2008年6月大学英语四级试题(听力暂缺)(15)

No government will adopt rigid restrictions on economic growth and personal freeom (limits on electricity usage,driving and travel)that might cut back global warming.Still,politicians want to show they're "doing something"Consider the Kyoto Protoco(京都议定书).It alowed countries that joined to punish those that didn't.But it hasn't reduced CO2

emissions(up about 25% since 1990),and many signatories(签 字国) didn't adopt tough enough policies to hit their 2008-2012 targets.

The practical codusion is that if global warming is a

potential disaster,the only solution is new technology.Only an aggressive research and development program miaght find ways of breaking our dependence on fossil fuels or dealing with it.

The trouble with the global warming debate is that it has become a moral proble when it's teally an engineering one.The

inconvenient truth is that if we don't solve the engineering problem, we're helpless.