Poor nations to bear brunt as world warms
The world’s richest countries, which have contributed by far the most to the atmospheric changes linked to global warming, are already spending billions of dollars to limit their own risks from its worst consequences, like drought and rising seas. But despite longstanding treaty commitments to help poor countries deal with warming, these industrial powers are spending just tens of millions of dollars on ways to limit climate and coastal hazards in the world’s most vulnerable regions-most of them close to the equator and overwhelmingly poor. Next Friday, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body that since 1990 has been assessing global warming, will underline this growing climate divide, according to scientists involved in writing it-with wealthy nations far from the equator not only experiencing fewer effects but also better able to withstand them. Two-thirds of the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that can persist in the air for centuries, has come in nearly equal proportions from the United States and Western European countries. Those and other wealthy nations are investing in windmill-powered plants that turn seawater to drinking water, in flood barriers and floatable homes, and in grains and soybeans genetically altered to flourish even in a drought. In contrast, Africa accounts for less than 3 percent of the global emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel burning since 1900, yet its 840 million people face some of the biggest risks from drought and disrupted water supplies, according to new scientific assessments. As the oceans swell with water from melting ice sheets, it is the crowded river deltas in southern Asia and Egypt, along with small island nations, that are most at risk. "Like the sinking of the Titanic, catastrophes are not democratic," said Henry I. Miller, a fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. "A much higher fraction of passengers from the cheaper decks were lost. We’ll see the same phenomenon with global warming." "The inequity of this whole situation is really enormous if you look at who’s responsible and who’s suffering as a result," said Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations climate panel. In its most recent report, in February, the panel said that decades of warming and rising seas were inevitable with the existing greenhouse-gas buildup, no matter what was done about cutting future greenhouse gas emissions. Many other experts insist this is not an either-or situation. They say that cutting the vulnerability of poor regions needs much more attention, but add that unless emissions are curbed, there will be centuries of warming and rising seas that will threaten ecosystems, water supplies, and resources from the poles to the equator, harming rich and poor. 考研詞匯： hazard[ˈhæzəd] n.危險，冒險，危害;v.冒險，拼命 vulnerable[ˈvʌlnərəbəl] a.易受攻擊的，易受......的攻擊 [真題例句] Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control.[2004年閱讀4] [例句精譯] 鼓勵孩子們放棄精神上的追求，會使他們極易被利用和控制。 alter[ˈɔ:ltə] v.改變，變更 [真題例句] Some, however, are less reasonable processes of different growth in which preconception of the form scientific theory ought to take, by persons in authority, act to alter the growth pattern of different areas.[1996年翻譯] [例句精譯] 然而，不同的發(fā)展過程中，有些不怎么合理--在這些發(fā)展過程中，一些權(quán)威人士對科學(xué)研究應(yīng)該采取的方式有偏見，從而改變了不同科學(xué)領(lǐng)域的發(fā)展模式。 disrupt[disˈrʌpt] v.使中斷，使分裂，使瓦解，使陷于混亂，破壞 democratic[ˌdeməˈkrætik] a.民主的 [真題例句] "All men are created equal." Weve heard it many times, but it still has important meaning for education in a democratic society.[1994年閱讀3] [例句精譯] "人人生來平等"這句話我們已聽過無數(shù)次，但它對民主社會的教育仍然有著極其重要的寓意。 inevitable[iˈnevitəbəl] a.不可避免的，必然發(fā)生的 [真題例句] A shame, perhaps, but probably an inevitable one.[2005年閱讀4] [例句精譯]真羞愧啊，但很可能已無法挽回。 背景常識介紹： 聯(lián)合國秘書長潘基文5日在全球部長級環(huán)境論壇年會上說，所有國家都將感受到氣候變化帶來的危害，"但非洲、一些發(fā)展中的小島國和其他地區(qū)的窮人，卻將承受最多危害，盡管他們對全球變暖應(yīng)負(fù)的責(zé)任最少"�！ � 參考譯文： 全球變暖，窮國遭殃 世界上一些最富裕的國家，顯然應(yīng)該對全球變暖所帶來的氣候變化承擔(dān)大部分責(zé)任，而他們現(xiàn)在正花費數(shù)十億美元來使自己免受氣候變化帶來的最嚴(yán)重后果的影響，如干旱和海平面升高。 盡管這些工業(yè)大國簽訂了長期的協(xié)約表示會全力幫助貧窮國家應(yīng)對全球變暖，他們卻僅僅花了數(shù)千萬美元以減少發(fā)生在世界上最無防御能力地區(qū)的氣候和海洋災(zāi)難，這些地區(qū)大部分靠近赤道并且極端貧困。 下個星期五，氣候變化政府間委員會將會發(fā)表一份新的報告。這個委員會從1990年開始一直從事全球變暖現(xiàn)象的評估工作。據(jù)參與寫作這份報告的科學(xué)家說，報告將強調(diào)日益成型的氣候格局，即那些遠(yuǎn)離赤道的富裕國家不僅很少遭受氣候變化帶來的災(zāi)難，而且能更好地防御這些災(zāi)難。 二氧化碳是一種防熱擴散的溫室氣體，能在空氣中停留幾百年。而大氣中三分之二的二氧化碳?xì)鈱樱瑤缀跻韵嗤谋壤齺碜杂?a target="_blank" class="infotextkey">美國和西歐國家。這些國家與其他的富國正投資興建能將海水轉(zhuǎn)化為飲用水的風(fēng)能工廠、防洪堤、可漂流房屋和經(jīng)過基因改良的谷物和大豆，它們即使在干旱中也能蓬勃生長。 與之對照的是，據(jù)新的科學(xué)評估，從1990年以來，非洲國家排放的二氧化碳不到全球燃料燃燒排放的二氧化碳?xì)怏w總量的3%，但是8.4億非洲人民卻要面對由干旱和供水混亂帶來的威脅。由于冰片融化，海洋水位增加，位于南亞和埃及的人口密集的河流三角洲以及一些小島國，面臨的危險最大。 亨利•米勒是斯坦福大學(xué)胡佛研究所的成員，他說："就像泰坦尼克號的沉沒一樣，災(zāi)難沒有民主可言，低價艙有更多的旅客都被淹沒了。在全球變暖這一問題上我們能看到同樣的現(xiàn)象。" 聯(lián)合國氣候小組的主席Rajendra K. Pachauri說："如果你看一下誰該為氣候變化負(fù)責(zé)任，誰在為之受苦，這種格局的不平等真的是很巨大的。"在二月份的最新報告中，聯(lián)合國氣候小組宣告，不管采取什么措施來減少未來溫室氣體的排放量，數(shù)十年的海洋升高變暖將不可避免，因為已經(jīng)有現(xiàn)今溫室氣體層的存在。 許多其他專家堅持說這不是一個二選一的情況。他們認(rèn)為減少貧窮地區(qū)的易受災(zāi)程度需要予以更多關(guān)注，并說如果溫室氣體的排放得不到控制，那么海洋將升高和變暖數(shù)百年，由此將會對生態(tài)系統(tǒng)、水供應(yīng)和從兩極到赤道的所有資源構(gòu)成威脅，從而危害所有國家�！� |
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