My concern with leaving it up to the individual, however, is our limited sense of what needs to be achieved. On their own, taking our own bags to the grocery store or quitting plastic straws, for example, will accomplish little and require very little of us. They could even be detrimental, satisfying a need to have “done our bit” without ever progressing onto bigger, bolder, more effective actions — a kind of “moral licensing” that allays our concerns and stops us doing more and asking more of those in charge.
然而，我所关心的是把它留给个人去做，因为我们对需要实现什么的意识有限。例如，他们自己带着自己的袋子去杂货店，或者放弃塑料吸管，这样做的效果很小，对我们的要求也很低。它们甚至可能是有害的，满足了“尽自己的一份力”而不采取更大、更大胆、更有效的行动的需要——这种“道德许可”可以减轻我们的担忧，阻止我们做更多的事，并要求更多的负责人。
The key messages that have been put together for World Environment Day do include a call for governments to enact legislation to curb single-use plastics. But the overarching message is directed at individuals.
世界环境日的主要信息包括呼吁各国政府制定立法，限制一次性使用塑料。但最重要的信息是针对个人。
Amold Schwarzenegger, Dia Mirza and Adrian Grenier have a message for you: It’s easy to beat plastic. They’re part of a bunch of celebrities starring in a new video for World Environment Day — encouraging you, the consumer, to swap out your single-use plastic staples like straws and cutlery to combat the plastics crisis.
阿莫德·施瓦辛格、迪亚·米尔扎和阿德里安·格雷尼尔给了你一个信息：禁止塑料很容易。他们是为世界环境日（World Environment Day）拍摄的一段新视频中的一批明星中的一员，该视频鼓励你，也就是消费者，用吸管和餐具等一次性塑料主食来应对塑料危机。
It’s important to acknowledge that the environment isn’t everyone’s priority — or even most people’s. We shouldn’t expect it to be. In her latest book, Why Good People Do Bad Environmental Things, Wellesley College professor Elizabeth R. DeSombre argues that the best way to collectively change the behavior of large numbers of people is for the change to be structural.
重要的是要认识到环境不是每个人的优先考虑，甚至不是大多数人的优先考虑。这不是我们应该期望的。韦尔斯利学院（Wellesley College）教授伊丽莎白德森布雷（Elizabeth R.DeSombre）在其最新著作《为什么好人会做不环保的事》中认为，改变集体行为的最佳方式是结构上的改变。
While the conversation around our environment and our responsibility toward it remains centered on shopping bags and straws, we’re ignoring the balance of power that implies that as “consumers” we must shop sustainably, rather than as “citizens” hold our governments and industries to account to push for real systemic change.
虽然围绕我们的环境和我们对环境的责任的讨论仍然集中在购物袋和吸管上，但我们忽视了权力的平衡，这意味着作为“消费者”我们必须可持续地购物，而不是作为“公民”要求我们的政府和行业为推动真正的系统变革。
This might mean implementing policy such as a plastic tax that adds a cost to environmentally problematic action, or banning single-use plastics altogether. India has just announced it will “eliminate all single-use plastic in the country by 2022.” There are also incentive-based ways of making better environmental choices easier, such as ensuring recycling is at least as easy as trash disposal.
这可能意味着要实施一些政策，比如征收塑料税，增加环境问题行动的成本，或者完全禁止一次性使用塑料。印度刚刚宣布将“到2022年消除国内所有一次性塑料”。还有一些基于激励的方法可以更容易地做出更好的环境选择，比如确保回收，至少和垃圾处理一样容易。
DeSombre isn’t saying people should stop caring about the environment. It’s just that individual actions are too slow, she says, for that to be the only, or even primary, approach to changing widespread behavior.
德森布雷并不是说人们应该停止关心环境。她说，只是个人行为太慢，无法成为改变普遍行为的唯一途径，甚至根本途径。
None of this is about writing off the individual. It’s just about putting things into perspective. We don’t have time to wait. We need progressive policies that shape collective action (and rein in polluting businesses), alongside engaged citizens pushing for change.
这些都不是为了忽略个人。只是把事情放在正确的角度。我们没时间等了。我们需要形成集体行动（并控制污染企业）的进步政策，同时让参与的公民推动变革。
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