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1、 考研英语阅读精选 地理工程学和全球变暖超级链接据美国连线杂志报道，本周局部科学家及政府官员将齐聚加利福尼亚州的阿西洛马，商讨地理工程学（geoengineering）在将来是否会对气候变化带来不利影响这一议题。然而，如今事实状况是，为了能够更好的生存，人类在过去已对地球做出了很多地理改造，并且负面效应也已消失。据悉，人类的文明社会,当前社会的一切富强、富强、进展、进步都发生在全新世(Holocene)。全新世开头于1万年前，人类为了更好的生存，不断建立水利、开垦良田、建筑城市，并且形成文明。在这个过程中，人类渐渐地对地球进展了各种地理工程改造。全新世对于人类具有非常重要的意义。如今，人类改造
2、地球会造成何种后果还不得而知，但科学家认为，目前全新世已不复存在，人类目前处于人类世 (Anthropocene)。这是一个新的地质纪元，在这个纪元，人类的活动正威逼着地球的自我调整力量。此外，人类此前对地球所做地理工程学改造已消失弊端。The geoengineering genieMason InmanLike any human endeavour, geoengineering carries hefty doses of uncertainty, doubt and fear.How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacio
3、us(大胆的，无畏的) Quest to Fix Earth”s Climate by Jeff GoodellOnly a couple of years ago, geoengineering seemed like science fiction. Some scientists talked about cooling the planet using massive shields to reflect sunlight back into space or by loading the atmosphere with aerosols（汽雾剂 ”?r?s?l）, but few t
4、hought of these planetary-scale projects as real contenders（竞争者） for averting climate catastrophe. But perhaps because the challenge of mitigation(缓和，减轻) is now fully recognized geoengineering has gone mainstream. Increasingly, scientists are turning their attention to it: last month at the Asilomar
5、 conference centre in Monterey, California, experts met for the first time to consider how the field can be regulated. Meanwhile, governments are holding parliamentary hearings on the subject and venture capitalists are looking to it as an investment opportunity.“I don”t especially want to work on g
6、eoengineering. But now that the genie is out of the bottle, I feel I have to,” says climate modeller Raymond Pierrehumbert of the University of Chicago in Eli Kintisch”s “Hack the Planet”, one of the first books to cover this burgeoning （”b?:d?ni? 增长快速的,进展很快的）subject for a popular audience. Though p
7、otentially capable of rapidly reducing temperatures, the numerous technologies that come under the geoengineering umbrella would probably have unintended and potentially disastrous consequences. Despite its promise and perils（危急，冒险）, however, geoengineering is a virtual（”v?:tju?l 事实上的,实际上的,实质上的 ）unk
8、nown among the general public, so Kintisch”s book and another, Jeff Goodell”s “How to Cool the Planet”, both published this month, have come at a crucial time. These two fast-paced tours through the science of geoengineering will help inform growing debates about whether governments should fund larg
9、e research projects into climatic cooling and about how the various methods might be tested.Both Goodell and Kintisch make it clear that geoengineering is at best（充其量，至多）a complement to drastic cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. “We have to immediately launch a worldwide program to stop polluting our
10、 atmosphere with this surprisingly pernicious（有害的,有毒的;恶性的,致命的）trace gas,” Kintisch argues. Most scientists feel much the same, viewing geoengineering strictly as a possible emergency backup plan that should be used only if things get really dire. And because of the risks involved, the idea of doing
11、field trials, especially of technologies for so-called ”solar radiation management” that is, blocking out sunlight in one way or another is still contentious（爱争辩的，有异议的;引起争辩的）among scientists. But Goodell makes a strong argument in favour of at least some limited tests. He tells the tale of Charles H
12、atfield, a travelling rainmaker who won acclaim across the United States in the early 1900s. When Hatfield tried to bring rain to San Diego and torrential（奔流的;猛烈的;汹涌的）floods ensued（ in?sju:接着发生，接踵而来，因而产生）, he was hounded out of the city, his reputation in tatters（衣衫褴褛的；被粉碎的;彻底破产的）. With geoengineeri
13、ng, writes Goodell, “it might be smart to begin sorting good ideas from bad, lest we fall under the spell of another generation of Charles Hatfields”. That is, if we do the research, then perhaps we”ll decide that some methods are best forgotten.Hack the Planet: Science”s Best Hope or Worst Nightmar
14、e for Averting Climate Catastrophe by Eli KintischDangerous journeyFor the time being, however, all of the existing plans and proposals are just “armchair geoengineering”, as Kintisch puts it. And the cast of armchair geoengineers is still very small. The result is that both books cover a lot of the
15、 same ideas and quote many of the same sources, and both have in-depth chapters about two particular options: fertilizing the oceans with iron, and ships spewing cloud-brightening particles. Kintisch”s book, though, offers up more examples of geoengineering. One is a proposition by the nonprofit Ice
16、911, started by California-based engineer Leslie Field, to protect sea ice from melting by covering it with sacks full of silicon beads. Another is a scheme put forward by atmospheric scientist Brian Toon, who proposes modifying coal-fired power plants to belch the chemical carbonyl sulphide at ground level, from where, Toon figures, it will ev
