双语时事系列200:全球报纸号召应对气候变化

2009-12-17 00:00:00来源：网络

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双语时事:全球报纸号召应对气候变化

On the first day of the Copenhagen climate conference, 56 newspapers publishing in 20 languages in 45 countries publish an unprecedented joint editorial calling for meaningful action to face the threat posed by climate change.

在哥本哈根气候会议召开的第一天，56家报纸用20种语言在45个国家和地区发表了一份史无前例的联合社论，号召各国采取切实可行的措施面对气候变化所带来的威胁。

Newspapers Worldwide Call for Climate Change Action

It’s like the publishing version of one of those scenes from a sci-fi movie where an alien invasion impels traditional adversaries to join together to face their larger, common threat. Today 56 newspapers, in Pakistan and India, in Israel and Lebanon, in Tawian and China, in Greece and Turkey, in Africa and in North, South and Central America are publishing an unprecedented joint editorial calling for meaningful action to face the threat posed by climate change. The editorial, published in 45 countries in 20 different languages, appears on this first day of the Copenhagen climate conference.

The British paper the Guardian led the effort, which involved weeks of negotiations to reach a final version.The editorial notes that “the science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2 degrees C...a bigger rise of 3 to 4 degrees C would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based.”

The editorial recognized that “the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognized that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs and better quality lives. The flow of capital tells its own story: last year for the first time more was invested in renewable forms of energy than producing electricity from fossil fuels.”

So while gleeful anarchists like Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe go to Copenhagen to try to sabotage the proceedings, the worldwide array of newspapers attempts to remind the conference participants and the people they represent to keep their eye on the ball—the ball in this case being an oblate spheroid with almost seven billion human inhabitants and a fever that desperately needs to be treated. As the Guardian’s editor in chief, Alan Rusbridger, said, “Newspapers have never done anything like this before but they have never had to cover a story like this before.”

全球报纸号召应对气候变化

今天全球56家报纸发表了一份史无前例的联合社论，号召各国采取切实可行的措施以应对气候变化带来的威胁，这些报纸所在的国家和地区包括巴基斯坦和印度、以色列和黎巴嫩、台湾和中国，希腊和土耳其，还有非洲国家以及北美州、南美洲、中美洲的国家。这样的行动有些像科幻电影中描述的情景，即当外星人入侵的时候，从前的老冤家死对手此时被迫联合起来以便对付更大的共同威胁。在哥本哈根气候会议开幕的第一天，该社论在全球45个国家和地区以20种不同的语言发表。

英国的《卫报》（Guardian ）领导着此次活动，经过几个星期的磋商，最终形成了社论的终稿。该社论注意到“虽然有关气候变暖的科学很复杂，但是气候变暖是不争的事实。全球需要采取措施把气温升高限制在2摄氏度内……3到4摄氏度的气温升高将会使得一些大陆变得极为干旱，这将使原来的农田变为沙漠。一半的物种将会灭绝，成百上千万的人将会流离失所，有的国家会被大海全部淹没。英国研究者最近泄露的电子邮件引发了争论，这些邮件显示，他们想掩盖一些难以忽视的数据，虽然这起事件 ‘搅浑了水’，但是它丝毫不能削弱气候变暖的证据，而上述的预测就是基于这些证据。”

该社论指出，“向低碳社会转变会带来更多的机会，而不是牺牲。目前一些国家已经意识到，支持向低碳社会的转变能带来经济增长、增加就业，提高生活水平。资本的流动也显示了这种趋势：去年投资在可再生能源的资金首次超过了采用化石燃料生产电力的资金。”

因此，虽然来自奥克拉荷马州（Oklahoma）的无政府主义参议员James Inhofe兴高采烈地赶赴哥本哈根，以便阻碍此次大会的顺利召开，但是全球众多的报纸想提醒大会的参与者以及他们所代表的人民，他们需要紧盯住“球” ——这一次，这个“球”是一个几乎有70亿人居住的扁平球，而且它患有高烧，亟待治疗。正如《卫报》的主编Alan Rusbridger所说：“在此之前，报纸从没有做过类似的事情，但是在这之前，报纸也根本无需做这样的事。”

Vocabulary:

Unprecedented：史无前例的

Editorial：社论

Alien：外星人的

Invasion：入侵

Impel：迫使

Adversary: 对手；敌手

Negotiation: 谈判

Parch: 使（土地）极干燥

Extinct: （物种）已经灭绝的；绝种的

Displace: 迫使（人们）离开家园

Controversy: 争论