沒有影響氣候卻要深受其害

石家莊市現(xiàn)代城小學賈海霞

沒有影響氣候卻要深受其害

石家莊市現(xiàn)代城小學賈海霞

Climate Change Most Affects Nations That Didn't Produce It

“Less than 4 percent of countries are responsible for over half of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.”Glenn Althor,of the University of Queensland.This means that the majority of countries are unfairly bearing the burden of a problem that they did not create.Clearly,this isn't fair by any definition.

It's much like a non-smoker being trapped in a room and getting cancer from second hand smoke while a heavy smoker continues to puff away in good health.”

Althor and colleagues at the University of Queensland and the Wildlife Conservation Society have just published a study analyzing the contributions to climate change by the world's nations versus the effect that climate change will have on those countries.

“We found that developed nations,such as Australia,the United States,Canada and Russia,are essentially climate free riders,driving the problem of climate change while incurring relatively few of the costs,such as devastating flood,increased extreme weather and rising sea levels.”Meanwhile,the most vulnerable countries,many of which are in Africa or are small island states,produce few greenhouse gas emissions.The study is in the Nature publication Scientific Reports.

While it's important that this issue is defined by scientists,it needs to be acted on by global leaders.The Paris Climate Agreement,finalized in December last year,was widely seen as a positive step forward in addressing climate change. However,there must be an urgent and meaningful mobilization of the policies outlined in the Paris Agreement if we're to help the most vulnerable countries adapt to climate change while achieving global emissions reductions.”

“世界上超過一半的溫室氣體是由全球不到4%的國家排放的。然而很不公平的是，大部分國家卻都在為這個并不是自己制造出來的問題承擔著壓力。”昆士蘭大學的格林·阿特爾說道。

這顯然是不公平的。這就好像一個長期被困在房間里，不停吸二手煙的、不抽煙的人患了癌癥，癮君子卻依然身體健康，吞云吐霧。

昆士蘭大學的阿特爾及他的同事們進行了一項研究，他們分析了使全球氣候變化的這些國家，對氣候變化做出的貢獻及對這些國家造成的影響。結果發(fā)現(xiàn)，像澳大利亞、美國、加拿大及俄羅斯等發(fā)達國家雖然是氣候變化的“始作俑者”，但相對來說卻很少造成毀滅性洪澇災害、極端天氣及水平面上升等嚴重后果。許多非洲國家或是一些島國幾乎不排放溫室氣體。這項研究已經(jīng)在《自然》雜志上發(fā)表。

盡管這個問題非常重要，但需要全球各國的領導者采取行動。針對氣候變化這一問題，2015年12月簽署的《巴黎氣候協(xié)議》為改善環(huán)境邁出了重要而又積極的一步。然而，如果我們想在減少全球溫室氣體排放量的同時幫助世界上易受氣候變化影響的國家適應氣候變化，就必須立即、切實遵循協(xié)議中的各項政策。

Notes:

1.greenhouse：n.溫室

2.emission：n.（光、熱等的）發(fā)射，散發(fā)；噴射

3.burden:n.負擔；責任vt.使負擔；煩擾

4.incur:vt.招致，引發(fā)；蒙受

5.devastating:adj.毀滅性的；全然的

6.extreme:adj.極端的；極度的

7.vulnerable:adj.易受攻擊的；易受傷害的。