三条环保小贴士——小改变创造大不同 中英对照翻译(2)

2. Go vegetarian one day a week

Instead of breaking down the pros and cons of the vegetarian lifestyle into a long boring paragraph, here are some astonishing facts on going vegetarian for only one day. According to Noam Mohr, a physicist at the New York University Polytechnic Institute, the United States would save 100 billion gallons of water which is enough to supply all homes in New England for about 4 months.

The United States would save 70 million gallons of gas which is enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined and still have some to spare. The United States could prevent 3 million tons of soil erosion, 4.5 million tons of animal excrement, and about 7 tons of ammonia emissions. The Environmental Defense concludes with the most interesting fact: if the entire population omits one meal of chicken, the amount of carbon dioxide accumulated would be the same amount if more than half a million cars were taken off U.S. roads.

When Apache Junction High School senior, Kehli Nowak remarked on what she thought about the facts and if she could try going vegetarian one day a week she responded, “After taking into consideration these baffling facts, I would be willing to try vegetarianism one day a week. Giving up just one day of eating meat is worth the benefits it could bring.”

2. 每周吃一天素

这里我不会大段冗述吃素好坏与否，我会告诉大家一些关于每周吃一天素的惊人数据。纽约大学理工学院的物理学家诺姆•莫尔指出，如果每周吃素一天，全美国能节约1000亿加仑水，这些水足够新英格兰地区所有居民使用四个月。还能节约7000万加仑天然气，这些能源足够加拿大和墨西哥所有汽车使用，并且还有剩余。还能减少300万吨水土流失、450万吨动物粪便和约7吨氨气排放。美国环保协会例举出最有意思的数据：如果所有美国人少吃一顿鸡肉的话，减少的二氧化碳排放量相当于美国公路上50万辆汽车停驶所减少的二氧化碳排放量。

阿帕切联合高中高年级学生科莉•诺瓦克表达了自己对这些数据的看法并就自己能否每周吃一天素做出了如下回应：“看到这些令人惊讶的数据后，我愿意每周吃一天素。这个举动带来的益处值得我这样做

3. Ditch bottled water

Most drink bottled water because of the common conception that bottled water is healthier than regular tap water; turns out, 25% of bottled water comes from regular tap water and all that is done extra is it going through a filter. Tap water has higher regulations from the FDA than bottled water does. Companies do not need to list where they got the water from, how they purify the water, or what chemicals their plastic water bottles contain. Plastic bottles do not get recycled 90% of the time which results in 1.5 million tons of plastic in landfills which take thousands of years to decompose. Not only are you drinking the same water as the one in your house but also paying extra. The average 24-pack of bottled water cost $3.97 at the local Wal-Mart and a reusable water bottle cost between $4.99-$7.99; just imagine how much money could be saved if reusable water bottles replaced plastic water bottles.