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Study the passages below and answer the questions that follow each passage.
One major obstacle in the struggle to lower carbon dioxide emissions, which are believed to play a role in climate change, is the destruction of tropical rainforests. Trees naturally store more carbon dioxide as they age, and the trees of the tropical rainforests in the Amazon, for example, store an average of 500 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare (10,000 square miles). When such trees are harvested, they release their carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This release of carbon dioxide through the destruction of tropical forests, which experts estimate accounts for 20% of global carbon dioxide emissions annually, traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, which leads to global warming.
The Kyoto treaty set forth a possible measure to curtail the rate of deforestation. In the treaty, companies that exceed their carbon dioxide emission limits are permitted to buy the right to pollute by funding reforestation projects in tropical rainforests. Since forests absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, planting such forests helps reduce the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide, thus balancing out the companies’ surplus of carbon dioxide emissions. However, attempts at reforestation have so far been unable to keep up with the alarming rate of deforestation, and it has become increasingly clear that further steps must be taken to curtail deforestation and its possible deleterious effects on the global environment.
One possible solution is to offer incentives for governments to protect their forests. While this solution could lead to a drastic reduction in the levels of carbon dioxide, such incentives would need to be tied to some form of verification, which is extremely difficult since most of the world’s tropical forests are in remote areas, like Brazil’s Amazon basin or the island of New Guinea, which makes on-site verification logistically difficult. Furthermore, heavy cloud cover and frequent heavy rain make conventional satellite monitoring difficult.
Recently, scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have suggested that the rates of deforestation could be monitored using new technology to analyze radar waves emitted from a surveillance satellite. By analyzing multiple radar microwaves sent by a satellite, scientists are able to prepare a detailed, high-resolution map of remote tropical forests. Unlike photographic satellite images, radar images can be measured at night and during days of heavy cloud cover and bad weather.
Nevertheless, critics of government incentives argue that radar monitoring has been employed in the past with little success, citing the Global Rain Forest Mapping Project, which was instituted in the mid-1990s amid concern over rapid deforestation in the Amazon. However, the limited data of the Mapping Project was due only to the small amount of data that could be sent from the satellite. Modern satellites can send and receive 10 times more data than their predecessors of the mid-1990s, obviating past problems with radar monitoring. Furthermore, recent technological advances in satellite radar that allow for more accurate measurements to be made, even in remote areas, make such technology a promising step in monitoring and controlling global climate change.
The passage begins by explaining the environmental problem: {“One major obstacle in the struggle to lower carbon dioxide emissions... is the destruction of tropical rainforests.”} It describes how trees store carbon dioxide and how deforestation releases it, contributing to global warming. The author goes on to mention efforts such as the Kyoto Treaty, which aimed to address deforestation through reforestation projects. However, he also emphasises the inability of the treaty alone to remedy the issue. It is in this context that the author presents an alternate idea: {“One possible solution is to offer incentives for governments to protect their forests…”} He discusses previous issues with this project, highlighting how “verification” was a limiting factor. Towards the end, the author highlights that advancements in technology can help circumvent this problem: {“Recently, scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have suggested that the rates of deforestation could be monitored using new technology to analyze radar waves emitted from a surveillance satellite.”} This explanation emphasizes that modern radar technology may overcome previous verification difficulties in remote, cloudy areas. This appears to be the core agenda - to showcase how certain modern technologies might aid in the process of forest conservation and help mitigate emissions. Option B, therefore, comes closest to capturing this intent.
Option A is incorrect because the author does not simply state that no good solution exists; he instead highlights the promise of new satellite radar monitoring technology as a potential solution to a major problem. We can also eliminate Option C since the main point is not merely to emphasize the problem but to discuss a promising solution (satellite radar monitoring). Option D mischaracterizes the passage: the focus is not on the companies’ emission reductions but rather on the need for improved monitoring methods to verify and control deforestation effectively through an alternate route.
