原标题：
the green man’s burden
what responsibilities do individuals h**e to stop climate change?
the nature of climate change makes that a tricky question
环保主义者的负担。
个人在阻止气候变化方面的责任是什么？
气候变化的本质使这个问题变得棘手
paragraph 1]
the vast majority of readers of the economist wouldrecoilat the idea of stealing from a poor malian goatherd or a struggling bangladeshi farmer.
一想到要从贫穷的马里牧羊人或孟加拉国苦苦挣扎的农民那里偷窃，绝大多数《经济学人》读者都感到厌恶。
next to none wouldcountenancemurdering such a person.
几乎没有人会赞成这样的人。
paragraph 2]
how, then, should we think about readers’ (and your correspondent’s) responsibility for global warming?
那么，我们应该如何看待我们的读者（和我们的记者）对全球变暖的责任呢？
almost every human activity involves some emissions of greenhouse gases.
几乎每一项人类活动都涉及一定程度的温室气体排放。
global warming is already harming the livelihoods of many people, including lots of poverty-stricken goatherds and farmers.
全球变暖已经损害了许多人的生计，包括许多贫困的牧羊人和农民。
at the extremes, the increasing frequency and intensity of droughts, floods, storms and heatw**es brought on by global warming is killing people—a tragedy that will get worse as the planet bakes.
在极端情况下，全球变暖带来的干旱、洪水、风暴和热浪的频率和强度都在增加，导致死亡——随着地球变暖，这一悲剧将变得更加严重。
are rich western consumers thusconnivingin theft and murder?
富裕的西方消费者是否因此纵容盗窃和**？
paragraph 3]
many would dismiss such a question ashyperbole
许多人会认为这样的问题有点夸大其词。
how much harm is any one person doing through their planet-cooking ways?
一个人能对全球变暖产生多大的负面影响？
how could you even answer that question, given that the precise impact of any givenwispof greenhouse gas is unknowable?
鉴于任何一缕温室气体的确切影响都是不可知的，你怎么能回答这个问题
is it too much to ask individuals to do their part to mitigate these harms?
要求个人尽自己的一份力量来减轻这些伤害是否太苛刻了？
paragraph 4]
yet the relationship between carbon emissions in aggregate and extreme weather is strong.
然而，碳排放总量与极端天气之间存在很强的相关性。
and during the course of their lives, wealthy western consumers generate a lot of emissions.
富裕的西方消费者在其一生中会排放大量温室气体。
estimates of the damage done vary widely, but none concludes it is insignificant.
对造成的损害的估计差异很大，但没有人得出结论认为损失是微不足道的。
in 2011 john nolt, a philosopher at the university of tennessee, estimated that a typical american, born in 1960, would be responsible for enough greenhouse-gas emissions over his or her lifetime to cause between one and two deaths.
2024年，田纳西大学（University of Tennessee）的哲学家约翰·诺尔特（John Nauert）估计，2024年出生的美国人一生中平均排放的温室气体足以导致1-2人死亡。
john broome, another philosopher, thinks the typical westerner shortens a human life by six months.
另一位哲学家约翰·布鲁姆（John Bloom）认为，西方人平均会缩短一个人的寿命6个月。
either way, it is a grim thought. and that is only the **erage.
无论哪种方式，这都是一个严峻的想法。 而这只是平均水平。
drive a gas-guzzling car, heat or cool a big house or fly a lot (ahem, readers of the economist) and yourrap sheetgets worse.
如果你开着一辆耗油的汽车，给一栋大房子供暖或制冷，或者经常坐飞机（《经济学人》的读者），你就会有越来越严重的“犯罪记录”。
paragraph 5]
is it too much to ask individuals to do their part to mitigate these harms?
要求个人尽自己的一份力量来减轻这些伤害是否太苛刻了？
that doing so will impose a he**y burden on some does not let themoff the hook
这样做对某些人来说可能是一个沉重的负担，但这并不能免除他们的责任。
that is true regardless of your underlying moral theory.
无论你相信什么基本的道德理论，这都是正确的。
schools of philosophy that focus on outcomes, such asutilitarianism, make big demands on the individual for the greater good.
以结果为导向的哲学流派，如功利主义，对个人提出了更高的要求，以实现更大的利益。
even theories that frame morality in terms of individual rights, including many kinds of liberalism, still entail a duty not to harm others without reason.
即使是那些以个人权利为道德框架的理论，包括许多自由主义，仍然要求不得无缘无故地伤害他人。 [paragraph 6]plenty of people feel a moral obligation to curb their own emissions of greenhouse gases.许多人认为他们有道德义务控制温室气体排放。 take grahame buss, a retired british engineer, who thinks climate change means that the world is headed towards economic collapse and war.以英国退休工程师格雷厄姆·巴斯（Graham Bass）为例，他认为气候变化意味着世界正在走向经济崩溃和战争。 his response has been to reduce his own carbon footprint dramatically.他的回应是大幅减少自己的碳足迹。 he consumes only a couple of kilograms of meat a year, he reckons, and no beef at all.他估计自己一年只吃几公斤肉，根本不吃牛肉。 [paragraph 7]how far should someone worried about the climate take such self-denial?对于那些关心气候的人来说，应该做出多少自我牺牲？there is no obvious answer. mr buss stopped taking flights three years ago, even though his son lived in brazil at the time.目前还没有明确的答案。 巴斯三年前停止了飞行，尽管他的儿子当时住在巴西。 but his wife refused to forswear visits to their offspring, despite the emissions.但他的妻子拒绝放弃探望孩子的机会，即使这会产生温室气体排放。 mr buss also decided that he should not drive cars that run on fossil fuels. but he has not just stopped using his two polluting cars; he is paying to h**e them crushed so that no one else can.巴斯还决定停止驾驶化石燃料汽车。 但他不仅自己没有使用2辆污染汽车，而且还花钱将它们碾碎，这样其他人就无法使用它们。 [paragraph 8]mr broome has argued that, since all emissions are sure—or at least very likely—to hurt some people in some form over the thousands of years they linger in the atmosphere, we h**e a duty either not to cause those emissions or to compensate the victims.布鲁姆认为，由于所有排放物都是肯定的——或者至少是可能的——会在大气中徘徊数千年，以某种方式伤害一些人，我们有责任不造成它们，或者赔偿受害者。 (he considers activity to reduce others’ emissions or to remove carbon from the atmosphere—offsets, in the jargon—a suitable form of compensation.（他认为，减少他人排放或从大气中去除碳的活动——用行话来说就是抵消——是一种合适的补偿形式。 ）[paragraph 9]this logic can be taken even further. some people decide not to h**e children—a question itself of great debate among climate activists.这个逻辑可以走得更远。 有些人决定不生孩子——这本身就是气候活动家之间争论的问题。 early in 2023 a belgian man in his 30s with two children was reported to h**e taken his own life after a long discussion with a chatbot about how best to curb global warming.据报道，2023 年初，一名 30 多岁的比利时男子带着两个孩子，在与聊天机器人就如何最好地遏制全球变暖进行了长时间的讨论后，选择结束自己的生命。 [paragraph 10]such horrors are rare. but they hint at the high standards the most ferocious forms of carbon abstinence place on individuals in the rich world.此类恐怖事件很少见。 但它们暗示了富裕国家最极端的碳减排形式对个人的高标准。 no living person can eliminate all their emissions, and even the dead decompose.没有一个活着的人可以完全消除他们所有的碳排放，即使在死后也是如此。 what volume of emissions, then, may an individual reasonably inflict on the planet?那么，一个人对地球的排放量有多大？（恭喜你阅读，此英文词汇量约829 2490，有删减） 原文来自：2024年12月23日 《经济学人》圣诞特辑部分的精读笔记** 在：通往自由英语之路 开始规划我的 2024 翻译和编曲：艾琳 本文经过编辑和校对：Irene 仅供个人英语学习和交流使用。 [关键句子]。（3 个）。
almost every human activity involves some emissions of greenhouse gases.
几乎每一项人类活动都涉及一定程度的温室气体排放。
yet the relationship between carbon emissions in aggregate and extreme weather is strong.
然而，碳排放总量与极端天气之间存在很强的相关性。
no living person can eliminate all their emissions, and even the dead decompose.
没有一个活着的人可以完全消除他们所有的碳排放，即使在死后也是如此。