英美发音 适合泛听
Host: One of the industrial countries coming under pressure at the 1)Copenhagen conference to make bigger cuts in its emissions is Britain. Politicians and activists are fighting it out in Denmark, but at home in Britain there’s a quiet revolution already underway among schoolchildren. Rob Gifford begins his report at a schoolyard.
Rob: Recess at Poplar Elementary School in South London and the usual 2)whirlwind of small people 3)whooshes towards the playground. Today, though, the kids have an unusual visitor in the shape of an inspector from a group called Eco Schools.
Inspector: …composting area. You can always tell me what, you know, what you’ve been doing there. And then we’re going to go in your school and look at recycling corner…
Rob: Eco Schools is an organization that helps schools to be environmentally friendly.
Children: Use less light, turn off 4)radiators before opening windows.
Rob: Here at Poplar School, as in much of Britain now, with the help of groups like Eco Schools, it’s the children who are driving the agenda. Ten-year-olds Caitlin Fletcher and Kirin Evans are eco reps in the school’s eco council.
Caitlin: We have the ideas and we share them with other people and our teachers.
Kirin: The eco reps make sure that everybody’s saving the electricity, and saving energy. And we have different monitors in our class.
Rob: Head teacher Katherine Davis says the green agenda has reached a whole new level in British schools in recent years. She says people’s 5)psyche has changed.
Northwest of London, in a funky open plan office in Oxford, Jaime Clark is putting on the latest 6)promo DVD of his NGO, People and Planet. People and Planet is another of the growing number of NGOs that’s helping schools across Britain to implement environmental strategies.
Jaime: Students have been a little bit 7)dismissive possibly or upset by the idea of government and maybe the adult population telling people to change a light bulb and the world will be a better place, that simply taking one bike journey rather than a car journey is the answer, that—actually students want that big shift.
Rob: But while looking for the big shift, Clark’s colleague, Alice Mumford, is still thinking globally and acting locally.
Alice: We’ve got a school in Gloucester that have just managed to get a policy put in place where any student living within three miles isn’t allowed to drive into school. And we have a lot of schools and colleges planning carbon dating events.
Rob: Did she just say carbon dating events?
Alice: We encourage them to spend the day together going on low-carbon dates. So maybe they go for a cycle instead of a drive, they can eat vegetarian food together, have a nice candlelit dinner instead of turning on all the lights. So having a bit of fun, but also learning about carbon reduction.
Host: And Rob Gifford joins us now from London. Rob, let’s return for a moment to those schoolchildren. You know, we’ve just heard the point made that it’s about the government and adults taking action. So does that mean that getting kids invested at an early age in being green is somehow all for 8)naught?
Rob: I don’t think it’s for naught. I think in the long run it really will start to have an influence. So will the changes that are going on clearly in British schools, all over British schools, kick in soon enough? There’s a race going on for them to kick in early enough to make a difference before climate change becomes too 9)drastic.
Host: What about the adults then? Are they changing their behavior anywhere near as much as these kids seem to be?
Rob: Well, I’m not sure that they are. I mean, if you take my generation, for instance, you know, you can almost hear my brain working after I’ve drunk a can of Coke or had a beer—I must put beer in recycling bin. I have to force myself to think like that. These kids are growing up thinking like that. It’s in their DNA. And I’m not sure, even in Britain, where, you know, as we’ve heard, plans are taking hold, I’m not sure that the older generation are really getting into it quite as much.
Host: Well, look, I’m from California, where it’s pretty automatic to recycle, you know, even for those of us who are older. But how does what’s going on in Britain compare generally to the U.S.?
Rob: Well, just in talking with some of the experts in doing the interviews for that piece you’ve just heard, most people are saying that Britain and Europe generally is 10 or 15 years ahead of the United States in this environmental awareness in terms of recycling.
And I suppose there is more of a feeling here. People are used to using public transport much more. There’s not so much of a sense of the birthright of cheap gasoline and using two cars or whatever. So there is a feeling, though, that America is catching up, that people have got their heads around it now a little bit more in the States and that people are pushing together now on both sides of the Atlantic and indeed around the world.
主持人:在哥本哈根气候大会上,其中一个备受压力,被要求更大幅度削减碳排放的工业化国家就是英国。此时,政治家和活动积极分子们在丹麦争得面红耳赤,但在英国本土,一场变革却已经在小学生中悄然铺开了。罗布·吉福德从一个学校的操场发来报道。
罗布:伦敦南部的波普勒小学,一到下课的时候,孩子们就像往常一样旋风般向操场飞奔而去。但是今天,孩子们却有个不寻常的访客——一位巡查员,他来自一个叫“生态校园”的组织。
巡查员:……堆肥区。你们可以随时告诉我,你们知道啦,你们在那里做些什么。然后,我们会进行现场考察,查看那些生态循环的区域。
罗布:“生态校园”是一个帮助学校实现环保的组织。
学生们:少用电灯,在开窗前把电暖炉关掉。
罗布:就跟眼下大部分的英国学校一样,在波普勒小学这里,在像“生态校园”这样的组织的帮助下,小孩子们成为了推动低碳生活的主力。十岁的凯特琳·弗莱彻和科瑞·埃文斯是这所学校的生态理事会的代表。
凯特琳:我们去想点子,然后和其他人以及我们的老师分享。
科瑞:生态代表是要确保每个人都在节电节能。我们班上有很多不同的监督员。
罗布:校长凯瑟琳·戴维斯说,近年来,“绿色议程”在英国校园的推行程度已经达到一个全新水平了。她说人们的心态已经转变了。
在伦敦西北部的牛津,一个不起眼的开放式办公室里,吉姆·克拉克正在播放他所在的非政府组织——“人与地球”的最新宣传DVD。“人与地球”是近来不断涌现的致力于帮助英国学校推行环境策略的NGO之一。
吉姆:学生们对政府的理念或许会有所鄙视,甚至是失望。也许成人告诉大家说,换掉一个灯泡,这个世界就会变得更美好;或者说只要少开一次车,改成骑自行车就可以了,又或者——但其实,孩子们期待的是更大幅度的转变。
罗布:但在寻求一个大转变的过程中,克拉克的同事爱丽丝·芒福德还是信奉“放眼全球,从身边做起”。
爱丽丝:我们已经成功推动格罗斯特郡的一所学校出台一项政策,不允许居住在方圆三英里的学生开车上学。与此同时,我们还组织很多的学校和大学计划开展“低碳约会”的活动。
罗布:她刚说的是“低碳约会”的活动吗?
爱丽丝:我们鼓励情侣们在当天约会时遵循低碳原则。他们可以一起骑自行车而不驾车代步;他们可以一起吃素;可以享受浪漫的烛光晚餐,而不是把所有的灯都打开。这能让他们享受乐趣的同时又学到减排的知识。
主持人:我们已经连线到了在伦敦的罗布·吉福德。罗布,让我们暂且回到那些小学生的话题上。你知道,我们刚听到一个观点,是关于政府和成人开展环保行动的。那是不是意味着把这些小孩子早早地牵涉到环保活动当中是毫无用处呢?
罗布:我不认为这毫无用处。从长远看来,这会慢慢地产生效用。那么,在英国校园——英国的所有校园,发生的这些变化是不是能及时地产生效用呢?一场竞赛此刻正在展开,让孩子们尽早参与环保,就看他们是否能够在气候变化问题积重难返前力挽狂澜了。
主持人:那大人们呢?他们的行为转变是不是跟孩子们的同步呢?
罗布:嗯,这点我不敢说。我的意思是,以我这一代人为例吧,你知道,你大概可以肯定我喝完了一罐可乐或啤酒后脑子是怎么想的:我一定要把啤酒罐放到回收箱里去。我必须要强迫自己这么想。这些小孩子从小也就这么想。这是存在于他们的基因里的了。但我不肯定的是,即使在英国,如你所了解的,环保计划已是不争的事实了,我不肯定那些年纪更大的人是不是也有同样的参与程度。
主持人:噢,看,我来自加利福尼亚州,在那里循环利用是自然而然的事,即使对我们那些年纪更大的人而言也是如此。但总体来说,在英国发生的这一切跟美国的比起来怎么样呢?
罗布:在做刚才你听到的那个报道时我采访过一些专家,大多数人都说,总体上,就循环利用这一点来看,英国和欧洲人的环境意识比美国人要提前十到十五年。
而我觉得这种环保的感受在英国这里也更加普遍了。人们更习惯使用公共交通工具了,人们也不怎么觉得自己生来就该有享用廉价的汽油、养两辆车等等的特权。因此,有一种感觉就是:美国正在努力迎头赶上,现在美国人已经更多地关注环保问题,人们现正推动大西洋两岸,甚至是全世界的共同合作了。
栏目翻译:Terry 
