeallthatdifficulttoreachapeacefulconclusiontothe______.(四川大学2010年试题)
Otherskepticspointoutthatsuchapeacefulrisehasno______inhumanhistory.
随机试题
脊柱的体表定位标志,与胸骨剑突在同一平面的椎体是
A.曲马多B.美沙酮C.胰岛素D.麦角新碱E.司可巴比妥属于第二类精神药品的是()。
下列情形属于信用证欺诈的有()
工程项目施工过程中,质量监督机构的职责有()
关于暂列金额,下列说法错误的是()。
交易所会员如对结算结果有异议()。
甲企业为工业企业,拥有三幢房产,分别为厂房A、厂房B和一幢办公楼,其中厂房A为与乙企业和丙企业共同共有,2017年有关甲企业房产的事项如下。(1)甲企业准备将厂房A进行内部装修,添置新的附属设施,经查,甲、乙、丙三个企业事先均没有约定处理方式,甲企业与乙
人的心理是一种动态的活动过程,包括________、情绪过程和意志过程。它们从不同的角度能动地反映着客观世界的事物及其关系。
“抽象与具体相结合”是数学教学原则中的内容。怎样理解数学的抽象性与具体性;
定积分x2(sinx+1)dx=___________.
最新回复
(
0
)