Gabarito disponível
Texto-base:
There is nothing inevitable about choices that are environmentally destructive. In 1800, there were indeed 550 steam engines in Europe but there were over 500,000 water mills. Coal was more expensive than hydro power and many industrialists were not persuaded of its added value. It was the economic recession of 1825-1848 with increasing agitation by textile workers over salaries and conditions which made the use of coal-powered, steam-driven spinning machines a much more attractive proposition. More machines meant fewer workers and fewer workers meant fewer demands, notably for wage rises. Therefore, the substantial increase in CO₂ emissions in Britain in the first half of the nineteenth century, which through economic competition, war and imperial domination would start a worldwide trend, was not the blind outcome of the machinery of ‘progress’ but the cumulative consequence of a set of very specific decisions taken by identifiable socio-economic actors.
Similarly, the notion that ecological awareness is only a very recent phenomenon where “humanity” finally woke up to the environmental consequences of its economic activities does not stand up to scrutiny. In the period from the beginnings of the industrial revolution to the decade when the movement towards fossil fuels use becomes more marked, awareness of the relationships between humans and their environment or the “natural world” was widespread. Environmental risks have been clearly and repeatedly signalled from the time of the industrial revolution onwards. The notion of an unthinking humanity bringing destruction upon itself does not bear up to examination.
Michael Cronin. Eco-Translation: translation and ecology in the Age of the Anthropocene. New York: Routledge, 2017. p. 11-12 (adapted).
In relation to the previous text, judge the items that follow.
The point the author intends to make with the text is that environmental concerns began with the industrial revolution in Britain.
There is nothing inevitable about choices that are environmentally destructive. In 1800, there were indeed 550 steam engines in Europe but there were over 500,000 water mills. Coal was more expensive than hydro power and many industrialists were not persuaded of its added value. It was the economic recession of 1825-1848 with increasing agitation by textile workers over salaries and conditions which made the use of coal-powered, steam-driven spinning machines a much more attractive proposition. More machines meant fewer workers and fewer workers meant fewer demands, notably for wage rises. Therefore, the substantial increase in CO₂ emissions in Britain in the first half of the nineteenth century, which through economic competition, war and imperial domination would start a worldwide trend, was not the blind outcome of the machinery of ‘progress’ but the cumulative consequence of a set of very specific decisions taken by identifiable socio-economic actors.
Similarly, the notion that ecological awareness is only a very recent phenomenon where “humanity” finally woke up to the environmental consequences of its economic activities does not stand up to scrutiny. In the period from the beginnings of the industrial revolution to the decade when the movement towards fossil fuels use becomes more marked, awareness of the relationships between humans and their environment or the “natural world” was widespread. Environmental risks have been clearly and repeatedly signalled from the time of the industrial revolution onwards. The notion of an unthinking humanity bringing destruction upon itself does not bear up to examination.
Michael Cronin. Eco-Translation: translation and ecology in the Age of the Anthropocene. New York: Routledge, 2017. p. 11-12 (adapted).
In relation to the previous text, judge the items that follow.
The point the author intends to make with the text is that environmental concerns began with the industrial revolution in Britain.
Resolução comentada
O autor refuta a ideia de que a destruição ambiental seja inevitável ou de que a consciência ecológica seja recente, não que ela comece na Revolução Industrial britânica.
O texto afirma que as escolhas destrutivas não eram inevitáveis, mas decisões de atores identificáveis. Também afirma que a consciência ambiental já era ampla desde a Revolução Industrial e que os riscos foram sinalizados desde então. O objetivo não é dizer que as preocupações ambientais começaram ali.
Análise das alternativas
A) Errada: distorce o argumento central. B) Correta: o foco é a escolha humana e a consciência anterior à era recente.
Referência: Michael Cronin, Eco-Translation (2017).
Resolução comentada do VaiConcursos.