D

Old Problem ， New Approaches

        While clean energy is increasingly used in our daily life，global warning will continue for some decades after CO₂ emissions（排放）peak. So even if emission were to begin decrease today，we would still face the challenge of adapting to climate. Here I will stress some smarter and more creative examples of climate adaptation.

     When it comes to adaptation，it is important to understand that climate change is a process. We are therefore not talking about adapting to a new standard，but to a constantly shifting set of conditions. This is why in part at least，the US National Climate Assessment says that:”there is no ‘one-size fit all' adaptation.” Nevertheless，there are some actions that offer much and carry little risk or cost.

      Around the world people are adapting in surprising ways，especially in some poor countries，Floods have some more damaging in Bangladesh in recent decades. Mohammed Rezwan saw opportunity where others saw only disaster. His not-for-profit organization runs 100 river boats that server as floating libraries，schools，and health clinics，and are equipment with solar panels and other communication facilities. Rezwan is creating floating connectivity（连接） to replace flooded roads and highways. But he is also working at a far more fundamental level：his staff people how to make floating gardens fish ponds prevent starvation during the wet season.

       Elsewhere in Asia even more astonishing actions are being taken. Chewang Nophel lives in a mountainous region in India, where he is known as the Ice Man. The loss of glaciers(冰川) there due to global warming represents an enormous threat to agriculture. Without the glaciers, water will arrive in the rivers at times when it can damage crops. Norphel's inspiration come from seeing the waste of water over winter, when it was not needed. He directed the wasted water into shallow basins where it froze, and was stored until the spring. His fields of ice supply perfectly timed irrigation(灌溉) water. Having created nine such ice reserves. Nophel calculates that he has stored about 200, 000m³  of water. Climate change is a continuing process, so Norhel's ice reserves will not last forever. Warming will overtake them. But he is providing a few years during which the farmers will, perhaps, be able to find other means of adapting.

    Increasing Earth's reflectiveness can cool the planet. In southern Spain the sudden increase of greenhouses (which reflect light back to space) has changed the warming trend locally, and actually cooled the region. While Spain as a whole is heating up quickly, temperatures near the greenhouses have decreased. This example should act as an inspiration for all cities. By painting buildings white, cities may slow down the warming process.

    In Peru, local farmers around a mountain with a glacier that has already fallen victim to climate change have begun painting the entire mountain peak white in the hope that the added reflectiveness will restore the life-giving ice. The outcome is still far from clear, But the World Bank has included the project on its of ‘100 ideas to save the planet”.

    More ordinary forms of adaptation are happening everywhere. A friend of mine owns an area of land in western Victoria. Over five generations the land has been too wet for cropping. But during the past decade declining rainfall has allows him to plant highly profitable crops. Farmers in many countries are also adapting like this—either by growing new produce, or by growing the same things differently. This is common sense, But some suggestions for adapting are not. When the polluting industries argue that we've lost the battle to control carbon pollution and have no choice but to adapt, it's a nonsense designed to make the case for business as usual.

    Human beings will continue to adapt to the changing climate in both ordinary and astonishing ways. But the most sensible form of adaptation is surely to adapt our energy systems to emit less carbon pollution. After all, if we adapt in the way, we may avoid the need to change in so many others.

    Going green seems to be a fad(时尚) for a lot of people these days. Whether that is good or bad, we can't really say, but for the two of us, going green is not a fad but a lifestyle.

    On April 22, 2011, we decided to go green every single day for an entire year. This meant doing 365 different green things, and it also meant challenging ourselves to go green beyond easy things. Rather than recycle and reduce our energy, we had to think of 365 different green things to do and this was no easy task.

    With the idea of going green every single day for a year, Our Green Year started. My wife and I decided to educate people about how they could go green in their lives and hoped we could show people all the green things that could be done to help the environment. We wanted to push the message that every little thing counts.

    Over the course of Our Green Year, we completely changed our lifestyle. We now shop at organic(有机的) stores. We consume less meat, choosing green food. We have greatly reduced our buying we don't need. We have given away half of what we owned through websites. Our home is kept clean by vinegar and lemon juice, with no chemical cleaners. We make our own butter, enjoying the smell of home-made fresh bread. In our home office anyone caught doing something un-green might be punished.

    Our minds have been changed by Our Green Year. We are grateful for the chance to have been able to go green and educate others. We believe that we do have the power to change things and help our planet.

    Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman's smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. It often causes confusion (困惑) across cultures. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities). Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don't smile enough. In Southeast Asian culture, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings. Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.

    Our faces show emotions (情感), but we should not try to "read" people from another culture as we would "read" someone from our own culture. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as members of another do does not mean that they do not experience emotions. Rather, there are cultural differences in the amount of facial expressions permitted. For example, in public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do. When with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly.

    It is difficult to make a general statement about Americans and facial expressiveness because of personal and cultural differences in the United States. People from certain cultural backgrounds in the United States seem to be more facially expressive than others. The key is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing emotion are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of "reading" the other person incorrectly.

    Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play the music loudly as they drive on the street.

    Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, and the life of American people. Most of the radio programs are music.

    Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in many places. Once the popular singer is heard all over the country, young people buy his or her tapes. Some of the money from these tapes goes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star.

    There are other kinds of music that are important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. Another is called western or country music. This is started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they were watching.

An increase in a country's working-age population is a blessing. Lots of workers support relatively few children and retired people. So long as the labor market can absorb an increasing number of job-seekers, output per head will rise. That can boost savings and investment, leading to higher economic growth, more productivity gains and developmental speed-up. Yet for countries that fail to seize this opportunity, the results can be tough. 

Consider Thailand. It is rapidly aging. In 2021, the share of Thais aged 65 or over hit 14%, a figure that is often used to define an aged society Soon Thailand will, like Japan, South Korea and most Western countries, see a decreasing supply of workers and flagging productivity and growth without extraordinary measures. Yet unlike Japan and the rest Thailand is not a developed country. It has got old before it has got rich. 

This is a big barrier to Thailand's future development. To protect its aging citizens, many of whom are poor, Thailand's government will have to spend more on health care and pensions (养老金). This will make it harder to invest in productivity-boosting skills and infrastructure (基础设施). And where Thailand goes, many developing countries will follow.

One conclusion is that countries with a working-age burst need seeking more economic growth out of it. India may never have a better chance than the present. It is widely accepted that privatization and looser foreign-investment rules could raise its growth rate. 

Another conclusion is that developing countries need to start planning for old age earlier. They should reform their pension systems, including by raising retirement ages. They should encourage financial markets, providing options for long-term saving and health insurance. And they should try harder to increase female participation in the labor force. Getting more women into jobs would help deal with the fact that women live longer than men, but tend to have less savings and pensions, leaving them in difficult situations in old age. 

Despite its short history, there is a lot of good English poetry around. The earliest English poetry was written in a kind of English that is now difficult to understand. Modern English started around the time of William Shakespeare, towards the end of the 16th century. The 17th century was a great time for English poetry. Shakespeare is famous for his plays. His sonnets, however, belong to the best English poetry. In the next generation of great English poets, we met John Donne. Chinese readers admire his works because of his use of surprising images that reminds them of the works of poets such as Su Dongpo. Before the end of the century, there was another famous writer, John Milton. Once published, his works became famous for the absence of rhyme at the end of each line. In the 18th century, it was Alexander Pope who wrote the finest poetry in England. 

The next period that produced a great number of fine poets was the 19th century. Greatly loved in China were the English romantic poets. The style and atmosphere in poems by William Wordsworth, George Gordon Byron and John Keats have often led us to think of some poets such as Du Fu and Li Bai. 

Finally, modern poets have their special attraction because they stand closest to us both in the language and images they use. Among them we find American poet Robert Frost. 

The introduction of English poetry to China came late. Towards the end of the 19th century, Chinese writers started reading more foreign poetry. The great moment for European literature to come to China was between 1910 and the late 1930s when famous writers such as Lu Xun and Guo Moruo translated both poetry and novels from English into Chinese.