Time to use insurance to stop people building on flood plains (1600 р.с.)

No one would build London today where its founders did. At the mouth of the Thames, it is threatened by the rush of water when there is flooding inland. On the edge of the North Sea, it is buffeted by sea surges when storms blow up offshore. The supremacy of water-borne trade that once dictated its location has ebbed: the cranes that dot ted busy docks have given way to financial skyscrapers, housing and excavations for the 2012 Olympics.

London is lucky. The centre of modern Britain’s wealth, it has been powerfully protected from the sea by the great Thames Barrier, and against trouble upstream by sturdy ce ment dykes. Not so Oxford and other towns in southern England, desolated by river flooding on a scale not seen in 60 years. Not so Sheffield and their Yorkshire neighbours, which suffered even worse floods after heavy rainfall.

South-central Europe is fighting a heat wave fierce enough to cause forests to combust. In China, India and Pak istan over a thousand have died in floods in the past few weeks alone. Global warming may be

changing the world’s climate but personal and political choices determine how much damage it can do.

Britain’s politicians are under attack. The Britain`s govern ment, repeatedly warned, should have focused harder on flood defences. The local-government bodies and water companies involved in flood management have failed to сoordinate and planners have been too willing to spread cement over land that used to absorb water. Sewers and drains have become antiquated and overloaded, and power, water and sewage plants unsuitable to floods.

Behind these failures lies unwritten agreement made half a century ago, under which insurers have covered almost all homeowners against flooding at no extra charge. The government, in return, promised to maintain flood de fences. With the true cost of flooding thus concealed, develop ers have been allowed virtually unchecked to build homes on flood plains in England and individuals have had no reason not to buy them. That deal has begun to break down, as claims from flooding increase, more reliable flood-mapping becomes available and competition among insurers makes the subsidy from homeowners on high ground to low-lying ones less tenable.

A tenth of English homes stand on flood plains. Their own ers bought them on the assumption that they would be insur able against flooding, among other risks. The government and insurers should therefore find a way of continuing to offer them cover. But for new developments, insurance firms must be free to price the risk of flooding as accurately and transpar ently as they can. If it costs more to insure flood-prone proper­ties, their price will be lower, and developers less keen to build them. That would be good: now that flooding seems to be a regular feature of the climatic calendar, mankind needs to start moving uphill.

Notes:

to buffet — бить extra charge — дополнительная

off-shore — от берега плата

to give way — уступать to conceal — скрывать

to ebb — прийти в упадок claim — иск

sturdy — крепкий available — доступный

dyke — дамба subsidy — дотация, плата

sewer — коллектор tenable — разумный

antiquated — устаревший is not so much — не столько

insurer — страховщик to underwrite — гарантировать

assumption — предположение flood–prone — подвергаться

затоплению

4. Alternative Fuel: Russia’s Strides (1800 р.с.)

Strictly speaking, it is not money that makes the world go round, but energy. Ask any of the eight world leaders about the toughest issue they’ve got to tackle, and will almost certainly answer: car fuel, electricity, heat and industrial power.

Worldwide, high oil prices and global warm ing are pushing the issue of sustainability from the back burner to full heat. Russia, as the G8 member with the biggest reserves of oil and gas, is on the spot. Problem is the abundance of oil and gas that are keeping the development of alternative and renewable fuel from becoming a national priority. But that doesn’t mean that people in Russia aren’t look ing for other ways to make their engines run.

Two years ago, one of Russia’s economic experts gave a forecast. «The possible replacement of oil and gas with other energy resources in Russia is not a question of the next few days or years because Russia has huge hydrocarbon reserves and they are relatively cheap. Some day, potentially, «innovational» energy resources can account for a lot more than 7 percent of consumed energy. In some regions use of non-traditional energy sources might reach as much as 30 percent by 2030».

In Russia there are businesses that opt for renewable energy sources, but they are not major businesses. Current energy legislation keeps the major players from changing over to «non-traditional» sources. But there is an abundance of small businesses that offer, for instance, solar panels that people can buy for their homes. On a small, non-centralized scale, there is some visible effort. The Moscow city gov ernment, for instance, is funding an experiment in using solar panels to heat homes. Another experimental project is the «green office,» where employers are encouraged to adopt conservation strategies in the workplace. Last year, meanwhile the chief of the Onexim investment fund, announced plans for the Hydrogen Partnership – an effort to build a car park that would run on hydrogen in the Far East.

The scientists are at the forefront of searching for other sources of energy besides oil. Earlier, for instance, researchers at the Institute of Microbiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences made a startling dis covery: a rare microorganism that pro duces hydrogen by breaking down cellulose. The result? The U.S. Department of Energy Institute will continue researching the organism. Indeed, hydrogen could be a source of alternative energy. But there are two problems: it is highly combustible and difficult to contain conveniently in a car tank, and extreme ly costly to make. Hence the interest in an organ ism that can give out hydrogen essentially by feeding on wood. The higher the price for oil, the more interest there is in alternative fuel. The more interest there is, the more chances that our technologies will be applied. The problem is that while there might be great potential demand, the real demand is not dependable.

There is one factor that could seriously affect demand for alternative fuel in Russia: energy costs, something that is forecasted to hap pen within the next few years. The pressures of cost will drive the need for new sources of fuel.

Notes:

to make smb. do smth. — hydrocarbon — углеводород

заставлять кого-то делать что-то to opt — выбирать

tough — трудный hydrogen — водород

renewable — возобновляемый combustible — горючий

to look for — искать dependable — надежный

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29