Complete the text with the following words:
Protection; b) secure; c) resilient; d) responsible; e) disruption; f) benefits;
g) adaptation; h) flood
Preparing for climate change 'will boost economy'
Early preparation for climate change impacts would bring economic 1)… to the UK, say engineers in a report commissioned by the government. Engineering the Future - an alliance of professional engineering bodies - says companies will be more likely to invest in nations with 2)… infrastructure. It urges regulators to improve links between sectors for better planning.
A climate-constrained future will bring more 3)… to energy, transport, water and IT, it warns. This increases the risk of "cascade failures", where a breakdown in one system has knock-on effects on others - such as a 4)… that takes out the local electricity supply, which in turn affects the mobile phone network.
The report concludes that complete 5)… against climate impacts will not be affordable, and society is going to have to decide what levels of prevention should be funded for various types of threat.
The UK government has established a national 6)… strategy and major infrastructure providers are having to set out their plans for keeping the country running in a future projected to be several Celsius hotter, with more extreme weather events and higher sea levels around the coast.
The engineers emphasized that building more 7)… infrastructure need not come with a huge price tag - it was mainly a case of understanding the issues and taking sensible, far-sighted decisions.
The report was commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which is 8)… for climate adaptation.
Practice the pronunciation of the following words before you read:
Access, exploratory, borehole, accident, supplies, refuge, charity, consumption, haul, ascent, surface
Jubilation as Chile mine rescue ends (14 October, 2010)
Thirty-three miners were trapped underground when part of the San Jose mine in Chile's Atacama desert collapsed on 5 August 2010.
A second collapse on 7 August hampered rescue efforts, blocking access to the lower parts of the mine. Rescue teams drilled a number of exploratory boreholes, sending listening probes down knowing that, despite the collapse of some ventilation shafts, the miners may have survived. Seventeen days after the accident, rescuers found a note from the miners attached to one of the probes saying "Estamos bien en el refugio los 33" - "All 33 of us are well inside the shelter." Emergency supplies and fresh water were sent down the borehole to the miners after they had survived on rations for 17 days.
Communications were set up and the miners told the rescue team they had access to about 1km (0.6 miles) of tunnel and had split into three groups to eat and sleep.
Since then, rescuers have sent food and medical supplies, specialist clothing, camp beds and other equipment down the borehole to make the miners' lives more comfortable. With access via the mine tunnels blocked, rescuers decided the best way of reaching the men was to drill a shaft and winch them to the surface.
Three types of drilling equipment were used - two raise-bore machines, which drill a pilot hole before widening the shaft. And a third drill, normally used in the oil industry, which drills a wide shaft at the first instance.
The pilot hole for the first shaft, Plan A, started on 30 August - aiming for the shelter. Plan B, involving faster machinery, was aiming for a machine workshop a few hundred meters from the refuge and completed its pilot hole on 17 September.
Rescuers dug all three holes at the same time to be sure of getting the miners out as fast as possible, even if one of the pieces of equipment broke. Relatives and friends of the 33 miners have gathered at the mine since the accident in an area dubbed Campo Esperanza, or Camp Hope. Families have been living in tents, with daily meals provided by charities and local authorities. After unmanned test runs and checks on the Phoenix capsule, the rescue operation began, with Manuel Gonzalez being lowered down the shaft.
Mr Gonzalez was supposed to return to the surface and report on the condition of the rescue shaft, before handing over to a paramedic. However, the miner Florencio Avalos instead got into the capsule and was hauled up.
The miners wore a "bio-harness" designed for astronauts - which monitors their heart rate, breathing, temperature and oxygen consumption - and sunglasses to protect their eyes from the glare of the desert. Mr Avalos reached the surface and was greeted by his family, rescuers, President Pinera and the first lady, Cecilia Morel.
The rescue team was soon able to cut the time down between each ascent from an hour to 25 minutes, and by Wednesday afternoon it became clear that the operation would be completed in half the time originally estimated.
Before the remaining six rescuers started their return journey to the surface, they held up a banner saying "Mission accomplished."
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