為什么談論氣候變化可能是你能做的最重要的事情

這就是為什么談論氣候變化可能是你能做的最重要的事情

Katharine Hayhoe often encounters people in the US and Canada who still regard climate change as an issue best left for the distant future.

凱瑟琳??；?Katharine Hayhoe)經常遇到美國和加拿大的一些人，他們仍然認為氣候變化最好留給遙遠的未來解決。

"That it affects future generations, not me, it affects others but not me, it affects people who live over there, but not me," she said. "And why is that dangerous? Because if it doesn't affect me, why do I care?"

她說:“它影響的是子孫后代，而不是我，它影響的是其他人，而不是我，它影響的是住在那里的人，而不是我。”“為什么這很危險?如果這對我沒有影響，我又何必在意呢?”

Hayhoe, a Canadian and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, said she found a different attitude among people in Alaska.

加拿大人、德州理工大學氣候科學中心主任?；?hayhoe)說，她發(fā)現阿拉斯加人的態(tài)度就不同。

"Alaskans can offer a master class in the indicators of a changing climate they've witnessed with their own eyes," she said on Twitter, following a speech to nearly 400 people at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

在阿拉斯加費爾班克斯大學(University of Alaska Fairbanks)對近400人發(fā)表演講后，她在Twitter上說:“阿拉斯加人可以開設一個碩士課程，學習他們親眼目睹的氣候變化指標。”

In an exchange that featured audience members responding with messages on their phones, she learned that occasional periods of rain in the winter and an increase in summer smoke from wildfires are high on the list of the most obvious climate changes in Fairbanks.

在一場觀眾用手機回復信息的交流中，她了解到，費爾班克斯最明顯的氣候變化是冬季偶爾下雨，和夏季森林大火產生的煙霧增加。

And those specifics, along with a dozen or so others that are familiar to Alaskans, are more important than any accumulation of facts and figures.

這些細節(jié)，以及阿拉斯加人所熟悉的其他一些細節(jié)，比任何事實和數據的積累都更為重要。

Listening to Hayhoe speak and interact with a variety of audiences as she did on her Alaska tour, it's easy to see why she is renowned as an expert in blending the science of climate research and the art of communication.

聽著?；舻难葜v，并像她在阿拉斯加之旅中那樣與各種各樣的觀眾互動，很容易就能看出她為什么以融合氣候研究科學和溝通藝術的專家而聞名。

She was the lead author of the fourth National Climate Assessment, the work of 13 agencies from the US government and 350 scientists.

她是第四次國家氣候評估的主要作者，該評估由美國政府的13個機構和350名科學家共同完成。

In a paper published last year, Hayhoe and a colleague wrote about the importance of the Arctic and how the disappearance of the sea ice could lead to massive development of fossil fuel resources, which would mean "the absolute and utter failure of the Paris Agreement."

在去年發(fā)表的一篇論文中，海霍和他的一位同事寫到了北極的重要性，以及海冰的消失將如何導致化石燃料資源的大規(guī)模開發(fā)，這將意味著“《巴黎協定》的徹底失敗”。

The Arctic is really a key to the future, she said.

她說，北極確實是未來的關鍵。

The changes in people's lives and in the natural environment, which have become obvious in the Arctic, can open the way for an understanding that surpasses the statistics about temperature records, melting sea ice and vanishing permafrost.

人類生活和自然環(huán)境的變化在北極已經變得很明顯，這可以為理解超過溫度記錄、海冰融化和永凍層消失等統計數據的數據開辟道路。

As she wrote in an essay in April, "Climate has never changed this fast and, because of that, we've become complacent. We've delineated outdated flood zones based on how rain used to fall; we've parceled out and over-allocated our arable land and water resources; and we've built nearly two thirds of the world's biggest cities within just a meter or so of sea level, which today is rising at nearly twice the rate of only 25 years ago."

正如她在四月份的一篇文章中所寫，“氣候從來沒有這么快改變過，正因為如此，我們變得自滿。我們根據過去降雨的情況劃定了過時的洪水區(qū);我們把可耕地和水資源進行了分拆和過度配置;我們在海平面一米左右的范圍內建造了近三分之二的世界最大城市，而現在的海平面上升速度幾乎是25年前的兩倍。”