环保节水一厢情愿的政策难奏效_时事

环保节水一厢情愿的政策难奏效

那么，佛蒙特大学这一尝试的结果如何?该校营养与食品科学部的伊丽莎白伯曼(Elizabeth Berman)和蕾切尔约翰逊(Rachel Johnson)最近在《美国公共健康杂志》(American Journal of Public Health)上发表了一项研究。两位研究者发现，“瓶装水没有了以后，瓶子、热量、糖和添加糖的人均消耗量都显著增加了……随着瓶装水销量降至零，无糖饮料与含糖饮料的销量都增加了。

In other words, the policy backfired with both barrels. Students didn’t switch to tap water,they switched to the likes of Coke and Diet Coke instead. All this would be just an amusingcuriosity — one more example of student campaigners who are all heart and no brains — if itweren’t for the fact that more mature policy makers often commit similar blunders on muchbroader canvases. We would do well to learn some lessons from the University of Vermont’sexperience.

换句话说，该政策在两个目标上都适得其反。学生们并未改喝饮用自来水，而是改喝可口可乐、健怡可乐之类的饮料。如果不是更多成熟的政策制定者在更广阔的领域经常犯同样错误的话，这一切只不过是有趣的奇闻异事，成为学生倡导者一腔热血但是不动脑子的又一个例证。我们最好从佛蒙特大学的例子中汲取一些教训。

The first lesson is that when it comes to saving the planet, people focus on what they can see.Type “environmental impact of concrete into a search engine and you are likely to see a pagefilled with scholarly analysis pointing out that the impact is very large indeed, becausecement production releases vast volumes of carbon dioxide. Type “environmental impact ofbottled water instead and your search results will be packed with campaigning groups seekingto persuade you to change your ways.