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Remember when a barrel of oil cost more than 140?
还记得油价140多美元一桶的时候吗?
That was way back in 2008.
那要回溯到2008年。
Nowadays, cars and trucks have been made to go farther on less fuel.
现如今汽车和卡车已经可以行驶更远路程却消耗更少燃料。
Alternatives like ethanol have boomed.
而且乙醇等替代能源也已蓬勃发展。
And fracking has unleashed a flood of oil formerly trapped in shale rock underneath North Dakota, among other places.
液压破碎法将北达科他州及其他地区页岩下的石油大量开采出来。
As a result, oil prices have fallen—far.
因此石油价格已远远下降。
The price of a barrel of oil has dropped below 60.
每桶油的价格已跌破60美元。
But what’s good news for drivers is bad news for the global bid to cut climate changing pollution.
虽然司机们觉得是个利好消息，但对全球致力于减排的目标而言却非常不利。
Burning oil in vehicles is the second largest source of fossil fuel pollution.
车辆燃油是化石燃料污染的第二大来源。
It's also bad news for alternatives, like new facilities that turn corn stalks into ethanol.
而对替代品来说也是坏消息，比如将玉米秸秆转化为乙醇的新设备。
Hybrids and electric cars are less popular when gas is cheaper.
汽油价格持续低迷就会使得混合动力和电动汽车也面临颓势。
In fact, the sport-utility vehicles of yesteryear are staging a comeback.
事实上去年运动型越野车已经有回归势头。
But back on the good news front:
但好消息方面:
a falling price of oil reduces the incentive to do expensive things to get the liquid fossil fuel—like drill in the Arctic or mine Canada's boreal forest for tar sands.
油价下跌使得人们不会再以高额代价开采液体燃料，比如北极钻孔或开采加拿大的寒带森林获取油砂。
Of course, in the long run oil prices are likely to go back up.
当然从长远角度石油价格很可能会回升。
It's just a question of how much environmental damage gets done before that happens.
问题是在那之前会产生多少环境破坏。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
