PBS高端访谈:美国环境保护署针对气候变化发起新计划

 　　The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, has launched the formal process to review and challenge mainstream¹ climate science.

　　The critique will reportedly be modeled on how the U.S. military identifies battlefield vulnerabilities.

　　Emily Holden from "E&E News's" climate wire broke the story on Friday and joins me now from Washington to discuss it.

　　So, explain, how this process is going to work?

　　So, what we know so far is essentially² that Administrator³ Pruitt wants to recruit scientists who work on this red team/blue team to sort of look at any potential vulnerabilities,

　　any sort of uncertainty⁴ in climate change report.

　　So, the red team would do that. The blue team would be the team producing and defending the reports.

　　This kind of flies in the face of peer-reviewed scientific journal and how they actually put science forward.

　　It does and that's absolutely what you've heard from the scientific community in response to this. They're saying, look, this is exactly how science is made.

　　So, before we publish anything on climate change or any other matter,

　　we've had it reviewed by other scientists who have looked to see that we've done everything correctly and that we come to the correct conclusions.

　　And what about the fact that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists say that this is really not up for dispute?

　　So, if you wanted to do this red team/blue team, would it be red team, three, and blue team, 97?

　　Right. So, we don't know a lot about what the specifics would look.

　　It's a pretty small group of people who are dissenters⁵ who do not agree with the vast majority of climate scientists who say that climate change is happening, that humans are a cause,

　　a main cause, and that action needs to be taken as soon as possible to try to stall climate change.

　　And how did you find out this information on Friday?

　　I actually was at an event where the president was speaking at the Energy Department headquarters and had a chat with Bob Murray who's the CEO of Murray Energy, one of the biggest coal companies in the U.S.

　　And he mentioned to me that he had had a meeting with Scott Pruitt that same morning at a coal lobby board meeting and that he had spoken to him about this issue and what he planned to do,

　　and also whether he plans to challenge a legal finding that is the basis for U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.

　　Put this in perspective on the other steps that Scott Pruitt has taken when it comes to climate.

　　So, for the budget proposal, he has cut pretty much anything related to climate science that his agency does right now.

　　It's unclear whether Congress is going to approve the numbers that he and the president are looking at.

　　But, essentially, he's nixed anything that would work on climate science within the EPA. He has taken everything down from the Web site that he can.

　　So, that part is not a surprise. He's also expressed that even that he does not believe that carbon dioxide is a main cause of climate change.

　　Emily Holden from "E&E News", thanks so much for joining us.

　　Thank you. undefined

1 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

2 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

3 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

4 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

5 dissenters   

n.持异议者，持不同意见者( dissenter的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He attacked the indulgence shown to religious dissenters. 他抨击对宗教上持不同政见者表现出的宽容。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• (The dissenters would have allowed even more leeway to the Secretary.) （持异议者还会给行政长官留有更多的余地。） 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法