时间:2019-01-20 作者:英语课 分类:2006年VOA标准英语(八月)


英语课

By David McAlary
Washington, DC
08 August 2006
 
watch Global Warming Overview
 


Global Warming   
  
Searing summer temperatures are shattering records across much of the northern hemisphere. Some European nuclear power plants have cut output because river water used to cool reactors 1 is too warm. Forest fires are breaking out in Europe and the United States. Are these signs of global warming?


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Scientists say no single weather event can be attributed to warming. But they say those incidents are consistent with it and may worsen unless humans stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Skeptics argue that global warming is part of the natural climate cycle. They say whatever humans contribute to it will not cause it to be irreversible. VOA's David McAlary examines the issues.
 


Glacier 2 melting   
  
In the past year, several scientific reports have alerted the world to increasing glacier melting in Alaska, Greenland, and Antarctica, reducing habitat for polar bears and other forms of life.


The habitat for beetles 3 that ravage 4 trees has expanded from the normally warm U.S. southwest into the evergreen 5 forests of British Columbia.


Warmer tropical waters seem to be bleaching 6 coral reefs.


The general scientific view is that these changes are caused by a heat-trapping blanket of carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere emitted by coal, natural gas, and gasoline burning.



Richard Somerville   
  
Richard Somerville of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego says the current warming trend is different from ones that have occurred earlier in Earth's history. "We know enough now to be able to say that the current warming, the warming that we've seen in the last decades of the 20th century, is primarily due to human causes."


The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says the atmosphere has 30 percent more carbon dioxide than a century ago and Earth's average surface temperature has risen nearly one degree Celsius 7 in that time. The group warns that it can be expected to go up much more in the next 100 years -- between one-and-a-half and nearly six degrees.


The panel says this could mean a sea level rise of up to one meter by the end of this century, possibly engulfing 8 coastal 9 regions and island countries.



James Hansen   
  
U.S. space agency climate expert James Hansen was one of the first scientists to warn of global warming in the 1980s. He says the world is nearing the time when it cannot be reversed. "We're getting very close to a tipping point in the climate system. If we don't get out of our business-as-usual scenarios 10 and begin to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions 11, we are going to get big climate change."


  
  
But scientists say arresting global warming is a daunting 12 challenge. For one thing, carbon dioxide has a lifetime of 50 to 100 years in the atmosphere. Rutgers University climate researcher Anthony Broccoli 13 says ocean warming compounds the problem. "Heat is going into the ocean and gradually the effect of that heat going into the ocean would be to make the climate warmer, even if we stopped raising atmospheric 14 CO-2 levels today."


The 1997 Kyoto Protocol 15 commits more than 120 signing nations to limiting greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. The United States is not part of the agreement because President Bush withdrew the country from it soon after taking office in 2001.



Myron Ebell   
  
This was the correct move, according to Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington public policy research group promoting government deregulation. "There is just so much exaggeration involved in these claims about the impacts of climate change."


Ebell does not believe global warming is a serious threat. But he says even if it were, the Kyoto Protocol is bad politics. He believes restricting energy use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will hurt national economies. "All of this effort is going for nothing. The reason I believe that is because the world cannot afford to go on the kind of energy diet that the Kyoto Protocol is the first step of."


 
Factories are one source of pollutants 16 adding to climate change
  
Richard Somerville at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography agrees that the Kyoto Protocol is flawed. But he believes the flaw is its insufficient 17 limits on greenhouse gas emissions. He says they will make only a negligible difference, but argues that the accord is better than nothing. "Kyoto keeps the issue alive. One of the advantages of signing Kyoto is it gets you to the point where you can look past Kyoto, where the nations of the world can come together with the experience of Kyoto, which involves large industries, and decide what does it make sense to try next?"


But opponents of the Kyoto accord say the next step should be nature's. Myron Ebell says glaciers 18 have been melting since the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago, yet people have adapted. He argues that global warming has benefits, such as a longer growing season and hardier 19 crops.


"Carbon dioxide is necessary for plants to photosynthesize, so if there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, plants should grow more quickly, more vigorously and they should be more resistant 20 to things like drought," says Ebell.


Rutgers University's Anthony Broccoli disagrees that global warming will bring about an overall benefit. Yet he is also not willing to say the world will become uninhabitable -- just not the same. "Based on our best projections 21, we would find it to be a very different world."



起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 ); 反应装置; 原子炉; 核反应堆
  • The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
  • The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆,必须使用普通铀作为燃料。
n.冰川,冰河
  • The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
  • The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。
n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 )
  • Beetles bury pellets of dung and lay their eggs within them. 甲壳虫把粪粒埋起来,然后在里面产卵。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • This kind of beetles have hard shell. 这类甲虫有坚硬的外壳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
vt.使...荒废,破坏...;n.破坏,掠夺,荒废
  • Just in time to watch a plague ravage his village.恰好目睹了瘟疫毁灭了他的村庄。
  • For two decades the country has been ravaged by civil war and foreign intervention.20年来,这个国家一直被内战外侵所蹂躏。
n.常青树;adj.四季常青的
  • Some trees are evergreen;they are called evergreen.有的树是常青的,被叫做常青树。
  • There is a small evergreen shrub on the hillside.山腰上有一小块常绿灌木丛。
漂白法,漂白
  • Moderately weathered rock showed more intense bleaching and fissuring in the feldspars. 中等风化岩石则是指长石有更为强烈的变白现象和裂纹现象。
  • Bleaching effects are very strong and show on air photos. 退色效应非常强烈,并且反映在航空象片上。
adj.摄氏温度计的,摄氏的
  • 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。
adj.吞噬的v.吞没,包住( engulf的现在分词 )
  • A photographer had fused the lights,engulfing the entire house darkness. 一位摄影师把电灯的保险丝烧断了,使整栋房子陷于黑暗当中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • A professional photographer had fused the lights,engulfing the entire house in darkness. 一位职业摄影师把保险丝烧断了使整所房子陷于黑暗当中。 来自辞典例句
adj.海岸的,沿海的,沿岸的
  • The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
  • This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。
n.[意]情节;剧本;事态;脚本
  • Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者,根据一些事故解说,石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
  • Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样,我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
排放物( emission的名词复数 ); 散发物(尤指气体)
  • 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。
adj.使人畏缩的
  • They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
  • Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。
n.绿菜花,花椰菜
  • She grew all the broccoli plants from seed.这些花椰菜都是她用种子培育出来的。
  • They think broccoli is only green and cauliflower is only white.他们认为西兰花只有绿色的,而菜花都是白色的。
adj.大气的,空气的;大气层的;大气所引起的
  • Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
  • Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。
n.议定书,草约,会谈记录,外交礼节
  • 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。
污染物质(尤指工业废物)( pollutant的名词复数 )
  • Pollutants are constantly being released into the atmosphere. 污染物质正在不断地被排放到大气中去。
  • The 1987 Amendments limit 301(g) discharges to a few well-studied nonconventional pollutants. 1987年的修正案把第301条(g)的普通排放限制施加在一些认真研究过的几种非常规污染物上。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
adj.(for,of)不足的,不够的
  • There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
  • In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代,科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。
冰河,冰川( glacier的名词复数 )
  • Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
  • It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川,又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分(高一)
能吃苦耐劳的,坚强的( hardy的比较级 ); (植物等)耐寒的
  • Theoretically, experiments with genes that confer resistance to disease or herbicides could create hardier weeds. 从理论上说,用含有抗病或抗除草剂的基因进行试验,可能产生更难于对付的杂草。
  • Similar fruit to Black Mission, but hardier and a smaller size tree than Mission. 类似加洲黑,但比加洲黑强壮,果比加洲黑更小的尺寸。
adj.(to)抵抗的,有抵抗力的
  • Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
  • They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。
预测( projection的名词复数 ); 投影; 投掷; 突起物
  • Their sales projections are a total thumbsuck. 他们的销售量预测纯属估计。
  • The council has revised its projections of funding requirements upwards. 地方议会调高了对资金需求的预测。
学英语单词
A fool's bolt is soon shot .
actual mixing cycle
Akula
allocation of agriculture
Amidozon
ampere-turns
arsenic ulcer
ataraxias
Bain circuit
baths
bells the cat
benzotriazole
cabalize
chromatin body
Chulmleigh
circular point at infinity
CMTMDS
collecting tubules
compensating market
contestations
creped paper
cut to a point
cyclomation
data reading system
decoupling era
diffusion speed
direct ascent weapon
doliops similis
dump skip
equatorial coordinates
euler microtime scale
ex-ante efficiency analysis
facsimiled
fibre grease
first-aid
food demand
formamide process
frondosely
fuck-me
full-year loss
glason
grammole
hand power crane
heating pattern
Heichelheim's tests
high speed paper cutting machine
highly internationalized operation
Hitzig tests
hornblendite
immedial sky blue
international reference group
inverse of multiplication
jayakody
Kanigogouma
keeps guard
keneret
lapsed sales discounts
ligamentous ankylosis
like fury
litas
logp
Michiganensians
milking pipeline
modelbuilding
neptunic rocks
not put a foot wrong
official position
one upper
organizational change
paralyses
perihysteric
physiology of protozoa
pneumatic linkage
poetica
preeclampsia
prosinesses
reauthorising
red prussiate of potash
residual competence
road-blocking
root-mean-square simulation error
Schwegenheim
shadflies
Shell sort
short rainbow
side-strain
sidescraper
sing low
slash with
sowles
stress-timeds
subtriplicated
sweep along
tethered unit
their majesties
treating waste water
tuco-tuco
vettura
wallabas
wavefront curvature
wely
when to charge