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Asia
亞洲板塊
Banyan
榕樹專欄
The new weather gods
新的氣象神
Floods and storms force Japan and South Korea to think harder about climate change
洪水和風暴肆虐，日本和韓國被迫更加認真地思考氣候變化問題
Senso-ji in Tokyo, dedicated to the boddhisattva of compassion, is Earth’s most visited sacred site. Some 30m people a year pass through the temple’s imposing entrance, known as Kaminarimon, or Thunder Gate, flanked by Fujin, the god of wind, and his even fiercer brother, Raijin, the god of storms and rain. They are just one of countless reminders across North-East Asia that the natural calamities of downpours and floods (not to mention earthquakes and tsunamis) are deeply enshrined in the region’s collective psyche.
位于東京的淺草寺寺廟中供奉著大慈大悲觀世音菩薩，淺草寺是地球上游客最多的圣地。每年約有3000萬人從這座宏偉的廟宇入口經過，這個寺院的大門被稱為“雷門”，大門旁邊鎮守著司管風的風神，和更加兇猛的司管暴風雨的雷神。東南亞地區供奉著無數給人們以警醒的神明，他們只是其中之一，這些神明提醒著生活在東南亞地區的人們要共同將暴雨和洪水（更不用說地震和海嘯）的自然災害深切銘記在心。
Yet some recent meteorological punishment looks less divine than manmade. Two years ago Japan’s summer monsoon season was the wettest on record. In their usual iteration, the lifegiving rains are welcome. In excess, they sweep away roads and houses: 225 people died across 15 prefectures in 2018. The rains of 2019 set a new record as, in turn, did this summer’s deluge.
然而，近些年發生的一些氣象災害不太像是神明制造的，更像是人為導致的。兩年前，日本遭遇了有史以來最濕潤的夏季季風季節。在慣常的迭代中，人們會欣然迎接賦予生命的雨水。但是2018年的日本遭遇了過量的雨水，道路受損，房屋坍塌，15個縣的225人喪生。2019年的降雨創造了一個新紀錄，繼而是今年夏季的洪水泛濫。
In South Korea, too, the 54 days of rain this summer marked the longest monsoon on record. The Han river, which runs through Seoul, the capital, burst its banks. The heavy rains threatened North Korea’s already meagre food supply.
韓國也同樣暴雨滂沱，韓國在今年夏季有54天降雨，這是有史以來最長的雨季。流經韓國首都首爾的漢江決堤。暴雨致使朝鮮本已微薄的糧食供應雪上加霜。
No sooner did the monsoon end than the typhoon season began. The Korean peninsula typically gets one direct hit from a typhoon a year. Over the past two weeks it got three in succession, another record.
季風一結束，臺風季節就開始了。朝鮮半島通常每年會遭受一次臺風的直接侵襲。但在過去的兩個星期里，朝鮮半島相繼遭遇三次臺風襲擊，這創下了又一項記錄。
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