Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/expressions are given in bold in the passage to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Radically changing monsoon patterns, reduction in the winter rice harvest and a quantum increase in respiratory diseases-all part of the environmental doomsday scenario which is reportedly playing out in South Asia. According to a United Nations Environment Programme report, a deadly three-km deep blanket of pollution comprising a fearsome cocktail of ash, acids, aerosols and other particles has enveloped this region. For India, already struggling to cope with a drought, the implications of this are devastating and further crop failure will amount to a life and death question for many Indians. The increase in. premature deaths will have adverse social and economic consequences and a rise in morbidities will place an unbearable burden on our crumbling health system. And there is no one to blame but ourselves. Both official and corporate India has always been allergic to any mention of clean technology. Most mechanical two wheelers roll off the assembly line without proper pollution control system. Little effort is made for R & D on simple technologies, which could make a vital difference to people's lives and the environment . However, while there is no denying that South Asia must clean up its act, skeptics might question the timing of the haze report. The Johannesburg meet on Rio+10 is just two weeks away and the stage is set for the usual battle between the developing world and the West, particularly the U.S. President Mr. Bush has adamantly refused to sign any protocol, which would mean a change in American consumption level. U.N. environment report will likely to nd a place in the U.S. arsenal as it plants an accusing nger towards controls like India and China. Yet the U.S. can hardly deny its own dubious role in the matter of erasing trading quotas. Richer countries can simply buy up excess credits from poorer countries and continue to pollute. Rather than try to get the better of developing countries, who undoubtedly have taken up environmental shortcuts in their bid to catch up with the West, the U.S. should take a look at the environmental profligacy, which is going on within. From opening up virgin territories :or oil exploration to relaxing the standards for drinking water, Mr. Bush's policies are not exactly beneficial , not even to America's interests. We realize that we are all in this together and that pollution anywhere should be a global concern other wish only be more tunnels at the end of the
tunnel.