VIP Class Note (JJ)
Speaking exercise
Which country do you want to go the best. They make a plan about building more roads.Â
Revised:
Which country do you want to go to the most?
Which country are you hoping to visit the most?
They made a plan to build more roads.
Vocabulary
taekwondo: 跆拳é“
flexibility: 柔韧性
unveiled: be released
infrastructure: 国家赖以生å˜å’Œå‘展的, 如é“è·¯ã€å¦æ ¡ã€ç”µåŽ‚ã€äº¤é€šã€é€šè®¯ç³»ç»Ÿç‰)
clogged: å µå¡žçš„
exacerbate v. to get worse
long overdue adj.: 早就应该å‘生的事情
Reading
Article 1.
- Transport, mostly because of our obsession with the private car, is now the major factor driving us towards climate breakdown, in this and many other nations and traffic congestion exacerbates the problems associated with this.
The government’s response is to press ahead with a £27bn programme of road building over the next five years, the chancellor has confirmed, with a wider infrastructure strategy to be unveiled at a later date. Rishi Sunak billed the move as “the largest ever investment in English strategic roadsâ€.
Sunak said the £27.4bn from 2020-25 would “pay for work on over 20 connections to ports and airports, over 100 junctions, 4,000 miles of roadâ€.
He added: “Governments have been trying to fix the problems caused by traffic congestion since the 1980s. Every year, millions of cars crawl along our road networks clogged in traffic. This government’s road development scheme is going to get it done.â€
Darren Shirley, chief executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said the money was “welcome [but] long overdueâ€. But motoring groups queried whether it would be enough, with evident decline after an annual spend of £5bn on Britain’s local roads during the past decade. Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said that “The evidence of motorists’ eyes is that the already poor state of the roads has worsened significantly following the recent flooding and storms.â€
Sunak said that road building would be part of a broader national infrastructure strategy, the publication of which has now been delayed until later this year. He said that would involve capital investment of more than £600bn over the parliament. According to the Treasury, that includes spending on rail, communications, schools, hospitals and power networks.
Problems:
– climate breakdown
Article 2.
Campaigners have launched a legal challenge to try to prevent billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being spent on a huge road-building programme, which they say breaches the UK’s legal commitments to tackle the climate crisis and air pollution.
Lawyers acting for the Transport Action Network (Tan) have begun legal proceedings against the Department for Transport calling for the road-building scheme, which was confirmed last month by the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to be suspended. They argue that ministers did not take into account the government’s legally binding commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. They also say the government has not considered whether the £27bn programme is in line with its obligations under the Paris climate agreement.
The UK’s road network and its wider transport infrastructure are crucial in the country’s efforts to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. The transport sector is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and the only one to have increased its emissions in recent years.
Chris Todd, Tan’s director, said it was impossible to take the government seriously on the threat posed by climate change when it is “set to burn billions on the largest ever roads programmeâ€.
George Monbiot states “New roads do not solve traffic congestion. They exacerbate it. By increasing flow in some parts of the network, they generate bottlenecks in others. Governments then seek to bypass the bottleneck, creating a worse one further along the system.â€
Rowan Smith, from the solicitors Leigh Day, which is pursuing the case on behalf of Tan, said the group was raising “legitimate concerns†at a time when it was widely established that the climate emergency “demands a move away from a continued reliance on fossil fuels towards more sustainable transportâ€.
The government’s climate change adviser has joined calls for ministers to reconsider its road-building plans.
Chris Stark, the head of the Committee on Climate Change, said it would be better for the economy and the fight against climate breakdown for the billions of pounds allocated for road-building to be invested in broadband. “The government mustn’t be investing in anything likely to increase carbon emissions,†Stark told the BBC. “I expect that video-conferencing will become the new normal and we won’t return to travelling the way we did. I would spend the roads budget on fibre. You would get a huge return to the economy with people having better connections. You would save people’s time and increase their productivity.
Problems:
– air pollution and climate crisis
– The transport sector is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and the only one to have increased its emissions in recent years.
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