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来源:http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21679431-limiting-global-warming-2-c-above-pre-industrial-levels-more-political
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作者:Econmist
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发布时间: 2015-12-02
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1422 次浏览
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But some worry that it is not simple enough, for taking the world’s temperature is not as easy as it sounds. Different parts of the planet warm at different rates, as do different layers of the atmosphere, so all sorts of corrections have to be applied to arrive at a single number. A truly simple, and arguably better, approach would be to use concentrations of greenhouse gases—the cause of the warming—as putative maxima. These gases mix rapidly into the atmosphere, so are easily sampled in ways that brook little dissent.
Others think the idea of a single-number limit is itself flawed. They would try to create some sort of index out of greenhouse-gas concentrations, measures of soot (which absorbs heat), sulphate pollution (which reflects it) and the heat content of the oceans. Such arguments, however, rather miss the point. To quote Bismarck again, “politics is not an exact science”. The 2°C limit is certainly not perfect, and will almost certainly be breached. But its existence focuses minds. And, when the disparate interests of 190 countries have to be reconciled, a little mind-focusing is, perhaps, not such a bad thing.