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气候变化所引起的担忧还不足以推动除了政治对话之外的实质性行动。
Fear of the distant horrors of climate change isn't enough to drive anything more than just political talk and hand-wringing
中国正在尝试利用水交易来解决保证供应公平和避免生态破坏这个双重问题。
China approaches water trading with the twin problems of ensuring equity of supply and avoiding ecological damage
早在40年前，新加坡领导人就意识到一个社会在污染环境中的生活成本要比在清洁环境中高得多。中国也能认识到这一点吗？
Singapore’s leaders realised 40 years ago that it is much more expensive for a society to live in a polluted environment than a clean one
至年初官方严打危害食品安全犯罪起，已有900余人因生产销售假肉而被捕，其中更有甚者以老鼠肉冒充羊肉。
After more than 900 arrests over the selling of fake meat, including rat as mutton, officials face an uphill battle to change a fraudulent culture
人类在过去100中的过度捕捞导致了鳕鱼、鲨鱼、金枪鱼和箭鱼等大型鱼类数目急剧减少。
A century of overfishing by humans has seen a vast reduction in the numbers of large fish, such as cod, sharks, tuna and swordfish
印度农业遭遇危机，农民自杀事件接连发生，兰詹娜•帕迪的新作《遗孀》讲述了这一背景下妇女的艰难处境。
Written against the backdrop of continuing suicides among Indian farmers, a new book describes the impact of the country’s agricultural crisis on women
短评 in brief
如果人类不能消除对生态和地球系统的无知，世界将会怎样？卡斯帕•亨德森认为，弗雷德•古特尔的《物种的命运》一书对最坏的情形进行了令人惊心的概述。
The Fate of the Species by Fred Guterl is a bracing overview of the worst that can happen if humans do not overcome their ecological and Earth-systems illiteracy, writes Caspar Henderson.
回复：促进评估体系的运作
LEED和三星体系都是非强制性的建筑能效测评体系，因此这两体系的普及率高度依赖开发商的使用意愿。开发商以这两个体系对销售价格的影响以及能否使项目更受欢迎为考量。此外，政府的补贴方案也有助于绿色节能建筑的开发;中国政府在四月发布了一份政策文件，着重推广三星评估体系的使用。此政策建议给予获得二星认证的建筑45元人民币的补贴，而获得三星认证的建筑则可以获得80元人民币的补贴。与此同时，政府也希望能在2020年时可以实现30%的新建筑通过绿色建筑认证。如果这个补贴项目的申请程序能够精简且透明化，我认为这对绿色建筑的推广会是个极大的推动力。
reply: Incentives for rating systems
LEED and 3-Star are both voluntary rating system, which means for the most part their growth is dependent on developers choosing to pursue them for the market benefits, either through higher lease prices or better project visibility. Subsidies could potentially also play a role in encouraging developers to build green. In April China released a policy document outlining a subsidy system to encourage 3-Star development. The document proposes a 45 yuan subsidy for projects that achieve 2 star and a 80 yuan subsidy for 3-Star. It also calls for 30 percent of China's new construction to achieve green building certification by 2020. If the application process for the subsidy is streamlined and transparent, then it should make a significant difference.
回复：改变行为很重要
我完全同意行为和生活方式很重要，教育亦能影响生活方式。建筑师和工程师必须考虑系统设计对行为的影响。人们根据周围环境调整行为模式，比如在能源意识高的社会长大的人，如中国，总会记得关上房间里的独立空调；但是当他们遇到没有独立开关的中央空调是，就会产生完全不同的消费行为。让人们自己控制操作系统是鼓励节约能源的最佳方法。因此，我们必须注意系统设计，如同重视环境教育一样。如果中国像美国一样建造完全中央控制的摩天大楼，教育也难以防止日益增长的能源消耗。
Reply: The importance of changing the behavior
While I absolutely agree that behavior and lifestyle are important, and that education can impact lifestyle, it is equally important that architects and engineers must consider the impact of system design upon behavior. People adapt their behaviors according to their environment. For example, someone growing up in an energy conscious society, such as China, who always remember to turn their decentralized AC unit off when they leave a room, will have a completely different energy consumption behavior when they interact with a centralized system that has no easy on/off switch. Giving people individual control over their system is the best way to encourage them to save energy. Therefore we must pay attention to system design just as much as we pay attention to environmental education. If China's builds completely centralized skyscrapers like the US, there is no amount of education that could prevent huge energy increases.