IN OUR SOCIETY
PARTI
• Read the text below attentively and translate it.
At a time when communication technologies are becoming ever more essential for pooling knowledge and making fast decisions, one third of the earth's inhabitants — nearly 2 billion people — still have no access to a modern energy source! The implications of energy over the coming twenty years are wide and varied and will include issues as crucial as economic development and political stability in numerous countries, safeguarding our local and global environment, controlling global warming, social equity, achieving a balance between rural and urban development policies and so on... In a nutshell, sustainable human development!
Whether we are in charge of policy or the economy, it is our joint responsibility to place the issue of access to clean and cost-effective electricity for all at the centre of the much-needed debate to determine not only what type of progress, democracy and humanism, but also what type of development, our generation will bequeath to the generations yet to come. We should consider the conditions for access to electricity, not in terms of sustainable economic, social and political development for all the inhabitants of this planet.
Wide disparities in access to affordable commercial energy threat to social stability and counter to the concept of human development. Air pollution and emissions of gases threaten our health, degrade our environment and alter the global climate system... The current consumption of primary energy increases at a rate of 2% every year, but this growth is very unequal around the world:
— Europe 0,2% year
— USA-Canada 1,7% year
— Developing countries 4,5% year
If the global growth rate continues, it will mean a doubling of energy consumption by 2035 relative to 1998, and a tripling by 2055. Energy consumption is bound to increase.
Physical resources and technical opportunities are available to meet the challenge of sustainable development, but it requires policy changes, such as:
— more effective use of energy (buildings, electric appliances, vehicles, production processes)
— increased reliance on renewable energy sources
— accelerate development and deployment of new energy technologies
- as well as taking into account the costs of the various solutions.
VOCABULARY
environment окружающая среда
issue проблема
to determine определить, решить
disparity неравенство, несоответствие
sustainable устойчивый
responsibility ответственность
to bequeath завещать
to take into account принимать во внимание
to meet a challenge принять вызов
EXERCISES
1. Find in the text the synonyms for the following words:
a) basic c) manifold e) question g) to leave
b) involving d) to comprise f) to decide h) use
2. Give the Russian equivalents to the following English word combinations from
the text:
| — energy source - global warming |
— communication technologies
Section I. Power Engineering
- rural and urban develop- - the global climate system
ment policies - current consumption
Find out the key words of the text.
Give the main idea of every paragraph.
Answer the following questions.
a) What issues will the implications of energy include?
b) What is our joint responsibility?
c) What can alter the global climate system?
d) What policy changes are required?
6. Say whether you agree or not with the following statements. In case you don't agree
say why.
a) The implications of energy over the coming twenty years are wide and varied.
b) We should consider the conditions for access to electricity in terms of economic, social and political development.
c) Energy consumption is bound to increase.
7. Speak on the future applications of electricity in modern society. Express your point
of view, using the following phrases and word combinations:
- in my opinion - to start with - I believe
- to my mind - I think - the thing is that...
- the fact is - as far as I know
PART 2
• Read the text and give the title to it.
Increased electricity use from all sources seems to be at the heart of the solution in search of a more sustainable future. Its growth rate exceeds by far the GDP' growth in most parts of the world and this is bound to continue.
Although electricity cannot be singled out as the most important energy carrier of the future, it is established that:
- the plight2 of the 2 billion people without access to modern en
ergy carriers of any type can only be solved by an aggressive effort
of electrification;
Unit 1. The Role of Electricity and Its Future Applications... 13
- despite enormous efforts of rural electrification programs that reached about 800 million additional people, the unserved population has remained about the same in absolute numbers — 2 billion people;
- electrical driven vehicles3 seem to be the only way to achieve zero (or near zero) emission of polutants;
- the information revolution we are going through is entirely dependent on electricity and telecommunication.