2018版研究生英语专用教材【精读教程】全文翻译.学术英语..docx

PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 45 Unit 2 Energy in Transition 能源转型 The era of cheap and convenient sources of energy is coming to an end. A transition to more expensive but less polluting sources must now be managed. 能源资源价格低廉、使用便捷的时代已经过去了，目前应向尽管价格较高、但污染较小的资源转变。 John P. Holdren Understanding this transition requires a look at the two-sided connection between energy and human well-being. Energy contributes positively to well-being by providing such consumer services as heating and lighting as well as serving as a necessary input to economic production. But the costs of energy － including not only the money and other resources devoted to obtaining and exploiting it but also environmental and sociopolitical impacts － detract from well-being. １．要了解这一转变，首先需要考察一下能源和人类幸福的双重关系。能源为人类提供了诸如取暖、照明等消费服务的同时，也为经济生产活动提供必要投入，从这个意义上讲，能源为人类幸福做出了积极贡献。然而，人类为利用能源所付出的代价却削弱了能源为其带来的利益，这种代价不仅包括为获取和利用能源所投入的资金和其他资源，而且包含了能源开发和利用所产生的环境影响和社会政治影响。? For most of human history, the dominant concerns about energy have centered on the benefit side of the energy － well-being equation. Inadequacy of energy resources or (more often) of the technologies and organizations for harvesting, converting, and distributing those resources has meant insufficient energy benefits and hence inconvenience, deprivation and constraints on growth. The 1970’s, then, represented a turning point. After decades of constancy or decline in monetary costs － and of relegation of environmental and sociopolitical costs to secondary status － energy was seen to be getting costlier in all respects. It began to be plausible that excessive energy costs could pose threats on a par with those of insufficient supply. It also became possible to think that expanding some forms of energy supply could create costs exceeding the benefits. ２．人类历史发展长河中，人们主要关心的是能源和人类安康等式中有利的一面。能源资源不足或者（更经常）开采、加工和分配这些资源所需技术和机构的不足，会影响能源为人类带来的利益，对人类也就意味着不方便、损失以及对增长的各种限制。到了20世纪70年代，出现了一个转折点。此前的几十年中，能源的资金成本一直保持稳定，甚至有所下降，而且，其所牵扯的环境成本和社会政治成本一直处于次要地位。但是20世纪70年代开始，开发和利用能源