Listen and read 17: The summer inferno - Thấm Tâm Vy

Nội dung text: Listen and read 17: The summer inferno - Thấm Tâm Vy

1. LISTEN AND READ 17 Fires in Australia have spread across the country, at one point closing the highway to the Nullarbor Plain THE SUMMER INFERNO that links Western Australia to the east coast. SYDNEY In early December former fire chiefs called on the government to help organise an The country’s largest-ever bushfires ignite debate about climate change emergency meeting to discuss the growing threat of wildfires amid global warming. THE FIRES eased over Christmas. But as 2020 neared, Australia’s inferno blazed Scott Morrison, the prime minister, had different plans. He took his family on a holiday anew. In the state of Victoria, thousands of people fled to the seashore on New Year’s to Hawaii, without telling the public. After an outcry, and the deaths of two firefighters Eve as bushfires ringed the coastal town of Mallacoota. Samuel McPaul, a volunteer during his absence, he returned just before Christmas. But he rejected requests to firefighter, died earlier in neighbouring New South Wales when a “fire tornado”, as change the approach his conservative Liberal-National coalition takes to climate colleagues described it, overturned his vehicle. The federal government has called in change. military planes and ships to help evacuate people sheltering on beaches in both states. The government’s climate policy takes its tone from John Howard, a former Liberal Experts say the fires are the most extensive in Australia’s history and are far from over. prime minister, who once dismissed calls for action as “the latest progressive cause” and They have sparked heated debate about the impact of climate change and the a “substitute religion”. As the fires took hold in November, Michael McCormack, the government’s equivocal commitment to tackling it. deputy prime minister, blamed “inner-city raving lunatics” for linking them to climate New South Wales is the country’s most populous state and has suffered some of the policy and Australia’s coal industry. Coal, a big source of carbon emissions, is biggest losses: 15 lives and about 1,300 homes. (Pictured is a house under threat in Australia’s second-biggest export, and is used to generate almost two-thirds of its Lake Conjola.) electricity. The coalition abolished a carbon tax imposed by the former Labor government. In place of this market-driven mechanism it set up a public fund worth A$3.5 billion ($2.5 billion), partly to pay polluters to cut emissions. Critics say such measures are inadequate. Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist, cited the fires when tweeting criticism of Australia’s climate policy. Mr Morrison retorted that he was “not here to try and impress people overseas”. As the fires raged, some countries at a recent UN climate conference in Madrid grumbled about Australia’s apparent sleight of hand, involving the use of carbon credits linked to its emission- reduction targets for 2020 as a way of meeting its higher targets for 2030. Angus Taylor, the energy minister, argues that because Australia produces just 1.3% of global emissions, it “can’t singlehandedly have a meaningful impact”. The fires are raising the temperature of Australia’s climate-change debate. Mr Morrison says climate change is just one of “many factors” behind the inferno. Greg Mullins, a former fire chief, retorts that these factors all relate to climate change. He and fellow ex-chiefs still plan to convene a meeting to discuss the problem, even if the government stays aloof. “We’ll invite the prime minister,” he says, wryly. Some business leaders also want the government to adopt a tougher climate policy. Peter Harmer, the head of IAG, an insurance firm, speaks of an “urgent need for Australia to prepare for and adapt to climate change”. With no end to the bushfires in sight, such calls are bound to grow. [The Economist UK, January 3rd, 2020] Notes; The state’s bushfires have covered almost 40,000 square kilometres, nearly the area of - equivocal : (giải pháp, câu trả lời) lập lờ, nước đôi Denmark. That is greater than the total area during the past three years’ fire seasons. - to take its tone : theo giọng điệu; mang dấu ấn - sleight of hand: [> French, léger de main] = skilful: lão luyện These usually start in October, Australia’s mid-spring. In 2019 the fires began in July. A - to stay aloof: remain unfriendly or interested in people = thờ ơ; phớt lờ drought that started in eastern Australia three years ago had left plenty of dry fuel. On December 18th Australia as a whole had its hottest day on record, at 41.9°C. The fires TQT LISTEN AND READ 17