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
58
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
ForMitchellandSkyeCohen,thethird-generationownersofEconomyCandyinNewYorkCity,theshortperiodbetweenHalloweena
ThedeclineinAmericanmanufacturingisacommonrefrain,particularlyfromDonaldTrump."Wedon’tmakeanythinganymore,"he
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
Asaspecies,humansareincrediblysmart.Ourintelligencecomeswithacuriouscaveat:ourbabiesareamongthedumbest—or,ra
Ifthestudyprovesthatbearsarestillendemictothearea,theproposaltointroduceadditionalbearsofthesamespecieswil
Human-causeddisturbances,suchashabitatdestructionandtheintroductionofnonnativespecies,areamongtheleadingcauseso
随机试题
着重研究如何提高单个工人的生产率的理论是()
最可能的诊断是该患儿的病理转变最严重的是
在一项膀胱癌与吸烟关系的前瞻性队列研究中,发现男性吸烟者膀胱癌的发病率为48.0/10万,不吸烟者为25.4/10万。人群中膀胱癌的发病率为31.0/10万。人群归因危险度百分比为()
病人哮喘时,最佳体位是
设幂级数的收敛半径为2,则幂级数的收敛区间是()。
根据《农田水利条例》(国务院令第669号)第十六条规定,政府投资建设的农田水利工程由县级以上人民政府有关部门组织竣工验收,并邀请有关专家和()参加。
王先生的投资包括三部分,一部分是年收益率为20%的A资产,总价值为15万元;另一部是年收益率为45%的B资产,总价值为10万元;还有一部分是年收益率为30%的C资产,总价值是15万元。那么,王先生这个投资组合的预期收益率是()。
在我国各民族团结坚如磐石的情况下,任何敌人的分裂破坏活动都是注定要彻底失败的。我国各民族之所以“团结坚如磐石”,是因为我国()。①是人民民主专政的社会主义国家,铲除了民族压迫与歧视的阶级根源②已经消除了各民族在政治、经济、文化和社会等方
试论物权的效力。
计算机病毒是指"能够侵入计算机系统并在计算机系统中潜伏、传播,破坏系统正常工作的一种具有繁殖能力的()。"
最新回复
(
0
)