Global warming
On Feb. 2, 2007, the United Nations scientific panel studying climate change declared that the evidence of a warming trend is “unequivocal,” and that human activity has “very likely” been the driving force in that change over the last 50 years. The last report by the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2001, had found that humanity had “l(fā)ikely” played a role.
The addition of that single word “very” did more than reflect mounting scientific evidence that the release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning forests has played a central role in raising the average surface temperature of the earth by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900. It also added new momentum to a debate that now seems centered less over whether humans are warming the planet, but instead over what to do about it. In recent months, business groups have banded together to make unprecedented calls for federal regulation of greenhouse gases. The subject had a redcarpet moment when former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” was awarded an Oscar; and the Supreme Court made its first global warming-related decision, ruling 5 to 4 that the Environmental Protection Agency had not justified its position that it was not authorized to regulate carbon dioxide.
The greenhouse effect has been part of the earths workings since its earliest days. Gases like carbon dioxide and methane allow sunlight to reach the earth, but prevent some of the resulting heat from radiating back out into space. Without the greenhouse effect, the planet would never have warmed enough to allow life to form. But as ever larger amounts of carbon dioxide have been released along with the development of industrial economies, the atmosphere has grown warmer at an accelerating rate: Since 1970, temperatures have gone up at nearly three times the average for the 20th century.
The latest report from the climate panel predicted that the global climate is likely to rise between 3.5 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit if the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reaches twice the level of 1750. By 2100, sea levels are likely to rise between 7 to 23 inches, it said, and the changes now underway will continue for centuries to come.
考研詞匯：
panel[ˈpænl]
n.①面，板;②控制板，儀表盤(pán);③專門(mén)小組
[真題例句] They have built robots that can recognize the error of a machine panel (②) by a fraction of a millimeter in a controlled factory environment.[2002年閱讀2]
[例句精譯] 他們建造的機(jī)器人在嚴(yán)格控制的工廠環(huán)境里，能夠在儀表盤(pán)上識(shí)別毫米以下的誤差。
[真題例句] The panel (③) then informally accepted several general conclusions, although some details have not been settled.[1999年閱讀4]
[例句精譯] 隨后，該小組非正式地接受了幾條籠統(tǒng)的結(jié)論，盡管有些細(xì)節(jié)尚無(wú)定論。
unequivocal[ʌnˈi:kwəl]
a.不含糊的
momentum[məuˈmentəm]
n.動(dòng)力，要素
unprecedented[ʌnˈpresidentid]
a.空前的
[真題例句] Writing for the National Immigration Forum, Gregory Rodriguez reports that today’s immigration is neither at unprecedented level nor resistant to assimilation.[2006年閱讀1]
[例句精譯] 格雷戈里·羅德里格茲在《國(guó)家移民論壇》中寫(xiě)到，今天的移民既沒(méi)有達(dá)到空前絕后的水平也沒(méi)有能抵擋住同化作用。
justify[ˈdʒʌstifai]
v.證明…是正當(dāng)?shù)�，認(rèn)為有理
[真題例句] An education that aims at getting a student a certain kind of job is a technical education, justified for reasons radically different from why education is universally required by law.[1999年閱讀3]
[例句精譯] 旨在使學(xué)生勝任某種工作的教育是職業(yè)教育，它存在的理由與法律所規(guī)定的普及教育之間有很大差別。
radiate[ˈreidieit]
v.①放射，輻射;②散布，傳播
背景常識(shí)介紹：
全球變暖是指全球氣溫升高。近一百多年來(lái)，全球平均氣溫經(jīng)歷了冷-暖-冷-暖兩次波動(dòng)，總體為上升趨勢(shì)。全球變暖的主要原因是人類(lèi)在近一個(gè)世紀(jì)以來(lái)大量使用礦物燃料而導(dǎo)致排放大量的溫室氣體。全球變暖會(huì)使全球降水量重新分配、冰川和凍土消融、海平面上升等，既危害自然生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的平衡，更威脅人類(lèi)的食物供應(yīng)和居住環(huán)境。
參考譯文：
全球變暖
2007年2月2日，聯(lián)合國(guó)研究氣候變化的科學(xué)小組稱，全球變暖的趨勢(shì)已是毋庸置疑，并且，在這過(guò)去的50年中，人類(lèi)的活動(dòng)“極有可能”是這一變化的始作俑者。美國(guó)政府氣象變化研究小組2001年的最后一篇報(bào)告就已經(jīng)表明了，人類(lèi)的活動(dòng)“可能”扮演這一破壞性角色。
單單增加的“極其”這個(gè)詞，不僅僅反映了科學(xué)證據(jù)的逐步增加——諸如，從煙囪和管道排放出來(lái)的二氧化碳和其他可導(dǎo)致溫室效應(yīng)的氣體，以及燒毀森林，都是致使地球表面平均溫度從1900年以來(lái)上升1華氏攝氏度以上的重要原因——而且，還為現(xiàn)如今人類(lèi)的主要工作從以討論“全球變暖是不是人類(lèi)所導(dǎo)致”為中心，轉(zhuǎn)向探討“如何對(duì)付全球變暖”提供了新的推動(dòng)力。在最近幾個(gè)月，大的商業(yè)集團(tuán)首次聯(lián)合起來(lái)呼吁制定控制溫室氣體的聯(lián)邦政府規(guī)則，這個(gè)呼吁在美國(guó)前副總統(tǒng)戈?duì)柕挠涗浧峨y以忽視的真相》獲得奧斯卡獎(jiǎng)后得到了非常熱烈的響應(yīng)。最高法院以5比4作出了他們第一個(gè)關(guān)于全球變暖的裁決，但環(huán)境保護(hù)署沒(méi)有證明它未授權(quán)規(guī)范二氧化碳的立場(chǎng)。
從最早期開(kāi)始，溫室效應(yīng)一直是地球運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)方式的一部分。二氧化碳和甲烷之類(lèi)的氣體致使太陽(yáng)光可以到達(dá)地球，也將一部分產(chǎn)生的熱量反射回太空。沒(méi)有溫室效應(yīng)，地球就不可能變得足夠的溫暖以使生命形成。但是，隨著工業(yè)經(jīng)濟(jì)的發(fā)展，越來(lái)越多的二氧化碳被釋放，大氣正在變得越來(lái)越熱，從1970年以來(lái)氣溫的上升幅度是20世紀(jì)平均增幅的三倍。
氣象小組最近的預(yù)計(jì)報(bào)告表示，如果二氧化碳濃度達(dá)到工業(yè)化之前水平的兩倍，氣候?qū)⒑芸赡苌仙?.5到8華氏攝氏度。到2100年，海平面很有可能上升7到23英寸，并且據(jù)稱，這種正在發(fā)生著的變化還將持續(xù)幾個(gè)世紀(jì)�！ �
