This summer, daytime temperatures topped 100 degrees for a full month in northwest China. Southern Europe experienced waves of 100-plus degree days. Heat waves show a serious reality: human-driven climate change is making extreme heat worse worldwide. But health-threatening heat isn’t the only result of record-breaking weather: air pollution happens when the temperatures rise according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization.
The new report, which focuses on 2022, shows the growing risk of air pollution connected to wildfires. Hotter temperatures increase the risk of large the risk of large, hot-burning fires, which can pump enormous plumes of smoke into the air. That smoke causes health problems near the fire but also for people thousands of miles downwind.
Extreme heat, also drives up the likelihood of drought, which in turn makes big dust storms more likely. Great clouds of fine dust blew off major deserts last year, particularly affecting the Arabian Peninsula region. Southern Europe also got hit by a major dust storm after a heat wave baked the deserts of northern Africa in the summer.
“That’s a very bad combination of conditions,” says Julie Nicely, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Maryland, who worked on the report. That mix is particularly dangerous for elderly people, or people with breathing sensitivities. “That is very bad for the lungs and the cardiovascular (心血管),” she says.
Air pollution levels have dropped in the past few decades in response to environmental regulations like the Clean Air Act in the United States. Ozone pollution (臭氧污染), however, remains a problem. The report authors point out that the extra heat in the atmosphere driven by climate change overpowers even the gains made by strict environmental protections. The authors suggested focusing on the importance of slowing or changing human-caused climate change as quickly as possible.
“Climate change and air quality cannot be treated separately. They go hand in hand and must be solved together to break this cycle,” WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas said in a press release.
8. Why is the extreme weather in northwest China and southern Europe mentioned in Para l?
A.To introduce the topic. |
B.To show the serious situation. |
C.To warn people of the bad weather. |
D.To compare two countries’ weather. |
9. What can we learn from the last two paragraphs?
A.Air pollution is likely to be solved in the future. |
B.Climate change and air quality are closely connected. |
C.It’s no use slowing or changing human-caused climate change. |
D.People’s efforts to protect the environment make no difference. |
10. What’s the result of environmental regulation like the Clean Air Act?
A.It deals with the air pollution completely. |
B.It makes a big difference to the air problem. |
C.It has made the problem of air pollution worse. |
D.It is partly effective in dealing with air pollution. |
11. Where is the text most probably taken from?
A.A science magazine. |
B.A travel brochure. |
C.A research paper. |
D.An encyclopedia. |