好英语网做个轻松实际的环保主义者
NASHVILLE — My annual resolution to give up sugar — a resolution I keep most of the time and abandon with abandon as soon as pecan pie hits the Thanksgiving sideboard — lasted less than a week this year. It lasts less than a week every year because at our house the holiday season doesn’t end until our oldest son, born on Jan. 7, has blown out the candles on his birthday cake. I have no genetic resistance to my grandmother’s brown-sugar pound cake, the birthday cake my son requests every year; I have to start my resolution all over again on Jan. 8.
纳什维尔——我每年都下决心戒糖，这个决心我大部分时间都能坚持，但只要山核桃派一摆上感恩节的餐桌，我就会毫不犹豫地将其放弃。今年的这个决心我只坚持了不到一周。每年，这个决心都坚持不到一周，因为我们家的假期直到大儿子吹灭了生日蛋糕上的蜡烛才结束，他是1月7日出生的。我对祖母的棕糖磅饼缺乏遗传上的抵制，棕糖磅饼是我儿子每年的生日蛋糕要求；我不得不在1月8日重新开始我的新年决心。
The whole trouble with resolutions is that keeping them is hard. Which makes sense: If it were easy to keep a resolution, there would be no need to make one. But in truth, resolutions needn’t be so hard. Instead of resolving to give up sugar, I should just resolve to give up sugar except during times of whole-family celebration. That’s effectively the same thing, but it’s the happy kind of resolution that doesn’t entail self-loathing at the end of every party.
决心的全部问题在于难以坚持。这不难懂：如果坚持决心容易的话，就不叫决心了。但实际上，坚持决心不必这么难。与其说下决心不吃糖，我应该下的决心是不吃糖——除非是在全家欢聚的时候。我实际上就是这样做的，但后者是一种令人快乐的决心，不会让人在每次聚会结束后都恨自己。
In that spirit, I offer some very doable resolutions for living more lightly on the earth. If 2019 is truly “the year we woke up to climate change,” then 2020 should be the year we start actually doing something about it. Because we are very nearly out of time.
本着这种精神，我建议一些切实可行的新年决心，让我们能更环保地生活在地球上。如果2019年真的是“我们意识到气候变化的一年”，那么2020年就应该是我们真正开始采取行动的一年。因为时间不多了。
Listen, I know: Dryer balls won’t save the world. Saving the world — and by extension the human race — will take a level of political will the likes of which we have not seen before and which we will categorically never see from this administration. Which makes it all the more crucial to do our part, however small. Think of these suggestions as baby steps on the path toward a growing commitment to change.
你听我说，我知道干衣球拯救不了世界。拯救世界——进而延伸到拯救人类——需要一种我们以前未曾见过，而且我们也绝不会在本届政府中看到的政治意愿。这让我们尽自己所能（不管我们的能力有多大）变得至关重要。请把我的这些建议当成越来越大的改变承诺道路上迈出的小小几步吧。
Live and let live. Every fall, my neighbors’ lawns are dotted with traps as the neighborhood moles, who have been living in the damp soil deep underground all summer, move their tunnels closer to the surface with the autumn rains. As they tunnel, they push the excavated soil to the surface. The resulting molehills definitely spoil the effect of an emerald green lawn, but so what? The moles are doing good work for you, aerating your soil, eating destructive grubs and slugs, and serving as food for owls and snakes. In time the moles will move deeper again, and the soil will spread out again, and in the meantime the freshly turned earth will be an invitation to ground-foraging birds and serve as fertile ground for wildflower seeds carried on the wind. Other “unwelcome” creatures perform their own useful services: Opossums eat ticks, skunks eat yellow jackets, snakes eat mice, etc. Harry them not.
自己活也让别人活。每年秋天，我邻居们的草坪上就摆满了捕捉器，因为整个夏天都在这个社区地下深处的潮湿土壤里生活的鼹鼠，随着秋雨的到来，把洞打到了离地表更近的地方。在打洞的同时，它们也把挖出的土推到了地面上。由此形成的鼹鼠丘肯定会破坏翠绿草坪的效果，但那又有什么关系呢？鼹鼠正在为你干好事，使你的土壤透气，把破坏性的幼虫和蛞蝓吃掉，同时为猫头鹰和蛇提供食物。过不了多久，鼹鼠就会再次搬到更深的地方去，地面上的小丘也会再次变平，与此同时，新翻出来的土会把在地面上觅食的鸟类吸引来，并为随风飘来的野花种子提供肥沃的土壤。其他“不受欢迎的”动物也有它们的用处：负鼠吃扁虱，臭鼬吃黄蜂，蛇吃鼠，如此等等。别不断袭击它们了。
Reframe your relationship with bugs. Insects are the bread and butter of the natural world, but they are dying out. Think of your yard as ground zero of the entire local food chain. Think of caterpillars not as the enemy of the tomato vine but as food for the mockingbird, whose babies are hungry. Think of mosquitoes not as the bane of the deck party but as food for the bats and the swallows. Plant enough tomatoes for everybody. Use an oscillating fan to keep the bugs away from the porch.
重新考虑你与虫子的关系。昆虫是自然界的主要食物，但它们正在灭绝。把你的院子想像成整个本地食物链的起点。不要把毛虫当成西红柿藤的敌人，而是把其当成嘲鸫的食物，嘲鸫的幼鸟正在挨饿。不要把蚊子当成后院凉台聚会的祸害，而是当成蝙蝠和燕子的食物。给大家种足够多的西红柿。用摇头风扇把虫子从凉台上赶走。
Cultivate a glorious mess. Nature isn’t supposed to be tidy, and its messiness is purposeful. Fallen leaves fertilize the trees they fell from and simultaneously provide habitat for a whole host of insects, amphibians and reptiles. Dead limbs offer homes to cavity-nesting birds like woodpeckers, screech owls and Carolina wrens. Brush piles provide shelter for all manner of small creatures. Kill your leaf blower. Abandon your rake.
培养一种光辉灿烂的混乱。大自然本来就不该是井然有序的，大自然的不整洁是有目的的。落叶土壤肥沃，同时也为昆虫、两栖动物和爬行动物提供了栖息地。枯枝为啄木鸟、尖嘴猫头鹰和卡罗莱纳鹪鹩等洞穴筑巢鸟类提供家园。灌木为各种各样的小生物提供庇护所。别再用你的吹叶机了。别再把落叶耙掉。
Eat better. Agriculture accounts for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through deforestation, the use of petrochemical fertilizers and methane production by livestock. To mitigate its effects, eat less meat and fewer dairy products. Support regenerative farming by buying as much food as possible from local farmers who use heritage farming techniques.
吃得更好。农业制造了温室气体排放量的三分之一左右，主要是由于砍伐森林、使用石化肥料，以及牲畜生产的甲烷。为了减轻农业的影响，少吃肉类和奶制品。尽可能多地从使用传统农业技术的本地农民那里购买食物，以此来支持可再生农业。
Shop your closet. In addition to its manifold human costs, “fast fashion” — cheap clothing designed to be temporary in the age of Instagram — is a significant cause of environmental degradation. Synthetic fibers are made from fossil fuels and don’t break down in landfills or oceans. Instead of buying a new outfit, wear one that’s already in your closet. No one cares. If you don’t believe no one cares, mix and match items from different outfits, or wear different accessories with the outfits you often wear. If your old clothes need mending or don’t fit well anymore, hire a good seamstress to make them look new again.
穿你衣橱里已经有的。快时尚是为Instagram时代的短暂性设计的廉价服装，除了多方面的人类代价外，也是造成环境退化的一个重要原因。合成纤维是化石燃料的副产品，不会在垃圾填埋场或海洋中分解。与其买一套新的衣服，不如穿你衣橱里已经有的。没有人在乎。如果你不相信没人在乎，那就把不同的衣服搭配起来穿，或者用不同的配饰来搭配你经常穿的衣服。如果你的旧衣服需要补或不合身了，那就请一个好裁缝把衣服改成看上去是新的。
Put your money where your values are. Support a fierce environmental nonprofit through automatic monthly drafts. An organization with access to scientific experts, legal teams and full-time advocates can do more good than the same number of individuals acting alone. A monthly draft, no matter how small, gives these organizations the ability to plan ahead and budget accordingly. A rating agency like Charity Navigator or CharityWatch can help you find the most effective ones to support. Be sure to investigate local and regional nonprofits in addition to the marquee national organizations you’ve already heard of.
把钱花在符合你价值观的地方。通过每月自动支付来支持一个热衷于环保的非盈利组织。一个与科学专家有直接联系、有法律团队和全职倡导者的组织，比同样数量的个人单独行动能做得更好。每月支付，无论多小一笔，都让这些组织能提前计划并做出相应的预算。像Charity Navigator或CharityWatch这样的评级机构，可以帮助你找到最有效的组织来支持。除了你已经听说过的全国性组织，一定要了解一下当地和区域性的非营利组织。
Pay for your sins. Avoiding air travel is one easy way to lower your carbon footprint significantly, but you can also buy carbon offsets for the flights you can’t avoid. Carbon offsets counteract the greenhouse gas emissions you’re responsible for by supporting organizations that work to limit emissions. They’re amazingly affordable — I offset my entire book tour last year for less than $50 — and they’re not just for corporations. And not just for air travel either.
为你的罪过买单。避免坐飞机旅行是让碳足迹显著降低的一个简单方法，但你也可以为你无法避免的飞行购买碳补偿。碳补偿通过支持致力于限制排放的组织来抵消你为之负责的温室气体排放。买碳补偿的钱低得惊人——去年我为整个新书促销旅行购买碳补偿只花了不到50美元（合350元人民币）。碳补偿不只是针对公司。而且不只是针对航空旅行。
Lighten up on the plastic. It’s almost impossible to avoid single-use plastics altogether, but a one-time investment in reusable versions of your most frequent purchases can reduce your dependence on them. Add reusable produce bags to your stash of reusable grocery bags, keep a good water bottle in your purse or satchel, bring your own takeout containers to restaurants for leftovers, etc. When you can, purchase biodegradable versions of plastic, like dog-poop bags made from cornstarch, and reuse single-use items that can’t be avoided: If you save the bags that bread comes in, for example, you won’t ever need to buy zip-top bags.
减少塑料的使用。完全避免使用一次性塑料几乎不可能，但可以通过一次性购买可重复使用的袋子，来减少你对最常买的东西所需的塑料袋的依赖。把可再次使用的塑料袋与你的一堆可再用的购物袋放在一起，在你的手袋或背包里放一个装水用的好瓶子，把你自己的外卖容器带到餐馆里去装剩饭菜，等等。如果可能的话，买可生物降解的塑料制品，比如用玉米淀粉做的狗屎袋，重复使用那些不可避免的一次性塑料袋：比如，如果你把装面包的袋子留下来，你就不用专门购买易拉封袋。
Vote. The climate crisis is the one issue that matters most in this election, and not just because the survival of the human race depends on it. Virtually every other issue on the ballot is one that will be made worse if we don’t act now to limit the damage we’re doing to the planet. Immigration? Check. Race relations? Check. Income inequality? Affordable health care? Global political instability? Check, check, check. Vote for candidates who understand the life-threatening environmental challenges we’re facing, who have pledged to do the hard work of addressing them and, equally important, who have a realistic chance of winning.
投票。气候危机是今年总统大选中最重要的问题之一，这不仅仅是因为气候危机事关人类的生存。如果我们现在不采取行动，限制我们对地球造成的破坏的话，选票上涉及的几乎所有问题都会变得更糟糕。移民问题。种族关系问题。收入不均问题。负担不起医疗费用的问题。全球政治不稳定的问题。把票投给那些懂得我们所面临的、威胁生命的环境挑战的候选人，那些承诺要努力解决这些问题的候选人，以及那些有实际获胜机会的候选人。
Don’t hold yourself to an unrealistic standard of purity. Just as it’s O.K. to eat the birthday cake, it’s O.K. not to be a perfect steward of the earth. A standard of perfection makes it too easy to become overwhelmed. Just do your best. Trust that your best will keep getting better as you wake up to your own responsibilities to the earth.
不要给自己设定一个不切实际的纯洁标准。就像你可以吃生日蛋糕一样，你也可以是一个不完美的地球看管者。完美的标准很容易让人不知所措。你只需要尽自己的最大努力。相信你的最大努力将随着你对肩负的地球责任的认识增长，而越来越好。
Take out your earbuds. The best thing you can do to save the earth is to fall in love with your own world. When you love something, you want to nurture and protect it. It’s lovely to think of preserving the earth as a matter of protecting the oceans and the forests and the flood plains and the prairies. But preserving the earth is just as much about protecting the blue jays and the spiders and bats and the garter snakes and the box turtles and the toads. Pay attention to their courtship songs and their territorial cries of fury. Study their stirring in the leaves. Listen for the rush of wings.
取下你的耳机。你为拯救地球能做的最好事情就是爱上你所在的世界。当你爱某个东西时，你要去呵护和保护它。认为保护地球事关保护海洋、保护森林、保护洪泛区，以及保护大草原是很好的想法。但保护地球同样也事关保护蓝鸟、保护蜘蛛、保护蝙蝠、保护带蛇、保护箱龟和保护蟾蜍。去注意这些小动物的求偶之鸣和地盘被侵时的愤怒之声，观察它们在树叶中的搅动，倾听翅膀在空中飞来飞去的声音吧。