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10 布什总统将就全球变暖问题与欧盟领导进行会谈
Bush to Discuss Environmental Concerns
Jessica Berman
Washington
10 Jun 2001 02:11 UTC
The White House says President Bush takes global warming seriously and is looking forward to discussing possible solutions with European allies during his trip to Europe next week. The comments follow the release of a report 1)commissioned by the White House that says global warming 2)poses a real threat to the environment. It may 3)bolster the arguments of Europeans critical of the Bush administration's opposition to the 1997 Kyoto treaty on climate change.
The White House requested the report on global warming because it said it wanted more information on the topic. But in issuing it's conclusions, an eleven-member 4)panel of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences may not have told the Bush administration what it wanted to hear. Among the report's findings continued climate warming, caused in large part by man-made pollution, is likely to have a serious, adverse impact on the environment by the end the century. This includes rising sea level, increased 5)droughts, threats to world health and agriculture. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer says President Bush has never doubted that the temperature of the earth is rising by small amounts, but says questions remain as to the reason. "There is still some remaining question about what the cause is, how much of that rise is due to man-made factors, how much of that rise is due to naturally occurring events in the atmosphere," Mr. Fleischer said.
The Bush administration has been slow to blame industry for global warming, the result of so-called greenhouse gases 6)principally 7)carbon dioxide 8)accumulating in earth's upper atmosphere. The gases act as a 9)shield to trap heat on the ground. The question is how much of the problem is caused by human activity," said Mr. Fleischer. "And that's why the president is directing a working group at the Cabinet level to study the problem of global warming to come up with solutions for it. It's something he looks forward to discussing with our European allies when he goes to Europe next week, and hearing their thoughts about how to proceed."
Mr. Bush could get an 10)earful. The president in March rejected 11)mandatory pollution controls outlined in the 1997 Kyoto global warming treaty that the United States signed along with 167 other countries. European nations could use the National Academy of Sciences report to press the United States on mandatory controls.
Sherwood Roland is a member of the panel on climate change that wrote the report. Professor Roland is an atmospheric chemist at the University of California in Irvine. Global temperatures have risen about six-tenths of a degree centigrade over the past twenty years. And Mr. Roland and his colleagues on the scientific panel believe the chief reason for global warming is industrial 12)emissions. "Carbon dioxide is the leading greenhouse gas, and that comes from the burning of coal, gas, oil and wood," he said. "In the progress of civilization over the last 200 years, we have gone from doing in the order of wood to coal to oil to gas - more and more such burning has been going on, and as a 13)consequence, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have been going up."
Professor Roland says other greenhouse gases include methane from farming, and 14)ozone from auto emissions. The group of scientists made no 15)predictions about what would happen in the future, if global warming is not addressed. Whether President Bush eventually comes around to that same conclusion is yet to be seen.
(1) commission[kE5mIF(E)n]n.委任, 委托, 代理(权)vt.委任, 任命
(2) pose[pEJz]n.姿势v.(使...)摆好姿势, 形成, 引起vi.摆姿势
(3) bolster[`bEJlstE(r) ]n.垫子v.支持
(4) panel[5pAn(E)l]n.面板, 座谈小组, 全体陪审员
(5) drought[draJt]n.干旱, 缺乏
(6) principally[5prInsIplI]adv.主要地
(7) carbon dioxide n.[化]二氧化碳
(8) accumulate[E5kju:mjJleIt]v.积聚, 堆积
(9) shield[Fi:ld]n.防护物, 护罩vt.(from) 保护, 防护v.遮蔽
(10) earful[5IEfJl]n.令人吃惊的回答, 听腻了的消息, 怨言
(11) mandatory[5mAndEtErI]adj.命令的, 强制的, 托管的
(12) emission[I5mIF(E)n]n.(光、热等的)散发, 发射, 喷射
(13) consequence[5kRnsIkwEns; (?@) 5kRnsIkwens]n.结果, 因果关系, 重要的地位
(14) ozone[5EJzEJn]n.臭氧
(15) prediction[prI5dIkF(E)n]n.预言, 预报
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