书城外语在耶鲁听演讲
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第6章 根据经验找到环保良策(1)

Getting Out of the Previous View and Searching Your Own Ideas on Protecting Environment

演讲人:Arnold Schwarzenegger 阿诺德·施瓦辛格

Thank you very much,President Levin,for the wonderful introduction.And let me just say right off the top:I"m very happy that I"m not the only one with an accent speaking here today.

Anyway,it"s great to have you,Dr.Pachauri.Thank you for the wonderful speech.It was really extraordinary.

I want to thank also Governor Jodi Rell for being here today and all the other governors that came and the premier that came down from Canada.We want to thank also Mary Nichols who is the chair of the California Air Resources Board who is with us here today sitting in the front row.Thank you very much.

I want to thank Premier Charest for being here from Quebec.

And also we want to thank Professor Dan Esty for being really responsible for organizing this and for havingme here today.And he has been a great adviser to our administration for the last four years and so we want to thank you for all your great,great work and for being such a great leader.

The environmentalists were thought also to be kind of weird fanatics.You know,the kind of serious tree huggers and weeping willows.Plus environmentalists were no fun.They were like prohibitionists at a fraternity party and stuff like that.

And for too long the environmental movement was powered by guilt.Now,you know the kind of guilt I"m talking about?Smoke stacks belching pollution to power our hot tubs and large?Screen TVs,or in my case flying around with a private plane or driving my big Hummers.

Now,it"s too bad that we all can"t live simple lives like Buddhist monks on straw mats.But you know something,it"s not going to happen.Let"s face it,people are not going to give up their energy?burning plasma TVs.Maybe if the TV or the computer or the cell phone or the appliance would have a little smoke stack on it that shows you how much energy you use or how much greenhouse gas emissions there are,maybe it would make the people feel a little bit more guilty,but I doubt it.

Ladies and gentlemen,I don"t think that any movement has ever made it,has ever made much progress based on guilt.Guilt is passive,it is inhibiting,it"s defensive and the approach just simplydoesn"t work.

Successful movements are built on passion.They"re built on confidence.They"re built on Teddy Roosevelt"s bully pulpit.They"re built on critical mass and often they"re built on an element of alarm that galvanizes action.

I believe the environmental movement is switching over from being powered by guilt to being powered by something much more positive,something much more dynamic,something much more capable of bringing about revolutionary change.Its image is also changing from one of hand?wringing and whining to one that is hip,an image that is cutting edge,forceful and self-confident and even sexy.

And a big boost is coming,of course,after the election,no matter whether it"s McCain,Obama,or Clinton.But this is something we"re going to talk about a little bit later.

In California we,of course,are doing everything that we can to change the balance of power on the environment.

First,let me start with government policy.Now,of course,the big thing is we don"t wait for Washington,because as I"ve always said,Washington is asleep at the wheel.

Now,I don"t want to go into all the details of all the laws that we have passed and all the regulations and allof the things that we have done,but we are?I want to mention some of the things,because we are very proud of what we have accomplished.As a matter of fact,when we started,they said you can"t protect the environment and economy at the same time.People said it was impossible.But then when I came into office we started getting to work and we started building the hydrogenhighway.And we set aside 25million acres of pristine lands with the Sierra Nevada Conservancy.And then put in place the Ocean Action Plan that led the nation in cleaning and preserving our coast line.And we also began our Green Building Initiative to make our government buildings more energy efficient by 25percent by the year 2015.Then we did something very important which was we passed the Million Solar Roof Initiative in order to harness the renewable energy of the sun.

And then there were two things that we have done,two laws that we have passed that got world recognition and that is to the pass the law to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25percent by the year 2020,which is holding back the greenhouse gas emissions to the 1990level and then an additional 80percent by the year 2050.And then the following year?Then the following year we passed and we ordered a cut in the carbon content of transportation fuels,the low carbon fuel standards.Like I said,this gave us world attention.

Now,do I believe that those standards that California sets will solve global warming?No,not at all.What we are doing is basically applying leverage so that at some point the whole environmental thing tilts and shifts.It"s like a see?saw it goes up and eventually tips down the other way.

California is,as you know,the seventh largest economy in the world and itis a big state.It is a powerful state and what we do does have consequences.Even though when you look at the globe California is alittle spot on that globe,but when it comes to our power of influence,it is the equivalent of a whole continent.