By 謝忠理 on Thursday, 19 January 2023
Category: 托福口說

BBC 6 分鐘英語—Climate change: Are there too many people? 氣候變遷:人口太多了嗎?

依照邏輯來說,人口增加,所造成的碳排放就會增加。因此當全球人口突破 80 億大關的時候,人類的碳足跡應該就是個至關嚴重的問題。但事實是這麼簡單嗎?一起來聽聽 BBC 6 分鐘英語對這個話題的討論。

Climate change: Are there too many people? 氣候變遷:人口太多了嗎?

BBC 6 分鐘英語在 2023 年 01 月 19 日播出的節目 中討論的是吃到飽自助餐。

氣候變遷的最大原因是什麼?BBC 6 分鐘英語的主持人尼爾和薩姆討論了人口過剩和氣候變化之間有爭議的聯繫—以及一個人的碳足跡的大小是否取決於此人在世界何處出生。同時也教導聽眾一些相關詞彙與表達方式。

本周的問題

今天世界上有多少人?是
a) 70 億?
b) 80 億?
c) 90 億?

詞彙

carbon footprint 碳足跡
測量某人的日常活動產生了多少二氧化碳

crunch (the) numbers 數字密集運算
進行許多涉及大量數據和數字的數學計算

mod cons (= modern conveniences) 現代化的便利設施
如汽車、洗衣機、空調和冰箱等能使生活更容易、更愉快的技術和機器。

affluence 富裕
有很多錢或擁有很多物質財富

apologetic 歉意
對自己說過或做過的有害事情表示歉意

let your heart rule your head 隨心所欲
憑情緒或個人慾望做事,而不是出於邏輯或實際的原因

中英文稿謄本

BBC 6 minute English – Climate change: Are there too many people?

點此看英文原稿

Neil
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.

Sam
And I’m Sam.

Neil
We’re talking about the environment in this programme, specifically climate change. Now, Sam, what do you think is the biggest cause of climate change?

Sam
An obvious answer would be that climate change is the result of carbon emissions caused by humans. It’s about people’s carbon footprint – the measurement of how much carbon dioxide is produced by someone’s everyday activities.

Neil
That makes sense. But recently some scientists, especially in the west, have been focusing on another issue: the increasing number of people in the world, something known as overpopulation. In this programme, we’ll be discussing the controversial link between overpopulation and climate change. And as usual we’ll be learning some new vocabulary, as well.

Sam
Sounds good, Neil, but first I have a question for you. Over the last 100 years, within one lifetime, the world’s population has soared. At the start of the 20th century, it was around one-and-a-half billion, but how many people are there in the world today? Is it:
a)     seven billion?
b)     eight billion?  or
c)      nine billion?

Neil
I’ll say around eight billion people live on the planet today.

Sam
OK, Neil, I’ll reveal the answer later in the programme. Since climate change is caused by human activities, it seems common sense that fewer people would mean lower carbon emissions. But in fact the connection isn’t so simple. Not everyone emits carbon equally, and people in the western world produce far more than people in sub-Saharan Africa or Asia.

Neil
Arvind Ravikumar is professor of climate policy at the University of Texas. He’s made the surprising calculation that an extra two billion people born in low-consuming countries, would actually add very little to global carbon emissions. Here, Kate Lamble and Neal Razzell, presenters of BBC World Service programme, The Climate Question, discuss Professor Ravikumar’s findings.

Kate Lamble
What he’s saying is kind of astonishing, right? Two billion people is, to say the least, a lot. It’s the combined population of Europe and Africa.

Neal Razzell
He's crunched the numbers and found that an extra two billion low-income people as defined by the World Bank, these are people without cars, without electricity often, would see global emissions rise by just 1.5%.

Kate Lamble
Add two billion high-income earners - that's people with cars and power and all the mod cons, and Arvind reckons emissions would rise by more than 60%.

Neal Razzell
So when it comes to climate change and population, where you were born matters.

Neil
Professor Ravikumar made his discovery after crunching the numbers, an idiom meaning performing many mathematical calculations involving large amounts of data.

Sam
He concluded that whereas two billion low-income people would increase carbon levels very little, two billion high-income people would increase it a lot. That’s because high-income populations have mod cons,which is short for ‘modern conveniences’: technology and machines like cars, fridges and air-conditioning that make life easier and more pleasant.

Neil
According to this view, the real problem is not overpopulation but overconsumption. Affluence – that’s having lots of money and owning many things, has become a big factor in climate change, and that’s true in poorer countries as well as richer ones.

Sam
Listen to Rajesh Joshi, reporter for BBC World Service’s, The Climate Question, interviewing a rich Indian housewife, Priti Dhagan, in her luxurious home in New Delhi.

Priti Dhagan
I need everything that I buy. You cannot be judgmental about anybody's needs, and I derive a lot of happiness out of being very, very drawn towards consumer things, and I love it. And I'm not apologetic about it.

Rajesh Joshi
So if I tell you that poor people have a smaller carbon footprint as compared to their richer counterparts, do you feel apologetic about it?

Priti Dhagan
So the brain says yes, we should be apologetic about it, but the heart does not agree. Yes, poor can’t afford lots of stuff so their carbon imprint is small, but here my heart wins over my brain because it gives me happiness.

Neil
Priti does not feel apologetic about her shopping – she doesn’t think that she should feel sorry. Shopping makes her happy and she lets her heart rule her head – an idiom meaning that you do something based on emotions rather than reason.

Sam
Priti is being very honest. She is consuming and looking for happiness in a way that people in the west have been doing for decades.

Neil
It seems overconsumption is a bigger cause of climate change than raw population numbers. Speaking of which… what was the answer to your question, Sam?

Sam
Ah yes, I asked about the current global population. You guessed it was around eight billion people which was… the correct answer! According to the United Nations, the world’s population reached eight billion on November 15, 2022. Right, let’s recap the vocabulary we’ve learned, starting with carbon footprint – a measurement of how much carbon dioxide someone’s activities produce.

Neil
If you crunch numbers, you perform many mathematical calculations involving large amounts of data.

Sam
Mod cons 
is short for ‘modern conveniences’ - machines like cars, washing-machines, and fridges which make life easier and more pleasant.

Neil
Affluence
 means having lots of money or material possessions.

Sam
If you are apologetic, you show that you feel sorry for something harmful you have said or done.

Neil
And finally, the idiom let your heart rule your head means to do something based on emotion and personal desires rather than for logical or practical reasons. For now it’s goodbye!

Sam
Bye bye!

廣播原稿中文翻譯有兩個目的。首先是幫助聽力有困難的讀者能夠快速了解原文的意思。而更重要的原因是,提供給練習英語口語表達的讀者訓練的素材。

由於每個人的知識範疇各不相同,因此碰到超出自己專長的領域,常常會啞口無言,無話可說。這對練習英語表達是一項非常難以克服的障礙。所以參考 6 分鐘英語的對白稿,既可以讓自我練習英語對話時有貼切適當的素材,同時也能順便學些道地的表達方式,實是一舉數得。

使用上,可以在聽完一、兩次原始廣播之後,試著一邊看中文謄本,一邊流利、正確地用英語說出文中的內容。多次練習之後,未來自然能夠在碰到同樣主題時與人侃侃而談。

BBC 6 minute English – Climate change: Are there too many people?

點此看中文翻譯

尼爾
你好。這裡是 BBC 學習英語的 6 分鐘英語。我是尼爾。

薩姆
我是薩姆。

尼爾
我們在這個節目中討論的是環境問題,特別是氣候變化。現在,薩姆,你認為氣候變化的最大原因是什麼?

薩姆
一個明顯的答案是,氣候變化是由人類造成的碳排放的結果。這是關於人們的碳足跡—衡量某人的日常活動產生了多少二氧化碳。

尼爾
這很有道理。但是最近一些科學家,尤其是西方的科學家,一直在關注另一個問題:世界上越來越多的人,即所謂的人口過剩問題。在這個節目中,我們將討論人口過剩和氣候變化之間有爭議的聯繫。和往常一樣,我們也會學習一些新的詞彙。

薩姆
聽起來不錯,尼爾,但首先我有一個問題要問你。在過去的 100 年裡,在一個人的一生中,世界人口已經飆升。在 20 世紀初,大約是 15 億,但今天世界上有多少人?是
a) 70 億?
b) 80 億?
c) 90 億?

尼爾
我說今天地球上大約有 80 億人。

薩姆
好的,尼爾,我將在節目中稍後揭曉答案。既然氣候變化是由人類活動引起的,那麼人少就意味著碳排放少,這似乎是常識。但事實上,這種聯繫並不那麼簡單。不是每個人的碳排放量都一樣,西方世界的人比撒哈拉以南非洲或亞洲的人產生的碳排放量要多得多。

尼爾
阿文德.拉維庫馬爾是德州大學的氣候政策教授。他做了一個令人驚訝的計算,在低消費國家出生的額外 20 億人,實際上對全球碳排放的增加很少。在這裡,BBC 世界服務節目《氣候問題》的主持人凱特.蘭博和尼爾.拉澤爾討論了拉維庫馬爾教授的發現。

凱特.蘭博
他所說的有點令人吃驚,對嗎?至少可以說,20 億人是一個很大的數字。這相當於歐洲和非洲人口的總和。

尼爾.拉澤爾
他對數字進行了分析,發現如果增加 20 億低收入人群,按照世界銀行的定義,這些人沒有汽車,沒有電,那麼全球排放量將只增加 1.5%。

凱特.蘭博
再加上 20 億高收入者—也就是有車、有電和所有現代設施的人,阿文德估計排放量將增加 60% 以上。

尼爾.拉澤爾
因此,當涉及到氣候變化和人口時,你出生在哪裡很重要。

尼爾
拉維庫馬爾教授是在大量數字計算之後才有此發現的,這個成語的意思是進行許多涉及大量數據的數學計算。

薩姆
他得出的結論是,雖然 20 億低收入人群會使碳含量增加很少,但 20 億高收入人群會使其增加很多。這是因為高收入人群擁有現代設施,即「現代便利設施 」的簡稱:汽車、冰箱和空調等技術和機器,它們使生活更輕鬆、更愉快。

尼爾
根據這種觀點,真正的問題不是人口過剩,而是過度消費。富裕—也就是擁有很多錢和很多東西,已經成為氣候變化的一個重要因素,這在較窮的國家和較富的國家都是如此。

薩姆
請聽 BBC 世界服務社《氣候問題》的記者拉傑什.喬希在新德里的豪華住宅中採訪一位富有的印度家庭主婦普麗蒂.達甘。

普麗蒂.達甘
我需要我所購買的一切。你不能對任何人的需求進行評判,我從對消費者的東西非常、非常吸引中獲得了很多快樂,我喜歡這樣。我對此並不感到抱歉

拉傑什.喬希
那麼,如果我告訴你,與富人相比,窮人的碳足跡更少,你會為此感到抱歉嗎?

普麗蒂.達甘
所以大腦說是的,我們應該對此表示歉意,但內心卻不同意。是的,窮人買不起很多東西,所以他們的碳足跡很小,但在這裡,我的心戰勝了我的大腦,因為它給了我快樂。

尼爾
普麗蒂對她的購物並不感到抱歉—她認為她不應該感到抱歉。購物讓她感到快樂,她讓她的心支配她的大腦—這個成語的意思是,你根據情感而不是理性來做某件事。

薩姆
普麗蒂非常誠實。她正在以西方人幾十年來一直在做的方式消費和尋找幸福。

尼爾
看來過度消費是氣候變化的一個更大的原因,而不是原始的人口數量。說到這個……你的問題的答案是什麼,薩姆?

薩姆
啊,是的,我問的是目前的全球人口。你猜的是大約 80 億人,這是……正確的答案!根據聯合國的數據,世界人口在 2022 年 11 月 15 日達到 80 億。對了,讓我們回顧一下我們學過的詞彙,從碳足跡開始—對某人的活動產生多少二氧化碳的測量。

尼爾
如果你大量計算數字,你會進行許多涉及大量數據的數學計算。

薩姆
現代便利是「現代便利設施」的簡稱—像汽車、洗衣機和冰箱這樣的機器,使生活更容易、更愉快。

尼爾
富裕是指擁有大量的金錢或物質財富。

薩姆
如果你有歉意,你就表明你對自己說過或做過的有害事情感到抱歉。

尼爾
最後,成語隨心所欲指的是基於情感和個人慾望而不是出於邏輯或實際的原因去做一件事。先跟您說再見了!

薩姆
再見!

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