2024年6月20日 星期四

E.P.A. Rule Severely Limits Emissions From Coal Plants 美國環保署從嚴限制燃煤電廠汙染


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2024/06/21 第490期 訂閱/退訂看歷史報份
 
 
紐時周報精選 E.P.A. Rule Severely Limits Emissions From Coal Plants 美國環保署從嚴限制燃煤電廠汙染
Protesters Connect Gaza War to Struggles Near and Far 美大學抗議潮遍地烽火 目標不局限加薩
紐時周報精選
 
E.P.A. Rule Severely Limits Emissions From Coal Plants 美國環保署從嚴限制燃煤電廠汙染
文/Lisa Friedman and Coral Dave
譯/羅方妤

美國環保署從嚴限制燃煤電廠汙染

The Biden administration on Thursday placed the final cornerstone of its plan to tackle climate change: a regulation that would force the nation's coal-fired power plants to virtually eliminate the planet-warming pollution they release into the air or shut down.

拜登政府周四為其應對氣候變遷計畫奠定最後一塊基石:一項法規將迫使該國燃煤電廠實質上消除他們釋放到空氣中的全球暖化汙染物,否則就要關閉。

The regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency requires coal plants in the United States to reduce 90% of their greenhouse pollution by 2039, one year earlier than the agency had initially proposed. The compressed timeline was welcomed by climate activists but condemned by coal executives who said the new standards would be impossible to meet.

美國環境保護署的這項法規,要求美國燃煤電廠在2039年前,減少90%溫室氣體汙染,時間比環保署最初擬議早了一年。緊迫的時限受到氣候倡議人士歡迎,但遭到燃煤電廠主管譴責,他們認為新的標準根本不可能達成。

The EPA also imposed three additional regulations on coal-burning power plants, including stricter limits on emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin linked to developmental damage in children, from plants that burn lignite coal, the lowest grade of coal. The rules also more tightly restrict the seepage of toxic ash from coal plants into water supplies and limit the discharge of wastewater from coal plants.

環保署也對燃煤電廠實施額外三條法規,包括更嚴格限制電廠燃燒褐煤造成的汞排放,汞是一種與傷害孩童發展有關的神經毒素,褐煤則是最低等級燃煤。這些法規也更嚴格管制來自燃煤電廠的有毒灰燼滲入水源,及限制燃煤電廠排放的廢水。

Taken together, the regulations could deliver a death blow in the United States to coal, the fuel that powered the country for much of the last century but has caused global environmental damage. When burned, coal emits more carbon dioxide than any other fuel source.

總而言之,這些法規可能在美國對燃煤造成致命打擊,煤是上世紀大部分時間提供美國能源的燃料,但也造成全球環境破壞。煤燃燒時排放的二氧化碳,比其他任何燃料還多。

The new rules regarding power plants come weeks after the administration's other major climate regulations to limit emissions from cars and large trucks in a way that is designed to speed the adoption of electric vehicles. Transportation and electric power are the two largest sources in the United States of the carbon pollution that is driving climate change.

關於電廠的新法規,是在拜登政府發布其他重大氣候法規幾周後推出,這些法規限制汽車和大型卡車排放,以設法加速採用電動車。交通運輸和電力,在美國是造成氣候變遷的碳排放兩個最大來源。

President Joe Biden wants to cut that pollution about 50% from 2005 levels by the end of this decade, and to eliminate emissions from the power sector by 2035.

拜登總統想在這個十年結束前,將碳排放汙染減少到2005年水平的50%,並在2035年前消除能源業的碳排放。

The limits on power plant emissions announced Thursday would also apply to future facilities that burn gas, requiring them to capture their emissions or to use a fuel that is nonpolluting. Gas-fired power plants that are currently in operation would be exempt.

周四宣布的電廠排放限制,也適用未來燃燒天然氣的設施,要求他們捕捉自己的排放,或使用無汙染燃料。目前運行中的天然氣發電廠將被豁免。

 
Protesters Connect Gaza War to Struggles Near and Far 美大學抗議潮遍地烽火 目標不局限加薩
文/Jeremy W. Peters
譯/周辰陽

美大學抗議潮遍地烽火 目標不局限加薩

Talk to student protesters across the country, and their outrage is clear: They have been galvanized by the scale of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip, and will risk arrest to fight for the Palestinian cause.

與全美各地的抗議學生交談,他們的憤慨很明顯:他們受到加薩走廊死亡與破壞規模的刺激,不惜冒著被捕風險,為巴勒斯坦而奮戰。

For most of them, the war is taking place in a land they've never set foot in, where those killed — 34,000 so far, according to local health authorities — are known to them only through what they have read or seen online.

對他們之中的大多數人而言,戰爭正發生在他們從來沒踏足的土地。根據當地衛生主管部門,至今有34000人死在那裡,而他們只是透過在網路上讀到或看到的資訊了解這些人。

But for many, the issues are closer to home, and at the same time, much bigger and broader. In their eyes, the Gaza conflict is a struggle for justice, linked to issues that seem far afield. They say they are motivated by policing, mistreatment of Indigenous people, discrimination toward Black Americans and the impact of global warming.

但對許多人來說,這些問題離家更近,同時更大更廣泛。在他們眼中,加薩衝突是場正義的鬥爭,與看似遙不可及的問題相關。他們說,他們的動機是警察活動、原住民族不當對待、對美國黑人的歧視與全球暖化。

Many protesters have rebuffed entreaties from university administrators, chained themselves to benches and taken over buildings. Now, demonstrators have faced a harsh crackdown, with hundreds of arrests in the past 24 hours at many schools, including Columbia University.

許多抗議人士回絕大學行政人員的懇求,將自己用鎖鏈拴到長椅上,且接管了建築物。現在,在許多學校,包括哥倫比亞大學,示威者遭遇嚴厲鎮壓,在過去24小時內,有數百人被捕。

With pro-Israel students ratcheting up their counterprotests on a number of campuses, the climate could grow even more strained in the coming days.

隨著挺以學生在一些校園加大他們的反抗議活動,未來幾天氣氛可能更緊繃。

In interviews, the language of many protesters was also distinctive. Students freely salted their explanations with academic terms like intersectionality, colonialism and imperialism, all to make their case that the plight of Palestinians is a result of global power structures that thrive on bias and oppression.

在訪談中,許多抗議者的語言也很獨特。學生們自由地以學術用語點綴自己的解釋,像是多元交織性、殖民主義和帝國主義,全為了闡明自己的觀點,即巴勒斯坦人的苦難是全球權力結構的結果,這種結構因偏見與壓迫而蓬勃發展。

"As an environmentalist, we pride ourselves on viewing the world through intersectional lenses," said Katie Rueff, a first-year student at Cornell University. "Climate justice is an everyone issue. It affects every dimension of identity, because it's rooted in the same struggles of imperialism, capitalism — things like that. I think that's very true of this conflict, of the genocide in Palestine."

康乃爾大學一年級學生凱蒂.呂夫說,「身為一名環保主義者,我們對透過多元交織性視角看到世界引以為豪。氣候正義是大家的問題,影響認同的每一個層面,因為它深植於帝國主義、資本主義,諸如此類的相同鬥爭。我認為,對於這場衝突、巴勒斯坦的種族滅絕,這是千真萬確」。

Jawuanna McAllister, a 27-year-old doctoral candidate in cell and molecular biology at Cornell, pointed to the name of the student group she is affiliated with: the Coalition for Mutual Liberation.

27歲的朱萬娜.麥卡利斯特是康乃爾大學細胞與分子生物學博士候選人,她指著她隸屬的學生團體之名:相互解放聯盟。

"It's in our name: mutual liberation," McAllister said. "That means we're anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist organization. We believe that none of us can be free and have the respect and dignity we deserve unless all of us are free."

麥卡利斯特說,「這是我們的名字:相互解放。這意謂我們是反種族歧視、反帝國主義、反殖民主義的組織。我們相信,除非我們所有人都自由,否則我們沒有一個人可以自由,並擁有我們應得的尊重和尊嚴」。

 
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