Aufgabe HT 1 - 3.1 · Abitur NRW Englisch GK · Haupttermin (2) 2023

Klausurteil A

Rachel May

The Audit

The story takes place in North America at some point in the near future.

“Dad! You’ve got to come. We got the Audit.” The boy’s normally high voice took on a

husky rasp as he pronounced the last words.

“An audit? You make it sound like a fatal illness,” Bill responded to his anxiety-prone son

with a practiced calmness, as David grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the

5 house. “Relax, Davey. It’s not that big a deal. Our taxes are all in order.” […]

As soon as they entered the house, Bill felt David’s hand tighten and his shoulders stiffen.

Bill’s wife Laurie was standing at the computer in the family room, biting her lip, while

their daughter Jess looked on with an inscrutable expression.

“C’mon, everybody. It’s just an audit, right?” Bill tried the soothing tone again. “What’s

10 the big deal? We’re as likely to get taxes back as to owe them.”

“It’s not a tax audit, honey. It’s the new one.” Laurie’s voice had a touch of the same husky

terror he had heard from David.

“Yeah, Dad. You know, the GCA?” Jess added, with the practiced superiority of a 14-year-old.

“GCA?”

15 David’s voice rose to a squeak. “I heard they take your house and car and everything!”

Laurie came over to give David a hug while Bill sat down, bewildered, at the computer.

“Now I’m sure it’s not that bad. Let me take a look.” He was embarrassed to admit he hadn’t

heard of the GCA, when even his fifth-grader seemed to know all about it.

Big yellow letters on a dark blue screen spelled out GLOBAL CLIMATE AUDIT. Every effort

20 to surf away from the page resulted in the same message: “You have been selected for the

GCA. Internet service will be restored after you complete your climate footprint calculation.”

“You have to do it, Dad. It’s international law.” Jess said. […]

It didn’t give Bill much confidence as he stared at the Climate Footprint Calculator on the

screen. It was essentially a detailed inventory of their daily habits. The GCA already had a

25 surprising wealth of information about them: the amount of gas they bought each week for

the SUV, how many BTUs it took to heat and cool their six-bedroom house, how much hot

water they used, even what percentage of strawberries they bought came from Chile. At one

point he called his credit card company to complain that this outfit had hacked into his records.

“No worries, sir. That’s the GCA. They have treaty rights to that information. It will not be

30 used for any purpose other than calculating your carbon overdraft.”

Overdraft. That sounded ominous. Bill finished the online questionnaire. Shortly after he hit

SEND, a graphic appeared showing three round pictures of Earth and an additional wedge

with most of the Americas. The caption read:

“Your carbon footprint is 3.4 times the acceptable global mean. If everyone generated

35 your level of greenhouse gases, 3.4 planet Earths would be required to accommodate the

emissions. The terms of the Global Climate Accord require that you reduce your

footprint as follows…”

They were giving the family a year to get the number down below three, and two more years

to get it to one, on penalty of severe fines. Bill had two weeks to present the GCA with a

40 plan. […]

Bill didn’t think he could blithely hit “ACCEPT” the way he did whenever iTunes updated

its terms of service. This GCA was deep in his credit card data and might have the power to

hold him to it. He called Laurie’s sister, who was a lawyer.

“Sorry, Bill. The GCA is the real deal. The US and every other nation on Earth signed an

45 agreement this year to enforce its terms. I can’t believe you hadn’t heard about it. World

leaders have been trying to pass a global climate policy framework for decades, but the best

the cowards could do was shift the burden from governments onto individuals. People all

around the world are getting audited, and credit card companies and utilities are obligated

to furnish quantitative information about their consumption patterns.”

50 “Tell me about it. It’s as if they had informers everywhere—our gas tank, our fridge, probably

my underwear drawer. So you’re saying I should accept the terms?”

“I don’t think you have a choice. There’s some fine print you can read at the website that

may give you a way around their requirements, but they tried to make this treaty have teeth.”

So Bill went ahead and nervously clicked the fateful button. It was a relief to see his browser

55 pop up as if nothing had happened. Except that in one corner there hovered a blue box with

yellow letters, which periodically flashed a message, saying “You have 14 days remaining

to complete your climate action plan.”

Annotations

26 BTU – British Thermal Unit, used as a unit of energy in the US and Canada

34 mean – here: average

41 blithely – without any worries

41 iTunes – free software program developed by Apple which acts as a media player

53 to have teeth ( informal) – to be powerful and effective

3.1 Given the serious impact of the climate crisis, comment on the question of whether a state should have the right to regulate individual lifestyles in order to achieve greater sustainability.

(Evaluation: comment) [14 Punkte]