1.01 Задание 1. Задание на понимание основного содержания прослушанного текста

Speaker A

Climate change is a real problem. but its importance has been grossly exaggerated. It is far less important than other social problems such as poverty. infectious diseases. deforestation. and extinction of species. not to mention war. nuclear weapons and biological weapons. We do not know whether the observed climate changes are. on balance. good or bad for the health of the biosphere. And the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide as a fertilizer of plant growth are at least as important as its effects on climate. So we agree that more research is needed to improve scientific understanding of global warming.

Speaker B

Many people have the impression that there is significant scientific disagreement about global climate change. lt‘s time to lay that misapprehension to rest. There is a scientific consensus on the fact that Earth's climate is heating up and human activities are part of the reason. We need to stop repeating nonsense about the uncertainty of global warming and start talking seriously about the right approach to address it. The basic picture is clear. and some changes are already taking place in the Arctic. affecting both human and non-human communities. as predicted by climate models.

Speaker C

I'm not disputing that there has been global warming. There was a lot of global warming in the 19303 and ‘405. and then there was a slight global cooling from the middle '408 to the early "705. And there has been warming since the middle '705. especially in the last 10 years. But this is natural, due to ocean circulation changes and other factors. It is not human induced. Nearly all of my colleagues are skeptical about this whole global-warming thing. Well. just because there are two associations. changing with the same sign. doesn't mean that one is causing the other.

Speaker D

The impacts of the climate changes that scientists are predicting are being tested in a number of systems. For plants. it seems that elevated levels of carbon dioxide will increase plant biomass. water use efficiency. and reproductive effort. Some experiments have shown that this includes an increase in pollen production. Since some plants have pollen that is highly allergenic, this could mean increased exposure to allergens and an increase in illness for those who are pollen allergic. it remains to be seen whether this increased exposure will also cause an increase in the number of people with allergic disease.

Speaker E

The warming in the past several decades has been faster and has risen to higher temperatures than for the previous thousands of years. Rising carbon dioxide levels can easily explain the warming. but there is no alternative explanation that does not involve rising carbon dioxide or predict further warming. Scientists have done their job; it is time now to confront the reality of human-induced climate change resulting from emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel consumption. In order to control and avoid the effects of global warming we must start urgent action to end or at least reduce it.

Speaker F

We barely notice changes that happen gradually, that's why we accept gradual changes that we would reject if they happened abruptly. Environmentalists despair that global warming is happening so fast. In fact. it isn't happening fast enough to make people worry. If we could jump in a time machine and experience a single day in 2056. we'd return to the present shocked and terrified. The human brain is a remarkable device that was designed to rise to special occasions. Global warming is a deadly threat precisely because it fails to trip the brain‘s alarm. leaving us soundly asleep in a burning bed.