A qualified ‘yes’?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

A qualified ‘yes’?

“Climate change is something that is long-term and happens over decades,” said Kimbell. In other words, one hot summer does not equal climate change.

Still, climatologists say we are in a sustained, relatively rapid period of global warming, which could have significant effects on animal, plant and human life. The 1990s contained some of the warmest years since 1861, when scientists began keeping records. The year 2004 was the fourth-warmest on record.

- Heat waves, CBC News Online, June 30, 2005.

3. An informal media survey suggests that the media’s know-how of basic economics can be hit-and-miss, and industry insiders disagree over its relevance and consequence.

Few news events are as compelling as social unrest. Coverage of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Seattle late last year was thick among newspapers, television, radio and online news outlets, replete with demonstrators, riot-control officers, world leaders and an apologetic mayor.

But the problem, according to some, was a glaring error of commission. Rather than investigate the root issue of the protests—the pros and cons of international free trade—the media focused its attention largely on the unrest taking place outside the negotiations. One obvious reason for doing so was the spectacle’s drama and entertainment.

But a larger question is the degree to which the general media can handle the more mundane, but arguably more important, stories that involve basic economics. While many consider basic economics to be relevant only for the business page, the fundamental nature of economics is about the framing of choices concerning public and private goods and services. As such, it would seem that economics has relevance to many stories in a given news day.