The climate issue
Climate change touches everything this newspaper reports on. It must be tackled urgently and clear-headedly
這期的經濟學人是以全球氣候問題為中心的，leader的第一篇，也就是本文，就是講的全球氣候變暖的問題所帶來的危機。文章篇幅很長，所以我打算當作兩篇更新。這篇文章真的非常值得學習，不管是它的內容還是寫作手法。尤其適合拿來做寫作素材，也可以擴展你的知識面。
From one year to the next, you cannot feel the difference. As the decadesstack up, though, the story becomes clear. Thestripeson our cover represent the world’s average temperature inevery year since the mid-19th century. Dark blue years are cooler and red ones warmer than the average in 1971-2000. The cumulative changejumps out. The world is about 1°C hotter than when this newspaper was young.
stack up: to add up累積（它還可以表示compare比較的意思，以及站得住腳；符合預期的意思）
stripe:n. 條紋；線條 line
jump out:極易引起注意
其實我是能感覺得出來一年比一年更熱了，小時候冬天還會下很大很大的雪，現在都很少見到了。全球氣溫比《經濟學人》創刊之初高了約1攝氏度。
To represent this span of human history as a set of simple stripes may seemreductive. These are years which saw world wars, technological innovation, trade on an unprecedented scale and astaggeringcreation of wealth. But those complex histories and the simplifying stripes share a common cause. The changing climate of the planet and the remarkable growth in human numbers and riches bothstem fromthecombustionof billions of tonnes offossil fuelto produce industrial power, electricity, transport, heating and, more recently,computation.
reductive: a.簡化的If you describe something such as a theory or a work of art asreductive, you disapprove of it because it reduces complex things to simple elements.
staggering:a. 令人震驚的 extremely great or surprising
stem from:來源於
combustion:n. 燃燒；燃燒過程 the process of burning
fossil fuel:化石燃料
computation: n.計算
時代的進步，科技的革新，財富的累積大家都是有目共睹的。但是和全球氣候變化一樣，它們的增長都有一個共同的原因。那就是源於數十億噸化石燃料的燃燒，這些燃料用於生產工業的動力、電力、交通以及供暖等。
All around us
That the changing climate touches everything and everyone should be obvious—as it should be that the poor andmarginalisedhave most to lose when the weather turns against them.What is less obvious, but just as important, is that,because the processes that force climate change arebuilt into the foundations ofthe world economy and of geopolitics,measures tocheckclimate change have to be similarlywide-ranging and all-encompassing.To decarbonise an economy is not a simple subtraction; it requires a near-completeoverhaul.To some—including many of the millions ofyoung idealists who, as The Economist went topress, were preparing for a global climate strike,and many of those who will throng the streets ofNew York during next week’s un General Assembly—this overhaul requiresnothing less thanthegeldingoruprootingof capitalism. After all, the system grew up through the use of fossil fuels in ever-greater quantities. And the market economy has so far done very little to help. Almost half the atmosphere’s extra, human-made carbondioxidewas put there after the turn of the 1990s, when scientists sounded the alarm and governments said they would act.
marginalised: n.邊緣人群
build into the foundation of:建立在...的基礎上
check: v.控制;防止;抑制Tochecksomething, usually something bad, means to stop it from spreading or continuing.
wide-ranging and all encompassing:廣泛和全面的
overhaul:n. 改革when a system or method is changed in order to improve it
nothing less than:不亞於；相當於
geld: v.去勢；閹割
uproot:v. 連根拔起
dioxide:n. 二氧化物
這一段對於目前為氣候問題採取的措施作出評價，遏制氣候變化的措施必須是廣泛和全面的，需要一場徹底的改革。但是它的難度也是相當大的，不亞於將資本主義連根拔起。（前半段可以拿來做氣候問題寫作的素材哦，用來做開頭非常加分！）
In fact, to conclude that climate change should meanshacklingcapitalism would be wrong-headed and damaging. There is an immense value in the vigour, innovation and adaptability that free markets bring to the economies that took shape over that striped century. Market economies are thewellsthat produce the response climate change requires. Competitive markets properly incentivised, and politicians serving a genuine popular thirst for action, can do more than any other system to limit the warming that can beforestalledand cope with that which cannot.
shackle: v.束縛;阻撓;成為…的羈絆If youare shackled bysomething, it prevents you from doing what you want to do.
well: n.源泉a deep hole in the ground from which people take water
forestall:v.預先阻止;搶在…之前行動If youforestallsomeone, you realize what they are likely to do and prevent them from doing it.
解決氣候問題並不意味著束縛資本主義的發展，因為自由市場給世界經濟帶來的影響是巨大的，而氣候問題的解決也並不能脫離經濟的支撐。
This special issue of The Economist is not all about thecarbon-climate crisis. But articles on the crisis and what can be done about it are to be found across all this week’s sections. In this, our reportingmirrorsthe world. Whether it is in ensuring a future for the Panama Canal orweaningpetrol-head presidentsofftheirrefineryhabit, climate is never the whole story. Other things matter to Manhattan stockholders and Malawian smallholders. But climate change is an increasingly dangerous context for all their worlds.
carbon-climate crisis:碳氣候危機
mirror: v. 反映;再現;與…相似 If something mirrors something else, it has similar features to it, and therefore seems like a copy or representation of it.
wean:v.使放棄，使戒掉，使不再依賴(尤指惡習) If you wean someone off a habit or something they like, you gradually make them stop doing it or liking it, especially when you think is bad for them.
petrol-head president:石油大亨
refinery: n.精煉廠；提煉廠
To understand that context, it is important to understand all the things that climate change is not. It is not the end of the world.Humankindis not poised teetering on the edge of extinction. The planet itself is notin peril. Earth is a tough old thing and will survive.And though much may be lost, most of the wondrous life that makes Earth unique, as far as astronomers can yet tell, will persist.
poise: n.鎮定；沉著；泰然自若If someone haspoise, they are calm, dignified, and self-controlled.
be teetering on the brink/edge of something:處在...危險的邊緣to be very close to being in an unpleasant or dangerous situation
in peril:處於危險之中
氣候問題越來越嚴峻，但這不意味著世界末日。人類也並沒有在滅絕的邊緣，儘管我們為此失去了很多，但是我們擁有的比我們失去的更多。
Climate change is, though, adirethreat to countless people— one that is planetary in scope if not in its absolute stakes.It will displace tens of millions,at the very least; it will disrupt farms on which billions rely; it will dry up wells and water mains; it will flood low-lying places—and,as time goes by, higher-standing ones, too.True, it will also provide some opportunities, at least in the near term. But the longer humanity takes to curb emissions, the greater the dangers andsparserthe benefits—and the larger the risk of some trulycatastrophicsurprises.
dire: a.嚴峻的;嚴重的;可怕的Direis used to emphasize how serious or terrible a situation or event is.
at the very least:至少
astime goes by:隨著時間流逝
sparse:a.稀少的;稀疏的Something that issparseis small in number or amount and spread out over an area.
catastrophic:a.災難性的;引起重大災難的Something that iscatastrophicinvolves or causes a sudden terrible disaster.
但是，氣候問題的確給我們帶來了巨大的威脅。它破壞了人們賴以生存的農場，使湖泊乾涸，地勢被淹沒...(這裡用了三個will，一步步的增強語氣，值得熟讀並背誦。）
The scale of the implicationsunderlinesanother thing that climate change is not. It is not just an environmental problem alongside all the others—and absolutely not one that can besolved byhair-shirtself-abnegation.Change by the people who are most alarmed will not be enough. What is also needed is change in the lives of those who do not yet much care. Climate is a matter for the whole of government. It cannot beshuntedoff to the minister for the environment whom nobody can name.
underline:v.強調；凸顯If one thing, for example an action or an event,underlinesanother, it draws attention to it and emphasizes its importance.
hair-shirt:自我懲罰
self-abnegation: n.克己when you do not allow yourself to have or do something that you want
shunt: v.(通常因為不方便而)將…轉移至別處，將…調往別處If a person or thingis shuntedsomewhere, they are moved or sent there, usually because someone finds them inconvenient.
環境問題並不是一件小事，不是一件可以通過自覺來解決的事情。我們只能使自己自覺，卻不能讓那些不在意的人採取行動。所以這個問題應該由政府聯合起來一起解決，而不是丟給環保部門去做。
And that leads to a third thing that climate change is not. It is not a problem that can beput offfor a few decades.It is here and now. It is already making extreme events like Hurricane Dorian more likely. Its losses are already there and often mourned—ondrablandscapes where theglaciershave died and on reefsbleachedof theircoralcolours. Delay means that mankind will suffer more harm and face a vastly more costly scramble to make up for lost time.
put off:推遲；推延
drab: a.單調乏味的;缺乏生氣的If you describe something asdrab, you think that it is dull and boring to look at or experience.
glacier:n.冰川；冰河
bleach: v.曬白；（使）褪色；（使）變白If the sunbleachessomething, or somethingbleaches, its colour gets paler until it is almost white.
coral: n.珊瑚
最後，氣候問題也並不是一個可以推遲幾十年再解決的問題，因為此時此刻它正在發生，它的影響不是平緩的，而是逐漸上升的。拖延只會帶來更大的損失，並且要用更大的代價來彌補拖延的時間。
這篇文章後半部分我用紅色標記的句子，是氣候問題所引發的是三個不是：它不意味著世界末日；但它不是一件小事；而且不是一件能拖延的事。這三個不是層層遞進，給文章建立了一個完整的架構，這個寫法真的很妙，一定要學會！