少生娃可有效降低碳排大綱

Childbirth harms the planet

少生娃可有效降低碳排

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 tons of carbon dioxide every year, based on current emission rates.

按照現在的排放速率，如果不生孩子，發達國家每年的個人碳排放量將平均額外減少58.6噸。

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

這是你能採取的環保行動中最有效的一種。

A 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.

瑞典隆德大學的一個團隊在分析了個人爲減少溫室氣體排放量所能採取的行動後，得出了上述結論。

Lead author Seth Wynes - who does not have any children - said: "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."

該研究的第一作者塞思·溫斯表示：“我們發現四種行爲可以大幅降低個人碳排放量，即吃植物性食物、不坐飛機、不開車和縮小家庭規模。”塞思本人沒有孩子。

The impact of having a child is calculated by factoring in not only the extra impact of the child, but also that of their potential future descendants.

計算生一個孩子對碳排放量的影響有多大，不僅要考慮這個孩子額外產生的碳排量，還要考慮其可能產生的後代的碳排量。

The researchers said: "Persuading a US family to have one less child would provide the same level of emissions reductions as persuading 684 teenagers who do not recycle, to recycle comprehensively for the rest of their lives."

研究人員表示：“說服一個美國家庭少要一個孩子的減排效果，相當於讓684位從不回收利用的青少年在餘生都堅持回收利用所減少的碳排放量。”