双语新闻：美国应带头推动碳排放交易市场

2014-05-14 10:53:07来源：可可英语

　　Whether you are suffering from another hosepipe ban in Nevada, or hitting deeper potholes in Chicago, global warming is affecting millions of Americans.

　　无论是因内华达州再次出台的软管禁令(hosepipe ban，指禁止在水龙头上接橡胶软管为花园浇水、灌游泳池等——译者注)而倍感不便，还是在芝加哥街头撞上某个比往常更深的地陷坑，数百万美国人都体会到了全球变暖的影响。

双语新闻：美国应带头推动碳排放交易市场

　　Evidence of its impact is steadily mounting – as is the US public’s awareness. Yet the will to take tough decisions is missing. Next month President Barack Obama’s administration will issue regulations to curb carbon emissions from US power plants. With Congress out of the picture, executive action is better than nothing. Yet unless the US can show it is serious about putting a price on carbon, it will have little chance of bringing the rest of the world along. The deadline is next year’s climate change summit in Paris. It is vital the US shores up its credentials before then.

　　显示全球变暖影响的证据还在不断累积，美国公众对这个问题的认知也在不断加深。不过，依然没有谁愿意来做出艰难的决定。巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)政府下月将推出限制美国电厂碳排放的规定。在国会(Congress)缺席的情况下，行政部门能采取一些行动聊胜于无。然而，除非美国能证明自己对碳排放定价是认真的，否则美国几乎不可能带动世界其他地区效仿。最后期限是明年的巴黎气候变化峰会。美国赶在那个期限之前建立信誉至关重要。

　　The developing world will undoubtedly suffer a bigger fallout from global warming than most of the west. Countries such as Bangladesh confront the spectre of submergence while China, India and others are directly threatened by the retreat of the Himalayan glaciers. With or without US leadership, it is in their interests to take action.

　　全球变暖让发展中世界受到的影响，无疑比大部分西方世界受到的影响更大。孟加拉等国笼罩在被淹没的恐惧中，而中国、印度等国则直接受到喜马拉雅山冰川消融的威胁。无论有没有美国的领导，采取行动应对这一问题都符合这些国家的利益。

　　Yet this week’s US climate change report underlines the growing price Americans are paying at home. The report shows that average US temperatures have risen by almost 2 degrees centigrade since 1895 with most of it taking place over the past four decades. The incidence of drought, big hurricanes and unusually heavy rainfall has soared.

　　然而本周美国的气候变化报告凸显出，这一问题让美国人在本土付出的代价也越来越高了。报告显示，自1895年至今，美国的平均气温上升了近两摄氏度，其中大部分升幅发生在过去40年中。旱灾、飓风以及反常暴雨的发生频率也大大增加。

　　So too has the price of dealing with the consequences. It cost more than $60bn to clean up after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 – a storm that nearly submerged large tracts of New York City. Now the US is spending billions more to upgrade its tidal barriers. Meanwhile, the cost of water in the drought-prone southwest keeps rising.

　　救灾成本也大幅上涨。2012年的桑迪飓风(Hurricane Sandy)过后，清理成本超过了600亿美元。那场飓风让纽约市许多地区几乎被淹没了。如今美国正拿出数十亿美元来加固防浪堤。与此同时，在容易发生旱灾的美国西南部，水的成本不断上涨。

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