М. М. Кутепова The World of Chemistry Мир

Listen to the communication made by a participant of the radio programme Late Night Report devoted to the problems of the world’s limited energy resources and say what the position of the speaker is and what organization he represents. The notes and words below will help you to understand the speech better:

NOTES
•1. emotional warning — эмоциональное предупреждение

2. 
   harmful use — опасное использование
   
3. 
   by the way — между прочим
   
4. 
   there’s no cause for concern — нет причин для беспокойства
   
5. 
   as far as fossil fuels are concerned — что касается природного топлива
   
6. 
   let me assure you — позвольте заверить вас
   
7. 
   in the short run — сейчас, в настоящее время
   

WORDS
announcer — диктор position — должность
campaign — кампания power — энергия
communication — сообщение to rely on — полагаться на conservation — сохранение representative — представитель fairly — достаточно, довольно
ANNOUNCER: Our final speaker in the studio on the subject of energy is Joseph Huang, Under-Secretary of Energy.
J. HUANG: Thank you very much for the opportunity to join the
discussion.




First. 1 should like to thank Professor William White of the New England Institute of Technology for his valuable contribution to the discussion. It’s also pleasure to express my thanks to Jane Black, the representative of CANE, the Campaign Against Nuclear Energy lor her emotional warning on the harmful use of nuclear energy. 1 also acknowledge with gratitude and affection the brilliant proposals on the use of alternative sources expressed by Dr. Catalina Burgos, the author of several books on alternative technology. I’ve been listening to them all with great interest. By the way, I don’t agree with some of the estimates of the world energy reserves. There’s no cause for concern as far as fossil fuels are concerned. Let me assure you that more oil and gas is being discovered all the time. If we listened to the pessimists (and there are a lot of them around), none of us would sleep at night. In the short run, we must continue to rely on the fossil fuel — oil, coal and gas. Wouldn’t you agree that we must look to the future? It would be in our own interests if our policy were flexible. Unless we thought new research was necessary, we wouldn’t be spending money on it. After all, we wouldn’t have a Department of Energy unless most people thought it was important. The big question is where to spend the money — on conservation of present resources or on research into new forms of power. But I’m fairly optimistic. I wouldn’t be in this job unless I were an optimist. I can’t help feeling that under no circumstances should we come to a hasty decision on that.

2.