万花筒 2008-04-27&-4-28 植物油动力公车

Welcome to our home.
 
Home for this quartet of eco-activists is a bus. And it’s touring the country to spread a message of sustainability. They call their effort bio-tour.

 We are seeing a society that is not living sustainably, that is exploiting resources to the bare minimum. And we’re, you know, we can see it with the degradation¹ of our natural resources, with oil depletion², with anything out there.

 They’re taking their message to college students and anyone who will listen. The bus itself is an example of sustainability. It runs on bio-diesel and used vegetable oil. 

 Restaurant owners or managers are more than willing to donate it to us, 'cause often times they have to pay to get rid of it , 'cause it’s a waste product.

 Solar panels on the roof power rechargeable batteries.

 And we use the energy stored in those batteries to power laptop, computers, cell phones and various electronic appliances.

 Bio-tour plans to expand to a fleet of four buses this fall, coinciding with the presidential campaign.

 We want a society in which we can all live sustainable, that relies on renewable energies, and an active and participatory democracy. It’s a human problem, and as humans we can solve it.

 Rob Marciano, CNN.

1 degradation   

n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变

参考例句：

• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。
• Gambling is always coupled with degradation.赌博总是与堕落相联系。

2 depletion   

n.耗尽，枯竭

参考例句：

• Increased consumption of water has led to rapid depletion of groundwater reserves.用水量的增加导致了地下水贮备迅速枯竭。
• Farmers should rotate crops every season to prevent depletion of the soil.农夫每季应该要轮耕，以免耗尽土壤。