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Saving the Rainforests Would Be a Bargain
題材:環(huán)境類
出處:The Economist《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》
字?jǐn)?shù):680 words
[1] Profits from chopping down rainforests are surprisingly meagre. The land is not particularly fertile. A freshly cleared hectare of the Amazon fetches an average price of only around $1,200. By contrast, the social costs of clearing it are immense. Some 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide are pumped into the atmosphere. By a conservative estimate, that does $25,000 of harm by accelerating climate change.
【砍伐雨林所得的利潤少得驚人。這片土地并不是特別肥沃。亞馬遜新開墾的一公頃土地的平均價格只有1200美元左右。相比之下,清理這片土地的社會成本是巨大的。大約500噸二氧化碳被排放到大氣中。據(jù)保守估計,這加速了氣候變化,造成了2.5萬美元的損失?!?/p>
【重點詞匯】
chop /t??p/ v. 砍;劈
chop down 砍伐,看到(樹木)
meagre /?mi?ɡ?/ adj. 數(shù)量很少的
fertile /?f??ta?l/ adj. 肥沃的;富饒的
fetch /fet?/ v. 售得,賣得(某價)
immense /??mens/ adj. 極大的;巨大的
pump /p?mp/ v. 用泵(或泵樣器官等)輸送 n. 抽水機(jī);泵;打氣筒
conservative /k?n?s??v?t?v/ adj. 保守的,守舊的
accelerate /?k?sel?re?t/ v. 加速,加快
[2] Yet still the world’s trees are disappearing. The area covered by primary rainforest has dwindled by 6.7% since 2000. The senseless destruction continues because, for the men wielding the chainsaws, it is not senseless at all. They receive the profits; the costs are dispersed across all 8bn people on the planet. Plainly, if the owners of the rainforest were paid not to destroy it, everyone would be better off. The world would no doubt already have funded such a deal, were rainforests in places with clear property rights and a firm rule of law. Alas, they are not. Rules against deforestation are usually strict, but seldom enforced.
【然而,世界上的樹木仍然在消失。自2000年以來,原始雨林的覆蓋面積減少了6.7%。這種毫無意義的破壞仍然在繼續(xù),因為對于那些揮舞著電鋸的人來說,這是有意義的。他們能從中獲取利潤;而成本則分?jǐn)偟搅巳?0億人身上。顯然,如果能給雨林的所有者報酬從而不去破壞它,每個人都能受益。如果熱帶雨林位于產(chǎn)權(quán)清晰、法治穩(wěn)定的地方,世界毫無疑問已經(jīng)資助了這樣一筆交易。唉,可惜事實并非如此。禁止砍伐森林的規(guī)定通常很嚴(yán)格,但很少得到執(zhí)行?!?/p>
【重點詞匯】
dwindle /?dw?ndl/ v. 減少,變小,縮小
wield /wi?ld/ v. 揮,使用(武器、工具等)
chainsaw /?t?e?ns??/ n. 鏈鋸
disperse /d??sp??s/ v. 分散,散開
deforestation /?di??f?r??ste??n/ n. 濫伐森林
[3] Consider Brazil. Until January it had a president, Jair Bolsonaro, who sided with illegal loggers and ranchers. He torched the environment ministry’s budget, stopped fining forest criminals and told illegal miners on indigenous reserves he would legalise their plunder. On his watch the pace of deforestation rose by 60%. Voters have replaced Mr Bolsonaro with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who is pursuing eco-criminals. But catching them is hard.
【以巴西為例。直到今年1月,巴西總統(tǒng)雅伊爾·博索納羅(Jair Bolsonaro)還在支持非法伐木者和農(nóng)場主。他燒毀了環(huán)境部的預(yù)算,停止對森林罪犯的罰款,并告訴土著保護(hù)區(qū)的非法礦工,他將使他們的掠奪行為合法化。在他的任期內(nèi),森林砍伐速度上升了60%。選民們已經(jīng)用正在追捕生態(tài)罪犯的路易斯· 伊納西奧·盧拉·達(dá)席爾瓦(Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva)取代了博索納羅先生。但是要抓住這些人并不容易?!?/p>
【重點詞匯】
logger /?l?ɡ?(r)/ n. 伐木工
rancher/?rɑ?nt??(r)/ n. 大農(nóng)場主
torch/t??t?/ v. 放火燒 n.手電筒
miner/?ma?n?(r)/ n. 礦工
indigenous /?n?d?d??n?s/ adj. 本地的;土生土長的
plunder /?pl?nd?(r)/ v.(尤指戰(zhàn)亂時用武力)搶劫,掠奪 n. 搶奪;掠奪
[4] Local officials are often in league with the loggers, and may be loggers themselves. Local communities often resist the forces of law and order, since they see more benefit from deforestation than conservation. The forest’s remoteness makes it hard for police to penetrate. And land titling is a mess—in parts of the Amazon overlapping claims add up to five or six times the disputed area. When it is unclear who owns a piece of land, it is unclear whom to pay to conserve it, or whom to fine for despoiling it.
【地方官員經(jīng)常與伐木者勾結(jié),他們自己也可能是伐木者。當(dāng)?shù)厣鐓^(qū)經(jīng)常違抗法律秩序,因為他們認(rèn)為砍伐森林比保護(hù)森林更有利。這片森林地處偏遠(yuǎn),警察很難進(jìn)入。亞馬遜部分地區(qū)的土地所有權(quán)是一個爛攤子,所有權(quán)重疊的區(qū)域加起來是爭議區(qū)域的五到六倍。當(dāng)一塊土地的所有權(quán)不清晰時,也就不知道該把錢給誰來保護(hù)它,或者不知道誰應(yīng)該因掠奪土地而被罰款?!?/p>
【重點詞匯】
league /li?ɡ/ n. 聯(lián)盟
in league with (與某人)勾結(jié)
remoteness /r??m??tn?s/ n. 遙遠(yuǎn);偏僻
penetrate /?pen?tre?t/ v. 穿過;進(jìn)入
despoil /d??sp??l/ v. 掠奪;破壞
[5] Similar obstacles impede conservation elsewhere. Forests in the Congo basin have long been protected by the region’s dire poverty. Unable to afford chainsaws, local farmers chop trees down slowly and laboriously by hand. But deforestation is accelerating, and if it is mechanised before local governments can regulate it, calamity will follow. The prospects are especially grim in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where vast tracts of rainforest are overrun by militias and are almost wholly lawless.
【類似的障礙同樣阻礙了其他地方的保護(hù)。剛果盆地的森林長期以來因為該地極度貧困而一直受到保護(hù)。由于買不起電鋸,當(dāng)?shù)剞r(nóng)民用手緩慢而辛苦地砍伐樹木。但是,森林砍伐正在加速,如果在地方政府能夠監(jiān)管它之前就進(jìn)行機(jī)械化砍伐,災(zāi)難將隨之而來。剛果民主共和國的前景尤其嚴(yán)峻,那里的大片雨林被民兵占領(lǐng),幾乎成了一個法外之地?!?/p>
【重點詞匯】
basin /?be?sn/ n. 盆;盆地
dire /?da??(r)/ adj. 極其嚴(yán)重的;極差的
laboriously /l??b??ri?sli/ adv. 辛苦地;費(fèi)力地
calamity /k??l?m?ti/ n. 災(zāi)難
grim /ɡr?m/ adj. 令人沮喪的;陰沉的
tract /tr?kt/ n. 大片土地;地帶
militia /m??l???/ n. 民兵組織
[6] The presidents of Brazil, Indonesia and Congo, the three countries with the biggest rainforests, are urging rich countries to bankroll conservation. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, co-hosting a forest summit in Gabon this week, promised to do his bit. Activists and consumers can help: after a concerted campaign, four-fifths of Indonesian palm-oil-refining capacity is now forest-friendly. But more effort is urgently required.
【巴西、印度尼西亞和剛果這三個擁有最大熱帶雨林的國家的總統(tǒng)正在敦促富裕國家為保護(hù)熱帶雨林提供資金。本周在加蓬共同主持森林峰會的法國總統(tǒng)埃馬紐埃爾·馬克龍(Emmanuel Macron)承諾將盡自己的一份力。活動人士和消費(fèi)者可以提供幫助:通過一致行動,現(xiàn)在印尼五分之四的棕櫚油提煉對森林沒有破壞性。但迫切需要作出更多努力?!?/p>
【重點詞匯】
bankroll /?b??kr??l/ v. 資助;提供資金給 n. 資金
summit /?s?m?t/ n. 最高點;(山)峰
campaign /k?m?pe?n/ v. 從事運(yùn)動;n. 運(yùn)動;活動
[7] Leadership matters. Little progress is possible when countries with rainforests are run by the likes of Mr Bolsonaro. Yet even under better leaders, such places will struggle to enforce their own laws unless the people who live in the forests see benefits in conserving them. That will require a big, reliable flow of cash to make rainforests more valuable intact than flattened. This should come from rich-country governments and from private firms buying carbon credits to offset their own emissions.
【領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人的重要性。當(dāng)擁有熱帶雨林的國家由博索納羅這樣的人管理時,保護(hù)森林幾乎不可能取得進(jìn)展。然而,即使在更好的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下,如果生活在森林中的人沒有獲得保護(hù)森林的好處,這些地方的法律也很難執(zhí)行。這將需要大量可靠的現(xiàn)金流,使完好無損的雨林比被夷為平地的雨林更有價值。這些現(xiàn)金流應(yīng)該來自富裕國家的政府以及那些購買碳信用額來抵消他們碳排放的私人企業(yè)。】
【重點詞匯】
reliable /r??la??bl/adj. 可信賴的
intact /?n?t?kt/adj. 完好無損的
flatten /?fl?tn/ v. 把……弄平
carbon credit 碳信用額
[8] In the past such flows have been too small and ill-designed. Rather than financing lots of small projects, which are hard to monitor, more money should go to political entities large enough to make a difference, such as state or provincial governments. Such “jurisdictional” carbon credits could be used to accelerate the transition to a greener local economy, to clean up local land registries and to police infractions. If there is enough cash, conditionally disbursed, locals will have more incentive to protect trees and less inclination to elect environmental renegades. By one estimate, $20bn a year would slow deforestation significantly. To preserve such a huge carbon sink—never mind the biodiversity it contains—this would be a bargain.
【在過去,這樣的流動規(guī)模太小,并且安排不當(dāng)。與其資助大量難以監(jiān)控的小項目,不如把更多的錢投給大到足以產(chǎn)生影響的政治實體,比如州或省級政府。這種“有管轄權(quán)”的碳信用額可以加速向更綠色的地方經(jīng)濟(jì)轉(zhuǎn)型,清理地方土地登記系統(tǒng),并監(jiān)督違規(guī)行為。如果有足夠的現(xiàn)金,并做到有條件地支付,當(dāng)?shù)厝藢⒂懈蟮膭恿肀Wo(hù)樹木,而不會傾向于支持環(huán)境破壞者。據(jù)估計,每年200億美元的投入將顯著減緩森林砍伐。保護(hù)這樣一個巨大的碳匯——且不說它本身所包含的生物多樣性——這將是一筆劃算的交易?!?/p>
【重點詞匯】
entity /?ent?ti/ n. 實體
provincial /pr??v?n?l/ adj. 省的
jurisdictional /?d???r?s?d?k??nl/ adj. 管轄權(quán)的;司法權(quán)的
registry /?red??stri/ n. 登記處
infraction /?n?fr?k?n/ n. 犯法;違法
disburse /d?s?b??s/ v.(從資金中)支付,支出
renegade /?ren?ɡe?d/ n. 叛徒
biodiversity /?ba???da??v??s?ti/ n. 生物多樣性
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