このページはフレーム対応ブラウザ用に作成されています。下のリンクは非フレーム使用ページですのでそちらをご覧ください。
この記事をプリントする
ビジネス界の現実主義
ビジネス界の現実主義
地球の自然環境が破局寸前だということは
耳にたこができるほど繰り返し警告されている。
だが、ビジネス界には全く別の「現実」が…。
Business Realism
By DOUGLAS LUMMIS
On Sept. 22 last year, The Japan Times printed a story telling of a report
from the United Nations Environment Program. The report, called "Global
Environment Outlook 2000," was written by a team of 850 experts and took
2 1/2
years to complete.
The report, the article says, "paints a devastating picture of the
Earth's health." It goes on to give a few examples illustrating the
nature of the catastrophe we are now in the midst of:
・Eighty percent of the world's forests already cut down or ruined.
・Thirty-nine percent of what's left now threatened by logging and mining projects (what we call "development").
・Twenty-five percent of all mammal species now in danger of extinction.
・Twenty percent of the people in the world without access to safe
drinking water, this percentage increasing.
・Forest fires and hurricanes increasing (the latter presumably a
result of global warming); around 3 million people killed in such disasters
in the past 30 years.
And so on. The reader will find nothing surprising in the list. You have
seen lists like it time after time. If you are like most people, you will
find it trite, even boring.
There is one thing, however, that may rouse your interest. It did mine.
According to the U.N. report, the only way to save future generations
(meaning our children and grandchildren) from "a life of suffering" is
for the industrialized countries to set "a long-term target of a 90
percent reduction in the consumption of raw materials."
I suggest you read the above sentence twice, because the first time you will
probably think (as I did) it means a reduction to 90 percent. No, it means a
reduction by 90 percent. 100-90=10.
Now here is the interesting thing. This article appears on Page 6. On Page 7,
the business page, is an article reporting, as "good news," that the
industrial electricity use in Japan for August 1999 had risen 2.6 percent
from August of the previous year.
electrical demand "is regarded as a key economic indicator because
industrial power consumption rises when the economy expands." But the
reader is cautioned that "it is too early to take the August increase as a
clear sign of economic recovery."
This article is placed so that when you close the newspaper, it and the
article on the U.N. report come together like two hands clapping. Or, to
change the figure of speech, they come face to face, rubbing noses as it were. But the information in the U.N. report can't get across onto the
business page.
We have been warned for years about the global ecological crisis, but
the articles on the business page are written as if their authors had never
heard of it. Or as if it were irrelevant. "The economy is eating up the
earth? Terrible. Still, what is there to do but keep on expanding the
economy?" And these people are called the "realists."
On Sept. 22 last year, The Japan Times printed a story telling of a report
from the United Nations Environment Program. The report, called "Global
Environment Outlook 2000," was written by a team of 850 experts and took
2 1/2
years to complete.
The report, the article says, "paints a devastating picture of the
Earth's health." It goes on to give a few examples illustrating the
nature of the catastrophe we are now in the midst of:
・Eighty percent of the world's forests already cut down or ruined.
・Thirty-nine percent of what's left now threatened by logging and mining projects (what we call "development").
・Twenty-five percent of all mammal species now in danger of extinction.
・Twenty percent of the people in the world without access to safe
drinking water, this percentage increasing.
・Forest fires and hurricanes increasing (the latter presumably a
result of global warming); around 3 million people killed in such disasters
in the past 30 years.
And so on. The reader will find nothing surprising in the list. You have
seen lists like it time after time. If you are like most people, you will
find it trite, even boring.
There is one thing, however, that may rouse your interest. It did mine.
According to the U.N. report, the only way to save future generations
(meaning our children and grandchildren) from "a life of suffering" is
for the industrialized countries to set "a long-term target of a 90
percent reduction in the consumption of raw materials."
I suggest you read the above sentence twice, because the first time you will
probably think (as I did) it means a reduction to 90 percent. No, it means a
reduction by 90 percent. 100-90=10.
Now here is the interesting thing. This article appears on Page 6. On Page 7,
the business page, is an article reporting, as "good news," that the
industrial electricity use in Japan for August 1999 had risen 2.6 percent
from August of the previous year.
This figure matters: Industrial
electrical demand "is regarded as a key economic indicator because
industrial power consumption rises when the economy expands." But the
reader is cautioned that "it is too early to take the August increase as a
clear sign of economic recovery."
This article is placed so that when you close the newspaper, it and the
article on the U.N. report come together like two hands clapping. Or, to
change the figure of speech, they come face to face, rubbing noses as it were. But the information in the U.N. report can't get across onto the
business page.
We have been warned for years about the global ecological crisis, but
the articles on the business page are written as if their authors had never
heard of it. Or as if it were irrelevant. "The economy is eating up the
earth? Terrible. Still, what is there to do but keep on expanding the
economy?" And these people are called the "realists."
Shukan ST: March 24, 2000
(C) All rights reserved
- United Nations Environment Program
- 国連環境計画
- Outlook
- 展望
- experts
- 専門家
- complete
- 完成する
- article
- 記事
- devastating
- ひどい
- goes on
- 続く
- 〜 illustrating 〜
- 〜 を描いた 〜
- nature of the catastrophe we are now in the midst of
- 現在、私たちがそのまっただ中にいる悲惨な状況の本質
- (are)ruined
- 荒廃している
- what's left now
- 現在、残っている森林
- (is)threatened by 〜
- 〜 によって脅かされている
- logging and mining projects
- 伐採や採鉱事業
- mammal species
- ほ乳類
- in danger of extinction
- 絶滅の危機にある
- without access to 〜
- 〜 を入手できない
- drinking water
- 飲料水
- Forest fires
- 森林火災
- the latter
- 後者(ハリケーンのこと)
- presumably
- おそらく
- global warming
- 地球温暖化
- And so on.
- などなど(これらの例はまだまだ続く)
- time after time
- 何度も
- find it trite, even boring
- 新しみがないと思い、うんざりさえするかもしれない
- rouse your interest
- あなたの興味をかきたてる
- future generations
- 将来の世代の人々
- meaning
- つまり
- "a life of suffering"
- 苦しみの日々
- industrialized countries
- 工業化した国
- long-term target
- 長期的目標
- reduction
- 削減
- consumption
- 消費
- raw materials
- 原料
- reduction to 90 percent
- 削減して現状の90パーセントにすること
- reduction by 90 percent
- 90パーセントを削減すること
- industrial electricity use
- 産業用電気の消費量
- previous year
- 前年
- figure
- 数値
- matters
- 重要である
- demand
- 需要
- is regarded as 〜
- 〜 とみなされる
- indicator
- 指標
- power consumption
- 電力消費量
- is cautioned
- 忠告されている
- economic recovery
- 景気回復
- is placed so that when 〜 , 〜
- 〜 だと 〜 となるように配置されている
- come together like two hands clapping
- 両手をたたくように合わさる
- figure of speech
- 比ゆ的表現
- come face to face
- 面と向かう
- rubbing noses as it were
- まるで鼻をこすり合わせてあいさつするように
- can't get across onto 〜
- 〜 に伝わらない
- have been warned for years
- 何年も警告されてきた
- ecological crisis
- 生態環境の危機
- were irrelevant
- 無関係な
- is eating up 〜
- 〜 を食いつくしている
- what is there to do but 〜
- 〜 する以外にすることがあるんでしょうか
- realists
- 現実主義者