时间:2019-01-13 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2011年(十二月)


英语课

UN Warns Against Land Degradation 1


 


A top U.N. advisor 2 said on Friday that every minute, 23 hectares of land are degraded by drought and desertification. He said it’s damaging the economic, social and environmental pillars needed for sustainable development.



Luc Gnacadja, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification, the UNCCD, was among those attending a meeting in the southwestern Algerian town of Tinerkouk. The meeting marked the Decade for Deserts and the fight against desertification.



Speaking from Tinerkouk – a desert area – Gnacadja said natural desert ecosystems 3 are valuable and must be conserved 4 – but man-made deserts must be avoided. He warned that land degradation – also known a desertification – is a global problem.



“It is undermining our capacity to address the issue of poverty, our capacity to mitigate 5 climatic drought,’ he said.



A blind spot



Land degradation,’ he said, threatens aquifers 6 that are needed for biomass – a mass of biological organisms living in a particular area. It also increases environmentally induced migration 7 and puts food security at risk. He called the protection of arable 8 land a “blind spot” in the climate change debate.









Water scarcity 9 can lead to both drought and desertification as well as instigate 10 conflict in communities and between countries.




“The peel of that land that we call soil is the most nonrenewable resource that we have to generate food, to generate the forest that we depend on to regulate the atmosphere. And we depend on it to reduce the runoff and increase what they call green water for biomass production,” he said.



And a lot of soil is lost every year.



“Now, globally speaking, we’re losing 12 million hectares of productive land. We’re losing them every single year due to drought and desertification. 12 million hectares. It is even more than the size of my country, Benin,” he said.



Hard hit continent



Gnacadja said managing every inch of the fertile soil available matters “much more than ever before.” The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warns that Africa could be particularly hard hit.



“If the trend of degradation in Africa continues,” he said, “Africa may lose two-thirds of its arable land by 2025. This will make it impossible for the continent to reach food security when you know that the continent is the fastest growing region population-wise in the world.”



He said progress against land degradation is being made on the grassroots level through better farming techniques. But those achievements need to be enhanced and scaled up in all parts of the world. The head of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification said climate change negotiations 11 must include land protection. He added when land is protected everyone wins.



n.降级;低落;退化;陵削;降解;衰变
  • There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。
  • Gambling is always coupled with degradation.赌博总是与堕落相联系。
n.顾问,指导老师,劝告者
  • They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
  • The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。
n.生态系统( ecosystem的名词复数 )
  • There are highly sensitive and delicately balanced ecosystems in the forest. 森林里有高度敏感、灵敏平衡的各种生态系统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert. 马达加斯加生态系统类型多样,从雨林到半荒漠等不一而足。 来自辞典例句
v.保护,保藏,保存( conserve的过去式和过去分词 )
  • He conserved his energy for the game. 他为比赛而养精蓄锐。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Under these conditions, the total mechanical energy remains constant, or is conserved. 在这种条件下,总机械能保持不变或机械能保存。 来自辞典例句
vt.(使)减轻,(使)缓和
  • The government is trying to mitigate the effects of inflation.政府正试图缓和通货膨胀的影响。
  • Governments should endeavour to mitigate distress.政府应努力缓解贫困问题。
n.地下蓄水层,砂石含水层( aquifer的名词复数 )
  • And in Africa, the aquifers barely recharge at all. 非洲的地下水开采以后几乎得不到补充。 来自时文部分
  • Aquifers have water contents over 30%. 含水层的水含过30%。 来自辞典例句
n.迁移,移居,(鸟类等的)迁徙
  • Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
  • He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。
adj.可耕的,适合种植的
  • The terrain changed quickly from arable land to desert.那个地带很快就从耕地变成了沙漠。
  • Do you know how much arable land has been desolated?你知道什么每年有多少土地荒漠化吗?
n.缺乏,不足,萧条
  • The scarcity of skilled workers is worrying the government.熟练工人的缺乏困扰着政府。
  • The scarcity of fruit was caused by the drought.水果供不应求是由于干旱造成的。
v.教唆,怂恿,煽动
  • His object was to instigate a little rebellion on the part of the bishop.他的目的是,在主教方面煽起一场小小的造反。
  • It would not prove worthwhile to instigate a nuclear attack.挑起核攻击最终是不值得的。
协商( negotiation的名词复数 ); 谈判; 完成(难事); 通过
  • negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
  • Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。
学英语单词
adhami
Aitoliko
ANTILOG(Antilogarithm)
apert
auxiliary electric machine
Awangio
band shift
bandi
beam span
berangan
Butirosine
care-away
certificate policy
charge-controlled storage tube
chloroprocaine
collapsible container
complex vibration
connivings
constant load
cornucopia
cysteinyl-tRNA
data entry system
dexsecoverine
diagonal filing
dialogue speaker
Diospolis Mikra
edmund spensers
euphoric
exit receipt
fault indication device
fibrogastroscopy
framery
genuflect
genus Bocconia
girlschools
Hapsiphyllum
haul oneself up by one's own bootstraps
have a swim
head-scratchings
heavily compound-wound motor
highway data bank
hip to
home-bird
impactor
implicit storage management
interbike
leigh-mallory
liquid asset
long addendum tooth
lyson
marienglas
martyrising
Masoji
mcgranahan
melaphyres
menstruated
mixed bed column
multiple comparator method
natally
noonstead
not agree with sb
open-loop dpcm
overmature
patentometrics
physiotherapeutically
polymorphous heredity
preadapted
prepared atmosphere
protolophid
rakhimov
rank technique
rationalized vessel
re-deployment
register of directors' interests
ripeness for felling
rotche
safety pulley
section boundary
sensor wiring
series undercurrent tripping
shemeful
signal
sinusoidal jump function
small amplitude modulation
Soveja
Sub-50-nm
surface space charge region
surface-set bit
synchronous rotation
tamabler
thoghts
time rate wage
Trudeau, Edward Livingston
two-dimensional deflection
unifiliar
versatile additive
vibration rod
virginty
whiz
whole nine yards
XHTML MP
zondek-asehheim test