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
2022-11-25
67
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.
What does the word "runaway" (line 2, para.2) mean?
选项
A、Uncontrolled.
B、Unpredicted.
C、Immeasurable.
D、Growing.
答案
A
解析
释义题。题目问的是“‘runaway’是什么意思?”。“runaway”表示“失控的,逃跑的”这与A项内容相符。此外,第二段第一句“…all the major actors will recognize an overriding common interest in gaining harness over the runaway greenhouse effect. ”中的“harness”表示“马套,控制,利用”,这也可以提示本题的答案。故选A。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/yi0D777K
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
Happypeopleworkdifferently.They’remoreproductive,morecreative,andwillingtotakegreaterrisks.Andnewresearchsugge
Happypeopleworkdifferently.They’remoreproductive,morecreative,andwillingtotakegreaterrisks.Andnewresearchsugge
Happypeopleworkdifferently.They’remoreproductive,morecreative,andwillingtotakegreaterrisks.Andnewresearchsugge
Happypeopleworkdifferently.They’remoreproductive,morecreative,andwillingtotakegreaterrisks.Andnewresearchsugge
Rememberbooks?Theywerethosepiecesofpaperwithwordsprintedonthem【C1】________inbetweentwo,sometimes,【C2】________cove
Rememberbooks?Theywerethosepiecesofpaperwithwordsprintedonthem【C1】________inbetweentwo,sometimes,【C2】________cove
Thenewsaboutvitaminskeepsgettingworse.Manystudiespublishedinthelastfewyearsshowsthatavarietyofpopularsupple
Thenewsaboutvitaminskeepsgettingworse.Manystudiespublishedinthelastfewyearsshowsthatavarietyofpopularsupple
Asaspecies,humansareincrediblysmart.Ourintelligencecomeswithacuriouscaveat:ourbabiesareamongthedumbest—or,ra
Thehumanspecieshasincreaseditslifespanby________.
随机试题
穿行于海绵窦腔内的神经有
可摘局部义齿设计时应考虑保护口腔软硬组织健康,下列哪一项是错误的
关于产后出血的定义正确的是
个体户吴某与某小学达成初步协议,吴某自愿向该校捐款100万元,将现有校舍改建为楼房,资金6月底到位,并要求学校在此前做好准备工作,并准备必要的配套资金。但双方并未正式签订合同。6月初,学校将旧校舍拆除,并向银行贷款50万元,期限1年。后吴某以生意亏本为由拒
在投资项目决策分析和评价阶段,对建设期利息的估算主要采用的计算方法是()。
建设项目的选址布局,不仅对建设项目本身的发展成败起着至关重要的决定性作用,而且对()也产生深远的影响。
吊线原始垂度在20℃以下安装时和在20℃以上安装时,允许偏差分别不大于标准垂度的()。
资产组合M的期望收益率为18%,标准差为27.9%,资产组合N的期望收益率为13%,标准差率为1.2,投资者张某和赵某决定将其个人资产投资于资产组合M和N中,张某期望的最低收益率为16%,赵某投资于资产组合M和N的资金比例分别为30%和70%。要求:(
中国共产党的思想路线的核心内容是()。
强调用内省方法研究心理学的是()。
最新回复
(
0
)