Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has compared the challenge of fighting climate change to her own struggle to lose weight.

Speaking to State Department staff on Earth Day, Mrs Clinton said more must be done to reduce the department's environmental footprint and conceded this was a big challenge, much like one of her personal battles.

"Often times when you face such an overwhelming challenge as global climate change, it can be somewhat daunting¹ - it's kind of like trying to lose weight, which I know something about," she said to laughter.

"You think, oh I only have to lose X numbers of pounds but it seems like such a far away goal," she added.

"It's kind of like world peace and so therefore why even try? Well, because we are called to try. That's who we are as human beings and that's especially how we think of ourselves as Americans."

Later, Mrs Clinton defended the right to abortion² and the Obama administration's decision to finance family planning overseas.

"I've been in hospitals in Brazil where half the women were enthusiastically and joyfully³ greeting new babies and the other half were fighting for their lives against botched abortions," she told Congress.

"I've been in African countries where 12 and 13-year-old girls are bearing children. I have been in Asian countries where the denial of family planning consigns⁴ women to lives of oppression and hardship.

"It is my strongly held view that you are entitled to advocate and everyone who agrees with you should be free to do so anywhere in the world, and so are we."

美国国务卿希拉里•克林顿日前在一次讲话中将应对气候变化的挑战比作她自己减肥所经历的考验。

希拉里在世界地球日当天对国会工作人员发表讲话时称，为减少国会的“碳足迹”，还需要做出更多的努力，并称这是一个很大的挑战，跟她个人的减肥战斗差不多。

希拉里说：“很多时候，当你面对全球气候变化这样一个艰巨的挑战时，多少会心生胆怯——这有点像减肥，对此我深有体会。”听众们闻后发出阵阵笑声。

“你会想，哦，我只需减掉几磅就可以了，但却似乎是个非常遥远的目标。”

“这有点类似世界和平，那么为什么还要去尝试呢？因为我们必须去尝试。这就是我们作为人类所应该做的，这就是我们作为美国人应该做的。”

之后，希拉里对堕胎权以及奥巴马政府发布的允许资助海外计划生育的决策进行辩护。

她说：“我曾在巴西的医院看到有一些女人为她们新出生的孩子开心地庆祝，而另有一些女人则因拙劣的堕胎手术挣扎在生死边缘。”

“我曾在非洲国家看到十二三岁的女孩怀上孩子。我曾在亚洲国家看到不允许计划生育使妇女陷入压抑与痛苦。”

“我强烈认为，你们有权倡导这一理念，每个与你们持有相同观点的人在世界的各个地方都有权这么做，我们也一样。”