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A recent report by the New Economics Foundation found that, to stabilize carbon emissions at 350 ppm by 2050, the carbon intensity of the global economy would need to fall by 95%. Ramping up GDP without improving technological efficiency leads to more environmental damage. Yet improving efficiency leads to more growth, which leads to the same result.
新經濟基金會最近的一份報告發現，要想在2050年前把碳排放量穩定在百萬分之350,全球經濟的碳強度必須降低95%。如果只增加GDP而不提高技術效率，就會造成更多的生態環境破壞。但是，如果提高了生產效率就會帶來更高的經濟增長，也會導致同樣的結果。
We've been captured by a myth far more alluring than the one that Charles Darwin confronted 150 years ago: the dream of perpetual economic growth. In the North we have been living beyond our ecological means for decades, consuming too much and producing more waste than the environment can absorb, while inequality grows.
比起150年前查爾斯•達爾文所面臨的假象，我們所陷入的幻想更為誘人：經濟永遠增長的美夢。在北半球我們幾十年來一直在超過生態承受能力的情況下過日子，消費過多, 生產大量生態環境無法吸收的廢物。與此同時，貧富差距則日益嚴重。
The global population is expected to jump by 3 billion in the next 40 years—more than the entire population in 1950. Most of that increase will be in the South, where poverty is entrenched and living standards desperate. How will those next three billion live? Justice demands that we in the rich countries ratchet back our growth and clear some space for those who need it. The fate of planet Earth may depend on it.
據估計，全球的人口在今后40年內將猛增30億——超過1950年的總人□數。大多數增加的人口將在南半球，而那里的貧困根深蒂固，人們的生活水平令人絕望。這即將來到世上的 30億人將怎么生活呢？公平的原則要求我們這些生活在富裕國家的人抑制我們的經濟增長，留出一些空間給那些需要的人。地球這個星球的命運可能就取決于此。
Are we up to it?
我們能夠做到嗎？
The economy is a human construct. It's not an act of God. We made it, we can change it.
經濟是人類創造的，它并非上帝所為。我們既然能創造它，我們一定也能改變它。
