英文欣赏之人生感悟 (110)国家的生活标准 A Country's Standard of Living

A Country’s Standard of Living 国家的生活标准 The standard of living of any country means the average person’s share of the goods and services which the country produces. 任何国家的生活标准意味着人均占有这个国家生产的商品和服务的价值。 A country’s standard of living,therefore,depends first and foremost on its capacity to produce wealth. 因此...

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TED演讲:小国家的大想法–摒弃化石燃料(2)

Hydropower, geothermal, wind, solar, biomass. 水力,地热,风力,太阳能以及生物质。 Did you know that last year, for 299 days, 你们知道去年总共有299天, we did not use any fossil fuels in order to generate all our electricity? 我们生产的所有电力压根没有使用任何化石燃料吗? It’s a fantastic achievement, and yet, it hides a paradox, 这是一个了不起的...

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TED演讲:小国家的大想法–摒弃化石燃料(3)

That year, the country was coming out of civil war. 那年,哥斯达黎加刚从一场内战中解脱。 Thousands of Costa Ricans had died, and families were bitterly split. 成千上万的哥斯达黎加人死于战乱,一个个家庭支离破碎,人们流离失所。 And yet, a surprising idea won the hearts and minds: 然而,一个令人惊讶的想法得到了大家的支持: we would reboot the country, and tha...

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TED演讲:小国家的大想法–摒弃化石燃料(4)

In the ’50s, we started investing in hydropower, 在五十年代时,我们开始投资水电工程, and that kept us away from the trap of using fossil fuels for electricity generation, 这也使我们避免陷入使用石油来发电的困局, which is what the world is struggling with today. 而现在全世界都在这个泥潭中挣扎。 In the ’70s we invested in national parks, 在70...

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TED演讲:小国家的大想法–摒弃化石燃料(1)

How do we build a society without fossil fuels? 如果不用石油,我们如何让一个社会运转起来? This is a very complex challenge, 这是个十分严峻的挑战, and I believe developing countries could take the lead in this transition. 我相信发展中国家可以为这个改变起带头作用。 And I’m aware that this is a contentious statement, 我很清楚这是一个很有争议性的说...

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TED演讲:小国家的大想法–摒弃化石燃料(9)

So what comes next? The people. 那么接下来呢?我们的百姓。 How do we get people to own this? 我们如何才能让人们去接受这个想法? How do we get people to believe that it’s possible to build a society without fossil fuels? 我们如何才能让人们相信,建造一个没有石油的社会是有可能的? A lot of work from the ground up is needed. 从最基本的工作开始是必经过...

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TED演讲:小国家的大想法–摒弃化石燃料(8)

Second, we have to change, but incremental change is not going to be sufficient. 第二,我们必须改变,但是逐步的变化是不够的。 We need transformational change. 我们需要的是转型和变革。 And there are some incremental projects in my country, and I am the first one to celebrate them. 我们的国家也在实施一些逐步改善计划,而我也是第一个为这些计划叫好的人。 But le...

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TED演讲:小国家的大想法–摒弃化石燃料(5)

So the question is, what is the next big idea for this generation? 那么问题来了,我们这一代的下一个大想法又是什么呢? And I believe what comes next is for this generation to let go of fossil fuels for good, just as we did with the army. 我相信我们这一代,将会为了更好的环境放弃使用化石燃料,就像我们当初废除了军队一样。 Fossil fuels create climate change. 化石...

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TED演讲:小国家的大想法–摒弃化石燃料(6)

It’s hurting people, it’s hurting companies, and it’s hurting our health. 这影响了百姓的利益,也伤害了公司的利益,同时也在影响我们的身体健康。 Because when policies and infrastructure fail, 因为当政府政策和基础设施的建设都无法发挥作用的时候, this is what happens on a daily basis. 这就是每天都要发生的情况。 Two hours in the morning, two h...

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TED演讲:小国家的大想法–摒弃化石燃料(10)

People feel powerless, and they are tired of not being heard. 群众很多时候都会觉得自己有心无力,他们再也不希望自己的呼声被无视了。 So what we do is concrete things, 所以我们要做的是基础观念的建立, and we translate technical issues into citizen language 把专业问题转述成百姓听得懂的语言, to show that citizens have a role to play and can play it together. ...

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TED演讲:小国家的大想法–摒弃化石燃料(7)

So if we want to get rid of oil-based transportation, we can, 所以如果我们想放弃以石油为主的交通系统,我们完全可以, because we have options now that we didn’t have before. It’s really exciting. 因为现在我们拥有以前所没有的选择。这真的是非常激动人心。 But of course, some get very uncomfortable with this idea, 不过当然,有些人会对这个想法感到不快,...

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TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(1)

I’ve been thinking a lot about the world recently and how it’s changed over the last 20, 30, 40 years. 最近我常常思考我们的世界以及它在过去的20,30,40年里经历了何等的转变。 Twenty or 30 years ago, if a chicken caught a cold and sneezed and died in a remote village in East Asia, 20或30年前,如果在东亚一个遥远村落里,一只鸡患了感冒,打个喷嚏然后死了, ...

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TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(3)

This is clearly not a good arrangement. We clearly need to change it. 这明显不是个良好的形势。我们明显需要改变现状。 We clearly need to find ways of encouraging countries to start working together a little bit better. 我们明显需要找到一些方式以鼓励国家之间可以共同合作得更好。 And why won’t they do that? Why is it that our leaders still persist in looking i...

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TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(6)

So a couple of years ago, I thought I would take some time out and speak to that gigantic database and ask it, 所以几年以后,我认为我可以抽出些时间来跟那个庞大的数据库聊聊,问问它, why do some people prefer one country more than another? 为什么有些人相比于另一个国家,更喜欢一个国家? And the answer that the database gave me completely staggered me. It was 6.8. ...

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TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(9)

Now that’s the Good Country Index. What’s it there for? 这就是好国家指数。它有什么目的? Well, it’s there really because I want to try to introduce this word, or reintroduce this word, into the discourse. 它存在的目的是因为我想尝试,想介绍这个词,或重新介绍这个词,在我们的语境中。 I’ve had enough hearing about competitive countries. 我...

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TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(4)

But actually, aren’t most of us not really so very good at empathy? 但事实上,我们大多数人难道不是缺乏同情心吗? Oh sure, we’re very good at empathy when it’s a question of dealing with people who kind of look like us 当然,我们非常有同情心,当问题出在那些跟我们长得差不多, and kind of walk and talk and eat and pray and wear like us, 走路、...

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TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(10)

That’s what I would like you to do, and I’d like you to use it as a stick with which to beat your politicians. 这是我希望你做的,我希望你用它当一根棍子来鞭策你的政党。 When you elect them, when you reelect them, when you vote for them, when you listen to what they’re offering you, 当你选举他们或重选他们的时候,当你为他们投票,听他们说他们能给你带...

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TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(8)

Now the other thing you’ll notice about the top 10 there is, 另外一件你注意到的前十名的事情是, of course, they’re all, apart from New Zealand, Western European nations. 当然,除了新西兰以外,它们都是欧州国家。 They’re also all rich. This depressed me, 它们也很富有。这让我很沮丧, because one of the things that I did not want to discover ...

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TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(7)

And you’re waiting for me to tell you which one comes top. 你在等我告诉你哪个国家是第一名。 And I’m going to tell you, but first of all I want to tell you precisely what I mean when I say a good country. 我会告诉你,但首先让我告诉你我对于一个好国家的精确定义是什么。 I do not mean morally good. 我并不是说道德上的好。 When I say that Country X is...

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TED演讲:哪个国家对世界最有益(5)

And so you may say, well, given all of that, why then doesn’t it work? 你可能说,就算这样,为什么不奏效呢? Why can we not make our politicians change? Why can’t we demand them? 为什么我们无法让政党改变?为什么我们无法要求他们? Well I, like a lot of us, spend a lot of time complaining about how hard it is to make people change, 我,就像我们中间许多人,花很多时间...

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