The environmental group 350.org has launched a new campaign called Climate Name Change that proposes to revise to how hurricanes are named: call them after policymakers who say that humans are not to blame for global warming.
This will save the Katrinas and Sandys of the world from the injustice of having their names attached to major disaster, the group says. And, as a bonus, it will produce some peculiar weather reports.
“Rick Perry leaves trail of death,” appears under a broadcast titled “Rick Perry: The Tragedy.”
“Michelle Bachman is incredibly dangerous. If you value your life, please seek shelter from Michelle Bachman,” says an official while addressing a news conference.
The campaign is unlikely to influence the World Meteorological Organization, which has since 1954 named Atlantic tropical storms from an official list.
But the campaign’s goal seems less to actually name a hurricane after the speaker of the house, and more to call attention to an issue that this month has reached an alarming level of seriousness. The campaign comes just a month before the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release its most recent report on the state of global warming and a week after a draft(草稿)of the report was given away to Reuters.
In the draft, scientists concluded with near certainty – about 95 percent sure – that humans are to blame for the worldwide temperature hikes over the last few decades. That was a revision from the 2007 report, which put scientific certainty that human activities were driving global climate change at about 90 percent.
And global warming, the report said, is not slowing down – it, actually, is accelerating. That means that sea levels could balloon upward as much as three feet by the end of the century, if emissions(排放量) continue at their current pace.
Still, as the Washington Post Climate notes, hurricanes are not the best sign of global warming. Though current data suggests that global warming will in the future stir up terrible super storms, there is still not enough evidence to support the idea that climate change strengthens the recent hurricanes that have torn at the US’s eastern coastline.
小題1:It can be inferred that__________ is one of the policymakers who believe that humans are not to blame for global warming.
A.Katrina | B.Rick Perry | C.Flossie | D.Sandy |
小題2:350.org has launched the campaign with the real purpose of _________________.
A.changing the ways of naming hurricanes |
B.introducing the methods of naming hurricanes |
C.reminding policymakers to change their attitudes |
D.calling attention to the coming report on global warming |
小題3:The draft of the global warming report tells us that _____________.
A.global warming is speeding up at the same rate |
B.it is human beings that have caused global warming |
C.the new report has a more accurate data than the one in 2007 |
D.human beings are not the only one to blame for global warming |
小題4:The writer of the passage seems to believe that______________.
A.policymakers should be blamed for the global warming |
B.the campaign will cause the change of naming hurricanes |
C.global warming has no necessary relation to terrible hurricanes |
D.global warming will surely cause terrible super storms in the future |