In a world with limited land, water and other natural resources (资源), the harm from the traditional business model is on the rise. Actually, the past decades has seen more and more forests disappearing and globe becoming increasingly warm. People now realize that this unhealthy situation must be changed, and that we must be able to develop in sustainable (可持续的) ways. That means growth with low carbon(低碳) or development of sustainable products. In other words, we should keep the earth healthy while using its supply of natural resources.
Today, sustainable development is a proper trend in many countries. According to a recent study, the global market for low-carbon energy will become three times bigger over the next decades. China, for example, has set its mind on leading that market, hoping to seize chances in the new round of the global energy revolution. It is now trying hard to make full use of wind and solar energy, and is spending a huge amount of money making electric cars and high-speed trains. In addition, we are also seeing great growth in the global markets for sustainable products such as palm oil (棕榈油), which is produced without cutting down valuable rainforest. In recent years the markets for sustainable products have grown by more than 50%.
Governments can fully develop the potential of these new markets. First, they can set high targets for reducing carbon emissions (排放) and targets for saving and reusing energy. Besides, stronger arrangement of public resources like forests can also help to speed up the development. Finally, governments can avoid the huge expenses that are taking us in the wrong direction, and redirecting some of those expenses can accelerate the change from traditional model to a sustainable one.
The major challenge of this century is to find ways to meet the needs of growing population within the limits in this single planet. That is no small task, but it offers abundant new chances for sustainable product industries.
【小题1】The traditional business model is harmful because of all the following EXCEPT that ______.A.It makes the world warmer |
B.it consumes natural resources |
C.it brings severe damage to forests |
D.it makes growth hard to continue |
A.China lacks wind and solar energy. |
B.China is the leader of the low-carbon market. |
C.High-speed trains are a low-carbon development. |
D.Palm oil is made at the cost of valuable forests. |
A.develop sustainable products |
B.explore new natural resources |
C.make full use of natural resources |
D.deal with the major challenge |
A.To introduce a new business model. |
B.To compare two business models. |
C.To predict a change of the global market. |
D.To advocate sustainable development. |
In the fight to conserve tropical rainforests, here’s a tool you don’t often hear about:orange peels. Specifically, 12,000 tons of them, dumped (倾倒) on the land. “You don’t usually associate waste treatment with biodiversity benefits, something that’s good for the environment.
Tim Treuer is an ecologist at Princeton University. and he’s talking about a unique conservation story. It started in the early 1990s, when an orange juice producer cal led Del Oro set up a company near the Guanacaste Conservation Area in Costa Rica, a region that contains several national parks and a widlife protection zone.
Del Oro needed somewhere to dump the orange peels, and the company also owned forested land next to the parkland that it had no intention of growing crops on. So a deal was struck: if Del Oro donated its forested land, it could dump orange peel waste on degraded(退化的) land within the conservation area. Then a thousand dump trucks’ worth of orange peels were lying on the land in 1998. “And within about six months the orange peels had been turned from orange peels into this thick black rich soil.”
“I couldn’t even find the site the fist time I saw it.” He couldn’t find it because, over 16 years, the orange peel waste had sent the land on a journey to become a vine-choked jungle, with three times the diversity of tree species of the neighboring control plot, richer soil and a much thicker covering. In other words, the experiment was a success. The results appear in the journal Restoration Ecology.
Treuer says perhaps this lesson could be applied elsewhere. “It’s a shame that we live in a world with nutrient-limited degraded ecosystems and also nutrient-rich waste streams. We’d like to see those things come together a little bit. That’s not license for any agricultural company to just start dumping their waste products on protected areas, but it does mean that land managers, people involved with industrial-scale agricultural operations should start thinking about ways to do thoughtful experimentation to see if in their particular system they can have similar win-win-win results.”
【小题1】What does the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 2 refer to?A.Waste treatment. |
B.A conservation story. |
C.An orange juice company. |
D.The biodiversity benefit. |
A.They are particularly hard to break down. |
B.They can change the color of the land soil. |
C.They are beneficial to biological diversity. |
D.They can gradually destroy the surface soil. |
A.Waste can be used for environmental protection. |
B.No waste can be thrown randomly on the protected areas. |
C.Large-scale agricultural operations start with experiments. |
D.Land managers must be ready to take on their responsibility |
A.How to Deal with Orange Peels |
B.How to Improve the Degraded Land |
C.A Fruitful Experiment in Land Conservation |
D.Ways to Protect Tropical Forests Effectively |
The air is thin and we have to rest several times on the shore hike from camp. To our left, snow-covered mountains disappear into clouds that seem almost close enough to touch. On the plain in front of us, we can just make out a herd of graceful animals. This is why we stay here.
Tibetan antelopes live mainly on the plains of Xizang. Watching them move slowly across the green grass, I'm struck by their beauty. I'm also reminded of the danger they are in. They are being hunted illegally for their valuable fur.
My guide is Zhaxi, a villager from Changtang. He works at the Changtang National Nature Reserve. The reserve is a safe place for the animals and plants of northwestern Xizang. To Zhaxi, protecting the wildlife is a way of life. “We're not trying to save the animals,” he says. “Actually, we're trying to save ourselves.”
In the 1980s and 1990s the population of Tibetan antelopes dropped by more than 50 percent. Hunters were shooting antelopes to make money. Their living places were becoming smaller as new roads and railways were built.
In order to save Tibetan antelopes, the Chinese government placed them under national protection. Zhaxi and volunteers watched over the antelopes day and night to keep them safe from attacks. Bridges and gates were added to let the antelopes move easily and keep them safe from cars and trains.
The measures were effective. The antelope population has recovered and in June 2015, the Tibetan antelope was removed from the endangered species list. The government, however, does not intend to stop the protection program since the threat to the Tibetan antelope has not yet disappeared. Only when we learn to exist in harmony with nature can we stop being a threat to wildlife and to our planet.
【小题1】What can we learn from Zhaxi's words in paragraph 3?A.Protecting the animals can make money. | B.Protecting the animals is protecting ourselves. |
C.He is not fond of protecting the animals. | D.The reserve is only safe for wild animals. |
A.Why hunters hunt Tibetan antelopes. | B.Why antelopes' living places changed. |
C.Why antelopes' number dropped greatly. | D.Why the 1980s and the 1990s are unusual. |
A.Deleted. | B.Changed. | C.Migrated. | D.Recognized. |
A.They will be over-populated. |
B.They will be a threat to man and other wildlife. |
C.They will be on the endangered species list again. |
D.They will be in harmony with nature and humans. |
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