介绍:
通知：本周六（5月24日）10:00-11:30，北京西直门西环广场（凯德MALL）T1座16层，欢迎与《慢速英语》主持人之一云峰面对面练习慢英。
完整文稿请登录：http://english.cri.cn/7146/2014/05/08/2582s825429.htm
This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
China's environment ministry has described the new environmental protection laws as powerful tools against pollution, but warned of challenges in implementing the laws.
Vice minister Pan Yue says a good law only gets you halfway there; and it needs to be implemented.
Calling the new law "the most powerful legislation in the environmental category", Pan says it can still fail without ironclad enforcement.
Pan's remarks came days after China approved sweeping revisions to the law with tough penalties for polluters.
After two years of discussion, the revision expands the law to 70 articles from 47, enshrining environmental protection as the government's overriding priority, with specific articles and provisions on smog.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Global carbon emissions from agriculture can be reduced by 50 to 90 percent by 2030 using strategies including eating less beef, reducing food waste and managing soil nutrients better.
A study in the United States has found that if all the recommended strategies were implemented, up to 5 giga-tons of emissions could be eliminated from the agricultural sector. That's an equivalent of removing all the cars in the world.
The Strategies for Mitigating Climate Change in Agriculture looked at both food consumption and production.
The study found that agriculture is responsible for roughly a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions, and that about 70 percent of direct greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture come from livestock, in particular from cows, sheep and other grazing animals.
Considering beef's immense share of livestock carbon emissions which is six times greater than poultry on a per unit basis, many of these emissions could be eliminated if beef demand were reduced.
Researchers say convincing the Americans and Chinese to eat less beef is of particular importance.
The U.S. is already beginning to consume less beef but still remains the world's biggest consumer of red meat. Per capita beef consumption in the country dropped from a peak of 40 kilograms in 1976 to just less than 27 kilograms in 2009. It's still excessive by global standards.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A campaign has been held in Beijing to boost public awareness of cancer prevention and control, addressing a growing health crisis China cannot afford to ignore.
The Cancer Prevention campaign was launched by the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association in 1995, and it falls on April 15 to 21 each year.
This year's campaign has urged people to improve disease prevention through a slew of activities, including online interviews, lectures and free health checks.
Cancer has been the top killer in Beijing for seven consecutive years.
Although Chinese people's livelihood has improved, the incidence of cancer and mortality have also been on the rise.
50 years ago, cancer ranked the fourth-biggest cause of death, while in 2007, it had become the top killer in China. Doctors say unhealthy lifestyles are partly to blame for the rising incidence of cancer.
The number of children treated for severe malnutrition in an in-patient center in the Central African Republic has tripled compared to last year. That's according to UNICEF, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund.
In Bangui Pediatric Hospital, the largest in-patient nutrition treatment center in the country, the first three months of this year saw almost 700 children treated for severe acute malnutrition with medical complications. That was a sharp contrast with the figure of 200 over the same period last year.
UNICEF warned the number of malnourished children will continue to rise because the majority of families in the African country have been unable to plant their own crops or work to earn a living. Other problems include lack of access to safe water, sanitation and health care.
It's estimated that 28,000 children in the country will suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year; and their lives and health are threatened.
Malnutrition is even more deadly in the rainy season, when diarrhea and malaria are at their peak; both put the lives of already malnourished children at risk.
大家还在听
