1. Fresh air (1400 р.С.*) Climate change

China and Australia unveil new policies on global warming

Governments that do not want to do anything about global warming often point to China, which will soon become the biggest source of the greenhouse gases that are heating up the planet. What is the use of cutting back our own emissions, if our efforts are obscured by a vast and growing cloud of pollution from China? In an attempt to counter this argument, China unveiled a new policy on global warming. Australia had resolved to cap its own emissions irrespective of China’s ac tions. But America, which has also just declared itself willing to limit its emissions, is calling for negotiations to tackle global warming involving all big polluters, including China.

All these announcements came just be fore the annual summit of the Group of Eight, a club for rich countries, which this year is focusing on climate change. Some G8 members, such as Germany and Brit ain, are keen to adopt tough measures to fight climate change. But America prefers a more leisurely approach. Meanwhile, the biggest poor countries, including India and China, are also attending – setting the stage for a heated debate.

China argues that rich countries are responsible for most of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and so should shoulder most of the burden of reducing them. It also points out that although its overall emissions are huge and growing fast they are still far lower than America’s when measured per person and will generate 10% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010. Much of that will come from hydroelectric power. But China is also the world’s fifth-biggest user of wind turbines, and the biggest consumer of solar panels used to heat water.

Greater use of nuclear power should also help reduce China’s emissions.

* р.с. — printing character — печатный знак.

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Notes:

greenhouse gases — парниковый to cap — перекрывать

эффект to be keen on — желать

emission — выделение, рас- leisurely — медленный

пространение to shoulder — брать на себя

to cut back — сокращать per person — на душу населения

2. A new class of travellers (1800 р.с.) Migration and climate change

A new report — «In Search of Shelter» — by the United Nations and Columbia University in New York lists the eco-migration «hot spots»: dry bits of Africa; river systems in Asia; the interior and coast of Mexico and the Caribbean; and low islands in the Indi an and Pacific Oceans.

A one-metre rise in sea levels could dis place 24m people along the Ganges, Brah maputra, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow rivers – which together support a quarter of humanity. A two-me tre rise could uproot 4 m people on the Me kong alone and swamp much of its farm land. Meanwhile, the melting of the Himalayan glacier will cause floods and erosion upstream, boosting the price of rice and other staples. And many regional conflicts could be exacerbated.

The scale of the likely population shift raises big questions. Will climate-change migrants be recognised? The classic defini tion of refugees – tossed between states by war or tyranny - is outdated. Eco-migrants will be paperless paupers, whose multiple woes are hard to disentangle.

Poverty campaigners want a revised le gal regime to protect the new migrants. However, this looks tricky. America resists calling them «environmental refugees»: the word «refugee» implies guarantees that cannot realistically be given to the coming torrent of migrants. As American dip lomats quietly admit, their rich country is still reeling from Hurricane Katrina after 2005, which killed 1,800 people and dis placed hundreds of thousands.

Can the United Nations High Commis sioner for Refugees expand to cope with eco-migrants? It has already struggled to include the internally displaced (26m at the end of 2008) as well as strictly-defined refugees (10m, excluding the Palestinians). A tenfold surge in the numbers within

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its orbit would push the agency out of control. Meanwhile some aid workers see signs of a competition between institu tions to take ownership of the eco-migra tion issue, perhaps by oversimplifying it.

It is difficult to distinguish between «forced» and «voluntary» migration. Climate change may cut agricultural output by half in lowland Africa by 2020.

Notes:

to displace — перемещать pauper — бедняк

to uproot — искоренять woe — горе

glacier — ледник to disentangle — распутывать

to boost — поднимать torrent — поток

staple — основной продукт hurricane — ураган

to exacerbate — усиливать to cope with — справляться

refugee — беженец surge — волна

outdated — устаревший tenfold — десятикратный

paperless — без документов to oversimplify — упрощать