facing the conequencesfacing the consequences.docVIP

Facing the consequences 面对后果 Global action is not going to stop climate change. The world needs to look harder at how to live with it 全球采取的行动无法阻止气候变化；世界各国需要认真考虑任何如何同气候变化共生存 ON NOVEMBER 29th representatives of countries from around the world will gather in Cancún, Mexico, for the first high-level climate talks since those in Copenhagen last December. The organisers hope the meeting in Mexico, unlike the one in Denmark, will be unshowy but solid, leading to decisions about finance, forestry and technology transfer that will leave the world better placed to do something about global warming. Incremental progress is possible, but continued deadlock is likelier. What is out of reach, as at Copenhagen, is agreement on a plausible programme for keeping climate change in check. 11月29日，世界各国政府代表将汇聚墨西哥的坎昆，参加自去年12月哥本哈根气候会议以来的首次高层气候变化谈判。组织者希望，这次在墨西哥举行的会议不同于在丹麦的那次会议，不招摇过市，却严肃认真，在金融，林业和技术转让方面作出决定，为解决全球变暖搭建一个更好的世界平台。逐渐的进步可能实现，但是，持续的僵局更有可能。在哥本哈根会议上，各国领导未能就阻止气候变化达成一个可行的办法。 The world warmed by about 0.7°C in the 20th century. Every year in this century has been warmer than all but one in the last (1998, since you ask). If carbon-dioxide levels were magically to stabilise where they are now (almost 390 parts per million, 40% more than before the industrial revolution) the world would probably warm by a further half a degree or so as the ocean, which is slow to change its temperature, caught up. But CO2 levels continue to rise. Despite 20 years of climate negotiation, the world is still on an emissions trajectory that fits pretty easily into the “business as usual” scenarios drawn up by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 20世纪，全球温度上升了0.7度。除了有一年的温度以外（既然你问了，是1998年），本世纪每年的温度都比上世纪的温度要高。如果二氧化碳水平被奇迹般地稳定在现在的浓度（大概390ppm，比工业革命以前高出40%），由于海平面上涨（海水温度变化较慢）全球温度也许会再升高0.5度。但是，二氧化碳浓度在一直增加。尽管气候谈判已经进行了20年，世界仍然在排放温室气体，同政府间气候变化专门委员会起草的“一切正常”的方案非常相适应。 The Copenhagen accord, a non-binding document which was the best that could be salvaged from the summit, talks of trying to ke