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We find ourselves on the brink of climate catastrophe in large part because of the decisions made during a past crisis.
我們發現，我們之所以已經逼近災難邊緣很大程度上都是我們在曾經的一次危機中所做的抉擇導致的。
As the world came out of the Great Depression and World War II,
世界各國剛剛擺脫大蕭條和二戰，
the U.S. launched a rapid bid to remake the global economy— running on fossil fuels.
美國便迅速投入了重塑全球經濟——用化石燃料——的行動。
In the first postwar years, Americans moved to suburbs and began driving gas-guzzling cars to work,
戰后頭幾年，美國民眾紛紛搬到郊區，開始開燃油汽車上班，
while the federal government built a highway system to connect the country for those vehicles.
為方便這些車輛通行，聯邦政府建成了打通全國的高速公路網。
The single biggest line item in the Marshall Plan,
為給歐洲復蘇提供資金支持，美國政府發起了馬歇爾計劃，
the U.S. government program that funded the European recovery, went to support oil,
該計劃最大的行式項目就是支持石油行業的發展，
which ensured that the continent’s economy would also run on that fossil fuel.
這樣一來，歐洲大陸的經濟也離不開石油這種化石燃料了。
Meanwhile, plastic, an oil derivative, became the go-to building block for consumer goods
與此同時，由于美國在二戰期間逐漸積累起了足夠的產能，
after the U.S. had developed production capacity for use in World War II.
石油衍生品——塑料也成了消費品的首選材料。
The underlying philosophy of economic development in this time period was a focus on gross national product,
這一時期的經濟發展的基本理念就是注重國民生產總值（GNP），
a term developed by U.S. government economists during the Depression,
GNP是美國政府的經濟學家在大蕭條期間提出的一個術語，
which included consumption as a proxy for prosperity:
在該理念的框架下，消費就是繁榮的代表：
the more we consume, the better off we are, according to this model,
根據這一框架，我們消費的越多，我們的生活就越好，
which, in the postwar era, the U.S. assiduously spread abroad.
這也是戰后美國一直孜孜不倦地向海外傳播的一個理念。
The promise of endless growth also required an endless supply of oil to power factories, automobiles and jet planes.
永無止境的增長前景要求工廠、汽車和噴氣式飛機都能永無止境地獲取石油供應。
In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sealed a deal with Ibn Saud, the first King of Saudi Arabia,
于是，1945年，富蘭克林·D·羅斯福總統與沙特阿拉伯第一任國王伊本·沙特簽署了一項協議，
trading security for access to the country’s vast oil reserves.
以保障沙特的安全換取獲得該國巨大的石油儲備的機會。
Every U.S. President since, implicitly or explicitly, has continued that exchange.
自那以后，每一位美國總統，無論含蓄還是明確，都延續了這一交易。
The coronavirus pandemic is the most significant disruption yet to the postwar fossil-fuel order.
新冠病毒大流行是迄今為止破壞戰后化石燃料秩序破壞得最厲害的事件。
The global economy is expected to contract more than 5% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
據國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)透露，今年的全球經濟預計會收縮5%以上。
This is a challenge so big that it has also created a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to change direction.
這一挑戰堪稱十分嚴峻，卻也為我們創造了一個千載難逢的轉型的機會。
This moment comes just in time.
這一刻來得正是時候。
In 2018, a landmark report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.N.'s climate-science body,
2018年，聯合國氣候科學機構“政府間氣候變化專門委員會”（IPCC）發布的里程碑式報告警告稱，
warned that allowing the planet to warm any more than 2°C above preindustrial levels
任由地球溫度上升幅度比工業化前水平高出2°C
would drive hundreds of millions of people into poverty,
不僅會使數億人口陷入貧困，
destroy coral reefs and leave some countries unable to adapt.
還會破壞珊瑚礁，讓一些國家無法適應新的高溫。
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