经济学人下载:气候问题(2)

In fact, to conclude that climate change should mean shackling capitalism 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 the wells that 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 be forestalled and cope with that which cannot.
事实上，得出气候变化应该意味着束缚资本主义的结论是错误的和破坏性的。自由市场给在那个斑驳的世纪中形成的经济带来的活力、创新和适应性具有巨大的价值。市场经济是应对气候变化的源泉。竞争激烈的市场得到了适当的激励，政客们真正满足了民众对行动的渴望，在限制气候变暖方面，他们比任何其他体系都能做得更多。

This special issue of The Economist is not all about the carbonclimate 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 reporting mirrors the world. Whether it is in ensuring a future for the Panama Canal or weaning petrol-head presidents off their refinery habit, 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.
本期《经济学人》特刊并不完全是关于碳气候危机的。但有关此次危机以及可以采取何种措施的文章，可以在本周的所有章节中找到。在这方面，我们的报道反映了世界。无论是为了确保巴拿马运河的未来，还是为了让石油大亨们戒掉炼油的习惯，气候从来都不是问题的全部。其他事情对曼哈顿的股东和马拉维的小佃农也很重要。但是气候变化对他们的世界来说是一个越来越危险的背景。

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. Humankind is not poised teetering on the edge of extinction. The planet itself is not in 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.
要理解这一背景，重要的是要理解气候变化不是一切。这不是世界末日。人类并没有在灭绝的边缘摇摇欲坠。地球本身并不处于危险之中。地球是一个坚强的老东西，它会生存下来。尽管可能会失去很多，但据天文学家所知，大多数让地球独一无二的奇妙生命将会继续存在。

Climate change is, though, a dire threat 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 and sparser the benefits—and the larger the risk of some truly catastrophic surprises.
然而，气候变化对无数人来说是一个可怕的威胁——即使不是绝对利害攸关，也是全球性的威胁。它至少会使数千万人流离失所；它将破坏数十亿人赖以生存的农场；它会使水井和水管干涸；洪水会淹没地势较低的地方，随着时间的推移，地势较高的地方也会被淹没。的确会有这种可能，至少在短期内是这样的。但是，人类控制排放的时间越长，危险就越大，好处也就越少，发生一些真正灾难性意外的风险也就越大。