时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2013年(六月)


英语课

 


Women Bear Brunt of Population Growth



The global population is expected to rise to nine billion by 2050. Most of that growth will be in developing countries. However, many are asking whether such growth is sustainable, considering the amount of resources that would be consumed. The issues of population growth and sustainability were addressed on the closing day of the Women Deliver conference in Kuala Lumpur.


The economies of many developing countries are growing fast. And consumers there are acting 1 more and more like consumers in developed nations. For example, diets are changing, with higher fat, salt and sugar content and there’s a rising demand for cars and bigger homes.


But participants at the Women Deliver conference are asking whether those should be among the aspirations 2 of the developing world? And if so, at what cost to the planet? And what cost to women, who may lack health care and reproductive rights?


Worldwatch Institute President Robert Engelman began the session by mentioning an article in the May 29th edition of the International Herald 3 Tribune. It reported on new strains of viruses for the flu and SARS, both claiming lives. What’s more, the authors say the world sees at least five new, emerging infectious diseases every year.


He said, “They list these causes for this worrisome trend in this order: population growth, deforestation, antibiotic 4 overuse, factory farming, live animal markets, bush meat hunting, jet travel and other factors.”


He pointed 5 out that population growth is at the top of the list.


“Today we are at a moment in history in which our collective activities already undermine the livelihoods 6 and health of hundreds of millions, maybe billions of people – the vast majority of them poor and more than half of them, much more than half of them, female,” he said.


That’s happening, he said, in a number of ways.


“I’m speaking of human-caused climate change, obviously, but also emerging disease, the shrinking size of subsistence farm plots, the fall of soil fertility and aquifers 7 that help feed farmers with water, the drying up of rivers, the ongoing 8 loss of diverse and wild animal food sources and the rising cost of energy and food. Many of the scientists who study these issues consider the growth of human population, which has doubled since the mid 9 1960s, as at least one important causal factor in these hazardous 10 developments.”


Engelman said that rather than calling for population control, more scientists are recommending empowering women and couples to achieve their own reproductive goals.


“With nearly one in four births worldwide resulting from unintended pregnancy 11, you don’t have to be a scientist to see that if all the births that occurred in the world were the result of women’s and couples’ aspirations, particularly maternal 12 aspirations, that population growth would slow pretty significantly and possibly would never get to the expected nine billion people,” Engelman said.


Ford 13 Foundation’s Kavita Ramdas questioned what might happen if developing world aspirations follow those of countries like the United States?


“The U.S., with less than five percent of the world’s total population, uses more than 25 percent of the world’s total fossil fuel resources. And in terms of aspirations, new houses in the United States are now 38 percent bigger in 2002 than they were in 1975, despite having fewer people per household than they did in 1975.”


Ramdas said that there’s enough evidence to show it would be the wrong path to take.


“Everything we know scientifically tells us that if the levels of consumption that we aspire 14 to in the rest of the world were replicated 15 across even half of the nine billion people that we are expected to have on the planet by 2050, the impact on our world be extraordinarily 16 severe. So clearly there is a reason for us to be willing to talk certainly about population and women’s rights and the 200-million women who want to use contraception,” she said.


However, talking about empowering women with reproductive rights often collides head-on with reality.


Ramdas said, “For many, many women in the world sex is not something they have much control over. If you do survey after survey in much of Africa and in much of the parts of South Asia, nonconsensual sex is the experience of many, many women. And I think we should also be talking about single people and other people, who also have a right to access to contraception and it’s not necessarily about families.”


Harvard School of Public Health lecturer Alicia Yamin said there’s plenty of evidence that greater reproductive rights would reduce population growth.


“We need to take seriously the threat posed by untrammeled population growth and the effects on women, especially. We also need to take seriously the suffering of women, who don’t have access to contraception. But I hope that in the next development framework we can also take seriously what development should be about – what human beings are as active agents, who should be able to expand their choices, their rights and their capabilities,” she said.


U.N. Population Fund Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin said population growth varies. Some countries have an increase, some have none and others have population shrinkage.


“In every particular circumstance,” he said, “when you go around and ask the women -- how many children do you want to have? -- they actually want less than the ones they have. So, what we have denied them is their right to make that choice – to have the number they want and the spacing they want in between them. So, it comes back to the issue of freedoms and choices.”


But he added that sustainability is more than addressing consumption and population growth. It’s also about addressing waste, such as the one trillion dollars worth of food wasted every year. Osotimehin said that sustainability is also about the politics of distribution and access.




1 acting
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
2 aspirations
强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 ); 志向; 发送气音; 发 h 音
  • I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
  • The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。
3 herald
vt.预示...的来临,预告,宣布,欢迎
  • In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
  • Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。
4 antibiotic
adj.抗菌的;n.抗生素
  • The doctor said that I should take some antibiotic.医生说我应该服些用抗生素。
  • Antibiotic can be used against infection.抗菌素可以用来防止感染。
5 pointed
adj.尖的,直截了当的
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
6 livelihoods
生计,谋生之道( livelihood的名词复数 )
  • First came the earliest individualistic pioneers who depended on hunting and fishing for their livelihoods. 走在最前面的是早期的个人主义先驱者,他们靠狩猎捕鱼为生。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
  • With little influence over policies, their traditional livelihoods are threatened. 因为马赛族人对政策的影响力太小,他们的传统生计受到了威胁。
7 aquifers
n.地下蓄水层,砂石含水层( aquifer的名词复数 )
  • And in Africa, the aquifers barely recharge at all. 非洲的地下水开采以后几乎得不到补充。 来自时文部分
  • Aquifers have water contents over 30%. 含水层的水含过30%。 来自辞典例句
8 ongoing
adj.进行中的,前进的
  • The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
  • The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。
9 mid
adj.中央的,中间的
  • Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
  • He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。
10 hazardous
adj.(有)危险的,冒险的;碰运气的
  • These conditions are very hazardous for shipping.这些情况对航海非常不利。
  • Everybody said that it was a hazardous investment.大家都说那是一次危险的投资。
11 pregnancy
n.怀孕,怀孕期
  • Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
  • Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。
12 maternal
adj.母亲的,母亲般的,母系的,母方的
  • He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
  • The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。
13 Ford
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过
  • They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上,所以我们只能涉水过河。
  • If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪,必须极度小心。
14 aspire
vi.(to,after)渴望,追求,有志于
  • Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
  • I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。
15 replicated
复制( replicate的过去式和过去分词 ); 重复; 再造; 再生
  • Later outplant the seedlings in a replicated permanent test plantation. 以后苗木出圃栽植成重复的永久性试验林。
  • The phage has replicated and the donor cells have lysed. 噬菌体已复制和给体细胞已发生裂解。
16 extraordinarily
adv.格外地;极端地
  • She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
  • The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨,大海出奇地宁静。
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0870
addition subtraction diagram
amplitude-level selection
antiallergenics
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arylalkylamine
bags holed by cargo hooks
ball tipped pipette
be restored to reason
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Brandscheid
caniforms
city-bound
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Clisham
close coupled pump
comment text
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Corsican mint
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gibt
give it a rest
gluoin
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hemophagocytosis
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hornowls
impinging jet
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N-(2-methylimidazol-1-ethyl)urea
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Schizopepon
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take the ground
Taussig, Frank William
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up-leg
Vabrocid
Vagenda
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Volterra equations
wise porgy
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