经济学人下载:榕树专栏--风暴不歇的日本和韩国(1)

Asia 

亚洲板块

Banyan 

榕树专栏

The new weather gods 

新的气象神

Floods and storms force Japan and South Korea to think harder about climate change 

洪水和风暴肆虐，日本和韩国被迫更加认真地思考气候变化问题

Senso-ji in Tokyo, dedicated to the boddhisattva of compassion, is Earth’s most visited sacred site. Some 30m people a year pass through the temple’s imposing entrance, known as Kaminarimon, or Thunder Gate, flanked by Fujin, the god of wind, and his even fiercer brother, Raijin, the god of storms and rain. They are just one of countless reminders across North-East Asia that the natural calamities of downpours and floods (not to mention earthquakes and tsunamis) are deeply enshrined in the region’s collective psyche. 

位于东京的浅草寺寺庙中供奉着大慈大悲观世音菩萨，浅草寺是地球上游客最多的圣地。每年约有3000万人从这座宏伟的庙宇入口经过，这个寺院的大门被称为“雷门”，大门旁边镇守着司管风的风神，和更加凶猛的司管暴风雨的雷神。东南亚地区供奉着无数给人们以警醒的神明，他们只是其中之一，这些神明提醒着生活在东南亚地区的人们要共同将暴雨和洪水（更不用说地震和海啸）的自然灾害深切铭记在心。

Yet some recent meteorological punishment looks less divine than manmade. Two years ago Japan’s summer monsoon season was the wettest on record. In their usual iteration, the lifegiving rains are welcome. In excess, they sweep away roads and houses: 225 people died across 15 prefectures in 2018. The rains of 2019 set a new record as, in turn, did this summer’s deluge. 

然而，近些年发生的一些气象灾害不太像是神明制造的，更像是人为导致的。两年前，日本遭遇了有史以来最湿润的夏季季风季节。在惯常的迭代中，人们会欣然迎接赋予生命的雨水。但是2018年的日本遭遇了过量的雨水，道路受损，房屋坍塌，15个县的225人丧生。2019年的降雨创造了一个新纪录，继而是今年夏季的洪水泛滥。

In South Korea, too, the 54 days of rain this summer marked the longest monsoon on record. The Han river, which runs through Seoul, the capital, burst its banks. The heavy rains threatened North Korea’s already meagre food supply. 

韩国也同样暴雨滂沱，韩国在今年夏季有54天降雨，这是有史以来最长的雨季。流经韩国首都首尔的汉江决堤。暴雨致使朝鲜本已微薄的粮食供应雪上加霜。

No sooner did the monsoon end than the typhoon season began. The Korean peninsula typically gets one direct hit from a typhoon a year. Over the past two weeks it got three in succession, another record. 

季风一结束，台风季节就开始了。朝鲜半岛通常每年会遭受一次台风的直接侵袭。但在过去的两个星期里，朝鲜半岛相继遭遇三次台风袭击，这创下了又一项记录。