Topic:

Low-carbon Lifestyle

With the advent of the global environmental protection campaign, “low-carbon” has become an increasingly popular expression, a catch phrase, among the environmentally-conscious people. White-collar workers pride themselves on going to offices on bicycles, on foot, or even on roller skates instead of being “the men behind the wheel”. Housewives save water after washing vegetables or clothes for flushing the toilet. Everybody seems to be an environmental activist nowadays.

By “low-carbon lifestyle”, we refer to a pattern of life involving minimum emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important greenhouse gas produced by human activities, primarily through the combustion of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide is detrimental to human, animal and plant life because it is the primary contributor to global warming that threatens to raise the sea level, leading to the extinction of animals and plants, and ultimately to that of human beings. There is only one Mother Earth for human beings and, literally speaking, preserving the Earth means preserving humanity itself.

The pursuit of a low-carbon lifestyle seems to be a vogue to many people but, in essence, it is a long-term necessity. As college students, there are many ways we can become involved in low-carbon endeavors. We can conserve water, recycle our textbooks, and turn off lights on leaving our classrooms. We can resort to public transportations like buses and subways instead of taxis or private cars. Most importantly, we should reduce the use of computers by rejecting meaningless computer games. Even as students, we have a whole range of channels to pursue a low-carbon lifestyle that is beneficial to ourselves and to humanity as a whole.

题目:

低碳生活方式

        随着全球性环保运动的出现，“低碳”一词在那些有着环保意识的人们中间，已成为一个日趋流行的语汇，或曰“口头禅”。白领员工们对于骑车上班、步行上班、甚至滑着轮滑上班倍感骄傲，而不必再做那所谓的“呆坐在驾驶舵后面的有车一族”。家庭主妇们也乐此不疲地在洗衣或洗菜之后，将水保存起来，用以冲厕。当下，每个人似乎都成为了环保积极分子。

        所谓“低碳生活方式”， 是指一种仅涉及最低限度二氧化碳排放的生活模式。二氧化碳是人类活动 （主要经由化石燃料的燃烧）所产生的最主要的温室气体。二氧化碳之所以对人类、动物和植物的生命有害，因为它是全球暖化的主要推手，威胁着致使海平面上升，导致动植物灭绝，并最终导致人类本身的灭绝。对于人类而言，只有一个地球母亲，因此，就事论事地讲，保护地球亦即意味着保护人类自身。

        追求低碳的生活方式，对许多人而言似乎是种时尚，但本质而言，它却是一项长期的必然。作为大学生，我们有多种多样的方式来投身于低碳事业。我们可以节约用水，循环利用教科书，离开教室时随手关灯。我们在出行时可利用公交车或地铁等公共交通，而放弃出租车或私家车。最重要的是，我们可以通过摒弃那些无聊的电子游戏而减少对电脑的使用。即使作为学生，我们有一系列广泛的渠道，来追求低碳的生活方式，既有益于我们自己，亦有益于全人类。