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It is well known that Americans consume far more natural resources and live much less sustainably than people from any other large country of the world. “A child born in the United States will create thirteen times as much ecological damage over the course of his or her lifetime than a child born in Brazil,” reports the Sierra Club’s Dave Tilford, adding that the average American will drain as many resources as 35 natives of India and consume 53 times more goods and services than someone from China.

众所周知,美国人消耗的自然资源要比世界上任何其他大国的人多得多,生活的可持续性也要差得多。“在美国出生的孩子对生态产生的破坏是出生在巴西孩子的13倍”美环保组织塞拉俱乐部的戴夫·蒂尔福德报告补充称,美国人均消耗资源是印度人均消耗资源的35倍而消费的商品和服务是中国人的53倍。

Tilford cites a litany of sobering statistics showing just how profligate Americans have been in using and abusing natural resources. For example, between 1900 and 1989 U.S. population tripled while its use of raw materials grew by a factor of 17. “With less than 5 percent of world population, the U.S. uses one-third of the world’s paper, a quarter of the world’s oil, 23 percent of the coal, 27 percent of the aluminum, and 19 percent of the copper,” he reports. “Our per capita use of energy, metals, minerals, forest products, fish, grains, meat, and even fresh water dwarfs that of people living in the developing world.”

蒂尔福德引用了一长串发人深省的统计数据,显示出美国人在使用和浪费自然资源方面是多么地挥霍无度。例如,从1900年到1989年,美国人口增长了两倍,而原材料的使用量则增长了17倍。他说:“美国人口不到世界人口的5%,却使用了世界上三分之一的纸张、四分之一的石油、23%的煤炭、27%的铝和19%的铜。”“我们对能源、金属、矿产、林产品、鱼类、谷物、肉类甚至淡水的人均使用,让发展中国家的人相形见绌。”
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He adds that the U.S. ranks highest in most consumer categories by a considerable margin, even among industrial nations. To wit, American fossil fuel consumption is double that of the average resident of Great Britain and two and a half times that of the average Japanese. Meanwhile, Americans account for only five percent of the world’s population but create half of the globe’s solid waste.

他还说,美国在大多数消费领域的排名都遥遥领先,甚至在工业国家中也是如此。也就是说,美国的化石燃料消耗量是英国平均水平的两倍,是日本平均水平的2.5倍。与此同时,美国人只占世界人口的5%,却制造了全球一半的固体废物。

Americans’ love of the private automobile constitutes a large part of their poor ranking. The National Geographic Society’s annual Greendex analysis of global consumption habits finds that Americans are least likely of all people to use public transportation—only seven percent make use of transit options for daily commuting. Likewise, only one in three Americans walks or bikes to their destinations, as opposed to three-quarters of Chinese. While China is becoming the world’s leader in total consumption of some commodities (coal, copper, etc.), the U.S. remains the per capita consumption leader for most resources.

美国人对私家车的喜爱是他们排名高居不下的一大原因。国家地理学会对全球消费习惯的年度绿色指数分析发现,在所有国家中,美国人是最不喜欢乘坐公共交通的——只有7%的人在日常通勤中使用公共交通工具。同样,只有三分之一的美国人步行或骑自行车前往目的地,而中国人的这一比例为四分之三。虽然中国在某些商品(煤、铜等)的总消费量上正成为世界第一,但美国仍是大多数资源的人均消费量的第一。

Overall, National Geographic’s Greendex found that American consumers rank last of 17 countries surveyed in regard to sustainable behavior. Furthermore, the study found that U.S. consumers are among the least likely to feel guilty about the impact they have on the environment, yet they are near to top of the list in believing that individual choices could make a difference.

总体而言,《国家地理》的绿色指数发现,在17个接受调查的国家中,美国消费者在可持续行为方面排名垫底。此外,研究还发现,美国消费者对自己对环境造成的影响最不可能感到内疚,但他们相信个人的选择可以带来改变,这一点几乎排在首位。

Paradoxically, those with the lightest environmental footprint are also the most likely to feel both guilty and disempowered. “In what may be a major disconnect between perception and behavior, the study also shows that consumers who feel the guiltiest about their impact—those in China, India and Brazil—actually lead the pack in sustainable consumer choices,” says National Geographic’s Terry Garcia, who coordinates the annual Greendex study. “That’s despite Chinese and Indian consumers also being among the least confident that individual action can help the environment.”

矛盾的是,那些对环境影响最小的人也最有可能感到内疚和无助。国家地理杂志的特里·加西亚负责协调这项年度绿色消费者调查,他说:“研究还表明,那些对自己的影响感到最内疚的消费者——那些来自中国、印度和巴西的消费者——实际上在选择可持续的消费品方面处于领先地位。”“尽管中国和印度的消费者对个人行动能够改善环境的信心也是最低的。”

On average, one American consumes as much energy as

就人均而言,一个美国人消费的能源相当于:
o 2 Japanese 日本人的2倍
o 6 Mexicans 墨西哥人的6倍
o 13 Chinese 中国人的13倍
o 31 Indians 印度人的31倍
o 128 Bangladeshis 孟加拉人的128倍
o 307 Tanzanians 坦桑尼亚人的307倍
o 370 Ethiopians 埃塞俄比亚人的370倍

The average American individual daily consumption of water is 159 gallons, while more than half the world''''''''s population lives on 25 gallons.

美国人平均每天消耗159加仑的水,而世界上一半以上的人口每天只消耗25加仑的水。

Americans eat 815 billion calories of food each day - that''s roughly 200 billion more than needed - enough to feed 80 million people.

美国人每天要消耗8150亿卡路里的食物,这比需要的多出足足了2000亿卡路里,可以养活8000万人。

Americans throw out 200,000 tons of edible food daily. While 250 million people have died of hunger-related causes in the past quarter-century roughly 10 million each year (that just shows that Americans dont really care about "famines".

美国人每天扔掉20万吨的可食用食品。在过去的25年里,有2.5亿人因饥饿相关的原因而死,每年大约有1000万人死于饥饿(这说明美国人并不真的在乎“饥荒”。

Each person in the industrialized world uses as much commercial energy as 10 people in the developing world. The poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% accounted for 59% of all the consumption.

工业化国家的人均商业能源使用量相当于发展中国家的10人。最穷的10%只占全部消费的0.5%,最富的10%占全部消费的59%。

Why are we focusing on the United States? Because it consumes far more energy than any other country -- more than China and Russia put together. Just five percent of the world''''''''s population consumes 23% of its energy! That''''''''s really extravagant! Imagine if you wasted five times more gasoline as your neighbors... or five times more food... or produced five times more garbage. Your neighbors wouldn''''''''t be very happy! Yet, that''''''''s what we''''''''re doing.

为什么我们要关注美国?因为美国消耗的能源比其他任何国家都多——比中国和俄罗斯加起来还要多。世界上只有5%的人口消耗了23%的能源!这是奢侈的!想象一下,如果你比你的邻居多浪费五倍的汽油……或者五倍的食物…或者产生了五倍多的垃圾。你的邻居会不高兴的!然而,这就是我们正在做的事。
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How much energy does the average American consume? Well, if you list the countries of the world in order by their population , the U.S. comes in third... but the combined energy consumption of the other five largest added together doesn''''''''t match U.S. energy consumption! In other words, the 5% of the world''''''''s population that lives in the U.S. has more environmental impact than the 51% that live in the other five largest countries.

美国人平均消耗多少能源?好吧,如果你把世界上的国家按人口数量排序,美国排在第三…但是另外五个最大的国家加起来的能源消耗总和还赶不上美国的能源消耗!换句话说,居住在美国的5%的世界人口比居住在其他五个最大国家加起来51%的世界人口对环境的影响更大。

Next time you hear about a woman in India who has seven children, remember that she''''''''d have to have more than 20 children to match the impact of an American woman with just one child. And an immigrant who moves to the U.S. is likely to consume far more energy just by moving here. Even if he scrimps and saves energy at home, every thing he buys will increase consumption of energy and other resources.

下次当你听说一个印度妇女有七个孩子时,记住她必须有20个以上的孩子才能达到美国妇女只有一个孩子的影响。而一个移民到美国的人只要搬到这里就可能消耗更多的能源。即使他在家里节约能源,他买的每一样东西都会增加能源和其他资源的消耗。