Passage 2
Americans don’t like to lose wars.Of course,a lot depends on how you define just what a waris.There are shooting wars—the kind that test patriotism and courage--and those are the kind atwhich the U.S.excels.But other struggles test those qualities t00.What else was the GreatDepression or the space race or the construction of the railroadsIf American indulge in a bit offlag--when the job is done,they earned it.
Now there is a similar challenge--global warmin9.The steady deterioration of the very climateof this very planet is becoming a war of the first order,and by any measure,the U.S.is losing.
Indeed,if America is fighting at all,it’sfighting on the wrong side.The U.S.produces nearly aquarter of the world’s greenhouse gases each year and has stubbornly made it clear that it doesn’tintend to do a whole lot about it.Although l 74 nations approved the admittedly flawed Kyotoaccords to reduce carbon levels,the U.S.walked away from them.There are vague promises ofmanufacturing fuel from herbs or powering cars with hydrogen.But for a country that tightly citespatriotism as one of its core values,the U.S.is taking a pass on what might be the most patrioticstruggle of all. It′ s hard to imagine a bigger fight than one for the survival of a country′ s coasts andfarms, the health of its people and stability of its economy.
The rub is, if the vast majority of people increasingly agree that climate change is a globalemergency, there′s far less agreement on how to fix it. Industry offers its plans, which too oftenwould fix little. Environmentalists offer theirs, which too often amount to native wish lists that couldweaken America′ s growth. But let′ s assume that those interested parties and others will always bentthe table and will always demand that their voices be heard and that their needs be addressed. Whatwould an aggressive, ambitious, effective plan look like--one that would leave the U.S. bothenvironmentally safe and economically so
A.Human wars
B.Economic crisis
C.America' s environmental policies
D.Global environment in general