当前位置： Language Tips> VOA听力> Normal Speed News VOA常速

Experts not hopeful about Doha climate conference(视频)

VOA 2012-11-20 10:44

分享到

LONDON -- When representatives from around the world meet in Doha, Qatar, November 26 through December 7, they may feel a new sense of urgency to address their assigned topic, climate change. Experts are not very hopeful, however, about the meeting.

For decades, talk of climate change has evoked images of melting ice and stranded polar bears. But it is not just about the polar bears any more. Experts say warming temperatures and rising oceans are contributing to the creation of larger, more destructive storms.

At the London offices of the environmental group Greenpeace, chief policy adviser Ruth Davis said as more people experience climate change effects, policy changes become more likely.

“More and more people are becoming subjects of the impacts of climate change. And it is really important that governments going into Doha recognize that and take that in with them, so they have a sense of urgency and focus,” said Davis.

Climate disasters not only affect those who lose their homes, but also impact crop yields, food prices, insurance rates, public health and many other issues. The director of the Climate Change Institute at London’s Imperial College, Brian Hoskins, said the key to generating support for policy changes may be when those events happen more often, and more severely, in influential countries.

“There is a tendency to think that disasters might happen in Bangladesh, but they would not happen in New Orleans or New York. But they have happened in New Orleans and New York. We see that however advanced we think we are in terms of development, we are still very dependent on the environment,” said Hoskins.

Greenpeace's Davis said leaders need to recognize the costs of inaction, and also the benefits of promoting alternative ways to produce energy, that do not contribute to global warming - methods like solar, wind and geothermal power generation.

“It would take a decade, maybe longer, to be able to shift the situation. But it would not take so long to be able to get to a place where we began to deploy those technologies on an enormous scale," she said. "Then, once we have started, actually the huge benefits associated with rolling out large-scale renewable energy will be such that this will be a snowball effect.”

But experts do not expect much from the upcoming U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. The most they are hoping for is a renewed commitment to reach agreement in 2015 about environmental standards that would take effect five years later.

The experts say an agreement with universal standards, transparency and incentives to use new technologies could at least begin to reverse the effects of global warming. But they worry about whether the political will exists, and how many more people will have to suffer from climate disasters before the process even starts.

'Gangnam Style' boosts S.Korean tourism

Remote US museum survives in Hells Canyon

US 'patriotic millionaires': 'tax us more'

（来源：VOA 编辑：Julie）

上一篇 : Scandals highlight ethics lapses in military(视频)
下一篇 : Over a billion women lack safe sanitation

分享到

中国日报网英语点津版权说明：凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津：XXX（署名）”的原创作品，除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外，其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用，违者必究。如需使用，请与010-84883561联系；凡本网注明“来源：XXX（非英语点津）”的作品，均转载自其它媒体，目的在于传播更多信息，其他媒体如需转载，请与稿件来源方联系，如产生任何问题与本网无关；本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段，版权归原作者所有，仅供学习与研究，如果侵权，请提供版权证明，以便尽快删除。