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  3. What is the single most effective way to reduce greenhouse-gas emission? Go vegetarian? Replant the Amazon? Cycle to work? None

What is the single most effective way to reduce greenhouse-gas emission? Go vegetarian? Replant the Amazon? Cycle to work? None

admin2019-10-11  20
问题    What is the single most effective way to reduce greenhouse-gas emission? Go vegetarian? Replant the Amazon? Cycle to work? None of the above. The answer is: make air-conditioners radically better. On one calculation, replacing refrigerants that damage the atmosphere would reduce total greenhouse gases by the equivalent of 90bn tonnes of CO2 by 2050. Making the units more energy-efficient could double that. By contrast, if half the world’s population were to give up meat, it would save 66bn tonnes of CO2. Replanting two-thirds of degraded tropical forests would save 61bn tonnes. A one-third increase in global bicycle journeys would save just 2.3bn tonnes.
   Air-conditioning is one of the world’s great overlooked industries. Automobiles and air-conditioners were invented at roughly the same time, and both have had a huge impact on where people live and work. Unlike cars, though, air-conditioners have drawn little criticism for their social impact, emissions or energy efficiency. Most hot countries do not have rules to govern their energy use. There is not even a common English word for "coolth" (the opposite of warmth).
   Yet air-conditioning has done more than most things to benefit humankind. Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of Singapore, called it "perhaps one of the signal inventions of history". It has transformed productivity in the tropics and helped turn southern China into the workshop of the world. In Europe, its spread has pushed down heat-related deaths by a factor often since 2003, when 70,000 more people than usual, most of them elderly, died in a heatwave. For children, air-conditioned classrooms and dormitories are associated with better grades at school (see International section).
   Environmentalists who call air-conditioning "a luxury we cannot afford" have half a point, however. In the next ten years, as many air-conditioners will be installed around the world as were put in between 1902 (when air-conditioning was invented) and 2005. Until energy can be produced without carbon emissions, these extra machines will warm the world. At the moment, therefore, air-conditioners created a vicious cycle. The more the Earth warms, the more people need them. But the more there are, the warmer the world will be.
   Cutting the impact of cooling requires three things (beyond turning up the thermostat to make rooms less Arctic). First, air-conditioners must become much more efficient. The most energy-efficient models on the market today consume only about one-third as much electricity as average ones. Minimum energy-performance standards need to be raised, or introduced in countries that lack them altogether, to push the average unit’s performance closer to the standard of the best.
   Next, manufacturers should stop using damaging refrigerants. One category of these, hydrofluorocarbons, is over 1,000 times worse than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere. And international deal to phase out these pollutants, called the Kigali Amendment, will come into force in 2019. Foot-draggers should ratify and implement it; America is one country that has not done so.
   Last, more could be done to design offices, malls and even cities so they do not need as many air-conditioners in the first place. More buildings should be built with overhanging roofs or balconies for shade, or with natural ventilation. Simply painting roofs white can help keep temperatures down.
   Better machines are necessary. But cooling as an overall system needs to be improved if air-conditioning is to fulfill its promise to make people healthier, wealthier and wiser, without too high an environmental cost. Providing indoor sanctuaries of air-conditioned comfort need not come at the expense of an overheating world.
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答案 要减少温室气体的排放，最有效的唯一方法是什么呢?吃素?恢复亚马孙雨林?还是骑车上班?以上都不是。答案是彻底地改造空调。一项统计发现，如果替换掉破坏大气层的制冷剂，那么到2050年，将能减少相当于900亿吨二氧化碳的温室气体，要是提高空调的能效，还能让减少的温室气体再多一倍。相比之下，如果全球有一半人口不再吃肉，那么将能减少660亿吨二氧化碳的排放；如果恢复三分之二已退化的热带雨林，能减少610亿吨排放量；若是全球骑车通勤的人数增加三分之一，却只能减少23亿吨二氧化碳排放。 空调产业是世界上最受忽视的产业之一。汽车和空调差不多是在同一时间发明的，两者都对人们生活和工作的地方产生了巨大的影响。然而与汽车不同的是，空调在社会影响、排放或能源效率方面并没有受过什么批评。大多数气候炎热的国家并没有规范空调能耗的法律制度。而英文中甚至也没有一个和“warmth”相对应的常用单词来表示“气温凉爽”。 然而，空调带给人类的好处，要比大多数发明还要多。新加坡第一任总理李光耀称其为“或许是史上最重大的发明之一”。它改进了热带地区的生产力，帮助中国华南地区成为世界工厂。在欧洲，自2003年以来，由于空调的普及，死于高温的人数已减少到了原来的十分之一。2003年的那次热浪造成的死亡人数相较以往多了七万，其中大部分都是老人。而对于儿童而言，他们成绩的提高与教室和宿舍是否安装空调相关(详情见国际部调查)。 然而，将空调称为“负担不起的奢侈品”的环保主义者对此却各执己见。接下来的十年里，全世界安装的空调数量将相当于1902年(发明空调的时候)至2005年之间安装数量的总和。除非我们生产的能源不再有碳排放，否则这些新增的机器将会让地球变暖。因此，眼下空调造成了一个恶性循环。地球温度越暖，人们越需要空调，但是空调装得越多，地球也就变得越暖。 要降低空调的不良影响需要做到三点(除了把冷气温度调高些，不让房间冷得跟北极似的之外)。首先，必须大幅提升空调的能效。目前市场上最节能的空调的能耗，大约仅为普通空调的三分之一。所以需要提高最低能效标准，或者在无相关标准规定的国家引入这种标准，使普通空调的能效更接近最佳标准。 其次，制造商应该停止使用有害的制冷剂。其中一类就是氢氟碳，它在大气中的吸热能力比二氧化碳差1000多倍。2019年即将生效的国家协议《基加利修正案》(KigaliAmendment)将逐步淘汰这些污染物。包括美国在内的迟迟未通过该修正案的国家应该批准并实施这项协议。 最后，可以在办公室、购物中心甚至是城市的设计上做更多的尝试，这样就不需要那么多的空调了。还应多建悬挑屋顶或阳台以用于遮阳，或是建造能自然通风的大楼。只要将屋顶涂成白色就能有助于降温。 好用的空调是很有必要的。但如果空调要实现让人们更健康、更富裕和更明智的承诺，而不带来过高的环境成本的话，那么整个制冷系统都需要改进。建造有空调的舒适室内场所不应以全球气候变暖为代价。
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