少生娃可有效降低碳排

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.

按照现在的排放速率，如果不生孩子，发达国家每年的个人碳排放量将平均额外减少58.6吨。

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

这是你能采取的环保行动中最有效的一种。

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.

瑞典隆德大学的一个团队在分析了个人为减少温室气体排放量所能采取的行动后，得出了上述结论。

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."

该研究的第一作者塞思·温斯表示：“我们发现四种行为可以大幅降低个人碳排放量，即吃植物性食物、不坐飞机、不开车和缩小家庭规模。”塞思本人没有孩子。

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.

计算生一个孩子对碳排放量的影响有多大，不仅要考虑这个孩子额外产生的碳排量，还要考虑其可能产生的后代的碳排量。

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."

研究人员表示：“说服一个美国家庭少要一个孩子的减排效果，相当于让684位从不回收利用的青少年在余生都坚持回收利用所减少的碳排放量。”