The Effects of Global Warming on Weather
There are hidden factors which scientists call “feedback mechanisms”. No
one knows quite how they will interact with the changing climate. Here’s one
example: plants and animals adapt to climate change over centuries. At the
current estimate of half a degree centigrade of warming per decade, vegetation
(植物) may not keep up. Climatologist James Hansen predicts climate zones will
shift toward the poles by 50 to 75 kilometres a year—faster than trees can
naturally migrate. Species that find themselves in an unfamiliar environment
will die. The 1000-kilometer-wide strip of forest running through Canada, the
USSR and Scandinavia could be cut by half. Millions of dying trees would soon
lead to massive forest fires, releasing tons of CO2 and further
boosting global warming. There are dozens of other possible
“feedback mechanism”. Higher temperatures will fuel condensation and increase
cloudiness, which may actually damp down global warming. Others, like the
“albedo” effect, will do the opposite. The “albedo” effect is the amount of
solar energy reflected by the earth’s surface. As northern ice and snow melts
and the darker sea and land pokes (戳) through, more heat will be absorbed,
adding to the global temperature increase. Even if we were to
magically stop all greenhouse-gas emissions tomorrow the impact on global
climate would continue for decades. Delay will simply make the problem worse.
The fact is that some of us are doing quite well the way things are. In
developed world prosperity has been built on 150 years of cheap fossil
fuels. Material progress has been linked to energy consumption.
Today 75 percent of all the world’s energy is consumed by a quarter of the
world’s population. The average rich-world resident adds about 3.2 tons of
CO2 yearly to the atmosphere, more than four times the level added by
each Third World citizen. The US, with just seven per cent of the global
population, is responsible for 22 per cent of global
warming.
It can be inferred from the passage that______.
A．the developing world has decided to increase its energy consumption B．a third-world citizen adds less than a ton of CO2 yearly to the atmosphere C．the world climate would soon gain its balance if we stopped greenhouse gas emissions D．future prosperity of the world is dependent on cheap fossil fuels
