Budding greens
朝气蓬勃的环保人士
A new generation of climate-change activists
新一代气候变化活动人士。
Jul 15th 2010 | BEIJING
CHINA’S environment, most obviously the air in its cities, has been deteriorating roughly at the same dizzy pace that its industry has been expanding. Now some young activists, notably in university environmental clubs, are campaigning to raise awareness of pollution. In the process, they are among the first of their generation to dabble with political participation.
中国环境恶化的速度几乎与其工业令人炫目的扩张速度旗鼓相当，城市中的空气状况尤为明显。眼下，部分青年活动家以大学环保俱乐部为阵地，正在努力提高人们的环保意识。在这个过程中，他们是这代人中首批涉足政治活动的人。
The China Youth Climate Action Network, formed in Beijing in August 2007, began as a group of seven organisations which shared a desire to tackle global warming. This week it co-hosted a big summit on youth, energy and climate change at the United Nations pavilion in the Shanghai World Expo. “China has 400m young people and they need to make their voices heard, to express their views on climate change,” says Zhao Xiangyu, a board member.
2007年8月，中国青年应对气候变化网络在北京成立，起初是由都旨在解决全球变暖问题的七个组织组成的一个团体。本周，它在上海世博会的联合国馆共同主持了一次有关青春、能源和气候变化的大型峰会。该团体的成员赵祥宇说：“中国拥有4亿年轻人，他们需要让人们听到他们的声音，发表他们在气候变化问题上的看法。”
The group’s main project is to encourage energy efficiency at 52 Chinese universities. It does so through surveys, on-campus training and producing a guide book on responding to climate change. Its goal, since inception, has been to get a 20% cut in greenhouse-gas emissions at the universities by 2012. Evidence of progress, so far, has been mixed.
该团体的主要工程是在中国的52所大学鼓励有效利用能源。它通过对应对气候变化的调查、在校培训和制作指导书来完成任务。一开始，它就致力于实现到2012年大学的温室气体排放减少20%的目标。迄今为止，进步的证据喜忧参半。
This is not for want of enthusia. Students at Peking University have set up a Clean Development Mechani club, named after a part of the Kyoto protocol. With some funding from the World Wide Fund for Nature, it recently ran a project to interview and train “low-carbon leaders” around the country. “Our parents, their generation, are not aware of these issues,” says Fan Jie, a member of the club. “So it is our generation who should take action.”
并不是缺乏热情。北大的学生用京都协议的一部分来命名，成立了清洁发展机制俱乐部。最近，它利用从世界自然生态基金会获得的一些资助，实施了一项在全国采访和培训“低碳带头人”的项目。该俱乐部成员方杰（音）说：“我们的父母亲那一代并没有意识到这些问题。因此，我们这一代应该采取行动。”
Yet it is an awkward time for NGOs in China. Since March officials have required all non-profit organisations to get restrictive notarised agreements before they can accept foreign funding. This gives the government still more control in a field already dominated by groups that are closely guided by officialdom.
然而，对中国的非政府组织来说，这是一段令人尴尬的时期。3月后，官方要求小型非盈利组织获得公证人签字的限制性协议才能接受国外资助。这又为政府在业已由官方密切指导的团体主导的领域提供了更多的控制权。
Such control may be one reason why even the greenest activists do not contradict the government’s stance on tackling climate change. But Mr Fan, and most of his peers, also agree that economic growth and the environment are both pressing concerns, especially with countless Chinese still living in poverty.
这种控制或许是为何最具环保意识的活动人士在解决气候变化问题方面不与政府立场冲突的一个原因。但是方杰以及大多数他的同龄人还赞同，经济增长和环境问题都是当务之急，尤其是在还有无数中国人还生活在贫困中的情况下。
The activists are also sensitive about foreign critici of China’s foot-dragging on greenery. At talks over a new climate treaty in Copenhagen, in December, young Chinese delegates were not alone in doubting that a meaningful agreement would be struck. But they were fearful of being dragged into Western critici of their government, and so pulled out of a planned joint declaration by young Chinese and American delegates. That would have called on governments of both countries to step up environmental efforts. But the statement, they felt, might have been used to put undue pressure on China. This new breed of environmentalist is Chinese first, global citizen second.
这些活动人士对国外对中国在环保方面拉后腿的批评也很敏感。在有关12月份哥本哈根一项新的气候条约的交谈中，并非只有年轻的中国代表对将敲定一项有意义的协议表示怀疑。但是他们担心卷入西方对其政府的批评中，因此退出了一份原计划由中美年轻代表发表的联合声明。这份声明本是呼吁两国政府加大环境保护的力度。但是他们认为，这项声明可能会被用于给中国施加过多的压力。这新一代环保人士首先考虑的是中国，其次才是是
