Добавил:
Upload Опубликованный материал нарушает ваши авторские права? Сообщите нам.
Вуз: Предмет: Файл:
Posibnyk_Zapolskykh_new.doc
Скачиваний:
307
Добавлен:
07.02.2016
Размер:
980.48 Кб
Скачать

Unit 3 climate change

PRE-LISTENING SECTION

Exercise 1. Discuss the following issues. Be guided by the information below.

  • Can you define the meaning of the word CLIMATE?

  • What can you tell about CLIMATE CHANGE in the process of human activity?

Climates encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elements in a given region over long periods of time. Climate can be contrasted to weather, which is the present condition of these same elements and their variations over periods up to two weeks. The climate of a location is affected by its latitude, terrain, and altitude, as well as nearby water bodies and their currents. Climates can be classified according to the average and the typical ranges of different variables, most commonly temperature and precipitation. Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average (for example, greater or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth.

In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, climate change usually refers to changes in modern climate. It may be qualified as anthropogenic climate change, more generally known as "global warming" or "anthropogenic global warming" (AGW).

Exercise 2. Match these words and collocations to their definitions or synonyms. Translate them into your native language.

1

underwhelming

a

a person, organization or country which has signed an agreement

2

emitter

b

failing to make a positive impact or impression; disappointing

3

signatory

c

limit

4

boundary

d

to fail

5

accord

e

something that you must do or deal with that takes your time

6

commitment

f

source, transmitter

7

decade

g

decrease

8

to bedevil

h

agreement

9

to founder

i

to confuse, annoy or cause problems or difficulties for someone or something

10

mitigation

g

a period of ten years

11

time-honoured

k

to bargain

12

to haggle

l

revered or respected because of antiquity and long continuance

Exercise 3. Explain the meaning of the following phrases: the Kyoto Protocol, the Copenhagen Accord, cap and trade system. Translate them into your language. Be guided by the information below.

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC), aimed at fighting global warming. The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."

The Protocol was initially adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan and entered into force on 16 February 2005. As of November 2009, 187 states have signed and ratified the protocol.

Under the Protocol, 37 industrialized countries (called "Annex I countries") commit themselves to a reduction of four greenhouse gases (GHG) (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride) and two groups of gases (hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons) produced by them, and all member countries give general commitments. Annex I countries agreed to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% from the 1990 level. Emission limits do not include emissions by international aviation and shipping, but are in addition to the industrial gases, chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which are dealt with under the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

The benchmark 1990 emission levels were accepted by the Conference of the Parties of UNFCCC (decision 2/CP.3) were the values of "global warming potential" calculated for the IPCC Second Assessment Report. These figures are used for converting the various greenhouse gas emissions into comparable CO2 equivalents (CO2-eq) when computing overall sources and sinks.

The Copenhagen Accord is the document that delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) agreed to "take note of" at the final plenary session of the Conference on 18 December 2009 (COP-15). It is a draft COP decision and, when approved, is operational immediately. The Accord, drafted by, on the one hand, the United States and on the other, in a united position as the BASIC countries, China, India, South Africa and Brazil, is not legally binding and does not commit countries to agree to a binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose present round ends in 2012.

Emissions trading (also known as cap and trade) is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.

A central authority (usually a governmental body) sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. The limit or cap is allocated or sold to firms in the form of emissions permits which represent the right to emit or discharge a specific volume of the specified pollutant. Firms are required to hold a number of permits (or credits) equivalent to their emissions. The total amount of permits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Firms that need to increase their emission permits must buy permits from those who require fewer permits. The transfer of permits is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions. Thus, in theory, those who can reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest cost to society.

There are active trading programs in several air pollutants. For greenhouse gases the largest is the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. In the United States there is a national market to reduce acid rain and several regional markets in nitrogen oxides. Markets for other pollutants tend to be smaller and more localized.

Exercise 3. Match the countries to their capitals.

Netherlands

Ottawa

Belgium

Copenhagen

Canada

Brussels

Denmark

Budapest

Hungary

New Delhi

India

Amsterdam

LISTENING SECTION

Exercise 1. Listen to the recording and arrange the subheadlines in the correct order.

1. Crucial concession

2. The risk of slicing up the problem into smaller pieces

3. The fail of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen

4. One useful lesson from Copenhagen

5. Binary split between developed and developing countries

6. The new pluralism in climate politics

Exercise 2. Listen to the recording and decide if the following statements are true or false.

  1. The UN climate conference held in Copenhagen led to success.

  2. The Copenhagen accord is not really a disaster as it seemed first.

  3. Under Kyoto protocol, only developing countries committed themselves to cutting emissions.

  4. At Copenhagen developed countries were determined to move beyond the Kyoto protocol.

  5. The obstruction on which the conference foundered was the binary split between developed and developing countries.

  6. Copenhagen doesn’t make any progress towards closing the split.

  7. The Copenhagen accord has never tried to allow negotiations to take place in new forums.

  8. The world has tried twice to deal with the problem in one go.

  9. Smaller groups won’t be able to haggle over difficult issues.

  10. Many problems lie ahead because of the Copenhagen’s failures.

  11. Climate change is too big a problem to be swallowed in a single bite.

Exercise 3. Listen again and answer the questions. Provide your grounds.

  1. What was the obstacle on which the UN climate conference in Copenhagen foundered?

  2. Name the two reasons for hope proving the progressive consequences of the event?

  3. Are there any risks concerning the problem?

  4. What sort of problems lie ahead?

DISCUSSION SECTION

Exercise 1. Answer the following questions.

  1. What are the most urgent issues of the international environmental policy? What measures should be taken to improve ecoclimate?

  2. Do you approve of the idea expressed in the recording that “the rich world should bear most of the necessary costs of constraining emissions”?

Exercise 2. Comment on the statements below.

  1. All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster. ~ Barack Obama

  2. Climate change is real. The science is compelling. And the longer we wait, the harder the problem will be to solve.” ~ John Kerry

  3. Climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism. ~ David King

TRANSLATION SECTION

Exercise 1. Make the transcript of the recording; translate it into your native language.

Exercise 2. Present a translation-oriented analysis of the text.

Exercise 3. Translate the information below into Ukrainian giving a summary.