squabble 復習

フランスで開かれていた地球温暖化対策の国連の会議、COP21は発展途上国を含むすべての国が強調して温室効果ガスの削減に取り組む新たな国際的な枠組み「パリ協定」を採択し、閉幕しました。

Climate Accord Is a Healing Step, if Not a Cure

LE BOURGET, France — After the stomping and cheering died down, and the hugs and toasts ended, a question hung in the air as the climate conference came to a close: What does the new deal really mean for the future of the Earth?

Scientists who closely monitored the talks here said it was not the agreement that humanity really needed. By itself, it will not save the planet.

《中略》

And yet, the tighter targets do throw the seriousness of the situation into sharp relief. Experts hope that, by highlighting the gulf between humanity’s stated goals and its plans to achieve them, the Paris deal will launch a more intensive push to figure out how it might actually be done.

“We lost a lot of time squabbling over the science,” Dr. Field said. “We lost a lot of time that could have been used trying out innovative solutions. Now, we have a lot of experimentation still to do.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/science/earth/climate-accord-is-a-healing-step-if-not-a-cure.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

今回取り上げる表現は “squabble”です。『ジーニアス英和辞典第4版（大修館書店）』では「〔…と/…間で/…のことで〕言い合う」とありました。LDOCEでは “to argue about something unimportant”と定義づけられています。『ジーニアス大英和辞典（大修館書店）』では語源不詳と表記されていましたが、スウェーデン語方言skvabble (口論)からからきている説があるようです。（Inaho）