【BBC 新聞】12 月 13 日-美國的環(huán)保問(wèn)題(2009-12-13) BBC 新聞講解:美國的環(huán)保問(wèn)題(2009-12-13)
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While the G8 summit was underway, and once the news of Wednesday"s London bombings
became known, the American president George Bush was widely quoted on the subject of international terrorism. He spoke of his resolve to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to "spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm" what he called "their ideology of hate".
But as the G8 meeting drew to a close, the US President had rather less to say about the Plan of Action, announced by the world leaders, to tackle what they deemed the "serious and long-term challenge" of climate change.
Stephen Evans, who"s on a driving tour of the western United States, says many Americans remain
unconvinced that this is an issue they need to take seriously:
I"ve just driven down from Salt Lake City, through the desert of Utah and Nevada. It is a magnificent sublime wilderness where horizons are wide when they"re not broken by the craggy
splendour of an ancient volcanic landscape. As the sun sinks here, the rocks glow red andit"s hard to imagine a threat to the environment where space seems limitless.
And yet, many of these escarpments hide sites where humans dispose of all sorts of waste. Just beyond the beauty is a land being violated. This is where America throws its trash over the back wall.
I"ve just been to Yucca Mountain in Nevada where tunnels are being dug deep inside to bury spent
nuclear fuel -- engineers told me for ten thousand years. Around here there are dumps for every toxic waste. Dumps that feature on maps but not in the public consciousness. The city of Salt Lake has a big rubbish dump in Skull Valley.
But none of this is evident. Where people on other continents feel the pressure of the crowd,
Americans still breathe in what seems deceptively like limitless, virgin territory.
It"s also a country, a continent, of extreme climates. This land freezes in winter and is scorching
now -- even with snow on the peaks around -- and that too affects the American perception of climate change.
In Europe, insurance premiums rise as homes get built on flood plains in a search for every inch of exploitable space. In America, there is not this connection between wallets and weather. Extremes
of climate seem natural.
Only on the crowded coasts is the environment an issue. California and New York have tough regulations. In between, they often can"t see what the fuss is about. It"s a big country they feel. The taxi-driver in Texas who told me that global warming was hokum is not a lone voice, some of the
big oil companies that lobby Mr. Bush are also loathe to concede a link between their product and climate change.
Even where there is concern, it can seem unfocussed. I went to a shop in Santa Fe in New Mexico-- a trendy shop for concerned people, where there was a lot of hessian, and earthenware products and posters with slogans about the earth.
They also sold wooden pens there -- ballpoint pens in casing wood rather than plastic. I asked the woman behind the counter why on earth they sold wooden pens. She replied as though I was a bit stupid -- that wood was more natural -- "natural", as though that somehow meant it was kinder on the world"s resources.
And at some of the fancier supermarkets now in trendy areas, the checkout person asks what kind of bag you want: "Paper or plastic?" I usually ask which one is better for the environment, to
which the reply is invariably: "I don"t know".
The environment sometimes seems like the fashionable issue of the moment, the right badge to wear, the current political designer label.
Things are changing though. Some Christians argue that gas-guzzling cars are a waste of the bountiful creation of their and the President"s god.
Neo-conservatives are worried that importing oil means relying on hostile regimes, which,moreover, might funnel some of the dollars to anti-American causes -- what the neo-cons call a "terrorism tax on the American people".
The former head of the CIA, James Woolsey, for example, drives a Honda Prius, powered partly
by a battery rather than the notorious internal combustion engine which burns gasoline and emits
the smoke that many scientists believe causes global warming.
Mr. Woolsey, no tree-hugging liberal he, drives this cleaner car for what he calls "national security reasons".
And further from the chattering elites in Washington, concern about the environment usually translates as concern about the price of fuel. The last time I was in the Six Pack Diner in Detroit,
the car-workers guzzling their cholesterol were not opining about the melting polar ice-caps.
They are worried, though, that their employers -- Ford and General Motors -- have failed to catch
a new appetite for cars that consume less. More clean Japanese cars means fewer jobs in Detroit.
So there is pressure on Mr. Bush over the environment but not as a grand cause. It"s a concern
rather about importing an expensive fuel from hostile places. And Mr Bush may respond with tax
incentives for cleaner technology that the US market seems increasingly to want.
Not so spectacular of course as grand declarations of global good intent, but maybe effective nonetheless.
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當八國峰會(huì )期間倫敦大爆炸的消息傳出來(lái)以后，很多人都在討論美國總統布什關(guān)于國際恐怖主義的態(tài)度問(wèn)題。布什談到了如何將恐怖分子繩之以法，他要在廣大人民中“形成一種壓倒
性的希望和激情”，也就是他所談到的“仇恨意識”。
但是隨著(zhù)八國首腦會(huì )議的臨近，各國首腦們紛紛表示，美國總統布什很少談?wù)摰叫袆?dòng)計劃，
來(lái)解決其他各國都很重視的氣候變暖問(wèn)題。
斯蒂芬·埃文斯目前正開(kāi)著(zhù)汽車(chē)在美國西部旅行。他說(shuō)，大部分的美國人并不認為氣候變暖是一個(gè)值得他們重視的問(wèn)題。
我剛剛開(kāi)車(chē)從鹽湖城穿過(guò)尤他沙漠來(lái)到了內華達。那是一幅廣闊的野外的景象，那里有寬闊
的地平線(xiàn)。還有一派火山一樣的崎嶇的壯觀(guān)的景象，這并沒(méi)有影響到地平線(xiàn)的壯觀(guān)。當太陽(yáng)
在這里落山的時(shí)候，巖石發(fā)出火紅的光芒。很難想象出，這樣的景象會(huì )給某些地區的環(huán)境造成威脅。
然而，很多這樣的懸崖峭壁實(shí)際上是人類(lèi)傾倒各種各樣的垃圾的地方。在這樣一派美麗景色
的背后，是人類(lèi)對環(huán)境的破壞。這里就是美國傾倒垃圾的地方。
我剛剛去過(guò)內華達的絲蘭山。在那里，人們正在挖掘一個(gè)巨大的地洞來(lái)掩埋核廢料。工程師告訴我，將要埋藏 10000 年。這附近還有很多傾倒各種有毒物質(zhì)的垃圾堆。這些垃圾堆大到
可以在地圖上顯現出來(lái)，但是人們卻沒(méi)有意識到問(wèn)題的嚴重性。鹽湖城在司庫爾河谷地區就有一個(gè)巨大的垃圾堆。
但是這些現象對于美國人來(lái)說(shuō)還不夠重視。當其他大洲的國家正在感受著(zhù)人口稠密給他們帶來(lái)的不便時(shí)，美國還在這片廣闊的處女地上自由地呼吸。
這是一個(gè)有著(zhù)極端的氣候的國家和大洲。冬天土地都凍結了，而夏天卻出奇的炎熱——同時(shí)
山頂附近卻有積雪——這一切都無(wú)不影響著(zhù)美國人對于氣候變暖的看法。
在歐洲，如果你在大的平原上面建造房屋，以期開(kāi)闊更多的空間的話(huà)，那你要上繳更多的稅款。但是在美國，氣候變暖和金錢(qián)還沒(méi)有聯(lián)系起來(lái)。極端的氣候對于美國人來(lái)說(shuō)是很正常的。
只有在那些擁擠的沿海城市里，氣候變化才是一個(gè)問(wèn)題。加利福尼亞和紐約都有嚴格的規定。
但是在其他地方，人們根本不知道為什么要談?wù)撌裁礆夂蜃兣?。美國是一個(gè)地域廣闊的國家。
德克薩斯州的一個(gè)出租車(chē)司機對我說(shuō)，氣候變化這類(lèi)話(huà)都是廢話(huà)。而這位司機的觀(guān)點(diǎn)是具有代表性的，代表了很多人的心聲。有些游說(shuō)總統的大石油公司也討厭將他們的產(chǎn)品與氣候變化扯上關(guān)系。
即使在有些地方，人們表現出對氣候變化的顧慮，那么這樣的顧慮也不很?chē)乐?。我?lái)到新墨西哥州的圣達菲的一個(gè)專(zhuān)門(mén)為擔心氣候變暖的人們開(kāi)設的商店里。那里有一些粗麻布，還有一些陶器和海報，上面印有關(guān)于保護地球的標語(yǔ)。
在那里，店主售賣(mài)木制筆——就是外面是木制包裝的圓珠筆。我問(wèn)了售貨員為什么要賣(mài)木制的筆。她的回答讓我感覺(jué)自己好像有點(diǎn)傻——“這樣更自然嘛！”似乎某種程度上這意味著(zhù)對大自然會(huì )更有好處一樣。
在有些時(shí)尚地區的超市里面，買(mǎi)完?yáng)|西結帳時(shí)，售貨員會(huì )問(wèn)，您要塑料袋還是紙袋。通常我會(huì )問(wèn)他們，哪種袋子更環(huán)保一些？而我得到的回答總是：“不知道。”
環(huán)境有時(shí)好像是一個(gè)時(shí)尚的話(huà)題，是我們要戴的正確的徽章，是當前政客們的標簽而已。
情況已經(jīng)發(fā)生了很大的變化。有些基督教徒認為那些耗油量極大的汽車(chē)是對上帝的慷慨仁慈的一種浪費。
有些新保守主義者擔心，進(jìn)口石油就意味著(zhù)依靠了那些敵對國家。同時(shí)，進(jìn)口石油也使很多美元流失到了美國的敵對國。新保守主義者把這種情況叫做“恐怖主義者從美國人民身上征收的稅款” 。
例如，中央情報局的前局長(cháng)詹姆士·烏爾什就開(kāi)著(zhù)一輛本田普銳斯。這部車(chē)的驅動(dòng)力是電池，
而不是臭名昭著(zhù)的內燃機——燒汽油排廢氣，科學(xué)家們認為會(huì )造成氣候變暖的內燃機。
烏爾什先生不是一個(gè)自由主義者。他開(kāi)著(zhù)這部更加環(huán)保的車(chē)，目的是為了維護他所謂的“國家安全”。
從美國的一些評論員的評論當中，我們不難發(fā)現，目前人們的擔心已經(jīng)從環(huán)保轉向了油價(jià)問(wèn)題。上次我去底特律的時(shí)候，正在緊張生產(chǎn)汽車(chē)的工人們并沒(méi)有意識到全球變暖導致的冰川融化問(wèn)題。
但是他們擔心的是他們的雇主——福特和通用汽車(chē)公司——還沒(méi)有意識到人們已經(jīng)開(kāi)始越
來(lái)越喜歡耗油量低的汽車(chē)了。
于是布什總統就有了壓力，他必須重視環(huán)保這個(gè)并不算大事業(yè)的事業(yè)。
這是一個(gè)事關(guān)從敵對國家進(jìn)口石油的大問(wèn)題。
而布什總統則要對傳統汽車(chē)征稅，以此來(lái)推進(jìn)美國市場(chǎng)需求量越來(lái)越大的環(huán)?？萍?。
環(huán)境保護當然不是一個(gè)很偉大的事業(yè)，但是的確是一個(gè)很有效的事業(yè)。
[NextPage 詞匯學(xué)習]
1.underway adj.在進(jìn)行中的
例句：Road and bridge construction is underway.
公路和橋梁正在建設中。
A major enquiry is underway after the death of a union official.
工會(huì )的一名官員死亡之后，大范圍的調查已經(jīng)開(kāi)始。
2.tackle vt.解決; 應付
例句：I don"t know how to tackle this problem.
我不知道該如何處理這個(gè)問(wèn)題。
3.deem vt.認為, 相信
例句：Don"t you deem that it is your duty to help?
你不認為助人是你的責任嗎?
4.unconvince vt.使不確信,使不信服
5.dispose vt.vi.處理; 處置
例句：He disposed his books on the shelves.
把書(shū)籍排列在書(shū)架上。
使愿意或準備做; 使傾向于; 使有意于; 使易于
例句：His criminal records do not dispose me to trust him.
他的前科迫使我無(wú)法信任他。
6.deceptively adv.迷惑地
例句：the deceptively smooth surface of the glacier
看似光滑的冰川表面
His voice was deceptively mild.
他的語(yǔ)調令人誤以為很平和。
7.premium n.額外費用；附加費
例句：You have to pay a premium for express delivery.
寄快速投遞你得付額外費用。
8.concede vt.vi.承認
例句：I conceded that I had made a mistake.
我承認我犯了一個(gè)錯誤。
9.bountiful adj.慷慨給予的
例句：If the British were as bountiful as the Americans,donations to charities would more than
treble.
如果英國人像美國人那樣慷慨,那么給慈善事業(yè)的捐贈將超過(guò)現在的 3 倍。
豐富的,充裕的
例句：We found a bountiful supply of coconuts on the island.
我們發(fā)現島上有充足的椰子供應。
10.hostile adj.懷有敵意的, 不友善的
例句...
