Learn Vocabulary from Newspaper Articles (THE HINDU)

We need Paris: on U.S pulling out of climate deal

The U.S. strikes a blow to the climate pact, but the rest of the world must step up the efforts

In abandoning the Paris Agreement on climate change, U.S. President Donald Trump has chosen to adopt a backward-looking course on one of the most important issues facing humanity. Ignoring scientific evidence on carbon emissions, Mr. Trump has carried his contempt for environmental regulations to an extreme with the decision to pull out of a hard-won compact that seeks to make the world safer for future generations. His move is incongruent with economic reality, because the most valuable American companies in manufacturing, computing, banking services and retailing, ranging from General Electric to Apple and Tesla, all see a future for growth and employment in green innovation, and not in fossil fuels. Some of them have begun reaping the benefits. For poorer residents of various countries, though, weakening of the climate agreement and failure to progressively reduce carbon emissions by 2020 and beyond threaten to impose misery and deepen poverty. Every successive year is becoming hotter than the previous one, and the ice sheets in West Antarctica and Greenland, which hold the key to sea levels, have recorded a steady loss in mass. As a major legacy polluter, the U.S. has a responsibility to mitigate the damage. This is something that Barack Obama recognized, but Mr. Trump has abdicated.

It is heartening, however, that there is strong support for the Paris Agreement among many individual States and cities in the U.S., while the European Union and China, which together represent about 39% of man-made emissions, now effectively lead the effort to cut greenhouse gases. Energy efficiency is having an impact, and has levelled off coal use in America; it has in fact fallen over the past four years, including in 2016, in spite of an overall rise in energy consumption. Mr. Trump’s assertion that he represents Pittsburgh, not Paris, is clearly misplaced. India, which he has unfairly blamed for seeking climate funds and building coal plants, should strengthen its pledge to cut the emissions intensity of GDP by 35% by 2030, based on 2005 levels, and expand its ambitious renewable energy programme. The wider challenge now is to maintain the momentum on climate finance for mitigation and adaptation, since the U.S. pledge of $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund made earlier is unlikely to be fulfilled. Funding is crucial for poorer countries in order to cope with extreme weather events and sharp variations in food production caused by climate change. The U.S. exit should not affect the overall goal, which is to keep the increase in global average temperature over pre-industrial levels to less than 2°C. Equally, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities that underpins the UN climate framework, and casts a duty on industrial powers responsible for the world’s accumulated carbon emissions, needs to be strengthened. Source : THE HINDU

IMPORTANT WORDS FROM ARTICLE & THEIR MEANING

1) Abandoning (को छोड़) - Abandon-ning
Meaning - cease to support or look after (someone); desert - Verb
Synonyms - discard, leave
Antonyms - advance, allow
Example - Many poor countries are abandoning autocracy.

2) Contempt (अपमान करना) - Con-temp-tMeaning - disregard for something that should be considered - Noun
Synonyms - antipathy, hatred
Antonyms - approval, esteem
Example - The tobacco companies may be guilty of contempt of court for refusing to produce the documents.

3) Incongruent (अयोग्य) - In-con-gru-entMeaning - incongruous, incompatible - Adjective
Synonyms - conflicting, contrary
Example - Most of the reports are vague, filled with incongruent detail.

4) Mitigate (कम करना) - Miti-gateMeaning - make (something bad) less severe, serious, or painful - Verb
Synonyms - mollify, allay
Antonyms - extend, increase
Example - It is unclear how to mitigate the effects of tourism on the island.

5) Abdicated (त्याग) - Ab-di-cateMeaning - fail to fulfil or undertake (a responsibility or duty) - Verb(of a monarch) renounce one's throne - Verb
Synonyms - forgo, relinquish
Antonyms - continue, defend
Example - He abdicated all responsibility for the care of the child.

6) Assertion (अभिकथन) - Ass-er-tionMeaning - a confident and forceful statement of fact or belief - Noun
Synonyms - affirmation, allegation
Antonyms - denial, rejection
Example - The assertion of the right to freedom is very important to all peoples.

7) Accumulated (जमा हुआ) - Ac-cum-lateMeaning - gather together or acquire an increasing number or quantity of - Verb
Synonyms - acquire, assemble
Antonyms - decrease, diminish
Example - I seem to have accumulated a lot of books.

8) Unflappable (स्थिर) - Un-flap-ableMeaning - having or showing calmness in a crisis - Adjective
Synonyms - cool, calm
Antonyms - nervous, upset
Example (English) - Unflappable Ananya Vinay won 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee title on Thursday.
Example (Hindi) - शान्त अनन्या विनय ने गुरुवार को 90 वीं स्क्रिप्स नेशनल स्पेलिंग बी खिताब जीता।

Now considering the article above as a Reading Comprehension question, try to answer the following -

• What is the Paris Climate Agreement?
• Is this climate agreement really such a big deal?

Given below are some words to check your vocabulary you can make sentences with those words in the comment section which will be reviewed by us.

• Reaping
• Ambitious
• Adaptation
• Misery