Read the given passage and answer the four questions that follow:-
It's a tough time to be a glacier. Scientists expected Venezuela's Humboldt Glacier to last another decade, but in 2024 it melted into an ice field, shrinking to under two hectares. This marks the loss of the country's last glacier and signals a grim future for others. Scientists warn that glaciers in countries like Germany and Mexico will also disappear as fossil fuel consumption accelerates global warming. Communities depending on glaciers for fresh water face challenges, as glaciers in mountain ranges like the Andes provide vital drinking and irrigation water for millions of people.
However, about 80% of global glaciers, excluding polar ice sheets, could survive if countries rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Tropical glaciers in regions such as the Andes, East Africa, and Indonesia, however, are unlikely to recover due to higher temperatures. Despite pledges in the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, current projections suggest a rise of 3°C, potentially raising sea levels by nearly 10 feet by 2100, threatening island nations like Fiji and the Maldives with destruction.
A proposal to protect ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland involves a 62-mile-long removable underwater curtain, but experts like James Kirkham from the International Cryosphere Initiative caution that such measures are distractions from the real issue: halting global heating. Without decisive action, glaciers will continue to melt, and more countries will lose their ice. The urgency of addressing climate change has never been clearer, and the world's glaciers can't afford any more delays.
Why might the proposal to build a removable underwater curtain be viewed with skepticism by experts like James Kirkham?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → It diverts attention from urgently addressing the root cause of glacier melting.
James Kirkham cautions that such measures are "distractions from the real issue: halting global heating". Global heating is the root cause of the melting, and the curtain draws attention away from it. Skepticism is doubt about whether something is true or useful.
Example: The scientists greeted the miracle cure with skepticism.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: The curtain is considered only one of the viable solutions to preserve glaciers. — Incorrect. Contradicted: calling something one of the viable (workable) solutions is approval, not doubt; the experts do not call it a solution at all.
Option 2: The underwater curtain may not significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. — Incorrect. Wrong reason: the curtain is a barrier to protect ice sheets; it was never meant to cut emissions. The experts' objection is that it is a distraction, not that it fails to cut emissions.
Option 4: It is an irreversible and irrational solution that does not guarantee glacier survival. — Incorrect. Contradicted: the passage calls the curtain removable, so it is not irreversible, and nobody in the passage calls it irrational.