global warming

Jackie: Welcome to BBC Learning English dot com and another chance to hear Insight Plus - a series, first broadcast in 2001 that looks at the language of issues you hear about in the news. The earth is in danger. And some say the greatest threat is global warming.  Today, in Insight Plus Lyse Doucet looks at the language used to report on global warming.
　　Lyse: Global warming is the steady increase in the earth’s temperature. More and more scientists believe that is what’s causing chaotic 1 weather around the world - the hurricanes, droughts, storms, high tides that are striking more and more countries.
　　The earth has never been hotter. Its average temperature is now the highest since scientists began measuring it 600 years ago.  Since the middle of the 19th century, global temperatures have risen by 0.5 degrees Celsius 2. That may not sound like much but the difference between our temperature and an ice age is only about six degrees.
　　The earth has seen major changes in climate before. But most scientists agree this period is different. Many believe the present changes are caused by our own activities, by the way we live. If that doesn’t change, many forms of life on our planet may not survive.
　　In November 2000, delegates from more than 150 countries gathered in The Hague in the Netherlands to discuss how to combat（争斗，斗争） global warming. There was great disagreement, mainly between the United States and other industrialised nations, about what could and should be done. But everyone agreed on the need for action based on mounting scientific evidence that humans are to blame.
　　ClipThe evidence is stacking up, pointing towards mankind playing a very important part of that influence, and that's something we couldn't have said three or five years ago. The calculations are certainly suggesting that global warming is more important than we thought.
　　Lyse:  We know the earth is a hotter place. And it’s caused by the build-up of greenhouse gases like carbon monoxide and methane 3.（甲烷） Like the glass on a greenhouse, these gases let in the sun’s heat but they stop it from getting out. So the surface of the earth slowly becomes warmer.  These gases have always existed naturally in the earth’s atmosphere. But we are now burning more and more fossil fuels（矿物燃料） - we’re using more oil and coal, and wood too as we cut down more trees.
　　ClipWe're now increasingly confident that a large part of the warming that we've seen over the past 50 years or so is down to human activity - this burning of fossil fuels, increases of carbon dioxide and methane and so on. The evidence is stacking up, pointing towards mankind playing a very important part of that influence, and that's something we couldn't have said three or five years ago.
　　Lyse: It’s our cars, our workplaces, even in our homes -  everywhere we use energy - is releasing or emits gases so the greatest polluters are the most industrialised countries. The United States, for example, in the year 2000, was emitting nearly a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases, but it only has about four per cent of the world’s population. It’s under growing pressure from the rest of the world to find ways to cut its emissions 5.
　　And it’s not just the United States. In 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, more than 100 countries signed a protocol 6（草案，协议） or agreement to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. We’ll hear just what was in that protocol from Corinne Podger of the BBC’s science unit - listen out for the word emissions in the phrase emission 4 of gases - which gases are being released?
　　ClipThe Kyoto Protocol emerged from the UN Conference on Climate Change held three years ago in Japan. Parties to the protocol agreed to reduce emissions of gases like carbon dioxide and methane, which are thought to contribute to global warming. Initially 7, industrialised countries were to aim for a reduction of five percent below 1990 levels, with further reductions to be agreed in 2012.
　　Lyse: The Kyoto Protocol was an historic statement on the need for action. The most industrialised or developed countries like the United States, Europe and Japan were all parties to this protocol - they all agreed to take action. But developing nations also accepted they will have to play a role in the fight against global warming. In a moment, we’ll hear how difficult it has been to implement 8 （实现，执行）the historic Protocol. But it was a start, as this report from the BBC’s Corrine Podger points out.
　　ClipInitially, industrialised countries were to aim for a reduction of five percent below 1990 levels, with further reductions to be agreed in 2012. One of the key groups advising the UN on global warming is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC.  Its secretary, Narasimhan Sundararaman, says Kyoto marked a turning point in the political acceptance of global warming.
　　It's a very important psychological first step, and it also acknowledges the fact that perhaps human beings are beginning to interfere 9 with(打扰，妨碍) the climate system, and that some action seems to be necessary. To have taken an action of this kind is very courageous（勇敢的）, and to have legally binding 10 commitments of the kind that were really arrived at in Kyoto, I think that's a milestone 11 （里程碑）in environmental agreements.
　　Lyse: Kyoto is described as a milestone, or major turning point, in the way many governments looked at the issue of global warming. Scientists have been expressing concern for many decades, governments took longer to be convinced. While they continue to debate the issue, global warming is causing more and more damage to our world.
　　As the earth gets warmer, all of the natural world is affected 12. Birds and animals are migrating northwards and native plants seed and start to grow elsewhere.  Mosquitoes which carry the malaria（疟疾） virus are living longer than expected.
　　Mountain glaciers（高山冰川） and ice caps at the North and South Poles are melting, threatening the lives of communities, marine 13 life and aquatic 14 birds(水鸟) like the penguins 15.  And as oceans warm, sea levels rise and threaten to flood some low lying countries. Global warming endangers the planet earth as we know it and more and more people are getting worried.
　　Lyse: The health of the world is the subject of today’s Insight Plus from the BBC World Service - your guide to the language and background to the stories that stay in the news. We heard that the 1997 Kyoto protocol was an international agreement to cut (that means reduce) greenhouse emissions but the agreement still has to be ratified,（批准） or approved by member governments before it can come into effect. Our next extract looks at some of the problems it’s facing.
　　ClipAfter Kyoto, many governments refused to ratify 16 the Protocol, complaining that it wasn't clear how the rules on emission reductions would be implemented（应用的）, nor how much the necessary changes to industry and agriculture would cost. Those details should be formalised at this year's conference in The Hague - and after that, environmental campaigners hope that individual governments will go ahead with ratification 17. But Friends of the Earth spokeswoman Rhoda Verheyen says the Protocol as it stands won't be enough to keep the world's temperatures down.
　　Rhoda VerheyenCountries have to agree to much, much deeper cuts, up to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced, and we have to phase out fossil fuels to prevent dangerous climate change. And even if the scientists can't tell us this is, this is exactly how much you have to reduce today, they can tell us that we are changing the climate, and they have done so repeatedly since 1996, so we have to stop doing this, otherwise we will see devastating 18 effects all over the world.
　　Lyse:  Many scientists believe the reductions in the Kyoto protocol are far too low to make a difference and some countries are trying to find loopholes（枪眼，小窗，换气口）, ways of avoiding these cuts. The United States, for example, says it can create Carbon Sinks. In other words it will plant more forest which will absorb Carbon Dioxide. Dan Modell of the Environmental group ‘Future Force’ explains how it worksClip‘Carbon sinks’ is a term that has just recently cropped up and the idea is that trees, forests as they grow, do something very positive which they change carbon dioxide, greenhouse gas into oxygen and wood. So by recreating forest cover the idea is that you can soak up greenhouse gases.
　　Lyse:Environmental campaigners believe cuts aren’t enough. They’re calling for drastic changes in our lifestyles, especially in the richer nations. This would include switching away from fossil fuels to sources of energy which are less harmful to the environment, like solar power（太阳能动力）, or fuels made from plants known as biofuels（生物燃料）. This is especially important in the industrialised nations which are the biggest consumers of energy and therefore the biggest polluters. Let’s listen to Dr Rashmi Mayur, who is the Director of the International Institute of a Sustainable Future in Bombay India.
　　ClipThere is no doubt at all because if you look at Europe and Japan, Australia and New Zealand and Canada they are responsible for almost fifty per cent of the problem and the United States is responsible for about twenty three per cent of the problem of carbon released in the atmosphere and there has been no relief at all since the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.  The situation is worsening. The changes are coming much faster than we expected.
　　Lyse:  Everyone has to play a part. Do so many people need to drive cars? Could we heat our homes more efficiently 19 and industries also need to be persuaded to try more efficient, less harmful sources of energy. The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is urging them to change.
　　ClipYou must give a convincing signal to the private sector 20 that reducing greenhouse gas emissions will pay.  Once businessmen and women are convinced of that, we can rely on them to come up with new eco-friendly technologies which will in turn generate jobs and other opportunities.  Until now corporations have profited by polluting the environment, in future we must make sure they have an incentive（刺激鼓励） to clean it up.
　　Lyse: Our hotter world is a hot political topic and that shouldn’t be surprising when the future of planet earth is now at stake. Today on Insight Plus we've looked at the issue of global warming. It’s clear the earth’s average temperature has never been hotter. And we’ve heard how more and more scientists believe the way we live, especially in richer nations, is to blame. Governments now recognise this. But there is still great disagreement about what can and should be done to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases - the gases released by all the energy we use to drive our cars, to heat our homes and to run our factories.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)




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1
chaotic

  
 


adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的


参考例句：





Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。












2
Celsius

  
 


adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的


参考例句：





The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。












3
methane

  
 


n.甲烷，沼气


参考例句：





The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。












4
emission

  
 


n.发出物，散发物；发出，散发


参考例句：





Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施，降低污染物排放总量。
Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后，指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。












5
emissions

  
 


排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）


参考例句：





Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。












6
protocol

  
 


n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节


参考例句：





We must observe the correct protocol.我们必须遵守应有的礼仪。
The statesmen signed a protocol.那些政治家签了议定书。












7
initially

  
 


adv.最初，开始


参考例句：





The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。












8
implement

  
 


n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行


参考例句：





Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。












9
interfere

  
 


v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰


参考例句：





If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。












10
binding

  
 


有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的


参考例句：





The contract was not signed and has no binding force. 合同没有签署因而没有约束力。
Both sides have agreed that the arbitration will be binding. 双方都赞同仲裁具有约束力。












11
milestone

  
 


n.里程碑；划时代的事件


参考例句：





The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。












12
affected

  
 


adj.不自然的，假装的


参考例句：





She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。












13
marine

  
 


adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵


参考例句：





Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。












14
aquatic

  
 


adj.水生的，水栖的


参考例句：





Aquatic sports include swimming and rowing.水上运动包括游泳和划船。
We visited an aquatic city in Italy.我们在意大利访问过一个水上城市。












15
penguins

  
 


n.企鹅( penguin的名词复数 )


参考例句：





Why can penguins live in cold environment? 为什么企鹅能生活在寒冷的环境中？ 来自《简明英汉词典》
Whales, seals, penguins, and turtles have flippers. 鲸、海豹，企鹅和海龟均有鳍形肢。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》












16
ratify

  
 


v.批准，认可，追认


参考例句：





The heads of two governments met to ratify the peace treaty.两国政府首脑会晤批准和平条约。
The agreement have to be ratify by the board.该协议必须由董事会批准。












17
ratification

  
 


n.批准，认可


参考例句：





The treaty is awaiting ratification.条约正等待批准。
The treaty is subject to ratification.此条约经批准后才能生效。












18
devastating

  
 


adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的


参考例句：





It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。












19
efficiently

  
 


adv.高效率地，有能力地


参考例句：





The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。












20
sector

  
 


n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形


参考例句：





The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。