诺贝尔奖得主:不必担心全球变暖

　　Stanford University physicist Robert Laughlin says governments – and people generally – should proceed with more humility in dealing with climate change. The Earth, he says, is very old and has suffered grievously: volcanic explosions, floods, meteor impacts, mountain formation "and all manner of other abuses greater than anything people could inflict." Yet, the Earth is still here. "It's a survivor."

　　斯坦福大学物理学家罗伯特-劳克林说，政府和普通大众在对待气候变化问题时应该采取更谦卑的态度。他说，地球非常古老，而且经受过很多磨难：火山爆发、洪水、流星碰撞、造山运动，“以及各种形式的灾难，这些都比人为所能造成的打击要严重。”然而，地球仍然健在。“它是个幸存者。”

　　Writing in the summer issue of the magazine The American Scholar, Prof. Laughlin offers a profoundly different perspective on climate change. "Common sense tells us that damaging a thing as old as Earth is somewhat easier to imagine than it is to accomplish – like invading Russia." For planet Earth, he says, the crisis of climate change, if crisis it be, will be a walk in the park.

　　劳克林教授在《美国学者》季刊夏季号上发表的论文在气候变化问题上提出了一个截然不同的思考角度。“常识告诉我们，破坏像地球这样古老的东西是想象比实际做到要来得容易的—就像入侵俄罗斯一样。”他说，对地球来说，气候变化的危机（假如称得上危机的话）就像在公园散步一样。

　　Relax, Prof. Laughlin advises, let it be. "The geologic record suggests that climate ought not to concern us too much when we gaze into the future," he says, "not because it's unimportant but because it's beyond our power to control." Whatever humans throw at it, in other words, Earth will fix things in its own time and its own way.

　　劳克林教授的建议是：别紧张，随它去吧。“地质记录告诉我们，当我们展望未来时，不需要为气候问题担心太多，”他说，“这并不是因为它不重要，而是因为这是我们力所不能及的。”换句话说，不管人们往地球上扔什么，地球都会以自己的节奏和方式将问题解决掉。

　　Prof. Laughlin is the co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize for physics. Brilliantly imagined, incisively expressed and vastly entertaining, Prof. Laughlin’s essay on climate change (What the Earth Knows) has been adapted from his forthcoming book on the future of fossil fuels.

　　劳克林曾经获得过1998年的诺贝尔物理学奖。他的这篇想象丰富、言辞尖锐而又妙趣横生的论文节选自他即将出版的一本有关矿物燃料未来的书。