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.
事實上，得出氣候變化應該意味著束縛資本主義的結論是錯誤的和破壞性的。自由市場給在那個斑駁的世紀中形成的經濟帶來的活力、創新和適應性具有巨大的價值。市場經濟是應對氣候變化的源泉。競爭激烈的市場得到了適當的激勵，政客們真正滿足了民眾對行動的渴望，在限制氣候變暖方面，他們比任何其他體系都能做得更多。
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《經濟學人》特刊并不完全是關于碳氣候危機的。但有關此次危機以及可以采取何種措施的文章，可以在本周的所有章節中找到。在這方面，我們的報道反映了世界。無論是為了確保巴拿馬運河的未來，還是為了讓石油大亨們戒掉煉油的習慣，氣候從來都不是問題的全部。其他事情對曼哈頓的股東和馬拉維的小佃農也很重要。但是氣候變化對他們的世界來說是一個越來越危險的背景。
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.
要理解這一背景，重要的是要理解氣候變化不是一切。這不是世界末日。人類并沒有在滅絕的邊緣搖搖欲墜。地球本身并不處于危險之中。地球是一個堅強的老東西，它會生存下來。盡管可能會失去很多，但據天文學家所知，大多數讓地球獨一無二的奇妙生命將會繼續存在。
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，氣候變化對無數人來說是一個可怕的威脅——即使不是絕對利害攸關，也是全球性的威脅。它至少會使數千萬人流離失所；它將破壞數十億人賴以生存的農場；它會使水井和水管干涸；洪水會淹沒地勢較低的地方，隨著時間的推移，地勢較高的地方也會被淹沒。的確會有這種可能，至少在短期內是這樣的。但是，人類控制排放的時間越長，危險就越大，好處也就越少，發生一些真正災難性意外的風險也就越大。
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