奇葩研究 不生孩子能拯救地球!

Recycling, washing clothes at 30°C and switching to energy saving bulbs are all touted as ways to help the environment.

廢物回收利用、用30度的水洗衣服、使用節能電燈等方法都被認爲可以幫助改善環境。

But if you really want to save the planet, one of the best ways is to not have children, according to a study.

但是一項最新的研究表明，如果你真的想要拯救地球，最好的辦法就是不要生孩子。

Researchers said that bringing new life into the world is easily the most destructive thing you can do to the environment.

研究人員表示，將新生命帶到這個世界可以說是你能夠對環境做出的最簡單、但是卻最具破壞性的事情了。

By not having a child, the carbon footprint of an individual living in a developed country would be reduced on average by an extra 58.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, based on current emission rates.

根據目前的碳排放率來計算，如果沒有孩子，生活在發達國家的人的平均碳排放量每年將減少58.6噸。

This is the biggest impact of all possible actions you could take.

這是你所有可能採取的行動中能夠帶來的最大影響。

The team from Sweden's Lund University came to this conclusion after conducting an analysis of the things individuals can do to produce less greenhouse gases.

來自瑞典德隆大學的研究團隊得出了該結論，他們對個人減少溫室氣體所能做到的事情進行了分析。

But they found that while we are told to recycle, no government in the western world is advising its citizens to limit their number of offspring.

但是他們發現，雖然我們都被告知要回收利用廢品，但是西方沒有一個政府建議其公民限制後代的數量。

The study found that the other three main choices people can make in order to cut the amount of carbon dioxide they produce are to eat less meat, get rid of their car, and fly less.

該項研究還發現，人們可以減少碳排放的其他三項措施包括少吃肉、不開車、少乘坐飛機。

Lead author Seth Wynes – who does not have any children – said: 'There are so many factors that affect the climate impact of personal choices, but bringing all these studies side-by-side gives us confidence we've identified actions that make a big difference.

主要作者塞思·溫斯（其本人沒有任何子嗣）表示：“在個人選擇方面，能夠影響氣候的因素有很多。但是對所有這些研究進行對比審查之後，我們確信已經發現了影響最大的因素。”

'We found there are four actions that could result in substantial decreases in an individual's carbon footprint: eating a plant-based diet, avoiding air travel, living car-free, and having smaller families.'

“我們發現有四種方法可以大幅減少個人碳排放：少吃肉、少乘坐航班、不開車、少生孩子。”

He added that these actions 'have much greater potential to reduce emissions than commonly promoted strategies'.

他還表示，這些方法“在減少碳排放方面，比那些一般推廣的策略具有更大潛力”。