华盛顿邮报 芝加哥金属厂遭活动人士反对(在线收听

Today, we're taking a look at how a battle over a scrap-metal facility on the Southeast Side of Chicago is a test case for the Biden administration on environmental justice and what federal intervention here could mean for similar fights all around the country.

今天,我们来看一看围绕芝加哥东南方一个废金属厂的斗争如何成为拜登政府在环境正义方面的一个测试案例,以及联邦干预对全国各地类似斗争的影响。

We were at a park to meet a group of activists who have been fighting against this facility, including a young woman named Yesenia Chavez.

我们在一个公园会见了一群反对该工厂的活动人士,其中包括一名名叫叶塞尼亚·查韦斯(Yesenia Chavez)的年轻女子。

Yeah. So this is Rowan Park. This is a park that's on the east side of the 10th Ward, and it's located right behind George Washington High School.

是的。这是罗文公园。 这是第十区东边的一个公园,它就在乔治·华盛顿高中的后面。

Yesenia Chavez is a 27-year-old community-college student who's lived in the 10th Ward her entire life.

叶塞尼亚·查韦斯是一名27岁的社区大学学生,她一生都住在第十区。

Her family goes back to Chicago for three generations.

她家三代人都住在芝加哥。

Her grandfather moved there with a wave of other immigrants in the 1970s.

20世纪70年代,她的祖父随着一波移民潮搬到了那里。

Because he came to work at Republic Steel, which was one of the major mills that used to be located across the street from where we're at right now.

因为他来到共和国钢铁厂工作,那是一家大型钢铁厂,过去就在我们现在所在的地方的街对面。

Yesenia was worried about yet another polluting facility moving to her neighborhood when it had so many others, and she was particularly concerned about the health impacts.

叶塞尼亚担心,在她所在的社区有这么多污染场所的情况下,又会有一家污染工厂搬到她的社区,她尤其担心对健康的影响。

Literally from the bench that we're sitting at, you can see the buildings where they're proposing to operate, and then, if you look to the right of us, there's a school.

从我们坐的长椅上,你可以看到他们提议要经营的建筑,然后,如果你看我们的右边,有一所学校。

She has a younger sister, Graciela, who's a student at the George Washington High School, which is right across the street from where the metal shredder would operate if it gets its permit.

她有一个妹妹,格拉谢拉,是乔治·华盛顿高中的学生,这所高中就在马路对面,如果得到许可,金属碎纸机就会在那里运作起来。

And she was especially concerned because Graciela has asthma.

她特别担心,因为格拉谢拉有哮喘。

My immediate concern was, like, "What are my sister's lungs going to be like? You know, if she's exposed to this for a year, what are the effects going to be like?" Like, Graciela's 16 years old, so she has her entire life ahead of her.

我目前的担忧是,“我妹妹的肺会变成什么样子?” 你知道,如果她暴露在这种环境下一年,会有什么影响?” 比如,格拉谢拉才16岁,所以她还有大好前程。

You know, this isn't what I want to see for the rest of the youth in the 10th Ward, including my sister.

你知道,这不是我想看到的10区其他年轻人的样子,包括我妹妹。

Like, they don't deserve more pollution.

他们不应该受到更多的污染。

So, tell me a little bit about this company that was opening up this scrap-metal facility.

那么,告诉我一些开设了这个废旧金属工厂的这家公司的情况。

Like, what do they do? What is a scrap-metal facility?

比如,他们是做什么的? 这是一家什么样的废金属工厂?

The scrap-metal facility, called General Iron Industries, had operated in Chicago for a century.

这家名为“通用钢铁工业”的废金属工厂在芝加哥已经运营了一个世纪。

This scrap-metal company takes discarded metals, shreds it, and turns it into new steel that can be used to make anything from a bicycle to a bed frame to a car frame.

这家废金属公司把废弃的金属撕碎,然后把它变成新的钢材,这些钢材可以用来制造从自行车到床架再到汽车框架的任何东西。

So it's basically like a recycling facility, in some ways.

所以在某种程度上,它基本上就像一个回收厂。

It was a metal recycler, yeah.

它是金属回收厂,没错。

A very heavy industrial metal recycler, where the carcasses of cars were stacked up in the facility.

这是一个大型的工业金属回收厂,在那里,堆放着汽车的残骸。

But over that 100 years, that area, Lincoln Park, had become very upscale and wealthy, and it was really out of place.

但在过去的100年里,这个地区,林肯公园,变得非常高档和富有,这家工厂显得格格不入。

And with this environmental problems and its fires and explosions, it had become a serious eyesore.

由于环境问题以及火灾和爆炸,这家工厂变得非常碍眼。

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/hsdyb/550758.html