The role of electricity and its future applications in our society

1. Read the text below attentively and translate it:

At a time when communication technologies are becoming ever more essential for pooling knowledge and making fast decisions, one third of the earth's inhabitants — nearly 2 billion people — still have no ac­cess to a modern energy source. The implications of energy over the coming twenty years are wide and varied and will include issues as crucial as economic development and political stability in numerous countries, safeguarding our local and global environment, controlling global warming, social equity, achieving a balance between rural and urban development policies and so on... In a nutshell, sustainable hu­man development.

Whether we are in charge of policy or the economy, it is our joint responsibility to place the issue of access to clean and cost-effective electricity for all at the centre of the much-needed debate to deter­mine not only what type of progress, democracy and humanism, but also what type of development, our generation will bequeath to the generations yet to come. We should consider the conditions for access to electricity, not in terms of sustainable economic, social and political development for all the inhabitants of this planet.

Wide disparities in access to affordable commercial energy threat to social stability and counter to the concept of human development. Air pollution and emissions of gases threaten our health, degrade our en­vironment and alter the global climate system... The current consump­tion of primary energy increases at a rate of 2% every year, but this growth is very unequal around the world:

- Europe 0,2% year

USA-Canada 1,7% year

- Developing countries 4,5% year

If the global growth rate continues, it will mean a doubling of ener­gy consumption by 2035 relative to 1998, and a tripling by 2055. Ener­gy consumption is bound to increase.

Physical resources and technical opportunities are available to meet the challenge of sustainable development, but it requires policy chang­es, such as:

- more effective use of energy (buildings, electric appliances, ve­hicles, production processes);

- increased reliance on renewable energy sources;

- accelerate development and deployment of new energy techno­logies;

- as well as taking into account the costs of the various solutions.

Increased electricity use from all sources seems to be at the heart of the solution in search of a more sustainable future. Its growth rate ex­ceeds by far the GDP growth in most parts of the world and this is bound to continue.

Although electricity cannot be singled out as the most important energy carrier of the future, it is established that:

- the plight of the 2 billion people without access to modern en­ergy carriers of any type can only be solved by an aggressive effort of electrification;

- despite enormous efforts of rural electrification programs that reached about 800 million additional people, the unserved pop­ulation has remained about the same in absolute numbers — 2 bil­lion people;

- electrical driven vehicles seem to be the only way to achieve zero (or near zero) emission of polutants;

- the information revolution we are going through is entirely de­pendent on electricity and telecommunication.

2. Learn the vocabulary:

to make fast decisions - принимать бы­стрые решения

essential - важный, существенный, основной

access - доступ

to pool knowledge - объединять знания

varied - разнообразный

to include - включать

to safeguard - гарантировать

environment окружающая среда issue проблема

to take into account принимать во внимание

to threat - угрожать

environment - окружающая среда

issue - проблема

to determine - определить, решить

disparity - неравенство, несоответст­вие

sustainable - устойчивый

responsibility - тветственность

to bequeath - завещать

to take into account - принимать во внимание

to meet a challenge принять вызов

implication - вовлечение, включение

GDP - валовый внутренний продукт

the plight - положение

electrical driven vehicles - транспортное средство

2. Find in the text the synonyms for the following words:

a) basic	c) manifold	e) question	g) to leave
b) involving	d) to comprise	f) to decide	h) use

4. Give Russian equivalents to the following English word combinations from the text:

Communication technologies, energy source, global warming, rural and urban develop­ment policies, current consumption, the global climate system, for pooling knowledge and making fast decisions, the earth's inhabitants, no ac­cess to a modern energy source, the implications of energy, economic development, political stability, controlling global warming, access to clean and cost-effective electricity, Physical resources and technical opportunities, effective use of energy, increased reliance on renewable energy sources, accelerate development and deployment of new energy techno­logies, Increased electricity use, the most important energy carrier,