A new report produces an odd mixture of alarm and apathy
对这一报道，有的人乐观，有的人悲观。
FOR decades scientists have warned that rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases from the burning off ossil fuels risk adversely affecting the climate, increasing ocean acidity, the frequency of freak weather and other symptoms of planetary ill-health. But it seemed that keeping the temperature within 2°C of pre-industrial levels, although disruptive, would probably leave Earth in a chronic but stable condition.
数十年来，科学家警告大家要多关心燃烧矿物燃料产生的温室气体造成的大气问题，温室气体对气候有害，使海洋酸度升高，异常天气增多和其他一些星球亚健康症状。但似乎保持在以前工业水平2度以内的温度，尽管有破坏性，但也可能让地球处于 长期但稳定的状态。
A report unveiled this week from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN-backed body that musters the science needed to inform policy, shows how optimistic that was. The survey was commissioned in 2015 by the then 195 signatories of the Paris climate agreement—which commits them to keep warming “well below”2°C and to “pursue efforts towards 1.5°C”. The effects and technical feasibility of keeping warming within this tighter limit were the report’s focus. How it was put together, the message it contains and there action it elicited all matter.
本周联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会发布的报告展示了情况是多么乐观，IPCC是联合国支持的组织，负责收集需要通知政策的科学知识。2015年开始此项调查研究，从那开始巴黎协定有195个签署国，要求他们很好地控制在2度以下，最好朝1.5度的目标努力。这项报告的目标是让温度控制在更小的限制内的影响和技术可行性。怎样将包含的信息和所引发事件的反应融合在一起。
A question of degree First, the way it was assembled. Although the report presents no new science of its own, its survey of more than 6,000 studies is meticulous. With every passing year scientists amass more data about how the climate has already changed. And, as many people battered in Florida this week by Hurricane Michael will attest, it is changing faster than anyone foresaw even two decades ago. This new knowledge, together with improved understanding of the complex climate system, makes projections like those the IPCC has compiled more compelling. Uncertainties remain; individual research contained within the report may yet be challenged. But instudy after study, page after page, fact after fact, the evidence for anthropogenic climate change, long clear, is harder than ever to ignore.
首先是报告收集的方式，尽管报告没提出新的科学知识，但是报告中6000多份的研究调查是非常细致的。每年科学家积累更多气候如何改变的数据。本周由于迈克尔飓风，佛罗里达许多人受难，表明气候比在20年前任何人预测的改变的都要更快。新知识和对复杂气候系统的更好的理解，做出了像ipcc编写的更扣人心弦的那些预测一样的预测。保留不确定性，报告中某个调查或许会受到质疑。但是研究后的研究和事实，表明人为气候变化在长远是很清楚地比以前忽视的要更严重。
The report’s message is also beyond doubt: the extra half a degree makes a big difference. Arctic summers could beice-free once a decade in a two-degree world, but once a century in a one-and-a-half-degree one. Virtually all the ocean’s coral might be irreversibly wiped out in a two-degree world, rather than 70-90% if temperatures rise by less. Sea levels may rise an extra 10cm, washing away the livelihoods of millions more people. Permitting arise of two degrees could also see an extra 420m people exposed to record heat. The 2°C target has been baked into climate policy for years—the number was first put forward by William Nordhaus, who shared the Nobel economics prizethis week. It is too lax.
报告中的信息也毫无疑问：少的半度影响很不同。一旦在高2度的世界中10年北极的夏天冰雪可能会消融，而在1.5度世界里需要一个世纪的时间。事实上如果温度升高少一些，海洋中的珊瑚会消失70-90%，而升高2度所有的珊瑚都会不可逆转的消失。海平面或许升高10cm，摧毁数百万人的家园。允许升高2度，将会有4.2亿人遭受高温。2度的目标写入气候政策很多年了，此数值是威廉首次提出的，他在本周获得了诺贝尔经济学奖。2度的目标太宽松了。
Hitting either target would entail transforming economies at a breakneck pace. To achieve 1.5°C, the world would by 2050 need to eliminate all 42bn tonnes of carbon-dioxide in annual emissions. Renewables, including hydropower, would have at least to treble their share of electricity generation from today’s 25%. Internal-combustion engines, which power 499 out of 500 cars on the road today, would have to all but vanish. Progress is being made. The number of electric cars on the road is rising fast; green finance is gathering momentum; zero-carbon technologies are being developed. But the scale of the effort required is unprecedented.
达成这俩个目标的任何一个，都需要快速的改变经济。达到1.5度的目标，到2050年世界每年需要减少420亿吨二氧化碳的排放量。包括水利等可持续能源在能源生产的比例至少要是如今的25%的三倍。在现在500辆车中有499辆车都使用的内燃机将几乎要消失。我们正取得进步，电动汽车正快速增多，绿色经济势头正盛，零碳技术正在发展。但需要努力的范围是空前巨大的。
That is why reaction to the IPCC’s report matters. Some European Union environment ministers want to adopt 1.5°Cas a guide to policy before a UN summit in Poland in December. Their Australian counterpart called it “irresponsible” to phase out coal by 2050. Donald Trump, who plans to withdraw America from the Paris deal, has not read it. A mix of alarm and apathy has both galvanised efforts to secure a 2°C future, and also bedevilled them. A target of 1.5°C is no more likely to be met, but may nonetheless encourage the world to try harder.
这是为什么对ipcc的报告反应是如此重要的原因。在12月份波兰联合国峰会前，一些欧盟环境部部长想采取1.5度作为指导政策。而澳大利亚环境部称其没有义务在2050年前消除煤炭。计划退出巴黎协定的美国总统特朗普没有看报告。悲观和乐观的混合情绪既激起了保证2度未来的努力，也使人们很困扰。1.5度的目标不太可能实现，但是或许能鼓励世界更努力一点。
生词总结：
1. apathy the feeling of not being interested in or enthusiastic about anything 漠不关心
2. disruptive causing problems, noise, etc. so that sth cannot continue normally 破坏性
3. muster to find as much support, courage, etc. as you can 收集 聚集
4. elicit to get information or a reaction from sb, often with difficulty 引起
5. meticulous If youdescribe someone as meticulous, you mean that they do things verycarefully and with great attention to detail 一丝不苟的
6. attest to show or prove that sth is true 证明
7. anthropogenic of or relating to the study of the origins anddevelopment of human beings Synonym 人为的
8. irreversibly If a change is irreversible, things cannot be changed back to the way they were before 不可逆的
9. wipe out To wipe out something such as a place or a group of people or animals means to destroy them completely 摧毁 消失
10. entail to involve sth that cannot be avoided 需要 牵涉
11. all but 几乎
12. counterpart a person or thing that has the same position or function as sb/sth else in a different place or situation 相同的人或物
13. galvanise to stimulate to action 激起
14. bedevil be confusing or perplexing to 困惑 困扰
