来源：《每日电讯报》
原文刊登日期：2022年7月15日
It is not often that a foreword to a government agency report says that senior business leaders should face prison, but comments from the chairman of the Environment Agency about the country’s leading water and sewage companies are excoriating. Emma Howard Boyd describes their performance on pollution as “shocking” and says that the behaviour of company directors was “unacceptable”. Two firms’ records were judged to be “terrible”. Incidents of the worst sewage pollution have nearly tripled in a year.
在政府机构报告的前言中，说高级商业领袖应该面临牢狱之苦的情况并不多见，但环境署主席对英国领先的水务和污水处理公司的评论却措辞严厉。艾玛·霍华德·博伊德形容这些企业在污染治理方面的表现“令人震惊”，并表示公司管理层的行为“不可接受”。两家公司的记录被认为“糟糕”。最严重的污水污染事件在一年内增加了近两倍。
The environmental debate is focused almost exclusively on the big picture of reducing carbon emissions and reaching distant targets such as net zero. Individuals are chastised for not changing their behaviour in order to meet the latest demands of green extremists, while activists talk hysterically about a climate emergency yet have almost nothing practical to say about how one might be averted. They have similarly little to say about environmental problems that the public cares very much about, including the state of the country’s waterways.
环境辩论几乎完全集中在减少碳排放和实现净零排放等遥远目标的大局上。个人因为没有改变自己的行为以满足绿色极端分子的最新要求而受到惩罚，而活动人士则歇斯底里地谈论气候紧急情况，但对于如何避免气候紧急情况几乎没有任何实际的说法。对于公众非常关心的环境问题，包括英国的水道状况，他们却几乎没有什么可说的。
It is appalling that filth continues to be poured into rivers that are not only home to some of the country’s most distinctive wildlife, but which people should be entitled to enjoy. Last month, the chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty also intervened, saying that polluted rivers represented a serious threat to public health.
令人震惊的是，污水继续流入河流，这些河流不仅是英国一些最具特色的野生动物的家园，而且也是人们应该享受的地方。上个月，首席医疗官克里斯·惠蒂爵士也介入此事，称受污染的河流对公众健康构成了严重威胁。
Whether the answer is indeed prison sentences for executives held responsible is a matter of debate. However, it is now beyond obvious that the public will not accept a continuation of the status quo.
答案是否真的是判处负有责任的高管入狱，这是一个有待讨论的问题。然而，现在很明显，公众不会接受现状的延续。