Almost obscured by this torpor is the fact mat there has been some remarkable progress over the past five years—real changes in the attitude of ordinary people in me Third World toward family size and a dawning realisation mat environmental degradation and their own well-being are intimately, and inversely, linked. Almost none of this, however, has anything to do with what the bureaucrats accomplished in Rio.
Or it didn't accomplish. One item on the agenda at Rio, for example, was a renewed effort to save tropical forests.(A previous UN-sponsored initiative had fallen apart when it became clear that it actually hastened deforestation.)After Rio, a UN working group came up with more than 100 recommendations that have so far gone nowhere. One proposed forestry pact would do little more than immunizing "wood-exporting nations against trade sanctions.
An effort to draft an agreement on what to do about the climate changes caused by CO2 and other greenhouse gases has fared even worse. Blocked by the Bush Administration from setting mandatory limits , the UN in 1992 called on nations to voluntarily reduce emissions to 1990 levels. Several years later, it's as if Rio had never happened. A new climate treaty is scheduled to be signed this December in Kyoto, Japan, but governments still cannot agree on these limits. Meanwhile, the U. S. produces 7% more CO2 than it did in 1990, and emissions in the developing world have risen even more sharply. No one would confuse the "Rio process" with progress.
While governments have dithered at a pace that could make drifting continents impatient, people have acted. Birth-rates are dropping faster than expected, not because of Rio but because poor people are deciding on their own to reduce family size. Another positive development has been a growing environmental consciousness among the poor. From slum dwellers in Karachi, Pakistan, to colonists in Rondonia, Brazil, urban poor and rural peasants alike seem to realize that they pay the biggest price for pollution and deforestation. There is cause for hope as well in the growing recognition among business people that it is not in their long-term interest to fight environmental reforms. John Browne, chief executive of British Petroleum, boldly asserted in a major speech in May that the threat of climate change could no longer be ignored.
The writer's general attitude towards the world leaders meeting at the UN is .
A. supportive
B. impartial
C. critical
D. comedic
The atmosphere and oceans are not the only parts of the environment being damaged. Rain forests are being quickly destroyed as well, and their survival is questionable. E. O. Wilson, a biologist at Harvard, calls the depletion(枯竭、耗尽)of rain forest areas "the greatest extinction since the end of the age of dinosaurs(恐龙)".
Unlike some environmental issues, ram forest depletion has fortunately received significant public and media attention. Despite the opposition to the cutting down of rain forests, the problem continues. Every year, Brazil chops down on area of forest the size of the state of Nebraska. In addition to the Amazon's rain forests, many other forests are being cut down as well. In Indonesia, Zaire, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Burme, the Philippines peru, Colombia, Bolivia, and Venezuela, rain forests that were once great have been lost.
According to some estimates, 50 million acres of rain forest are cut down every year. The United Nations says the figure is closer to 17 million acres. The World Wildlife Fund says that every minute, 25 to 50 acres are cat or burned to the ground.
The world's growing population has been a primary reason of rain forest destruction. More people need land to live on and wood products to consume. Limiting population growth may be the first in a series of steps that would limit the destruction of the rain forests.
In the opinion of the author, ______ are being destroyed terribly at present.
A. the oceans
B. the atmosphere
C. the rain forests
D. all the above
Mr. Miller had known a lot about carpentry and electric wiring before he was engaged in do-it-yourself.
A. True
B. Fasle
Different kinds of taxes help to spread the tax burden. Anyone who pays a tax is said to "bear the burden "of the tax. The burden of a tax may fall more heavily on some persons than on others. That is why the three levels of government in this country use several kinds of taxes. This spreads the burden of taxes among more people. From the standpoint of their use, the most important taxes are income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and estate, inheritance, and gift taxes. Some are used by only one level of government; others by two or even all three levels. Together these different taxes make up what is called our tax system.
Income taxes are the main source of federal revenues. The federal government gets more than three-fourths of its revenue from income taxes. As its name indicated, an income tax is a tax on earnings. Both individuals and business corporations pay a federal income tax.
The oldest tax in the United States today is the property tax. It provides most of the income for local governments. It provides at least a part of the income for all but a few states. It is not used by the federal government.
A sales tax is a tan levied on purchases. Most people living in die United States know about sales taxes since they are used in all but four states. Actually there are several kinds of sales taxes, but only three of them are important. They are general sales taxes, excise taxes, and import taxes.
Other three closely related taxes are estate, inheritance, and gift taxes. Everything a person owns, including both real and personal property, makes up his or her estate. When someone dies, ownership of his or her property or estate passes on to one or more individuals or organizations. Before the property is transferred, however, it is subject to an estate tax if its value exceeds a certain amount.
The reason that the Turkish ruler collected a dining tax is to pay for______.
A. the inconvenience for him to put on and take off clothes
B. the damage that eating did to his teeth
C. his efforts to cut the food into pieces
D. the decay of his teeth because of sugar