Listen to a short passage concerning global warming.[音频]Global warming may or may not be the great environmental 1of the 21st century, but—regardless of whether it is or isn’t—we won’t do much about it. We will argue over it and may even, as a nation, make some fairly solemn-sounding2 to avoid it. But the more dramatic and meaningful these commitments seem, the less likely they are to be3 .
[音频]Al Gore calls global warming an “
[音频]If energy use per person and technology remain the same, total energy use and greenhouse gas1(mainly, CO2)will be 42% higher in 2050. But that’s too low, because societies that grow richer use more energy. We need economic growth unless we2the world’s poor to their present poverty and freeze everyone else’s living standards.
[音频]The practical solution is that if global warming is a1 , the only solution is new technology. Only an aggressive research and development program might find ways of breaking our dependence on2 or dealing with it.