VOA常速英语2007-Africa Environmentalists Welcome Nobel Peace Awa

By Scott Bobb
Johannesburg
12 October 2007

Environmentalists in Africa are welcoming the announcement that the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to former U.S. Vice¹ President Al Gore² and a United Nations Panel on climate change. They say the well known award will focus more attention on a phenomenon that is having an especially serious impact in Africa. Correspondent Scott Bobb reports from our Southern Africa bureau in Johannesburg.

The fact that the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to a group of environmentalists surprised some people. But experts on climate change, like Guy Midgley of the South African National Biodiversity Institute, say it is relevant because global warming could affect peace and stability in many parts of the world.

"The relevance³ is the highlighting of the potential for increasing conflict induced by climatic change, and the resulting limitation of resources across borders," he said.

In addition to former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, the peace prize was awarded to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  The prize was for their work in promoting awareness⁴ about man-made climate change and the need to address it. Gore's motion picture on climate change, An Inconvenient⁵ Truth, received an Academy Award earlier this year.

The IPCC, formed 20 years ago, issued a report in April that said global warming is likely to affect countries in Africa more than any other continent. 

Experts say global warming is causing severe drought in some parts of Africa and extensive flooding in others. They warn that if the trend continues, it could lead to intense competition for food, water and other resources, which are already scarce in many areas.

Midgley says Africa is doubly affected⁶, because it does not have the resources to address climate change.

"Africa's ability to adapt and to protect itself against the difficulties induced by climate change is limited because of low levels of wealth," he said.  "That's the one side of the coin. The other side is that because of the particular climate conditions in much of Africa, where water is extremely limiting, any changes in those resources are really magnified in many ways."

Midgley said the Nobel Peace Prize will give added legitimacy⁷ to the work of Al Gore and especially the IPCC.

He says he hopes the prize will encourage people to further study the extensive documentation on what has been called one of the greatest challenges to humanity in modern times.

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 gore   

n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶

参考例句：

• The fox lay dying in a pool of gore.狐狸倒在血泊中奄奄一息。
• Carruthers had been gored by a rhinoceros.卡拉瑟斯被犀牛顶伤了。

3 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

4 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

5 inconvenient   

adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的

参考例句：

• You have come at a very inconvenient time.你来得最不适时。
• Will it be inconvenient for him to attend that meeting?他参加那次会议会不方便吗？

6 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

7 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。