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I began teaching with the idea of giving back; But I received more than I gave. This brings me to the final movement of this speech. It begins with a story about an extraordinary scientific discovery and a newdilemmathat it poses. It’s a call to arms and about making a difference.[qh]
我懷著回報社會的想法，開始了教學生涯。然而，我得到的多于我付出的。這就引出了這次演講的最后一篇樂章。首先我要講一個了不起的科學發現，以及由此帶來的新挑戰。它是一個戰斗的號令，到了做出改變的時候了。[qh]
So here is the movement.In the last several decades, our climate has been changing. Climate change is not new: the Earth went through six ice ages in the past 600,000 years. However, recent measurements show that the climate has begun to change rapidly. The size of the North Polar Ice Cap in the month of September is only half the size it was a mere 50 years ago. The sea level which been rising since direct measurements began in 1870 is now five times faster, at a rate now five times faster, than at the beginning of recorded measurements. Here’s the remarkable scientific discovery. For the first time in human history, science is now making predictions of how our actions will affect the world 50 and 100 years from now. These changes are due to an increase in carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The Earth has warmed up by roughly 0.8 degreesCelsiussince the beginning of the Revolution. There is already approximately a 1 degree rise built into the system, even if we stop all greenhouse gas emissions today. Why? It will be decades to warm up the deep oceans before the temperature reaches a newequilibrium.[qh]
現在開始本次演講的第一章。過去幾十年中，我們的氣候一直在發生變化。氣候變化并不是現在才有的，過去60萬年中地球就發生了6次冰河期。但是，最新的測量表明氣候變化加速了。9月份，北極冰蓋的覆蓋面積只相當于50年前的一半。1870年起，人們開始測量海平面上升的速度，現在海平面上升的速度是那時的5倍。一個重大的科學發現就這樣產生 了。科學第一次預測出我們的行為對50到100年后的世界有何影響。這些變化的原因是，從工業革命開始，人類排放到大氣中的二氧化碳增加了。這使得地球的平均氣溫上升了0.8攝氏度。即使我們立刻停止所有溫室氣體的排放，氣溫仍然將比過去上升大約1度。為什么呢？因為在氣溫達到均衡前，海水溫度的上升將持續幾十年。[qh]
