文章大意:这是一篇说明文。随着气候变化的影响变得更加灾难性,知名研究机构和政府机构正将新的资金和注意力集中在一个想法上:人为冷却地球,希望为人类争取更多时间来减少温室气体排放。
As the effects of climate change become more disastrous, well-known research institutions and government agencies are focusing new money and attention on an idea: artificially cooling the planet, in the hope of buying humanity more time to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
That strategy, called solar climate intervention (干预) or solar geoengineering, involves reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space — abruptly reducing global temperatures in a way that imitates the effects of ash clouds flowing out from the volcanic eruptions. The idea has been considered as a dangerous and fancied solution, one that would encourage people to keep burning fossil fuels while exposing the planet to unexpected and potentially threatening side effects, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters.
But as global warming continues, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters, some researchers and policy experts say that concerns about geoengineering should be outweighed by the urgency to better understand it, in case the consequence of climate change become so terrible that the world can’t wait for better solutions.
One way to cool the earth is by injecting aerosols (气溶胶) into the upper layer of the atmosphere, where those particles reflect sunlight away from the earth. That process works, according to Douglas Mac Martin, a researcher at Cornell University.
“We know with 100% certainty that we can cool the planet,” he said in an interview. What’s still unclear, he added, is what happens next. Temperature, Mac Martin said, is an indicator for a lot of climate effects. “What does it do to the strength of hurricanes?” he asked, “What does it do to agriculture production? What does it do to the risk of forest fires?”
Another institution funded by the National Science Foundation will analyze hundreds of simulations (模拟) of aerosol injection, testing the effects on weather extremes around the world. One goal of the research is to look for a sweet spot: the amount of artificial cooling that can reduce extreme weather events without causing broader changes in regional rainfall patterns or similar impacts.
12. Why do researchers and government agencies work on cooling the earth?
A.To prevent natural disasters. |
B.To imitate volcanic eruptions. |
C.To win more time to reduce gas emissions. |
D.To encourage more people to burn fossil fuels |
13. What are researchers worried about in terms of global warming?
A.There will be more volcanic eruptions. |
B.More solar energy will go into space. |
C.People will burn more fossil fuels to keep warm. |
D.More disasters will endanger the future of the world. |
14. What can be inferred from Douglas’ words in an interview?
A.He thinks more research remains to be done. |
B.He is optimistic about the effect of cooling the earth. |
C.He disapproves of the practice of solar climate intervention. |
D.He is concerned about the reduction in agriculture production. |
15. What does the underlined words “a sweet spot” in the last paragraph mean?
A.The rainfall pattern of a region. | B.The modest drop in temperature. |
C.The injection amount of aerosol. | D.The number of extreme weather events. |