detail v.详细描述
The Earth has already warmed 1 degree Celsius since the 19th century. Now, a major new United Nations report has looked at the consequences of jumping to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius.
Half a degree may not sound like much. But as the report details, even that much warming could expose tens of millions more people worldwide to life-threatening heat waves, water shortages and coastal flooding.
expose sb. to sth.使...遭受
life-threatening adj.致命的
heat wave n.热浪；热浪潮
coastal adj.(位于)海岸的
Half a degree may mean the difference between a world with coral reefs and Arctic summer sea ice and a world without them.
coral reef n.珊瑚礁
Arctic adj.北极的
The report also warns that vulnerable areas, like many African countries and small island nations, may struggle to cope with multiple impacts.
vulnerable adj.易受伤的；易受影响的
cope with 处理，应付
Crop failures, heat waves and the expansion of malaria-carrying mosquitoes compound when they occur together.
malaria n.疟疾
mosquitoe n.蚊子
compound v.加剧，恶化
These dangers are no longer remote or hypothetical. At current rates of warming, the world will likely cross the 1.5 degree threshold between 2030 and 2052, well within the lifetime of most adults and children alive today.
hypothetical adj.假定的，假设的
threshold n.阈值，临界值
And 1.5 degrees is a best-case scenario. Without an extremely rapid, and perhaps unrealistic, global push to zero out fossil fuel emissions and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, 2 degrees or higher this century looks more likely.
best-case scenario 最好的情况
zero out 取消；归零
fossil fuel n.矿物燃料，化石燃料
emission n.排放
carbon dioxide n.二氧化碳
atmosphere n.(包围地球的)大气，大气层
“My view is that 2 degrees is aspirational and 1.5 degrees is ridiculously aspirational” said Gary Yohe, an environmental economist at Wesleyan University.
aspirational adj.有雄心壮志的
“They are good targets to aim for, but we need to face the fact that we might not hit them and start thinking more seriously about what a 2.5 degree or 3 degree world might look like.”
target n.目标
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