[彭蒙惠英语] 垃圾藏金(1)
There's Gold in the Garbage (1/2)
A single ton of junked PCs has more gold than 17 tons of ore. That's why landfills might just might-pay for their own cleanup
Cyle Young bought a house last spring in Springfield, Ohio. When Young drove by just two days after buying the property, the aluminum siding was gone. A band of thieves had descended on the vacant house. Soon afterward, the robbers had the never to come back once more and rip out all the copper.
Young was just one of dozens of victims in a wave of heists in western Ohio. The perpetrators'posed as construction workers when they removed the metals from houses, apartment buildings, and even churches.
What's going on?
In this interconnected global economy, a crime wave in Ohio might be explained by construction booms in China and India. China is already the world's biggest consumer of aluminum, copper, iron and steel. Its hunger for materials to erect its big new cities has caused the market rates for metals to skyrocket toward historic highs.
Aluminum, lead, silver and platinum prices have all doubled in the past three years. Copper and zinc prices have tripled. Gold touched $730 an ounce, its loftiest price in a quarter-century. All of this means that oil isn't the only vital natural resource in fierce demand. If you're already losing sleep about the "peak oil" problem, it's time to worry about "peak metals," too.
Alternative source
But there is good news to the looming metals crisis. We could treat landfills as though they were mines-and dig up the valuable metals buried in them.
There's plenty to dig for. North American Landfills contain more aluminum than we can produce by mining ores. The same is probably true of gold and copper, which are used in the circuit boards of computers and electronic gadgets. One ton of discarded PCs contains more gold than can be produced from 17 tons of gold ore-and humans throw away 20 million tons of electronic waste a year.
Vocabulary Focus
heist (n)--- a crime in which valuable items are stolen
skyrocket (v)--- to rise extremely quickly
looming (adj)--- to appear as a large, often frightening object
Specialized Terms
ore (n)--- 矿 rock or soil from which metal can be obtained
landfill (n)--- 垃圾掩埋场 an area where large amounts of garbage are buried
aluminum siding (n phr)--- 铝制壁板 a light, silver-colored metal used as a protective covering on the outer walls of buildings
