1. What is expected tonight around five or six?
| A．Ice. | B．Rain. | C．Snow. |
| A．One or two. | B．Three or four. | C．Five or six. |
| A．The college has already shut. |
| B．The roads are dangerous to drive on. |
| C．The town is unprepared for the weather. |
| A．Buying supplies. | B．Closing the schools. | C．Pushing snow off roads. |
Blowing a Few Tops
Ever stopped to consider the upside of volcanic eruptions? It’s not all deaths, destruction and hot lava---scientists have a plan to cool the planet by simulating one. It would probably work, but it could have devastating consequence, and there is nothing to stop any country or company from deploying the technology.
Solar geo-engineering(气候工程) involves simulating an erupting volcano by spraying aerosols (气溶胶) into the atmosphere. When they combine with oxygen, droplets of acid form. These droplets reflect sunlight away from Earth, cooling the planet. All good in theory, but the consequences are largely unknown and a few could be disastrous. In a study recently published, researchers led by Anthony Jones, a climate scientist from the University of Exeter, found that using this technology in the Northern hemisphere could reduce the number of tropical cyclones hitting the U.S. and Caribbean. But there’s a worrying problem: more cyclones in the Southern hemisphere and a drought across the Sahel region of Africa. That’s because the entries climate system is linked--- disrupting one region will invariably affect another. How would a nation react if another was causing its weather to get much worse? Would that be an act of war?
There is, however, a case for using solar geo-engineering on a global case. Jones says it could be used to “take the edge of “the temperature increases scientists are predicting. It could be used while the world searches for more effective strategies.
The study also highlights a far bigger problem with solar geo-engineering: its complete lack of regulation. “There is nothing that could stop one country just doing it,” Jones says. “It’s deeply disturbing that we have this technology that could have such a massive influence in the climate, yet there’s just no regulation to stop countries or even organizations from doing it.”
Jones cautions that there is much about the climate system we do not understand, as well as more work that will need to be done before solar geo-engineering is deemed safe—or too dangerous to even discuss.
