当四十度成为新常态：西欧热浪，与我们共同的夏天

也注定会被反复提起的事——

and destined to be brought up again and again —

今年夏天，西欧，

this summer, Western Europe

正在经历一场，

is going through

又早、又猛、又持久的热浪。

an early, fierce, and persistent heatwave.

我们先说"早"。

Let's first talk about 'early'.

这场高温，五月底就开始了。

This high heat began at the end of May.

要知道，那时候，

Mind you, at that point,

连夏天都还没正式到。

summer hadn't even officially arrived.

但是葡萄牙，

But Portugal,

当时就冲到了四十度以上，

at the time, shot above forty degrees,

直接打破了五月的历史纪录。

directly breaking the historical record for May.

而进入六月，

And entering June,

情况变得更加极端。

the situation became even more extreme.

我们来看一组让人心惊的数字。

Let's look at a set of alarming numbers.

法国首都巴黎，

France's capital, Paris,

今年预计将第一次，

this year is expected, for the first time,

在六月，突破四十度。

to break forty degrees in June.

对一座以温和气候著称的城市来说，

For a city renowned for its mild climate,

这几乎是难以想象的。

this is almost unimaginable.

西班牙和葡萄牙的部分地区，

Parts of Spain and Portugal —

气温正逼近四十五度。

temperatures are approaching forty-five degrees.

意大利、英国、德国、

Italy, the UK, Germany,

比利时、瑞士……

Belgium, Switzerland …

大半个西欧，

most of Western Europe

都笼罩在这片热浪之下。

is blanketed under this heatwave.

很多地方的气温，

Temperatures in many places

比往年同期，

are a full ten to fifteen degrees

高出了整整十到十五度。

higher than the same period in past years.

那么，问题来了：

So, the question arises:

这一切，到底是怎么回事？

what on earth is going on?

要理解这场热浪，

To understand this heatwave,

你需要认识一个词，

you need to learn a term,

叫"热穹顶"。

called a 'heat dome'.

我给你打一个比方。

Let me give you a metaphor.

你可以把它想象成，

You can imagine it as

一口巨大的、

a giant pot,

倒扣在西欧上空的锅。

turned upside down over Western Europe.

在正常的天气系统里，

In a normal weather system,

大气是上下流动、不断交换的。

the atmosphere flows up and down, constantly exchanging.

但是这一次，

But this time,

一个异常强大的高气压系统，

an unusually powerful high-pressure system,

像一块巨石，

like a boulder,

死死地压在了西欧上空，

has pressed down hard over Western Europe,

迟迟不肯移动。

refusing, for a long while, to move.

它把底下的热空气，

It seals the hot air beneath it

牢牢地封住，

firmly shut,

让热量只进不出。

letting heat in but not out.

太阳日复一日地炙烤，

The sun bakes it day after day,

锅里的温度，

and the temperature inside the pot

便不断累积、节节攀升。

keeps building, climbing higher and higher.

雪上加霜的是，

To make matters worse,

这一次，

this time,

还有来自北非撒哈拉的滚滚热浪，

there's also rolling heat from the Sahara in North Africa,

被卷入这个系统。

swept into the system.

干、热、再加上"焖"，

Dry, hot, and on top of that 'stewed' —

共同造就了这场，

together they've created this

极具杀伤力的高温。

intensely destructive high heat.

而"杀伤力"这个词，

And the word 'destructive'

绝非危言耸听。

is by no means scaremongering.

极端高温，

Extreme heat

是这个星球上，

is one of the deadliest forms of weather

最致命的天气之一。

on this planet.

它不像台风、洪水那样，

It doesn't arrive dramatically,

来得轰轰烈烈，

like a typhoon or a flood,

但它常常无声无息地，

but it often, silently and without a sound,

夺走最脆弱者的生命——

takes the lives of the most vulnerable —

独居的老人、

the elderly living alone,

年幼的孩子、

young children,

还有那些，

and those

本就患有疾病的人。

already suffering from illness.

就在上个月那一轮高温中，

In just last month's round of heat,

仅西班牙一国，

in Spain alone,

就有一百多人，

more than a hundred people

因高温而离世。

passed away due to the high heat.

法国，也有多人遇难。

France, too, had several deaths.

这些冰冷的数字背后，

Behind these cold numbers

是一个个，

are individual,

再也回不来的，鲜活的人。

vivid people who will never come back.

面对来势汹汹的高温，

Facing the menacing heat,

各国政府，

governments of every country

纷纷启动了应急机制：

have activated emergency mechanisms:

发布最高级别的红色预警，

issuing the highest-level red alerts,

开放带空调的公共纳凉中心，

opening air-conditioned public cooling centers,

调整学校和户外工作的时间，

adjusting school and outdoor-work hours,

挨家挨户地，

and going door to door

去探望独居的老人。

to visit the elderly living alone.

这些努力，都很重要。

These efforts all matter.

但是，如果我们把目光，

But if we lift our gaze

从这一场热浪上，

from this one heatwave,

稍稍抬高一点，

just a little higher,

就会看到一个，

we'll see a

更令人不安的图景。

more unsettling picture.

几乎所有的气候科学家，

Almost all climate scientists

都在反复强调同一句话：

keep stressing the same sentence:

这种又早、又强、又持久的极端高温，

this kind of early, strong, persistent extreme heat

正在从"几十年一遇的异常"，

is shifting from a 'once-in-decades anomaly'

变成"年年都来的常态"。

into a 'comes-every-year normal'.

今年很热，

This year is very hot,

去年很热，

last year was very hot,

前年，同样很热。

the year before, equally hot.

这背后，

Behind this

是一条清晰得，

is a trend line so clear

不容辩驳的趋势线：

it cannot be argued away:

我们的地球，

our planet

正在一年比一年，

is getting warmer

更暖。

year by year.

而气候变化，

And climate change

就是那只，

is the invisible hand

推高温度的，看不见的手。

pushing the temperature up.

说到这里，

Speaking of this,

我想和你聊聊，

I want to talk with you about

这件事更深的一层。

a deeper layer of this.

长久以来，

For a long time,

"全球变暖"，

'global warming',

对很多人而言，

to many people,

是一个有点抽象、

has been a somewhat abstract,

有点遥远，

somewhat distant,

甚至有点令人厌倦的词。

even somewhat tiresome word.

我们在新闻里听它，

We hear it in the news,

在课本里读它，

read it in textbooks,

却很难真正，

yet find it hard to truly

为它感到切肤之痛。

feel its sting on our own skin.

但是西欧的这个夏天，

But this summer in Western Europe

正在改变这一切。

is changing all of that.

当四十度的高温，

When forty-degree heat

开始一次又一次地，

starts, again and again,

冲进我们的城市、

to surge into our cities,

冲进我们的生活，

to surge into our lives,

气候变化，

climate change

就不再是一张图表、

is no longer a chart,

一个预测、

a forecast,

一句口号。

a slogan.

它变成了，

It has become

你我每年夏天，

the heat that you and I, every summer,

都必须亲身承受的，

must bear in person —

那份真实的、滚烫的炎热。

that real, scalding heat.

它也在向我们，

It is also posing to us

提出一个，

an unavoidable

无法回避的问题：

question:

一个正在变暖的星球，

a warming planet —

究竟，

exactly

是属于哪一代人，

which generation's problem

要去面对的难题？

is it to face?

是上一代？

The last generation's?

还是，

Or

恰恰就是我们，

precisely ours,

以及我们的孩子？

and our children's?

节目的最后，

At the end of the show,

我想把两个问题，

I want to leave you

留给你。

with two questions.

第一，回到你自己的生活。

First, back to your own life.

这些年，

In these years,

你有没有真切地感觉到，

have you truly felt

夏天，

that summer

正变得一年比一年，难熬？

is becoming harder to endure, year by year?

第二，

Second,

面对一个越来越热的未来，

facing a hotter and hotter future,

我们或许无法，

we may not be able,

凭一己之力，

by our own strength alone,

让地球凉下来。

to cool the planet down.

但是在你力所能及的范围内，

But within what you're able to do,

有没有那么一件小事，

is there one small thing

是你愿意，

you'd be willing,

从今年夏天，

starting this summer,

就开始去做的？

to begin doing?

这两个问题，

These two questions

没有标准答案。

have no standard answer.

但是它们，

But they

值得你慢慢地想。

are worth thinking about slowly.