Saving the Rainforests Would Be a Bargain
题材：环境类
出处：The Economist《经济学人》
字数：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.
【砍伐雨林所得的利润少得惊人。这片土地并不是特别肥沃。亚马逊新开垦的一公顷土地的平均价格只有1200美元左右。相比之下，清理这片土地的社会成本是巨大的。大约500吨二氧化碳被排放到大气中。据保守估计，这加速了气候变化，造成了2.5万美元的损失。】
【重点词汇】
chop /tʃɒp/ v. 砍;劈
chop down 砍伐，看到(树木)
meagre /ˈmiːɡə/ adj. 数量很少的
fertile /ˈfɜːtaɪl/ adj. 肥沃的;富饶的
fetch /fetʃ/ v. 售得，卖得(某价)
immense /ɪˈmens/ adj. 极大的;巨大的
pump /pʌmp/ v. 用泵(或泵样器官等)输送 n. 抽水机;泵;打气筒
conservative /kənˈsɜːvətɪv/ adj. 保守的，守旧的
accelerate /əkˈseləreɪt/ 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，世界上的树木仍然在消失。自2000年以来，原始雨林的覆盖面积减少了6.7%。这种毫无意义的破坏仍然在继续，因为对于那些挥舞着电锯的人来说，这是有意义的。他们能从中获取利润;而成本则分摊到了全球80亿人身上。显然，如果能给雨林的所有者报酬从而不去破坏它，每个人都能受益。如果热带雨林位于产权清晰、法治稳定的地方，世界毫无疑问已经资助了这样一笔交易。唉，可惜事实并非如此。禁止砍伐森林的规定通常很严格，但很少得到执行。】
【重点词汇】
dwindle /ˈdwɪndl/ v. 减少，变小，缩小
wield /wiːld/ v. 挥，使用(武器、工具等)
chainsaw /ˈtʃeɪnsɔː/ n. 链锯
disperse /dɪˈspɜːs/ v. 分散，散开
deforestation /ˌdiːˌfɒrɪˈsteɪʃn/ n. 滥伐森林
[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.
【以巴西为例。直到今年1月，巴西总统雅伊尔·博索纳罗(Jair Bolsonaro)还在支持非法伐木者和农场主。他烧毁了环境部的预算，停止对森林罪犯的罚款，并告诉土著保护区的非法矿工，他将使他们的掠夺行为合法化。在他的任期内，森林砍伐速度上升了60%。选民们已经用正在追捕生态罪犯的路易斯· 伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦(Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva)取代了博索纳罗先生。但是要抓住这些人并不容易。】
【重点词汇】
logger /ˈlɒɡə(r)/ n. 伐木工
rancher/ˈrɑːntʃə(r)/ n. 大农场主
torch/tɔːtʃ/ v. 放火烧 n.手电筒
miner/ˈmaɪnə(r)/ n. 矿工
indigenous /ɪnˈdɪdʒənəs/ adj. 本地的;土生土长的
plunder /ˈplʌndə(r)/ v.(尤指战乱时用武力)抢劫，掠夺 n. 抢夺;掠夺
[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.
【地方官员经常与伐木者勾结，他们自己也可能是伐木者。当地社区经常违抗法律秩序，因为他们认为砍伐森林比保护森林更有利。这片森林地处偏远，警察很难进入。亚马逊部分地区的土地所有权是一个烂摊子，所有权重叠的区域加起来是争议区域的五到六倍。当一块土地的所有权不清晰时，也就不知道该把钱给谁来保护它，或者不知道谁应该因掠夺土地而被罚款。】
【重点词汇】
league /liːɡ/ n. 联盟
in league with (与某人)勾结
remoteness /rɪˈməʊtnəs/ n. 遥远;偏僻
penetrate /ˈpenɪtreɪt/ v. 穿过;进入
despoil /dɪˈspɔɪl/ v. 掠夺;破坏
[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.
【类似的障碍同样阻碍了其他地方的保护。刚果盆地的森林长期以来因为该地极度贫困而一直受到保护。由于买不起电锯，当地农民用手缓慢而辛苦地砍伐树木。但是，森林砍伐正在加速，如果在地方政府能够监管它之前就进行机械化砍伐，灾难将随之而来。刚果民主共和国的前景尤其严峻，那里的大片雨林被民兵占领，几乎成了一个法外之地。】
【重点词汇】
basin /ˈbeɪsn/ n. 盆;盆地
dire /ˈdaɪə(r)/ adj. 极其严重的;极差的
laboriously /ləˈbɔːriəsli/ adv. 辛苦地;费力地
calamity /kəˈlæməti/ n. 灾难
grim /ɡrɪm/ adj. 令人沮丧的;阴沉的
tract /trækt/ n. 大片土地;地带
militia /məˈlɪʃə/ n. 民兵组织
[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、印度尼西亚和刚果这三个拥有最大热带雨林的国家的总统正在敦促富裕国家为保护热带雨林提供资金。本周在加蓬共同主持森林峰会的法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙(Emmanuel Macron)承诺将尽自己的一份力。活动人士和消费者可以提供帮助：通过一致行动，现在印尼五分之四的棕榈油提炼对森林没有破坏性。但迫切需要作出更多努力。】
【重点词汇】
bankroll /ˈbæŋkrəʊl/ v. 资助;提供资金给 n. 资金
summit /ˈsʌmɪt/ n. 最高点;(山)峰
campaign /kæmˈpeɪn/ v. 从事运动;n. 运动;活动
[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.
【领导人的重要性。当拥有热带雨林的国家由博索纳罗这样的人管理时，保护森林几乎不可能取得进展。然而，即使在更好的领导人的领导下，如果生活在森林中的人没有获得保护森林的好处，这些地方的法律也很难执行。这将需要大量可靠的现金流，使完好无损的雨林比被夷为平地的雨林更有价值。这些现金流应该来自富裕国家的政府以及那些购买碳信用额来抵消他们碳排放的私人企业。】
【重点词汇】
reliable /rɪˈlaɪəbl/adj. 可信赖的
intact /ɪnˈtækt/adj. 完好无损的
flatten /ˈflætn/ v. 把……弄平
carbon credit 碳信用额
[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.
【在过去，这样的流动规模太小，并且安排不当。与其资助大量难以监控的小项目，不如把更多的钱投给大到足以产生影响的政治实体，比如州或省级政府。这种“有管辖权”的碳信用额可以加速向更绿色的地方经济转型，清理地方土地登记系统，并监督违规行为。如果有足够的现金，并做到有条件地支付，当地人将有更大的动力来保护树木，而不会倾向于支持环境破坏者。据估计，每年200亿美元的投入将显著减缓森林砍伐。保护这样一个巨大的碳汇——且不说它本身所包含的生物多样性——这将是一笔划算的交易。】
【重点词汇】
entity /ˈentəti/ n. 实体
provincial /prəˈvɪnʃl/ adj. 省的
jurisdictional /ˌdʒʊərɪsˈdɪkʃənl/ adj. 管辖权的;司法权的
registry /ˈredʒɪstri/ n. 登记处
infraction /ɪnˈfrækʃn/ n. 犯法;违法
disburse /dɪsˈbɜːs/ v.(从资金中)支付，支出
renegade /ˈrenɪɡeɪd/ n. 叛徒
biodiversity /ˌbaɪəʊdaɪˈvɜːsəti/ n. 生物多样性
报名咨询电话：0769-33377791、13265205288（vx同号）
更多相关内容可关注微信公众号：恒景研考教育、恒景教育
未经允许不得转载：广东学历教育网 » 备考分享|考研管理类联考英语二外刊选读（7）
