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Climate change is real. Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and clearing forests, among other human activities, is to blame. And more and more of that global warming pollution is being dumped in the atmosphere each year.
氣候變化是事實。產生氣候變化的罪魁禍首是化石燃料的燃燒，以及樹木的砍伐等人類活動。如今，排放到大氣中的溫室氣體一年比一年多。
So says the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's new synthesis report released on November 2. The synthesis reduces thousands of pages of scientific knowledge to their essence. That essence, however, has hardly changed since the last synthesis report in 2007.
聯合國政府間氣候變化專門委員會于 11月2日發布的綜合報告也是如此說。該報告省略了數千頁描述氣候變化本質的科學知識。自2007年的綜合報告發布以來，這些被省略的部分就沒有改變過。
What has changed is the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which have now touched 400 parts-per-million. Pollution in the first decade of the 21st century grew twice as fast as it did in the last few decades of the 20th century. The resulting global warming poses risks ranging from rising sea levels that drown inhabited coasts to crop failures from stronger heat waves and drought.
改變的內容則是大氣中溫室氣體的濃度，現已上升至百萬分之400。21世紀頭10年的污染速度和20世紀最后幾十年的污染速度一樣，增長了兩倍。全球變暖勢必會造成海平面上升，沿海居住區的淹沒，以及熱浪和干旱加劇導致的作物減產。
The IPCC has now offered a budget for how much pollution people can add to the atmosphere without too much climate change. Unfortunately, humanity has already used more than half of that budget.
日前，聯合國政府間氣候變化專門委員會就人類可以向大氣排放多少污染物而不至使氣候變化太明顯發布了一個“預算”。遺憾的是，人類早已用盡過半“預算”。
The world's nations are meeting in Lima this year in hopes of hammering out a global deal to combat climate change to be agreed upon in Paris in 2015. The new report is a reminder to world leaders that the stakes, like the seas, are high.
今年，世界各國領導人在利馬召開會議，希望擬定一項應對氣候變化的全球協議，并于2015年在巴黎商定。對于世界各國領導人來說，這份新報告是個提醒，當中的厲害關系就像大海一樣深不可測。
