Summary Evaluation Scoring Rubrics

Read the questions and mark YES, PM (Partially Mastered) or NO. YES = 10 points, PM = 5 points, NO = 0 points.

· Total score:________ /100

Text 1.

1. Skim the text ‘The Economics of Climate Change’ by Christian Gollier published at www.oecd.com as quickly as possible. Avoid translating the words you do not know. Read it again more carefully. In pairs, practice guessing the meaning of these words from the context.

The Economics of Climate Change: A Critical Analysis of the Stern Review

The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change asserts that most of the consequences of global warming will not appear before the year 2100. For example, it is assumed in the report that the mean losses in global per capita GDP resulting from climate change will be 2.9% in 2100 and 13.8% in 2200. Thus, future generations will bear most of the costs stemming from global warming. A crucial question, then, is to determine how much current generations should be ready to pay to reduce these future costs. We all agree that one euro obtained immediately is better than one euro obtained next year, mostly because of the positive return we can get by investing this euro. This argument implies that costs and benefits occurring in the future should be discounted at a rate equal to the rate of return of capital over the corresponding period.

Because it is hard to predict the rate of return of capital for the next two centuries, the Stern Review follows another approach, which consists of evaluating explicitly the welfare effect of global warming for each future generation. This welfare approach to discounting is based on the assumption that future generations will be richer than current generations, In a nutshell, one should not be ready to pay one euro to reduce the loss borne by future generations by one euro, given that these future generations will be so much wealthier than us. Using the argument retrospectively, we enjoy a real GDP per capita that is approximately 50 times larger than Europeans who lived during the Napoleonic wars, and it would not have been a good idea for them to make much effort for our welfare.

By investing in technologies to reduce the impact of climate change in the distant future, we redistribute wealth from the poor current generations to the wealthy future ones. Nevertheless, it is a fact that we do not presently implement policies aimed at fighting malaria, improving access to clean drinking water today that would be highly cost-effective and would benefit people in the poorest nations. The priority should be put on helping people currently living below the poverty line rather than on fighting global warming. Worse, by actually focusing on climate change, we are going to force developing countries to divert some of the benefits of their growth, which is so useful to fight poverty, towards cutting carbon dioxide emissions, which is primarily a concern of the wealthy.

2. In pairs, answer the following questions in your own words without repeating the phrases from the text.

1. What is the central message of the Stern Review and what, in Mr Gollier’s opinion, does it imply?

2. Why does Christian Gollier think it is not necessary to invest today in technologies whic will reduce the future impact of climate change?

3. Why would the benefits, in the distant future, of spending money today be small?

4. What policies does Gollier say would help people in poor countries today?

5. What effect does Gollier say cutting carbon dioxide emissions will have on poor countries?

3. Find words or phrases in the text which mean the following:

average –

to accept or tolerate or endure something unpleasant –

originating or developing as the result of something –

an extremely important or necessary thing to ask –

reduced –

the amount of income received each year from an investment, expressed as a percentage of the total amount invested –

in summary, briefly or simply –

producing very good results for the amount of money concerned –

least wealthy countries –

the minimum level of income necessary to meet basic needs –

Text 2.

1. Read the title of a newspaper article from www.economist.com entitled“The DNA database. Slightly less big brother”. Do you have any associations with the words and phrases DNA, database, Big Brother? What might the author refer to in this title? Share your ideas with the class.

Skim the article without translating unknown words. Then read the article more carefully. But again, avoid translating the words. Try guessing the meaning of the words from the context by hypothesizing and checking the validity based on the logic of the text.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1133