Debate: Topic and Outline
毎月行われているYYクラブのディスカッションの概要（英訳と日本語訳あり）
昨年秋（11月頃までに）日本では季節外れの台風に数回襲われました、しかも、通常、九州や四国が直撃される所が、関東地方や長野を襲って行きました。このため、これらの地域は隙を突かれた様に、被害が大きくなっていました。これらは地球温暖化現象（気候変動）の一つでしょう。今年は東京オリンピックの、しかも8月開催という。暑さ対策ばかりが騒がれるが、将に、台風シーズンであり、これらの被害が出なければよいと祈りたい所です。
また、最近、世界のマスコミを賑わしている報道で、トランプ大統領と16才の少女とがマドリッドでのCOP25会議や、ダボスでの経済閣僚会議でプレゼンし、相手を非難しあったことである。この少女とはスウェーデン生れの環境問題の活動家・グレタ・トウンベリである。彼女を紹介するには多くのページを割かなければならないのでここでは止める。大切な事は、彼女の行動は、若い人たちに環境問題への関心と勇気を与えたことである。この項では、地球温暖化問題とCOP25や国連の活動の対応を以下に紹介することとする。
いつもの様に Akiko と Benjamin 二人の会話形式で内容を紹介します。
Last year, some typhoons hit Japan through summer to November. Typhoon usually passes to Kyushu and Shikoku, but the last ones hit on Kanto area and Nagano prefecture. These areas got serious damage. It can be argued that this may be caused by the global warming. Tokyo Olympics is going to be held this August, which is in typhoon season and it is concerned that there will be damage on the Olympics.
Also, the news about the verbal battle between President Trump and a 17-year-old girl has been reported repeatedly. The 17-year-old girl has argued that there have been no significant improvements made towards environmental issues, however President Trump replied that he is making efforts to increase forests. This girl is, needless to say, Greta Thunberg, the environmentalist from Sweden. As many pages are required to describe her life and activity, I would like to keep her description brief. What is important is her action has been motivating young generations to have interests for environmental issues. As always, we would have Akiko (A) and Benjamin (B) discuss about the global warming issues and COP 25 and United Nation’s actions towards the issues.
A: Last year, even in November, the typhoon 15th and the 19th of the year hit Kanto area in row in short terms. What kind of damage did Kanto area suffer?
B: By the typhoon 15th, polls that suspended wall net of a golf training center were blown down and they crush down neighboring houses’ roofs. Moreover, as the typhoon 19th came right after the 15th passed, the residents got more serious damage. But it is one consolation to think that none of them got injured or died. The typhoons also blew steel tower of the power lane, and there was power failure for one month.
A: Why did it take so long to repair the power lane?
B: That’s because the steel towers got bent or broken down by the wind. Those are much harder cases to repair than just to repair snapped electric cables.
A: There must have been great damage by such a long-term power failure.
B: For example, there was a black out at the hospital. Hospitals which didn’t have emergency power source couldn’t keep running artificial dialyzer so patients there had to move to other hospitals. Another example is that, in Nagano prefecture, A railway yard of Hokuriku Shinkansen got flooded and more than ten vehicles were spoiled. The total financial damage was about 30 billion Yen.
A: I’ve heard wild fires are occurring because of the global warming in other countries. How are they?
B: In Brazil, there were wild fire in the rain forest in 2017 and recently, Los Angeles experienced the huge wild fire and it even nearly damaged Beverly Hills.
A: Also, fire in Australia is reported recently. How terrible is it?
B: 173 people died only in South Wales State and thousands of animals in forests like koalas died. Also, the citizens and firefighters have passed away. The fire is still burning and it is said that it will take several more months to extinguish the fire.
A: These fires can bring not only human, biological and material damage but also more global warming tendency. What Australia government has been doing till now, the fire gets such huge?
B: The initial response was not good. The prime minister was on vacation when the fire rose and he was in Hawaii then. He cut the vacation immediately and turn back to Australia soon, but it was too late. He got criticized about that.
A: The minister of Chiba prefecture was in the similar case. He got criticized about his absence when the typhoon 15th hit.
B: He should be criticized! The prime minister of Australia also explained that Australia’s carbon dioxide emission was only 1 to 3 percent. This shows that he is not as interested in solving climate issues.
A: The 17-year-old girl criticized the COP25 that it has been active for more than 10 years but has failed to make significant effort.
B: The United States is the second country in gas emission, but it decided to withdrawal from the COP conference. What are they thinking? Environmental issues cannot be resolved by America first. And criticizing a statement made by a girl is immature.
A: I understand the criticism against the United States, but how about Japan? Since the 2011 earthquake, the nuclear power plant was becoming unacceptable and there were no plans regarding to decrease of gas emissions. The citizens of Japan believe that this situation cannot be helped and is in silence.
B: Recently in the Davos meeting, the environmental minister Shinjiro Koizumi made a speech. But at the same time Japan received the fossil fuel award, this is not something Japan should be proud of.
A: What was the speech about?
B: Regarding the fossil fuel the EU is attempting to abolish it, but the minister stated that Japan will continue to use fossil fuel. As expected, Japan received a lot of criticism. The minister is known for being anti-nuclear power plants.
A: We should not dislike nuclear power but also look at the long term.
B: This topic is important, and we should not use up all our money after we have damages from typhoons and floods.
-Written by Chiba and Translated by Kaizuka.
