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讀紐時學英文
2017/03/17 第164期 訂閱/退訂看歷史報份
 
 
紐時周報精選 In Bhutan, Happiness Index as Gauge for Social Ills不丹 用幸福指數測量社會良窳
An Opportunity Rises Offshore成本降技術升 離岸風電打入主流
紐時周報精選
 
In Bhutan, Happiness Index as Gauge for Social Ills不丹 用幸福指數測量社會良窳
文/Kai Schultz
譯/田思怡

As a downpour settled into a thick fog outside, Dasho Karma Ura let his eyes flicker at the ceiling of a wood-paneled conference room and began expounding on the nature of happiness.

“People feel happy when they see something ethical,” he said. “When you think you have done something right and brave and courageous, when you can constantly recharge yourself as a meaningful actor.”

屋外的傾盆大雨轉為濃霧,達修.卡瑪.烏拉向鑲了木板的會議室的天花板瞥了一眼,開始闡述幸福的本質。

他說:「當人們看到某件合乎道德的事時,幸福感油然而生。還有當你認為你做對了某件事,而且勇敢和勇氣可嘉時,當你可以持續不斷自我充實,成為有意義的行動者時。」

“And lastly,” he added, thumbing Buddhist prayer beads, “something which makes you pause and think, ‘Ah, this is beautiful. Beautiful, meaningful, ethical.'”

Ura, 55, is perhaps one of the world’s leading experts on happiness, at least as seen through the lens of development economics. It has been something of a preoccupation for more than two decades as he has developed and fine-tuned Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness indicator, a supplementary, sometimes alternative, yardstick to the conventional measure of development, gross domestic product.

他撥著佛教念珠,接著說:「最後,某件事讓你停下來想,喔,好美。美麗、有意義、合乎道德。」

55歲的烏拉也許是世上最頂尖的幸福問題專家之一,至少從發展經濟學的眼光來看是如此。20多年來他全心投入,致力發展並仔細修訂不丹的國民幸福總值指數,作為傳統上用來測量發展的國內生產毛額指數的補充或替代標準。

As the president of the Center for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research, Ura has spent much of his time asking Bhutanese questions about interactions with neighbors, quality of sleep and physical vigor in an attempt to understand and measure subjective well-being. Over the years, he has watched the idea catch on far beyond Bhutan, a remote kingdom in the Himalayas.

When Denmark repeatedly came in first on the World Happiness Report, which looks at the science of measuring quality of life, more people became aware of both the report, and the concept behind it.

身為「不丹研究與幸福指數研究中心」主席,他花費許多時間來問不丹國民一些問題,包括與鄰居的互動,睡眠品質,以及體力,試圖了解和測量他們的主觀幸福感。多年來,他觀察到這個想法已在不丹這個喜馬拉雅山區偏遠王國之外流行起來。

隨著丹麥一再在世界幸福報告上名列第一,也讓更多人注意到這項報告和它所秉持的觀念。這項報告檢視測量生活品質的科學。

As nations struggle with what Ura called more “guns, bullets and bombs” than at any other time in history, he said it was imperative that many more countries devise indicators that look beyond economics.

“We have to find new ways of organizing our drives and energies toward peace and harmony,” he said. “We have to sincerely find a way out of it, out of this mutual insecurity. Because you have more guns, I have to have a little more guns. The long-term collapse is facing us.”

當各國努力與烏拉所謂多過既往任何時代的「槍、子彈和炸彈」奮戰時,他說,勢必會有更多國家設計出放眼於經濟之外的指數。

他說:「我們必須找出新方法來組織我們邁向和平與和諧的動力與精力。我們必須真誠的找出擺脫之道,擺脫這種相互不安全感。因為你的槍比較多,所以我必須比你更多一些。我們面臨長期的崩潰。」

While Gross National Happiness has become a political tool around election time, Ura believes the index has drawn greater attention to social problems. And the results appear to be positive, he said.

In 2015, his staff members released a study that showed 91.2 percent of Bhutanese reporting that they were narrowly, extensively or deeply happy, with a 1.8 percent increase in aggregate happiness between 2010 and 2015.

Those who were educated and lived in urban areas reported higher levels of contentment than their rural counterparts. Men reported feeling happier than women.

雖然國民幸福總值指數在選舉期間變成了政治工具,但烏拉認為這個指數讓人們更加注意社會問題。他說,結果顯然是正面的。

在2015年,他的屬下公布了一項研究結果,顯示有91.2%的不丹人表示他們略感幸福、很幸福和非常幸福,比2010年到2015年間的總體幸福增加1.8個百分比。

受過教育和住在都會區的人的滿意度比住在鄉村的人高。男人比女人感到更幸福

說文解字看新聞

文/田思怡

不丹第四位國王吉格梅.辛格.旺楚克在1972年創造「國民幸福總值」(Gross National Happiness)一詞,他當時宣布,國民幸福總值比國民生產毛額(Gross National Product,簡稱GNP)重要。之後不丹發展出「國民幸福總值指數」(GNH Index),簡稱為幸福指數,其概念為不應該單以經濟來衡量一個國家的發展。

不丹的幸福指數經過不斷修正,文中幸福問題專家烏拉帶領的研究機構2012年修訂出最新版本,列有8個衡量幸福的標準,包括身心靈上的健康(physical, mental and spiritual health)、時間均衡(time-balance)、社交和社區活力(social and community vitality)、文化活力(cultural vitality)、教育(education)、生活水準(living standards)、良好的治理(good governance)和生態活力(ecological vitality)。

 
An Opportunity Rises Offshore成本降技術升 離岸風電打入主流
文/Stanley Reed
譯/陳韋廷

When engineers faced resistance from residents in Denmark over plans to build wind turbines on the Nordic country’s flat farmland, they found a better locale: the sea. The offshore wind farm, the world’s first, had just 11 turbines and could power about 3,000 homes.

That project now looks like a minnow compared with the whales that sprawl for miles across the seas of Northern Europe.

當工程師想在丹麥平坦農地設置風力發電機卻遭遇居民反對時,他們發現了一個更好的地方─大海。這座世上第一個離岸風力發電場僅有11座風力發電機,約可為3000個家庭提供電力。

相較目前在歐洲北部海上綿延好幾英里的巨大電場,上述計畫規模小得可憐。

Off this venerable British port city, a Danish company, DONG Energy, is installing 32 turbines that stretch 600 feet high. Each turbine produces more power than that first facility.

It is precisely the size, both of the projects and the profits they can bring, that has grabbed the attention of banks, money managers, private equity funds and wealthy individuals like the owner of the Danish toymaker Lego and the investment bank Goldman Sachs. As the technology has improved and demand for renewable energy has risen, costs have fallen.

丹麥公司丹能風力正在這個古老英國港口城市(編按:利物浦)的外海,安裝32座高達600英尺的風力發電機。每座的發電量都比前述發電場的總發電量還大。

而正是這個計畫可觀的規模與獲利能力引起了金融機構、基金經理人和私募股權基金的關注,諸如投資銀行高盛及丹麥玩具製造商樂高的老闆等富豪。隨著技術改善與再生能源需求增加,成本亦已降低。

And offshore wind, once a fringe investment, with limited scope and reliant on government subsidies, is moving into the mainstream. Europe, too, looks all the more attractive, as the United States under President Donald Trump rethinks its stance on renewables.

“If you had polled infrastructure investors five years ago, only a few would have been looking at offshore wind,” said Suzanne Buchta, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch global co-head of green bonds.

離岸風力發電曾經是範圍有限且仰賴政府補貼的邊緣投資項目,目前卻正打入主流。而在美國總統川普重新思考再生能源立場之際,歐洲看來也格外吸引人。

美銀美林綠色債券全球共同主管蘇珊娜.布赫塔說:「如果你在5年前調查基礎設施項目投資人的意見,會考慮離岸風力發電的寥寥無幾」,他們現在則「稍微多了些信心」。

Now, she said, they “are a little more comfortable.”

Offshore wind has several advantages over land-based renewable energy, whether wind or solar. Turbines can be deployed at sea with fewer complaints than on land, where they are often condemned as eyesores.

But the technology had been expensive and heavily dependent on government subsidies, leaving investors wary. That is now changing.

Turbines today are bigger, produce much more electricity and are deployed on much larger sites than in the past. The result is more clean power and extra revenue.

離岸風力發電與陸上再生能源相比享有數項優勢,無論是陸上風能還是陸上太陽能。風力發電機在海上部署引起的抱怨少於陸地,它們在陸地上常被指為有礙觀瞻。

離岸風力發電技術成本一直很高且高度仰賴政府補助,讓投資人望而卻步,但情況正在改變。

現今的風力發電機機體更大,發電量更多,並且部署在遠比過去為大的地方,結果則是獲得更乾淨的電力與更多的收入。

The number of major players has also expanded, creating more competition. A joint venture of Vestas, the Danish turbine maker, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan, is now competing with Siemens, which had long dominated the market for building offshore turbines. Others, like the American giant General Electric and Chinese manufacturers, are also jumping into the game.

“For us competition is great,” said Benj Sykes, Britain country manager for DONG. “It drives innovation. It drives performance. It also drives cost.”

Companies are developing specialized vessels and improving installation techniques (taking a cue from the oil industry), cutting construction timetables. DONG and its competitors are learning to better cope with the bad weather, corrosive saltwater and scouring currents that increase costs.

主要玩家數量也增加了,使得競爭更激烈。一家丹麥風力發電機製造商Vestas與日本三菱重工合資的公司,目前正跟長期主宰離岸風力發電機興建市場的西門子競爭,而美國巨擘奇異與中國製造商等其他玩家也投入這場競賽。

丹能風力英國區經理班.塞克斯說:「我們認為有競爭很好,它推動創新和性能,也推動成本(下降)。」

各公司正發展專用船隻且提升安裝技術(受石油工業影響),精簡施工程序。丹能風力及其競爭對手也正學習如何更好地應付惡劣天氣,腐蝕性海水以及會讓成本增加的水流沖刷情形。

說文解字看新聞

文/陳韋廷

除了太陽能外,風力發電也是全球近年積極推展的再生能源類別,又以歐洲地區應用最為成熟,主要設於北部海域。跟陸上(land-based)風電相比,離岸(offshore)風電發電成本較高,因發電機組須在海上興建,且為避免天災而設置的防護措施也讓維修成本增加,但隨著不斷提升的技術拉低成本,投資人目光漸受吸引。

Nordic與Scandinavian(斯堪地那維亞的),兩者在英文中常用來指涉「北歐」,但兩者差別在於,前者泛指包括芬蘭與冰島在內的北歐國家,後者則是狹義的地域性稱呼,指位於斯堪地那維亞半島的三個國家挪威、瑞典和丹麥。

fringe指的是「邊緣的、非主流的」,當名詞用時也有「周遭、邊緣」之意,因而文中一詞fringe investment譯為邊緣投資,取其邊緣之意。此外,當我們說到頭髮的瀏海造型時,則會使用fringe這個單字,意思同於另一單字bangs,後者則常見於美式英語。至於fringe benefit指薪酬以外的附帶福利,取其邊緣的意思。

至於文中片語grab the attention of代表「引起...的注意」的意思,介系詞of後常接人,其中動詞grab也可用catch取代。

 
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