水泥行業非常不環保，還好它現在變了
tweak [twiːk]
v. 扭；稍微調整
圖片來源：圖蟲創意
On a scorching July morning at a testing facility outside of Paris, a cadre of scientists, engineers, and architects wearing hard hats and safety goggles watched through protective glass as a machine molded a soupy, grey mixture into batches of brick-size blocks.
在7月裏的一個炎熱的上午，在巴黎郊外的一個測試中心裏，一羣科學家、工程師和建築師戴着安全帽和護目鏡，透過防護玻璃觀看一臺機器將一種粘稠的灰色混合物製成一塊塊磚大小的立方體。
Further along the line, a forklift operator carefully loaded the blocks into a curing chamber like loaves of bread in a bakery.
沿着這條生產線往前走，一名叉車司機小心翼翼地把這些塊狀物裝進混凝土養護室，就像麪包店裏的麪包一樣。
What they were witnessing was a trial run of a new concrete-making process developed by Solidia Technologies, one that the New Jersey-based company hopes will dramatically reshape the way this building material is made.
他們見證了Solidia Technologies（固化技術公司）開發的一種新型混凝土製造工藝的試運行。總部位於新澤西的這家公司希望這種工藝能極大地改變這種建築材料的製造方式。
By tweaking the chemistry of one of concrete’s essential ingredients—cement—and altering its curing process, the company says it can make concrete cheaper than the traditional process, while at the same time drastically cutting the carbon emissions associated with cement production.
該公司表示，通過調整水泥（混凝土的基本成分之一）的化學組成和性質，並改變其養護過程，可以製造出比傳統工藝更便宜的混凝土，同時大幅減少與水泥生產相關的碳排放。
Cement is one of the global economy’s most carbon-polluting industries. Responsible for about 8% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2015, if it were ranked with individual countries, the cement industry would be the third-largest greenhouse-gas emitter in the world behind only China and the United States.
水泥行業是全球經濟中碳污染最嚴重的行業之一。2015年水泥行業的二氧化碳排放量約佔全球總排放量的8%，如果視水泥行業爲一個國家，並與單個國家進行排名，它可能會成爲世界第三大溫室氣體排放國，僅次於中國和美國。
And this already outsized footprint is only projected to grow in the coming decades as economic development and rapid urbanization continue across Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. According to the International Energy Agency and the Cement Sustainability Initiative, by 2050, cement production could increase by as much as 23%.
隨着東南亞和撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲地區的經濟發展和快速的城市化進程，預計未來幾十年內，這種已經超標的碳足跡只會進一步擴大。根據國際能源署和水泥可持續發展倡議的預測，到2050年，水泥產量可能會增加23%。
This poses a significant challenge for combating climate change. One 2018 study estimated that cement-related emissions will have to fall by at least 16% by 2030, and by far more after that, if nations are to meet the 2015 Paris Climate Accord target of staying below two degrees Celsius of warming this century.
對於應對氣候變化，這是極大的挑戰。2018年的一項研究指出，如果各國要實現2015年《巴黎氣候協定》設定的“本世紀全球升溫不超過2攝氏度”的目標，那麼到2030年，與水泥相關的碳排放必須至少降低16%，而且之後的碳排放量還需要更低。
According to industry experts, reductions on that scale will require the widespread adoption of less carbon-intensive cement alternatives now under development in labs around the world. But in a market ruled by a handful of major producers wary of making changes to their existing business models, an absence of strong policies incentivizing greener technologies, and a construction industry reasonably cautious about novel building materials, the prospects for such a radical shift are far from certain.
行業專家表示，要實現如此大規模的減排，就必須廣泛採用碳排放較低的水泥替代品。目前，世界各地的實驗室都在研發這種替代品。但在這樣一個由幾家主要生產商主導的市場上，生產商對改變現有的商業模式持謹慎態度，而且目前缺乏強有力的政策來推動綠色技術的發展，而建築行業對新型建築材料的態度也相當謹慎，因此，這種根本性轉變的前景仍具有很大的不確定。
今日詞彙
tweak [twiːk]
v. 扭；稍微調整
He tweaked the boy’s ear roughly.
他粗暴地擰男孩的耳朵。
The system is expected to get better as the engineers tweak its performance.
在工程師對性能進行調節後，這個系統預期會運行得更好。
