Foundations Reading 6A

Chap 11

第11章

Reading 6A PLANTING FOR THE PLANET When he was nine years old, Felix Finkbeiner gave a class presentation on climate change. The young German spoke about deforestation and its effect on the planet. At the end of his talk, he challenged the people of his country to help by planting one million trees. Nobody thought much would come of a nine-year old's school project. Before he was 20, however, Finkbeiner's efforts had resulted in the planting of more than 14 billion trees around the world. Finkbeiner and his classmates began the project—named "Plant-for-thePlanet"— by planting the first tree outside their school. Other schools followed the example, and news of the one-million challenge spread. As a result, Finkbeiner was asked to speak at the European Parliament. Other invitations soon followed, and when he was just 13, he spoke at a United Nations conference in New York. "We cannot trust that adults alone will save our future," he said in the speech. "We have to take our future in our own hands." Finkbeiner is now in his twenties, and Plant-for-the-Planet is an organization with around 70,000 members. It works to teach people about climate change and to encourage the planting of more trees. Germany's one millionth tree was planted long ago. The goal now is one trillion—150 for every person on Earth. Finkbeiner continues to give talks on climate change to world leaders. "I don't think we can give up on this generation of adults," he says, "and wait 20 or 30 years for our generation to come to power. We don't have that time. All we can do is push [current world leaders] in the right direction.”

阅读6A 为地球植树 Felix Finkbeiner在九岁时就气候变化问题做了一次课堂演讲。 这位年轻的德国人谈到了森林砍伐及其对地球的影响。 演讲结束时，他向本国人民发出挑战，要求他们帮助种植100万棵树。 没有人想到一个九岁孩子的学校项目会带来什么。 然而，在他20岁之前， Finkbeiner的努力在世界各地种植了140多亿棵树。 Finkbeiner和他的同学们开始了这个名为“地球植物”的项目-- 在学校外种第一棵树。 其他学校也效仿了这一做法，一百万挑战的消息传开了。 因此，Finkbeiner被邀请在欧洲议会发言。 其他邀请很快接踵而至，当他只有13岁时，他在纽约的一次联合国会议上发表了讲话。 他在演讲中说：“我们不能相信只有成年人才能拯救我们的未来。”。 “我们必须把未来掌握在自己手中。” Finkbeiner现在二十多岁，Plant for the Planet是一个拥有约70000名成员的组织。 它致力于向人们传授气候变化知识，并鼓励种植更多的树木。 德国的第一百万棵树是很久以前种下的。 现在的目标是1万亿——地球上每个人150。 Finkbeiner继续向世界各国领导人发表关于气候变化的演讲。 他说：“我认为我们不能放弃这一代成年人。”， “等待二三十年，我们这一代人才能上台。 我们没有时间了。 我们所能做的就是把（现任世界领导人）推向正确的方向。”

♪

♪