On Feb. 2, 2007, the United Nations scientific panel studying

climate change declared that the evidence of a warming trend is

“unequivocal”, and that human activity has “very likely” been the driven 【M1】________

force in that change over the last 50 years. The last report by the group,

the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2001, had found

that humanity had “likely” played a role.

The addition of that single word “very” did more than reflect to 【M2】________

mounting scientific evidence that the release of carbon dioxide and other

heat-trapping gases from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning forests have 【M3】________

played a central role in raising the average surface temperature of earth 【M4】________

by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit in 1900. It also added new momentum 【M5】_________

to a debate that now seems centered less on that humans are warming the 【M6】_________

planet, but instead on what to do about it. In recent months, business

groups have banded together to make unprecedented calls to federal 【M7】_________

regulation of greenhouse gases. The subject had a red-carpet moment

when former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient

Truth”, was rewarded an Oscar; and the Supreme Court made its first 【M8】_________

global warming-related decision, ruling 5 to 4 that the Environmental

Protection Agency had not justified their position that it was not 【M9】_________

authorized to regulate carbon dioxide.

The latest report from the climate panel predicted that the global

temperature is likely to rise between 3. 5 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit

whether the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reaches 【M10】________

twice the level of 1750. By 2100, sea levels are likely to rise between 7

and 23 inches, it said, and the changes now underway will continue for

centuries to come.

【M4】