CLIMATETALKSCOLLAPSEDREJOICEREJOICE.docVIP

CLIMATE TALKS COLLAPSED, REJOICE, REJOICE. 气候会谈失败，快哉，快哉 The deal on offer at the global warming conference in The Hague was so useless that we are better off with a clean slate 在海牙召开的全球变暖会议上产生的提议是毫无价值，我们宁愿没有这次提议。 Two weeks ago, we saw the beginnings of what appeared to be a seismic shift. After decades of warnings by environmentalists, the scientific and political establishments of most countries had finally cottoned on. Climate change is happening, and it is big. So they descended on The Hague for a conference billed as a last-ditch effort to combat global warming. Two weeks passed, during which time the issue was splashed across the pages of most newspapers, and it actually seemed as though the deal would be done. And then, thank God, it all collapsed. 两个星期前，两周前，一场地震般巨大的变化似乎开始了Last year, the 2,000 UN-appointed scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that their alarming predictions of four years earlier were wildly optimistic. Unless something is done quickly, they said, we can expect anything up to a 6[degrees]C rise in average global temperatures by the end of the current century. Bearing in mind that a mere half-metre rise in sea levels would submerge countries such as Holland, there is no telling whether modern civilisation would even survive such pressures. Mankind has contributed substantially to the observed warming over the past 50 years, they reported, and unless we achieved cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 60 per cent below 1990 levels, the problem could, quite literally, spiral out of control. 去年，2000多名联合国任命的气候变化环境小组（IPCC）的科学家警告：他们四年前作出的预测是过于乐观的。他们说：除非马上采取一些措施，否则到本世纪末，全球平均温度上升6摄氏度是可想而知的事情。记住，只要海平面上升半米，就可以淹没荷兰这样的国家。现代文明能否在此危机下存活？这还是个未知数。他们的报告指出：人类“过去50年的活动是全球气温变暖的主要因数”，除非我们能将产生温室效应的气体排放量控制到1990年的排放量的60％以下。然而从理论上讲，这个问题总会超出控制范围的。 Since the beginning of the industrial era, global average temperatures have risen by 0.7[degrees]C, and even such a minor change has led, it seems, to catastrophes all over the world. T