VOA常速英语2007年-Climate Scientists Urge Fast Action on Global W
时间：2019-02-03 作者：英语课 分类：VOA常速英语2007年（十二月）
Bali
06 December 2007
More than 200 of the world's leading climate scientists signed a petition calling for negotiators in Bali's United Nations Climate Change Conference to set aggressive targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions 1. Chad Bouchard reports from Bali.
The declaration released Thursday at the U.N. Climate Change Conference urges governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050.
Most scientists say greenhouse gases such as methane 2 and carbon dioxide, which end up in the earth's atmosphere, are contributing to a rise in global temperatures.
About 215 climate experts signed the document, which was drafted over the last four months. Other groups of scientists such as the Nobel-prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, have released key statements on the science of climate change.
Professor Matthew England from the University of New South Wales says this petition is different because it outlines specific recommendations governments should follow.
"It's delivering a clear message," he said. "It's only four or five paragraphs long, it's got the weight of the scientific community behind it, and hopefully it's going to help the negotiators here in the next few weeks in Bali remember what the climate scientists are saying."
Richard Somerville of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography is careful to point out that the scientists' recommendations are based on predictions using the best available data.
"There isn't a magic number," he noted 3, "just as there's no magic cholesterol 4 number that your physician can give you below which you're safe and above which you're going to have a heart attack. It's simply a risk factor. And it's our judgment 5, and that of the signatories that the targets we've outlined are the ones needed to keep that risk within reasonable bounds."
U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer says it is not clear how much weight the scientists' recommendations will have during the negotiations 6, but stresses that discussion at the conference is centered on science-based reports such as the one released earlier by the IPCC.
"I think probably this process that's most strongly science driven," he said. "I mean you see the decision to begin negotiating the Kyoto Protocol 7 was based on a report of the IPCC and that's why I hope that we can use the current report of the IPCC as the engine behind the next phase of negotiations."
The petition says if governments are able to ensure greenhouse gas emissions peak and decline within the next 15 years, the world will have a 50 percent chance of keeping temperatures from rising two degrees Celsius 8 above pre-industrial levels.
About 190 countries taking part in the climate change conference this week in Bali.
- 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。
- 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。
- The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
- Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
- There is cholesterol in the cell of body.人体细胞里有胆固醇。
- They are determining the serum-protein and cholesterol levels.他们正在测定血清蛋白和胆固醇的浓度。
- The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
- He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。
- 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。
- 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。