高中二年级英语(人教版)上册 Unit 9 Reading

　　WELCOME TO THE EARTH SUMMIT

　　In 1972, the United Nations held a meeting in Stockholm, Sweden to share ideas about ways to take better care of the earth. At the Stockholm summit, representatives from more than one hundred countries discussed some of the most important problems facing our planet. Since then, several Earth Summits have been held and much progress has been made. In 2002, the Earth Summit was held in Johannesburg in South Africa. One of the main themes of the summit was "sustainable development", or the question how we can continue developing the world without damaging the environment.

　　In Johannesburg, experts from all over the world spoke about different topics and discussed new ways to solve old problems. Most of the speakers talked about the "big three", the three biggest killers in the world--contaminated drinking water, poor sanitation and air pollution. According to the World Health Organisation, the big three cause more than seven million deaths every year. That is 15% of all the deaths in the world. 20% of the people on earth do not have access to clean drinking water. Air pollution alone causes almost three million deaths. Most of these deaths happen in rural areas, where people bum wood and coal to cook food and stay warm. Air pollution is also a big problem in very large cities, especially in developing countries.

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