Hello everyone
welcome back.
In this part we will discuss paragraph 4.
At the beginning of this paragraph
the author switches the topic by claiming that
not every target is helpful.
The readers may be a little shocked by this statement
and the author gives us the reasons next.
The goal of 100% renewable energy
makes solving climate change seem deceptively easy.
Deceptive adj.
tending or having power
to cause someone to accept as true or valid
what is false or invalid.
eg: a deceptive appearance
Deceptively adv.
In the rest part of this paragraph
the author provides an in-depth analysis
to tell us why the goal of 100% renewable energy is misleading.
Before we go to the analysis
first let’s watch a video to get some background
about the difficulties in the wide-scale adoption
of renewable energies.
In fact
though wind and solar can generate
all a country’s electricity on some days
renewables still account for less
than 8% of the world’s total power output.
That means
the majority of the power output
are still produced by the traditional energies.
Moreover
cleaning up electricity is only part of the battle
because we have to face another problem
of cleaning up heating.
Even though gas-fired heating and cooking
can be at least as big a source of greenhouse-gas emission
renewable heating gets minuscule or very small attention.
The replacement of gas-fired heating and cooking
with renewable heating has been ignored
although they are one of main sources
in the greenhouse-gas emission.
Transport policy is erratic too.
Erratic adj.
1. having no fixed course: WANDERING
eg: an erratic comet
2. a. characterized by lack of consistency
regularity or uniformity
eg: erratic dieting
b. deviating from what is ordinary or standard: ECCENTRIC
eg: an erratic genius
Thus the transport policy is uncertain too.
Carmakers may hit their goal of annual sales
of 10 million electric vehicles in a decade
but battery-powered road haulage
shipping and aviation are dreams.
Even if the carmakers achieve their goal
in the selling of electric vehicles
the lack of supportive facilities
required by the electric vehicles
such as the super capacity battery
which could provide sustainable power to the vehicles
for long distance transportation
still impedes the implementation of green transportation.
A much-quoted claim that America could rely on wind
solar and hydro alone for its electricity
has recently been witheringly criticized
by a group of respected academics.
Withering adj.
acting or serving to cut down or destroy: devastating
eg: a withering fire from the enemy
a withering rebuke
the book has been the subject of withering criticism.
Witheringly is adv.
So the academics have denounced
the claim and believed that the total dependence
on the renewable energy was not realistic.
That brings us to the end of this part
and next time we are going to talk about
the rest part of the article.
See you next time.