Some thoughts of Climate Change

以下是為了今天 (10/15) 的 Blog Action Day 所撰寫的文章，與氣候變遷有關。
為了響應活動，所以先以英文撰寫，過幾天再回來加上中文翻譯。(已加上翻譯 10/18)
其實寫得有點頭昏腦脹，而且似乎寫不出重點… 不過這個議題本來就不小便是。
希望數年後還有條小命可以回頭檢閱這篇文章的我所在的土地，還能屹立在太平洋上。

It was about summer 2005, when I first arrived the UK. It wasn't the frist time for me to pay attention to environmental issues, but the first time to notice Climate Change particularly. In August 2005, I was writing up an essay regarding G8 summit assigned by the English pre-sessional course.

2005年的夏天，是我初到英國的時候。那並非我初次關注環境相關的議題，卻是我第一次特別注意到「氣候變遷」。05年八月，我正好在就讀語言學校，寫一篇與G8高峰會有關的文章

G8 summit 2005 was hosted by the UK and had Climate Change as part of the main issues. It was also the year where Kyoto Protocol entered into force and ironically refused by the US. Most of the content within Kyoto Protocol is about the control of greenhouse gases emission, since these gases were widely believed to be the main course of global warming.

那一年G8高峰會由英國主辦，而氣候變遷便是其中所討論的主要議題之一。同年也是京都議定書開始生效的時間，並諷刺地被美國所拒絕簽署。絕大部分京都議定書的內容都在控制溫室效應氣體的排放量上，因為這些（包括二氧化碳所在的）氣體被普遍地認為是造成全球暖化的主因。

I found it was tricky that the emission of greenhouse gases has become a merchandise. According to Kyoto Protocol, there were long-term goals and short-term objectives for each member to decrease its national greenhouse gas emission amount. The deduction of annually emission become deals among counties, or between poor and rich countries while the rich pay for the poor to establish environmental-friendly infrastructure so that they can have less emission amount to decrease.

弔詭的是，我發現「溫室氣體的排放」這些年來竟成為了一種「商品」。京都議定書中制訂了階段性的溫室氣體排放減量目標，每個簽署國家都有其責任（要減少的溫室氣體排放量）。而每個國家每年所要減少的排放量，便成為了交易的項目，或者說窮國與富國間的交易。富國花錢替窮國打造對環境友善的基礎建設（以減少其溫室氣體排放量），那些減少的量，則成為富國本身的「業績」，而非它們所該致力於自己本國的溫室氣體減量。

I assume that the cost of doing this domestically would be far more expensive than helping foreign countries, particularly developing counties. To some extent this may be an investment on those countries. They are not only the forerunners, but also have good excuses to enter the industry without too much econimical or political concerns.

我假設達成這些減量目標的成本，對一些國家來說，在自己國家做遠比幫助外國還要來得高（尤其是已發展國家）。那麼自己國家執行的成本不但太高且影響「國家利益」。另一方面，就某種程度來說，這或許也是一種投資。除了把氣體減量的責任推到其他國家以外，那些基礎建設或補助等等，也成為一個完美的藉口，讓他們不需擔憂經濟或政治考量，而成為進入發展中國家地區各經濟體、產業的先行者。

The meltdown of Polar Regions or glaciers & the rising of sea level are most-discussed issues following global warming. However I feel that the spot lights were misleaded to the survival of polar bears or low altitude coastal countries. What is far more close to us and more emergency should be "Climate Change".

兩極冰帽或冰河的融化，以及所造成的海平面上升，是全球暖化中被討論得最熱烈的議題。但我卻覺得北極熊的滅絕或沿海地區面臨的存亡危機是一種失焦。「氣候變遷」本身才是更貼近我們（時間上或空間上）、更該被重視的議題。

Whichever greenhouse effect or global warming or any other reason result in climate change, the CHANGE itself is far more important than its cause. Because the change of climate brings immediately affects on our daily lives. Typhoons, hurricanes, tsunamis, floods and droughts happen more offten or more irregularly. Sharp temperture fluctuation and unbalance rainfalls disorder the growth of plants and other living creatures. We, the human beings, who live depend on those plants, animals, or rainfalls will be surely affected!

不管是溫室效應或全球暖化造成了氣候變遷，這個「變化」本身比起它的肇因更為重要。因為氣候的變遷直接且即時地影響了我們的日常生活。不管是颱風 /颶風、海嘯、水災還是旱災，都發生得更為頻繁與不規則。極端的溫度變化和失衡的降雨直接擾亂了動植物的生長與作息。而我們，身為必需依賴那些動植物維生的人類，自然也無可避免地會受到影響。

These are what need to be noticed or even researched. So that we could be a little bit more capable of predicting and protecting ourselves from coming influences or even disasters result from climate change, such as the terrible flood which took hundreds of lives in my country this August. We have been tracking the source of present climate change, now we should put more attention on dealing with the change it brings. This is as important as slowing down the change.

這些（氣候變遷所造成的直接影響）都是該被關注乃至研究的議題，繼而讓我們能夠多一點能力來預測及預防氣候變遷所帶來的影響，或甚至災難，例如在八月份奪去台灣數百條性命的莫拉克颱風。我們一直在追尋近期氣候變遷的起因，我想現在應該放更多的心思在應付這些變遷所帶來的影響，這點和「減緩變遷」一樣地重要。

---