Reports: World Is ‘Off Track’ in Fighting Climate Change

Reports: World Is ‘Off Track’ in Fighting Climate Change

报道：世界在应对气候变化方面“偏离了轨道”

【原文听力】

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　　By Dan Friedell

　　28 November 2023

　　Three recent reports say the world is failing in its fight to slow climate change.

　　The medical publication The Lancet released its yearly report called The Countdown. The study measures human health in connection with climate change. The 2023 report says more people are dying due to heat waves than in the past. It says the numbers will rise sharply as temperatures continue to rise.

　　Researchers also released another report called State of Climate Action. Several groups took part in producing the report including the World Resources Institute, Climate Action Tracker, and the Bezos Earth Fund. The report says the world is failing in 41 of 42 important climate measurements. It said six indicators show the world is heading the wrong way – noting the way some governments are still helping fund the use of fossil fuels.

　　And the U.S. government recently produced a 2,200 page National Climate Assessment that looked at how warming is harming America.

　　The Lancet's report noted that deaths due to heat among people 65 or older were 85 percent higher in the last 10 years than from 1991 to 2000. There were 23,200 heat deaths of older people in 2022, the report found.

　　A computer program showed that the numbers would be much lower if the Earth had not warmed to its current levels.

　　"We are already seeing climate change claiming lives and livelihoods in every part of the world," said Countdown chief, Marina Romanello. But, the effects reported today could be, in her words, "an early symptom of a very dangerous future."

　　Romanello said that people also are increasingly reporting hunger because of drought and heat waves.

　　Dr. Jonathan Patz is the former director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin and was not part of the study. He praised the study as the most thorough yearly scientific examination of climate change and health. Patz called its findings "stark."

　　Paul Elkins is an economics professor at University College of London. He worked on The Lancet report. He said the harms produced by the fossil fuel industry are "extremely relevant." He said its pollution is "killing people and making them ill."

　　The report also directly criticizes banks that loan money to the industry. It compared the fossil fuel business to the tobacco industry.

　　The Countdown names 68 countries that it says gave more than $300 billion combined in assistance to companies that produced fossil fuels in 2020.

　　The State of Climate Action report also discusses such financial support. It described the business aid as one of six main signs that the world is going in the wrong direction on climate change.

　　Joe Thwaites is an expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council and one of the writers of the State of Climate Action. Thwaites said fossil fuel industry aid "reached an all-time high last year, over $1 trillion, driven by the war in Ukraine and the resulting energy price spikes."

　　Kelly Levin is with the Bezos Earth Fund. She said the financial aid for fossil fuels is an indicator that recently changed. That means, until recently, there was less financial aid available to pay for fossil fuels.

　　The State of Climate Action report noted five other areas where the world's progress has reversed: the high energy cost of making steel, the fuel efficiency of passenger cars, the sale of electric buses, the loss of mangrove forests and the amount of food waste.

　　The only improving measurement is that sales of electric vehicles are rising around the world.

　　Levin said the time for "tinkering" is over and instead asked for "radical decarbonization."

　　Levin's report went on to show all of the many changes that are needed to prevent a global temperature rise that many nations agreed to in Paris in 2015.

　　Justin Mankin is a climate scientist at Dartmouth College who was not involved in the reports. He said the first step in making changes should be "low-hanging fruit." That means countries should work together to make the easiest changes. He noted, however, that the reports show "we're really struggling to pick the low-hanging fruit."

　　I'm Dan Friedell.

　　Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on a report by the Associated Press.

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　　由丹·弗里德尔撰写

　　2023年11月28日

　　最近的三份报告称，世界在努力减缓气候变化的过程中失败了。

　　医学刊物《柳叶刀》发布了其年度报告《倒计时》。这项研究衡量了人类健康与气候变化的关系。2023年的报告称，由于热浪，死亡的人数比过去更多。报告称，随着温度的持续升高，这个数字将急剧上升。

　　研究人员还发布了另一份名为《气候行动状况》的报告。包括世界资源研究所、气候行动追踪器和贝索斯地球基金会在内的几个团体参与了该报告的制作。报告称，世界在42个重要的气候测量中的41个方面都失败了。报告指出，有六个指标显示世界正在朝错误的方向前进——注意到一些政府仍在帮助资助使用化石燃料。

　　美国政府最近发布了一份2200页的《国家气候评估》报告，研究了全球变暖如何对美国造成伤害。

　　《柳叶刀》的报告指出，过去10年中，65岁或以上人群因热浪死亡的数量比1991年至2000年高出85%。报告发现，2022年有23,200名老年人死于热浪。

　　一款计算机程序显示，如果地球没有升温到现在的水平，这个数字会低得多。

　　《倒计时》的负责人马丽娜·罗曼内洛说：“我们已经看到气候变化在世界各地夺去生命和生计。”但是，她说，今天报告的影响可能是“一个非常危险的未来的早期症状”。

　　罗曼内洛表示，由于干旱和热浪，人们报告的饥饿情况也在不断增加。

　　乔纳森·帕茨博士是威斯康星大学全球健康研究所的前任主任，他并未参与这项研究。他称赞这项研究是对气候变化和健康最全面的年度科学检查。帕茨称其发现“骇人”。

　　保罗·埃尔金斯是伦敦大学学院的经济学教授。他参与了《柳叶刀》的报告。他说，化石燃料行业造成的伤害“极其相关”。他说，其污染“正在杀死人们，使他们生病”。

　　报告还直接批评向该行业贷款的银行。它将化石燃料业务与烟草行业进行了比较。

　　《倒计时》报告指出，2020年有68个国家向化石燃料生产公司提供了总计超过3000亿美元的援助。

　　《气候行动状况》报告也讨论了这种财政支持。它将商业援助描述为世界在气候变化问题上走错方向的六个主要迹象之一。

　　乔·斯韦特斯是自然资源保护委员会的专家，也是《气候行动状况》的作者之一。斯韦特斯说，化石燃料行业的援助“在去年达到了历史最高水平，超过1万亿美元，这主要是由于乌克兰战争和随之而来的能源价格飙升。”

　　凯利·莱文是贝索斯地球基金的成员。她说，对化石燃料的财政援助是一个最近发生变化的指标。这意味着，直到最近，用于支付化石燃料的财政援助较少。

　　行《气候动状况》报告指出了世界进步逆转的其他五个领域：制造钢铁的高能耗，乘用车的燃油效率，电动公交车的销售，红树林的损失以及食物浪费的数量。

　　唯一改善的测量是全球的电动车销售正在增加。

　　莱文表示，“修修补补”的时代已经过去，现在需要的是“激进的脱碳”。

　　莱文的报告接着展示了为防止全球温度上升，许多国家在2015年在巴黎达成的所有必要的改变。

　　贾斯汀·曼金是达特茅斯学院的一名气候科学家，他并未参与这些报告的编写。他表示，进行改变的第一步应该是“低垂的果实”。这意味着各国应该共同努力进行最容易的改变。然而，他指出，这些报告显示“我们真的很难采摘低垂的果实”。

　　我是丹·弗里德尔。

　　丹·弗里德尔根据美联社的一份报告为英语学习改编了这个故事。

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　　这个故事中的词汇：

　　drought –n. 一种由长时间无雨引起的环境条件。

　　indicator –n. 提供关于更大关注主题的信息的一部分。

　　fossil fuels –n. 地球内由死亡的植物或动物形成的燃料（如煤、石油或天然气）。

　　stark –adj. 令人不愉快且难以接受的经历。

　　relevant –adj. 与更大的关注点有关且重要的信息。

　　spike –n.价格或成本的急剧上升。

　　tinker –v.逐渐工作在某件事上。

　　radical –adj. 完成工作的严肃或极端的想法或路径。