2019年经济学人 木质房屋更环保(2)

 

Buildings can become greener. They can use more recycled steel and can be prefabricated in o?-site factories, greatly reducing lorry journeys. But no other building material has environmental credentials¹ as exciting and overlooked as wood.

建筑可以更环保。可以使用更多的可回收钢材，可以在工厂外预制，大量减少卡车行程。但是，其他建筑材料不像木材那样具有明显却被忽视的环保资质。

The energy required to produce a laminated wooden beam is one-sixth of that required for a steel one of comparable strength. As trees take carbon out of the atmosphere when growing, wooden buildings contribute to negative emissions² by storing the stu?. When a mature tree is cut down, a new one can be planted to replace it, capturing more carbon. After buildings are demolished³, old beams and panels are easy to recycle into new structures. And for retrofitting older buildings to be more energy e?cient, wood is a good insulator⁴. A softwood window frame provides nearly 400 times as much insulation⁵ as a plain steel one of the same thickness and over a thousand times as much as an aluminium⁶ equivalent.

生产一层合木梁所需的能量是同等强度钢梁所需能量的六分之一。树木在生长过程中从大气中吸收碳时，木质建筑通过储存这些物质而产生负排放。一棵成熟的树被砍伐时，可以种植一棵新的树来代替，从而吸收更多的碳。建筑物拆除后，旧梁和旧板很容易再循环成新的结构。为使旧建筑更节能，木材是很好的绝缘体。软木窗框的绝缘性能几乎是同等厚度的普通钢的400倍，是同等厚度的铝的1000倍以上。

A race is on to build the world’s tallest fully⁷ wooden skyscraper⁸. But such edifices⁹ are still uncommon¹⁰. Industry fragmentation, vicious competition for contracts and low profit margins¹¹ mean that most building firms have little money to invest in greener construction methods beyond what regulation dictates¹².

世界上最高的全木质摩天大楼建造竞赛正在进行。但是这样的建筑仍不多见。行业分裂、合同的恶性竞争和低利润率意味着大多数建筑公司没有资金投资超出监管规定的环保建筑方法。

Governments can help nudge the industry to use more wood, particularly in the public sector—the construction industry’s biggest client. That would help wood-building specialists achieve greater scale and lower costs. Zero-carbon building regulations should be altered to take account of the emissions that are embodied¹³ in materials. This would favour wood as well as innovative¹⁴ ways of producing other materials.

政府可以帮助推动木材行业使用更多的木材，特别是公共部门——建筑业最大的客户。这将帮助木材建筑专家做到规模更大、成本更低。零碳建筑法规应加以修改，以考虑到材料本身的排放。这将有利于木材以及生产其他材料的创新方法。

Construction codes could be tweaked to make building with wood easier. Here the direction of travel is wrong. Britain, for instance, is banning the use of timber on the outside of tall buildings after 72 people died in a tower fire in London in 2017. That is a nonsense. Grenfell Tower was covered in aluminium and plastic, not wood. Modern cross-laminated timber panels perform better in fire tests than steel ones do.

建筑规范可以调整，以便更容易使用木材建造。这方面的发展方向是错误的。以英国为例，2017年伦敦一场塔楼火灾造成72人死亡后，英国开始禁止在高层建筑外部使用木材。简直荒唐可笑。格伦费尔塔是用铝和塑料覆盖的，而不是木头。现代交叉叠层木板在防火测试中比钢板性能更好。

Carpentry alone will not bring the environmental cost of the world’s buildings into line. wrong, just before his time.

仅靠木工无法使世界建筑的环境成本一致。但是使用木材不仅仅只是被赞赏，还有更多益处。第二只小猪没有错，只是时代不能理解。

1 credentials   

n.证明，资格，证明书，证件

参考例句：

• He has long credentials of diplomatic service.他的外交工作资历很深。
• Both candidates for the job have excellent credentials.此项工作的两个求职者都非常符合资格。

2 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

3 demolished   

v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光

参考例句：

• The factory is due to be demolished next year. 这个工厂定于明年拆除。
• They have been fighting a rearguard action for two years to stop their house being demolished. 两年来，为了不让拆除他们的房子，他们一直在进行最后的努力。

4 insulator   

n.隔离者；绝缘体

参考例句：

• Few substances can equal fur as an insulator.作为绝缘体很少有其他材料能与动物皮毛相媲美。
• A loose mulch acts on the surface as an insulator.疏松的覆盖物在土壤表面起了隔热的作用。

5 insulation   

n.隔离；绝缘；隔热

参考例句：

• Please examine the insulation of the electric wires in my house.请检查一下我屋子里电线的绝缘情况。
• It is always difficult to assure good insulation between the electric leads.要保证两个电触头之间有良好的绝缘总是很困难的。

6 aluminium   

n.铝 (=aluminum)

参考例句：

• Aluminium looks heavy but actually it is very light.铝看起来很重，实际上却很轻。
• If necessary, we can use aluminium instead of steel.如果必要，我们可用铝代钢。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

8 skyscraper   

n.摩天大楼

参考例句：

• The skyscraper towers into the clouds.那幢摩天大楼高耸入云。
• The skyscraper was wrapped in fog.摩天楼为雾所笼罩。

9 edifices   

n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They complain that the monstrous edifices interfere with television reception. 他们抱怨说，那些怪物般的庞大建筑，干扰了电视接收。 来自辞典例句
• Wealthy officials and landlords built these queer edifices a thousand years ago. 有钱的官吏和地主在一千年前就修建了这种奇怪的建筑物。 来自辞典例句

10 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

11 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

12 dictates   

n.命令，规定，要求( dictate的名词复数 )v.大声讲或读( dictate的第三人称单数 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• Convention dictates that a minister should resign in such a situation. 依照常规部长在这种情况下应该辞职。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He always follows the dictates of common sense. 他总是按常识行事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 embodied   

v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含

参考例句：

• a politician who embodied the hopes of black youth 代表黑人青年希望的政治家
• The heroic deeds of him embodied the glorious tradition of the troops. 他的英雄事迹体现了军队的光荣传统。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。