NOT that long ago, the world wondered whether clean energy could survive without government support. Now the question is how far it can spread. The number of electric vehicles. which was about 1 million in 2015, last year reached 2 million. In electricity generation, too, trend is with the greens. In the first half of this year wind, solar and hydro generated a record 35% of Germany's power.

Greater success is breeding greater ambition. California is proposing to reach 60% renewable energy by 2030: 176 countries have clean-energy goals. Hawaii, America's most oil-dependent state, has promised to be 100% renewable by the middle of the century. So have 48 poor countries vulnerable to climate change. This week the number of multinationals making a commitment to running their operations on 100% renewable energy rose to 100.

But not every target is helpful. To see why, consider that goal of 100% renewable energy. It makes solving climate change seem easy. In fact, though wind and solar can generate the whole country's electricity some day, renewables still account for less than 8% of the world's total power output. Moreover, cleaning up electricity is only part of the battle. Even though gas-fired heating and cooking can be at least as big a source of greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable heating gets little attention. Transport policy is unpredictable, too. Carmakers may hit their goal of annual sales of 10 million electric vehicles in a decade, but battery-powered road transport, shipping and aviation are dreams. A much-quoted claim that America could rely on wind, solar and hydro alone for its electricity has recently been bitterly criticized by a group of respected academics.

Most importantly, a 100% renewables target confuses means with ends. The priority for the planet is to stop net emissions（净排放量）of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. Putting too much emphasis on wind, solar and other renewables may block off better carbon-reduction paths. After decades of investment, it is wrong to leave nuclear power off the table. Carbon emissions in Germany actually rose because it chose to phase out nuclear power gradually and so burned more coal. New technologies, such as "direct air capture" systems designed to separate carbon dioxide from the air, may in time prove vital. Likewise, greater energy efficiency could reduce emissions by even more than using renewables would.

“Globalization” has been a buzzword of the last three decades. The increase in the exchange of knowledge, trade and capital around the world, driven by technological innovation, brought the term into the spotlight.

Some see globalization as a good thing. The United Nations has even predicted that its forces may have the power to eliminate poverty in the 21st century. Others disagree. They may have a point. The International Monetary Fund admitted in 2007 that inequality levels might have risen as a result of foreign capital (资本) investment in developing countries.

However, economic historians suggest that the question of whether the benefits of globalization outweigh the disadvantages is more complicated. 【小题1】 But why does it matter whether globalization started 30,300, or even 3,000 years ago? Because it is impossible to say how much of a “good thing”a process is in history without first defining for how long it has been going on.

Although Adam Smith, known as the Father of Economics, never used the word, globalization is a key theme in The Wealth of Nations (《国富论》) , his most important work that remains a classic in economics today. His description of economic develop ment has as its basic pinciple the integration (融合) of markets over time. As the division of labor enables output to expand, the search lor specialization expands trade. 【小题2】

The trend is nearly as old as civilization. Primitive (原始的) divisions of labor, between hunters and shepherds, grew as villages and trading networks expanded to include wider specializations. Eventually, armorers (军械工) to craft bows and arrows, carpenters to build houses, and seamstress to make clothing, all appeared as specialist artisans. They traded their wares for food produced by the hunters and shepherds. 【小题3】

This process that Smith described sounds a lot like “globalization” even if it was more limited in geographical area than what most people believe the term suggests today.

Globalization has not always been a one-way process. Evidence shows that (here was also “deglobalization” in history, like during the interwar (两次世界大战之间的) period in the 20th century. 【小题4】 It has a history that stretches back for thousands of years, starting with Smith's primitive hunter-gatherers trading with the next village, and developing into the globally interconnected societies we know today. Whether you consider globalization to be a “good thing,” it appears to be an essential element of the economic history of mankind.

Market traders and street vendors (小贩) are making a comeback across China, and this time they find themselves equipped with a new set of digital skills essential to directing the vast consumer market. To make mom-and-pop retail stands active, the country’s leading e-commerce platforms are lending a helping hand, offering a series of services from inventory support to accessible financing backed by technologies to finally promote domestic (国内的) spending and employment.

Domestic wholesale site 1688.com is among the first group of tech players with such offerings. At the heart of the action plan is an effort to link street vendors directly with factories, effectively avoiding middlemen and saving time and costs. “The large number of small-scale merchants on the site has managed to gain the upper hand in price negotiations, while manufacturers are more willing to mass-produce goods as the economy of scale serves to reduce costs, thus creating a win-win situation,” general manager Wang Hai said. On the financial front,1688’s parent Alibaba Group is offering interest-free loans worth a total of 70 billion yuan, with which qualified merchants can purchase goods in quantity. Risk assessment for each applicant is conducted by sister service My bank.

Meanwhile, e-commerce giant JD.com has promised to secure quality goods worth more than 50 billion yuan and is offering each stall keeper up to 100,000 yuan worth of interest-free loans for the purpose of filling their inventory. To stabilize (稳定) employment, JD decided to add a number of job positions that either require flexible working hours, allow working from home or are designed to promote startup businesses. For posts related to logistics, delivery, warehouse management and packaging, people from poverty-stricken areas should be employed first.

“The novel coronavirus outbreak will accelerate the digital transformation of the real economy, and individual traders and smaller stores are no exception,” said Xu Lei, CEO of JD’s retail unit. “We have the ability and, more important, the responsibility to inject vitality (活力) into these entities, thus contributing to the economic rebound and stabilizing employment.”