研究生英语教程Unit1要点.docVIP

Unit 1 Creating a Low-Carbon Economy 创建低碳生活 Overview 概述 There is no longer any real question that global warming is occurring as the result of the rapid build-up of greenhouse gases primarily caused by human activities. We are on a trajectory for global warming to become much more intense unless we begin a concerted, rapid shift toward a low-carbon economy. And the danger is increasingly clear and present. As Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, has said, “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.” 对于主要由人类活动而迅速积累的温室气体引发了全球变暖这一事实，没有人再持有异议。除非我们协同一致，快速转向低碳经济，否则全球变暖的趋势将会愈演愈烈。这一危机日益彰显逼近。正如获得2007年诺贝尔和平奖的联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）主席拉金德拉·帕乔里所声称的：“如果在2012年之前我们还没有采取行动，那就为时已晚了。我们在未来两到三年中的所作所为将决定我们的未来。这是决定性的时刻。 The Earth’s average temperature has already increased by 0.8°C（about 1.4°F）over pre-industrial levels, increasing at a rate of 0.2°C per decade since 1975, and without changing our course, we will lock several more degrees of change into the system. Such temperature shifts may sound small, but they are not. During the last ice age, average global temperature was only about 5.4°C（about 9.7°F） colder than it is now. 同工业化前的水平相比，地球平均温度已经上升了0.8摄氏度（1.4华氏度左右），速度为自1975年以来每十年增加0.2摄氏度；如果我们仍然一意孤行，那么温度还会继续发生永久性的变化。这种温度变化听起来似乎不大，但事实并非如此。最后一个冰河时代时的全球平均气温不过比现今低约5.4摄氏度（9.7华氏度）。 Many of our leading climate scientists have warned that if we exceed 2.0°C（about 3.6°F） above pre-industrial times, we will enter a dangerous, uncharted territory. No one knows at what precise temperature the effects of global warming become intolerably large, whether as a result of gradual worsening of droughts, floods, hurricanes, and heat waves or as a result of abrupt, catastrophic change, such as the collapse of the Greenland or West Antarctic ice sheets and the accompanying global swell in sea levels. But we are conducting