Final Word from Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Secr.-Gen. António Guterres of the UN sounded the alarm at the General Assembly yesterday: "The world must wake up. We are on the edge of an abyss - and moving in the wrong direction. Our world has never been more threatened. Or more divided. We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes. The covid-19 pandemic has supersized glaring inequalities. The climate crisis is pummeling the planet." It was an opening everyone could agree with, no matter what one's position on covid or climate change is. Then came the real message: "We need to strengthen global governance." He wants to use the "cascade of crises" to tighten international control. Most immediately for Czechs this means higher rates for energy, because emissions allowances have become the international currency. Governments will pay energy subsidies to reduce the "glaring inequalities," which will merely drive up prices for the allowances, thereby adding to the energy crisis and to the international control. [ Czech Republic United Nations secretary general carbon credits ]
Glossary of difficult words
to exacerbate - to make (a problem, bad situation or negative feeling) worse;
to sound the alarm - to issue a warning about something dangerous, risky or troublesome;
abyss - a deep or seemingly bottomless chasm; a catastrophic situation seen as likely to occur;
cascade - a succession of devices or stages in a process, each of which triggers or initiates the next;
to supersize - greatly to increase the size of;
glaring - highly obvious or conspicuous;
to pummel - to strike repeatedly with the fists.