第15章現代世界と続く課題The Contemporary World and Ongoing Challenges

In the 1950s and 1960s, some in developed countries began responding openly to the environmental problems they saw around them, including those caused by the Green Revolution. Scientists like Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, gave legitimacy to these concerns, and many people became environmental activists working to promote change. They and the environmental groups they created spoke of the need to address global warming and climate change, the dangers of nuclear energy, deforestation, the ozone hole, and many other problems. These efforts were occasionally met with resistance, not just from those who survived by exploiting natural resources in their own developing countries, but also from workers, like loggers and others, in developed countries. By the 1980s, international groups like the United Nations were also calling for action. Specific measures like the Montreal Protocol were followed by the UN’s ambitious 2015 Paris Agreement to limit warming. But achieving international agreement about how best to handle the problem of climate change remains a struggle.

1950〜1960年代、先進国の一部の人々は、緑の革命によるものを含む周囲の環境問題へ公然と反応し始めた。『沈黙の春』の著者レイチェル・カーソンら科学者は、懸念に正当性を与え、多くの人が変化を促す環境活動家となった。活動家とその団体は、温暖化と気候変動、原子力の危険、森林破壊、オゾンホールなどへの対応の必要を訴えた。取り組みは時に抵抗に遭い、それは途上国で天然資源を利用して暮らす人々だけでなく、先進国の伐採労働者などからも起きた。1980年代までには国連などの国際組織も行動を求めた。モントリオール議定書などの具体策に続き、温暖化抑制を目指す野心的な2015年パリ協定が結ばれた。しかし気候変動の最善の扱い方について国際合意を得ることは、今も難しい課題である。