An Indiana city has the most roundabouts in the country. They’ve saved lives and reduced injuries from crashes — and lowered carbon emissions.
By Cara BuckleyPhotographs and Video by A.J. Mast
Nov. 20, 2021
Carmel, a city of 102,000 north of Indianapolis, has 140 roundabouts, with over a dozen still to come. No American city has more. The main reason is safety; compared with regular intersections, roundabouts significantly reduce injuries and deaths.
But there’s also a climate benefit.
Because modern roundabouts don’t have red lights where cars sit and idle, they don’t burn as much gasoline. While there are few studies, the former city engineer for Carmel, Mike McBride, estimates that each roundabout saves about 20,000 gallons of fuel annually, which means the cars of Carmel emit many fewer tons of planet-heating carbon emissions each year. And U.S. highway officials broadly agree that roundabouts reduce tailpipe emissions.
They also don’t need electricity, and, unlike stoplights, keep functioning after bad storms — a bonus in these meteorologically turbulent times.
Mr. McBride, who, as Carmel’s city engineer for 13 years, oversaw the construction of nearly 80 roundabouts, said roundabout-curious municipal leaders often asked how to win over the public.
“You can spit out fact-based data, but at the end of the day most of the general population is scared of things that are new and different,” Mr. McBride said.
Roundabouts put decision making in the hands of drivers, unlike much of the U.S. roadway system, which, Mr. McBride said, “doesn’t put a lot of faith in the driver to make choices.”
“They’re used to being told what to do at every turn,” he said.
Critical Race Theoryなど、アメリカ政治の知識がないとインプリケーションを理解できないものがあります。最近のその最たるものがLet's Go Brandonというスローガン。その異様さは冒頭の動画を見るだけでわかります。Brandonと言っただけでこの盛り上がりよう。Wkipediaでは既に項目が立っています。
(Wikipedia)
Let's Go Brandon
"Let's Go Brandon" is a political slogan which has been widely used as a minced oath for "Fuck Joe Biden" in reference to Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States.
Chants of "Fuck Joe Biden" were first heard at sporting events in early September 2021. "Let's Go Brandon" came into use after NBC reporter Kelli Stavast incorrectly described a chant of "Fuck Joe Biden" by spectators at a NASCAR race as "Let's go, Brandon" during a televised interview of driver Brandon Brown on October 2, 2021.[1] The slogan has become well known through use by Republican politicians and critics of Biden.[2][3] The phrase quickly spread to popular culture, with rap songs using the phrase placing high on record charts.
By Annie Linskey November 15, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EST
The anti-President Biden mantra “Let’s go Brandon” has morphed from an inside joke among some conservatives to virtually an unofficial motto of the Republican Party, a way to insult the administration, voice anger about its tenure and signal irritation with the media — all in language designed to conceal an expletive.
（中略）
Unlike most successful political slogans, this one requires considerable explanation: It is a stand-in for the cruder “F--- Joe Biden” chant that has erupted at sports venues and rallies across the country. Other than a vague echo, the connection between the two phrases is not obvious, another part of its appeal.
Q Let me ask one last question if I can, quickly. Across this country, we’ve seen this new phenomenon lately chanted at sporting events and on signs. The phrase is, “Let’s go, Brandon.” A sort of code for a profane slogan attacking President Biden. What does the President make of that?
MS. PSAKI: I don’t think he spends much time focused on it or thinking about it.
Q The President said when he came into office on Inauguration Day — he said he was going to help get rid of the “uncivil war” in this country. So I guess, through that lens right now, does the President think there are things that he can do differently? Or how does he react to the stuff he sees out there when it is one of his primary promises or desires to help bring Americans together?
MS. PSAKI: Well, it takes two to move towards a more civil engagement and discourse in this country. And the President is going to continue to operate, as you said, from the promise he made early on, which is that he wants to govern for all Americans.
He’s going to deliver for all Americans, as is evidenced by the infrastructure bill that he’s going to sign on Monday, that’s going to help expand broadband to everyone, no matter your political party, no matter whether you voted for him or not. That’s going to replace lead pipes, make sure kids have clean drinking water, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican or not political at all.
That’s how he’s going to govern. And certainly we’re hopeful we’ll have partners to move toward more civil discourse with in the future.
The metaverse is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed
Nov 17th 2021
“A revolutionary approach on how to connect our world without being super-weird…In the Icelandverse, there’s…skies you can see with your eyeballs, volcanic rocks you can caress, and really big geysers you can observe from a safe distance.” So runs a viral advert designed to lure tourists to Iceland. The target of the parody is Mark Zuckerberg in particular, and Silicon Valley in general, for whom the idea of the “metaverse”—a sort of 3d sequel to today’s two-dimensional internet, in which users work, play, buy and sell inside immersive virtual worlds—has become the latest Next Big Thing.
それでも文章だけ読んでもピンとこない方は取り上げている動画を見てから読めば文章もわかるでしょう。1週間ほどで100万回以上の再生では世界でバズったというには少なすぎる感じですが、狙いは明白ですね。ただ、こういう文章を理解しようと考えた時、「背景知識」というほど大袈裟じゃないけど予備知識見たいのは重要だと思わされます。ZuckerbergやMetaの動画を知らないとwithout being super-weirdの部分がピンとこなかったりすると思うんですよね。
Mark Zuckerberg’s quixotic quest for the Facebook metaverse
The Facebook founder is assailed by scandals and a surging rival in TikTok, yet his total grip on power at the social media behemoth means he can shrug it off and spend billions on a quixotic metaverse quest. Shareholders can do nothing but watch
BY ALEJANDRO DE LA GARZA SEPTEMBER 22, 2021 10:31 AM EDT
But some industry players are still trying to make hydrogen happen for all sorts of energy uses. Toyota, for instance, has continued what some green energy analysts consider to be a quixotic quest to popularize hydrogen cars, even going so far as to lobby against fuel efficiency rules and gasoline car phase-out requirements around the world that would benefit its battery-electric rivals.
The Facebook founder is assailed by scandals and a surging rival in TikTok, yet his total grip on power at the social media behemoth means he can shrug it off and spend billions on a quixotic metaverse quest. Shareholders can do nothing but watch
The Democrat spent two decades building consensus to rein in war authorizations that have been stretched beyond their original intent. The Afghanistan withdrawal has complicated the debate.
By Catie Edmondson Sept. 14, 2021
For years after that vote, Ms. Lee, a California Democrat, remained a solitary figure on a seemingly quixotic quest, pushing tirelessly — and often fruitlessly — to rein in the expansive war-making authorities that her colleagues had unanimously granted the president.
We are headed into my least favorite time of the year. It’s that period when you realize the long, dark winter isn’t far away, and for the foreseeable future, you will be consigned to driving home from the office in the dark – that is, if you still work in an office.
I’ve long wondered whether something could be done about it. My fanciful solutions always involved finding a way to alter the Earth’s axial orientation. But we can thank politicians for proposing more practical ways to give us additional sunlight – or at least for making us feel like the day was longer than it actually was.
Michael Yellowlees is a hearty, bearded, 32-year-old Scot who is walking across Canada, raising money and awareness to bring back the Caledonian Forest that once covered Scotland.
For some, 300 low-income housing units is not enough
New York News Analysis / November 08, 2021 07:00 AM By Erik Engquist
But she likely has already concluded that full affordability at 5 WTC makes no economic or political sense.
Let’s start with the economics. As envisioned, the 900 market-rate units would generate enough profit to pay for the 300 income-restricted units and send millions of dollars to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, whose land-swap made the project possible.
One reason the market-rate units would be lucrative is the views they would offer. Stable, quality housing is a priority for low-income New Yorkers; a commanding view of the harbor is not. That is why affordable projects are not very tall: Per unit, towers are far more expensive. Each one at the World Trade Center will cost about $1 million to build.
Chances are you’ve heard the terms “mitigation” and “adaptation” used in a climate context before. So, what’s the difference between these two approaches, and why does knowing matter so much?
Imagine you’re on a ship that’s sinking because of a leak. If you want to stay afloat, you’ve got to act.
乗船している船が水漏れで沈んでいると想像してください。沈没を避けるには行動しないといけません。
The first thing you could do is grab a bucket and pour water out as it gushes through the hull. This response is adaptation — addressing the effect (the water in the boat), but not the cause of the problem (the hole).
In the climate world, the IPCC defines adaptation as “the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects.” It’s doing what we can to live with and minimize the destruction and suffering that comes from climate change.
Potential climate adaptations span a variety of sectors, from agricultural, to coastal, to urban, and many more. Some strategies include:
Building sea walls, elevating infrastructure, or retreating from low-lying coastal areas altogether.
Reducing and recycling water use due to drought.
Using prescribed fires to prevent uncontrollable wildfires.
Favoring drought-tolerant crops like rice, cowpea, and maize,
次は緩和です。同じ沈む船の例を使って違いを説明してくれています。
MITIGATION緩和
Let’s climb back aboard our sinking ship. If adaptation is pouring water out to stay afloat in the moment, sealing the leak to halt more water coming in is mitigation. In other words, it’s addressing the root cause of the problem rather than dealing with its effects.
Did you ever wonder what made the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland so mad? The phrase “mad as a hatter” actually comes from Mad Hatter disease, better known as mercury poisoning. In the 19th century, fur treated with mercury was used to make felt hats. Hatters were confined in small spaces and breathed toxic mercury fumes, resulting in “mad” or irrational behavior.
Today mercury is used in manufacturing processes, as a vaccine preservative, in dental amalgam fillings, certain medications and cosmetics, and in fluorescent light bulbs. But the most common cause of mercury toxicity in humans results from eating fish and shellfish that have been contaminated by industrial runoff.
Last month representatives of more than 140 countries agreed to the terms of a treaty called the Minamata Convention that would ban the use of mercury in switches, certain fluorescent lamps, cosmetics, most batteries and certain medical thermometers and blood pressure devices by 2020. The treaty is scheduled to be finalized this fall in Minamata, Japan, where industrial waste poisoned an entire village 50 years ago.
Jul 23, 2021 • July 23, 2021 • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
It has been known for a long time that methylmercury is extremely toxic.
Indeed, the saying “mad as a hatter” and the Mad Hatter character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, originally came from the effects of mercury poisoning on workers in the hat-making industry, because of the process to convert fur into felt going back to the 18th century.
Exposure to large amounts of methylmercury can result in a wide range of mental and physical health problems which, as late as 1975, the medical community in Canada did not know how to identify reliably.
That’s one of the major reasons the Ontario health ministry at the time sent medical experts to Japan to study and better understand the effects of mercury poisoning, known as Minamata disease.
The disease derives its name from Minamata Bay in Japan, where in the late 1950s the local population was exposed to mercury poisoning from the wastewater of a local chemical plant, which entered the human food chain because of people consuming fish.
平成25（2013）年10月に熊本市・水俣市で開催された外交会議において「水銀に関する水俣条約」（Minamata Convention on Mercury）が採択されました。この条約は、水銀及び水銀化合物の人為的排出から人の健康及び環境を保護することを目的としており、採掘から流通、使用、廃棄に至る水銀のライフサイクルにわたる適正な管理と排出の削減を定めるものです。
02 NOV 2021 PRESS RELEASE CHEMICALS & POLLUTION ACTION
Geneva, 02 November 2021 - The first segment of the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP-4) takes place online from 1 to 5 November with over a thousand participants and an ambitious programme of work.
Under the presidency of Indonesia, the first segment of the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP-4) is taking place online from 1 to 5 November 2021. More than 1,000 representatives from governments, intergovernmental organizations, UN bodies, academia, and civil society, are participating in the plenaries, working groups and several side events.
MINAMATA, Kumamoto -- A 13-minute video on the daily lives of Minamata disease patients, produced by a citizens' group in this southwestern Japan city which was the hypocenter of pollution-triggered mercury poisoning, is up on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)'s website, and patients say they want it to be seen by many people to promote mercury regulation.
The video was made by a network of people promoting the Minamata Convention on Mercury, or Mico Net. The group aims for the establishment of international regulations on mercury -- the cause of Minamata disease -- and members spent a month to make the video in line with the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP-4) held from Nov. 1 to 5.
Masami Ogata is a survivor of Minamata Disease, a debilitating illness caused by industrial mercury poisoning, which originated in the Japanese town of the same name in the 1950s. As a UN conference on preventing future poisoning outbreaks gets underway, we hear Mr. Ogata’s story.
As a storyteller at the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum, Mr. Ogata helps to keep alive the memory of what is considered to be one of the most serious Japanese pollution incidents of the Twentieth Century.
The incident was caused by the release of toxic chemicals from an industrial plant, which accumulated in shellfish and fish, and were then eaten by the local population.
More than 2,000 people have been recognized as victims, many of whom, including Mr. Ogata, had to fight for recognition and compensation: around 20 members of his family were affected by the disease, which causes muscle weakness, loss of peripheral vision, and hearing and speech impairment.
The artist discusses the often quixotic-seeming task of confronting the climate crisis.
By Françoise Mouly Art by Eric Drooker
November 8, 2021
Last week, world leaders gathered in Glasgow for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the latest in a long line of summits aimed at finding a solution to the climate crisis. Some gains were made, at least on paper: a number of countries signed on to pledges that would halt deforestation by 2030 and cut emissions of methane. And yet, as Elizabeth Kolbert writes in her Comment in the November 15th issue of the magazine: “The sad fact is that, when it comes to climate change, there’s no making up for lost time. Every month that carbon emissions remain at current levels—they’re running at about forty billion tons a year—adds to the eventual misery. Had the U.S. started to lead by example three decades ago, the situation today would be very different. It’s still not too late to try—indeed, it’s imperative to try—but, to quote Boris Johnson, ‘humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change.’ ” This prevailing mood, of justified gloom and necessary optimism, inspired the artist Eric Drooker’s latest cover, which features an appearance from that enduring dreamer of impossible dreams, Don Quixote de la Mancha.
まだ、全部を聞けていませんが、冒頭部分を確認します。オバマ大統領のつかみは、よくある自虐ネタでした。大統領の肩書がなくなった今を嘆きつつI can give a speech like this without wearing a tie and not create a scandal back home.と良い点についてのジョークを飛ばしています。堂本かおるさんがおっしゃっていましたが、薄ブラウンのスーツを来ただけでスキャンダルになったことを揶揄している部分ですが、この程度しかスキャンダルのなかったオバマ大統領の清廉さはすごかったですね。
… this leadership and see it for the renewable resource that it is. We know it’s up to us and so does he. Please join me in welcoming President Barack Obama.
Barack Obama: (00:28)
Thank you so much. Thank you. Hello, Glasgow.
Barack Obama: (00:41)
Thank you very much. Thank you. Please. Well, it is wonderful to be back in the UK. It is, let’s face it, wonderful to be traveling anywhere these days. Thank you, Sheila, for that outstanding introduction and for all the work that you are doing in a part of the world that is feeling the effects of climate change right now. Thank you for making what sometimes can seem a bunch of abstract numbers painfully immediately real so we’re very grateful for her.
Barack Obama: (01:19)
I am a private citizen now so trips like this feel a little bit different than they used to. I don’t get invited to the big group photo. Traffic is a thing again. Music doesn’t play when I walk into the room. On the positive side, I can give a speech like this without wearing a tie and not create a scandal back home. I hope. But even though I’m not required to attend summits like this anymore, old habits die hard. And when the issue at hand is the health of our planet and the world our children and our grandchildren will inherit, then you will have a hard time keeping me away.
A powerful speech by the prime minister of Barbados was a breakout moment at COP26.
Mia Mottley said a 2-degree Celsius rise in global temperature would be a "death sentence."
She called for more funding to small island nations on the frontlines of climate change.
(News 18)
Mia Mottley, the Barbados Prime Minister has been a force to reckon with ever since she took on the reins of the island country. Her scintillating speeches and powerful words have been appreciated every time the woman has addressed world leaders at any public stage. This time too, as dozens of world leaders attended the UN climate change conference, Mottley’s compelling speech was hard to look away from.
(Evening Standards)
World leaders have been urged to “try harder” on climate change in a bid to avoid a “death sentence” for developing countries.
In a blistering speech at the opening of Cop26, Barbadian prime minister Mia Mottley pushed those in attendance, while launching a veiled attack at those who chose not to come to Glasgow for the key talks.
素晴らしいスピーチと呼ばれるものですが、最初の構成をみるとオーソドックスになっています。導入はThe pandemic has taught us that national solutions to global problems do not work.とパンデミックは一国の取り組みでは不十分であったことを指摘して、気候変動でも国際的な協力が必要なことを示唆しするところから始めています。
Your Royal Highness, Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
The pandemic has taught us that national solutions to global problems do not work.
We come to Glasgow with global ambition to save our people and to save our planet. But we now find three gaps. On mitigation, climate pledges or NDCs – without more, we will leave the world on a pathway to 2.7 degrees, and with more, we are still likely to get to 2 degrees.
These commitments made by some are based on technologies yet to be developed, and this is at best reckless and at worst dangerous.
On finance, we are $20 billion short of the $100 billion. And this commitment even then, might only be met in 2023.
On adaptation, adaptation finance remains only at 25%; not the 50-50 split that was promised, nor needed, given the warming that is already taking place on this Earth. Climate finance to frontline small island developing states, declined by 25% in 2019.
Failure to provide the critical finance and that of loss and damage is measured in my friends, in lives and livelihoods in our communities. This is immoral and it is unjust.
If Glasgow is to deliver on the promises of Paris, it must close these three gaps.
この最初の部分は英検でも使えそうな、教科書的な構成です。
We come to Glasgow with global ambition to save our people and to save our planet. But we now find three gaps.
On mitigation, ...
On finance, ...
On adaptation ...
If Glasgow is to deliver on the promises of Paris, it must close these three gaps.
to cut/untie the Gordian knot (= to solve a problem by taking action)
- Word Origin
mid 16th cent.: from the legend that Gordius, king of Gordium in Persia, tied an intricate knot and prophesied that whoever untied it would become the ruler of Asia. It was cut through with a sword by the Greek leader Alexander the Great.
What the world needs now, my friends, is that which is within the ambit of less than 200 persons who are willing and prepared to lead. Leaders must not fail those who elected them to lead.
And I say to you, there is a sword that can cut down this Gordian knot, and it has been wielded before. The central banks of the wealthiest countries engaged in $25 trillion of quantitative easing in the last 13 years. $25 trillion! Of that, $9 trillion was in the last 18 months to fight the pandemic.
Had we used that $25 trillion to purchase bonds to finance the energy transition or the transition of how we eat or how we move ourselves in transport, we would now today be reaching that 1.5 degrees limit that is so vital to us.
I say to you today in Glasgow that an annual increase in the SDRs of $500 billion a year for 20 years, put in a trust to finance the transition, is the real gap Secretary-General that we need to close, not the $50 billion being proposed for adaptation. And if $500 billion sounds big to you, guess what? It is just 2% of the $25 trillion. This is the sword we need to wield.
最後はニュースでも使われたdeath sentenceのところです。これはCOPの公式サイトに上がったオリジナル原稿にはなかった部分です。こういう短く切り取りやすいサウンドバイトがあればニュースになりやすいことも十分意識しているのでしょう。国連のグテーレス事務総長は'We are digging our own gravesと語っていましたね。
We can work with who is ready to go, because the train is ready to leave and those who are not yet ready, we need to continue to ring-circle and to remind them that their people, not our people, but their citizens need them to get on board as soon as possible.
Code Red. Code Red to the G7 countries, code red, code red to the G20.
Earth the COP. That’s what it said. Earth to COP. For those who have eyes to see, for those who have ears to listen and for those who have a heart to feel, 1.5 is what we need to survive. 2 degrees, yes S-G, is a death sentence for the people of Antigua and Barbuda, for the people of the Maldives, for the people of Dominica and Fiji, for the people of Kenya and Mozambique, and yes, for the people of Samoa and Barbados.
We do not want that dreaded death sentence and we have come here today to say, “try harder, try harder,” because our people, the climate army, the world, the planet needs our actions now, not next year, not in the next decade.
Today I will not come here with a lengthy speech, there is no time for it!
Not only that We are not on track to achieve the Paris Agreement goals, but on the contrary that We are on track for a climate catastrophe.
The 2021 Emissions Gap Report shows that with the current NDCs the global temperature right now will rise to over 2,5 degrees Celsius.
I would like to recall the need to cut our global emissions by 45% in 2030 with respect to 2010, to keep the 1.5 goal alive.
And let ́s be frank my fellows, keeping the 1.5 goal alive is a matter of survival, is a matter of climate justice, of equity.
オランダの首相 今年の夏の欧州の洪水を引き合いに出して
Ladies and gentlemen,
This summer, in the south of the Netherlands, I stood on the bank of the Maas River, which was threatened by flooding caused by extreme rainfall.
It was a terrifying sight.
There, the dikes held.
But elsewhere in the province and across the border in Belgium and Germany, raging torrents caused devastation.
This is only one sad example that illustrates today’s reality.
More and more people worldwide are being impacted by climate change. It’s serious, and it calls for serious action.
アメリカのバイデン大統領 歴史的俯瞰から
Ladies and gentlemen, to state the obvious, we meet with the eyes of history upon us and the profound questions before us. It’s simple: Will we act? Will we do what is necessary? Will we seize the enormous opportunity before us? Or will we condemn future generations to suffer?
This is the decade that will determine the answer. This decade. The science is clear: We only have a brief window left before us to raise our ambitions and to raise — to meet the task that’s rapidly narrowing.
オーストラリアのモリソン首相 コロナの経験を引き合いに出して
There is cause for optimism.
18 months ago we were staring into the abyss of a one in one hundred years pandemic. The vaccines we would need had not only not been invented, but there had never been a vaccine for a Coronavirus.
But here we are. Billions vaccinated and the world is reclaiming what COVID has taken from us.
The challenge of combating climate change will be met with the same way.
And it will be met by those who are largely not in this room. It will be our scientists, technologists, engineers, entrepreneurs, industrialists and financiers that will chart this path to net zero. And it is up to us as Leaders to back them in.
韓国 文在寅大統領 開催地に配慮し、太古のイメージを喚起して
Your Excellency Prime Minister Boris Johnson,
Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC),
Excellencies,
Oak tree forests in Glasgow lead us into the world of mythology where humans, animals and plants live in harmony.
Nature has long been waiting for us.
Now, it is our turn to act and return love to nature.
COP 26 will mark a starting point.
Which, I hope, will set us on a course to stop further global warming and respond to nature that has been so patient with us.
あと気になったのは、岸田首相が英語で挨拶してから、I will be speaking in Japanese from now on. May I ask you to put on your headphones? と語り、日本語で話し始める時の間が短かったこと。メルケル首相のように周りを見渡してデバイスをつけ終わるのを確認してから日本語を話し始めた方が良かった気がします。
All speakers should ensure that they are in the plenary room at least four speakers ahead of the delivery of their national statement. They will be escorted by an usher during the presentation of the previous speaker from the seat of their delegation to a reserved chair close to the podium. Speaking slots for those who are not in the plenary at the time for delivery of their statements will be rescheduled to speak at the end of all statements of the same category.
Given the number of Parties and the limited amount of time available for statements, it will be necessary to limit the duration of each statement. Heads of State and Governments are reminded that national statements made during the first part of the high-level segment should not exceed the three- minute limit. To be fair to all speakers, time limits will be strictly enforced. An electronic/mechanical device will be used to mark the 3 minutes allotted to each speaker. This will allow all speakers to deliver their national statements. Representatives whose full texts exceed three minutes may wish to deliver a shortened version in plenary; the full text of all statements delivered during the high-level segment will be uploaded and made available on the UNFCCC website.
At the outset, let me start by commending my friend, Boris, for his leadership in hosting the COP 26.
I have come all the way to Glasgow to convey my own determination that Japan will be working in full force to take on climate change, a common challenge of humankind.
Six years have passed since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. At that time, under the leadership of then President Laurent Fabius, we had renewed our resolve. We must not forget that very moment. “Fumio, I really want to give this to you.” To this day, I have been keeping and cherishing the gavel that my friend Laurent presented to me as a testament to my own resolution to confront the climate issue seriously.
To achieve our goal, this coming decade will be critical. Together, with high ambitions, let us do all we can going forward!
“Net-zero by 2050”; Japan will realize this goal under our newly adopted Long-term Strategy.
I assure that Japan aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 46% in the fiscal year 2030 from its fiscal year 2013 levels, and that Japan will continue strenuous efforts in its challenge to meet the lofty goal of cutting its emissions by 50%.
Mr. President,
To bring about a decarbonized society, Japan will introduce renewable energy as much as possible, and lead the way in the clean energy transition, with a particular focus on Asia.
Democrat Terry McAuliffe has accused Glenn Youngkin, his Republican opponent in Virginia's competitive gubernatorial election, of ending his campaign on a "racist dog whistle."
As Election Day nears, former Virginia Governor McAuliffe has escalated his criticism of Youngkin over a campaign ad released last week that featured Laura Murphy, who has pushed to remove Toni Morrison's Beloved, an acclaimed novel which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, from Virginia's school system.
Although she does not mention the book by name, Murphy condemned McAuliffe's veto of legislation that would have required schools to notify parents when sexually explicit reading material was assigned—an effort that was known as the "Beloved Bill."
Youngkin has made education a centrepiece of his campaign, vowing to ban critical race theory if elected and hammering McAuliffe over remarks that parents shouldn't be telling schools what they should teach.
"Now, of all the hundreds of books you could look at, why did you take the one Black female author? Why did he do it? He's ending his campaign on a racist dog whistle."
dog whistleという用語は知っていたのですが、今回の実例をみてようやく腑に落ちました。
（ジーニアス）
dog-whistle politics
犬笛政治 《特定の有権者のみに真意が理解される言葉を用いて政治的意見を表明すること》.
（オックスフォード）
dog whistle
n
2. a political message that is only intended for and heard by a particular group of people
（アメリカンヘリテージ）
dog whistle
n
2. The use of terms that seem innocuous but are intended to convey a hidden and potentially controversial message to a particular audience.
The book Laura Murphy wants removed from Fairfax County classrooms is considered a modern American classic. It is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a masterpiece of fiction whose author’s 1993 Nobel Prize in literature citation said that she, “in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.”
But Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” Murphy said, depicts scenes of bestiality, gang rape and an infant’s gruesome murder, content she believes could be too intense for teenage readers.
I was also asked to read “Beloved” in a high school English class, also in Virginia — Richmond, to be precise. It was a hard read. You felt bad. It was also an illuminating corrective, studied against the Virginia backdrop of Robert E. Lee worship, Stonewall Jackson fetishization, and the plantations where enslaved people, we heard in our history classes, worked mostly happily for noble, caring masters.
The novel taught me the power of literature, how words could transmit deep emotion. It did keep me up at night, because I was grappling with the pain of another person, wondering how someone could get to such a place, how people could do these things to one another. The gory details of the book fled my mind in the ensuing years. But the feeling — I never forgot it.
11月号のCNN English Expressでも取り上げられていたcritical race theory。バージニア州では共和党知事誕生の番狂わせに繋がったようです。これは保守的なWall Street Journalすら冷静に指摘しているように、妊娠中絶の是非など、有権者の支持をえやすい「文化戦争」の一環です。
By Gerald F. Seib 2021 年 11 月 4 日 09:09 JST 2021 年 11 月 4 日 09:09 JST
In an era where culture wars often best policy debates in driving voters, those topics represent a new cutting edge. Republicans are taking advantage, and the Democrats’ progressive wing is feeling the pain.
a person who is active in trying to protect a particular culture or set of values that they think is under threat, especially conservative political values in the US
But that dynamic also will play out on cultural issues. Again, Virginia may provide the guideposts. According to AP VoteCast, a broad survey of Virginia voters taken by the Associated Press, a quarter of Virginia voters said a continuing debate over whether schools are teaching so-called critical race theory was the most important factor in their vote for governor. Among them, more than 7 in 10 supported the Republican, Mr. Youngkin.
For most of the campaign, Democrat Terry McAuliffe seemed to be in the driver’s seat, until Youngkin, the Republican, started ranting about CRT in schools. The polling gap closed. CRT panic had recently gripped parts of Virginia, which Joe Biden won by ten points in 2020. It was part of an electoral strategy cooked up last year by conservative activists, who started using CRT as a catch-all term for the supposed excesses of the left — anything “crazy in the newspaper,” according to Christopher Rufo, the Manhattan Institute fellow who pioneered its usage. Since then, CRT has been Astroturfed into a local cause célèbre, applied most often as a criticism of school curricula — including historically accurate lessons about Black enslavement — that might make white children feel bad.
根拠のない内容を広めたことでCRT has been Astroturfed into a local cause célèbreとAstroturfいう動詞を使っています。grass-root movement（草の根運動）を人工的に作ったしていることからの人工芝という発想なので、この発想が分かればピンとくる表現です。
（ウィズダム）
as･tro･turf･ing
アストロターフィング(組織などが草の根運動に見せかけて行う世論操作[やらせ]).
（コリンズ）
astroturfing
a PR tactic used in politics and advertising in which actors are paid to display overt and apparently spontaneous grassroots support for a particular product, policy, or event
The bulk of reporting and analysis of the Virginia race has described Youngkin’s decision to embrace CRT as a compromise — a way to unite two constituencies, Trumpists and moderates, that were seen as being at odds. It looked like a dicey task in a state that Democrats have dominated in recent elections, and where voters across the ideological spectrum seemed affronted by Trump. Youngkin was especially careful not to endorse the claim that the 2020 election was stolen, often seen as a litmus test for the ex-president’s supporters. But because 2021 is an off-year and turnout was expected to be low, the Youngkin campaign surmised — correctly, it seems — that the crucial difference on Tuesday would be which side got voters more energized.
The Republican chose education as his vehicle in part because COVID-19 has made it an unusually fraught issue. Parent frustration over pandemic-caused school closures, and more recent clashes over mask mandates, had already led to a groundswell of activist energy in the suburbs and rural areas where Youngkin needed to perform well.
11月号のCNN English Expressの動画でCRTの学者とか知っていると聞かれた若者が知らないと答えていたことが印象的でしたが、今回の選挙戦でも民主党の候補者が何度も実際、学校ではCRTは教えられていないとしても効果がなかったようです。雰囲気の怖さを感じます。
