| From The Newspaper (24) Environment (14) |
March 3, 2023
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| Recently he thought that having a policy to reduce CO2 was very unique to the history of human beings. There have been some notions that a lot of people in the world believe. For example, a lot of people think that peace is important, wars shouldn't happen. But, for the past 30 years, a lot of wars have happened because of different standing points and policies of the countries. And, for the citizens, there are only a very limited number of things during wars. Another notion is that people want to be rich equally. As the world GDP has been increasing for the past 30 years, about 5 times or so. So, in theory, everybody in the world should be rich, but they are not. Because rich people want to stay rich, they have fear of losing their wealth, so they are going to invest their money and be richer. On a national level, the government thinks in the same way. Rich countries want to  stay rich, so they become more competitive. If a country is rich, they have a lot of good companies, the companies offer good salaries, as they want to collect smarter workers. Poor countries stay poor because they lack good workers. But, in reducing CO2, anybody, poor or rich, in any country, can join the environmental movement, and can share the result as well: equally, safe and live in a secure world. Rich people can't avoid disasters. If they want to stay in an expensive hotel on a tropical island in Bali, the hotel might disappear because of high tides. If there is a tipping point for CO2 in the atmosphere, and if after exceeding it, the world might remain permanently in extraordinary heat and drought in which nobody can escape from it. In the COP29 last year, they decided that rich countries should support poorer countries in their efforts to reduce CO2, in order to prevent disasters. Reducing CO2 needs two perspectives: high technology and people's consensus. Thinking of the present level of CO2 in the atmosphere and the increasing world population, as well as the GDP ~more gross production will produce more CO2, high technology is needed. Actually, a lot of companies and institutions in the world are working in various genres: Energy : To make more efficient solar panels, wind generation blades, etc., to implement new types of energy like hydrogen, etc. Collecting CO2 : He watched on TV some universities have been studying about this and some of them are in the practical use stage. Transportation : To switch from gasoline vehicles to electric vehicles, to make more efficient and lighter batteries, to make hydrogen engines practical. Accommodation : To make houses, offices, buildings, well-insulated spaces. Finishing to use kerosene heaters in the future. Materials : To transfer plastics to reusable and decomposable materials. He watched on TV that a lot of natural materials are being experimented on now. Agriculture : Substitutional meats. He recently read in a newspaper that some farmers are experimenting to reduce their cows' methane emission by changing their feed. They said that 80% of the methane can be reduced in the future. He had heard that smartphones have important roles to develop developing countries' business environments. Before their poor infrastructure was a big disadvantage, but smartphones have changed it, enabling them to use net-banking, internet for communicating, etc. If poor countries can offer lands and/or offshore for solar and wind power generations, they also can get energy by themselves. He watched on TV in which a lot of new skilled workers are needed to maintain wind power generators. For the government, the important thing is to decide. If they don't show their clear attitude, companies can't decide about their new investment for new machines, etc. And companies' biggest incentive is customers' preferences. If the government can push to reduce food packages, food companies will make simpler packages, now they believe that elaborate packages give customers good impressions. We customers need to change more. |
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No. 511
*notion :概念
*gross :総計
*implement :実行
*hydrogen :水素
*insulate :断熱する
*substitutional :代替の
*offshore :沖合
*elaborate :凝った