It is unrealistic to expect individual nations to make,independently, the sacrifices necessary to conserve rnational leadership and worldwide cooperation are essential if weexpect to protect the worlds energy resources for future generations.
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with theopinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examplesfrom your own experience, observations, or reading.
指望單個國家獨立地做出必要的犧牲來保存能源是不現實的.。如果我們希望為下一代保護世界的能源資源，國際領導力量和全球性的公司是基本的。
Thespeaker asserts that an international effort is needed to preserve theworlds energy resources for future generations. While individualnations, like people, are at times willing to make voluntary sacrificesfor the benefit of others, my view is that international coordinationis nevertheless necessary in light of the strong propensity of nationsto act selfishly, and because the problem is international in scope.
Themain reason why an international effort is necessary is that, left totheir own devices, individual nations, like people, will act accordingto their short-term motives and self-interest. The mere existence ofmilitary weapons indicates that self-interest and national survival areevery nations prime drivers. And excessive consumption byindustrialized nations of natural resources they know to be finite,when alternatives are at hand demonstrates that self-interest andshort-sightedness extend to the use of energy resources as hermore, nations, like people, tend to rationalize their ownself-serving policies and actions. Emerging nations might argue, forexample, that they should be exempt from energy conservation because itis the industrialized nations who can better afford to make sacrificesand who use more resources in the first place.