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From America to India, record heatwaves are causing chaos
多國開啟“炙烤模式”，未來5年全球氣溫或飆至歷史新高
Even though summer has only just begun, record heatwaves are already being set. Last week Beijing logged its hottest June day since records began, at 41C. In Texas, a deadly heatwave is entering its third week – a number of records have already been broken across the state, including a blistering 115F (46.1C) reading in Del Rio and 116F (46.6C) in Cotulla. In India, morgues and hospitals became overwhelmed after temperatures hit 45C in some areas – at least 96 people reportedly died from heat-aggravated conditions.
據英國《衛報》27日報道，盡管夏天才剛剛開始，但創紀錄的熱浪已經來襲。上周，中國北京迎來史上最熱六月天，最高氣溫達41攝氏度。在美國得克薩斯州，致命熱浪持續至第三周，該州多地氣溫紀錄被打破，德爾里奧和科圖拉分別創下46.1攝氏度、46攝氏度的高溫紀錄。在印度，一些地區氣溫最高達到45攝氏度，停尸房和醫院人滿為患——據報道，至少有96人死于高溫。
“Definitely globally we are seeing more heat-related deaths as temperatures rise,” said Dr. Christopher Sampson, an emergency physician at MU Health.
密蘇里大學健康中心急診醫生克里斯托弗·桑普森表示：“隨著氣溫升高，全球各地肯定會發生更多高溫致死案例。”
Being exposed to these high temperatures can cause damage when body temperatures rise to 104 degrees or higher. It can occur as quickly as 30 minutes.
在高溫環境下，當體溫上升到40度以上時，可能會危及健康。這一過程最快可能在30分鐘內發生。
People with high blood pressure, people who work or exercise outside, and people over the age of 65 are most at risk. But it can happen to anyone. Health Research Funding found that 70% of heat stroke deaths occur in children younger than age 2.
高血壓患者、從事戶外工作或在戶外鍛煉的人群以及65歲以上老人面臨的風險最大。但高溫致死可能發生在任何人身上。健康研究基金發現，70%的中暑死亡發生在2歲以下的兒童中。
The accelerated high temperatures in the past month or so have astounded scientists, who are pointing to a number of parallel events, including the human-caused climate crisis and the naturally occurring weather event El Ni?o, to explain the cause. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has forecast that global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years.
過去近一個月快速來襲的高溫天氣讓科學家們感到震驚。專家指出，人類活動所導致的氣候危機和厄爾尼諾現象等因素疊加導致了今夏的高溫天氣。世界氣象組織（WMO）預測，未來五年全球氣溫可能會飆升至創紀錄的水平。
Since 1884, all 10 of the warmest years recorded have happened after 2003. And with that has come a host of more extreme and more frequent weather events globally that have displaced millions of people, led to food shortages, loss of habitats, and deaths.
自1884年以來，有跡象記錄以來最熱的10年都發生在2003年之后。隨之而來的是全球一系列更極端、更頻繁的天氣事件，造成數百萬人流離失所，糧食短缺、棲息地喪失和死亡。
The rising temperatures that are a result of humans burning fossil fuels are being further exacerbated by the naturally occurring weather event known as El Ni?o – where sections of the Pacific Ocean heat up, causing temperatures to spike around the world. It is typically declared when ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean rise 0.5C above the long-term average. Its arrival is particularly worrying because even though there were three La Ni?a episodes (the colder counterpart to El Ni?o where temperatures drop) between 2020 and 2022, last year was still the fifth-warmest year on record globally.
在全球變暖背景下，厄爾尼諾現象的出現加劇氣溫升高。該現象表現為太平洋部分地區變暖，導致世界各地的氣溫飆升。當赤道東太平洋海溫比長期平均值高0.5攝氏度時，就會形成厄爾尼諾現象。厄爾尼諾現象的到來尤其令人擔憂，因為盡管在2020年至2022年期間發生了三次拉尼娜現象（厄爾尼諾現象的較冷對應物），但2022年仍然是有氣象記錄以來全球第五熱年份。
Scientists are concerned that as El Ni?o takes effect, extreme weather events will be that much worse. In 2015 and 2016, El Ni?o affected the food security of more than 60 million people. The weather conditions triggered regional disease outbreaks globally, according to a Nasa study, and it was associated with extreme drought and a record-smashing hurricane season.
科學家們擔心，隨著厄爾尼諾現象卷土重來，極端天氣事件將更頻發。2015年和2016年，厄爾尼諾現象影響了6000多萬人的糧食安全。美國航空航天局（NASA）的一項研究顯示，這種天氣狀況引發了全球區域性疾病爆發，并與極端干旱和創紀錄的颶風季節有關。
Either way, it is now expected that the average temperature will exceed 1.5C beyond pre-industrial times in the coming years, which is the threshold set out in the Paris agreement where extreme weather events, heatwaves, droughts, flooding and other climate impacts get significantly worse.
無論如何，預計未來幾年全球平均氣溫比工業化前水平將高出1.5攝氏度。這是《巴黎協定》設立的升溫閾值。這一情況將導致極端天氣事件、熱浪、干旱、洪水和其他氣候影響顯著加劇。
It is not just the land that we should be worrying about – the ocean is heating up at an alarming rate because of an unprecedented marine heatwave which is being aggravated by, you guessed it, the human-caused climate crisis. Scientists are concerned by not only the sea surface temperatures, which are the warmest in more than 170 years, at 5C above normal, but also by the fact that the rise has come far earlier than they anticipated. The warm waters, described as “beyond extreme”, endanger marine life and make the air warmer and wetter over land as well. Scientists have forecast that there is a 90% to 100% chance that the warm sea surface temperatures will continue through August, with a 70% to 80% chance that it will last through the end of the year.
令人擔心的不僅僅是陸地氣溫，受前所未有的海洋熱浪影響，海洋溫度正在以驚人速度上升，而正是人類活動所導致的氣候危機在加劇熱浪形成。海面溫度創下170多年來最高紀錄，比正常溫度高出5攝氏度，令科學家們更擔心的是，這一升溫幅度的到來遠早于預期。“極端”溫暖水域危及海洋生物，也使陸地上的空氣變得更溫暖潮濕。科學家預測，上升的海面溫度將持續到8月的可能性為90%至100%，持續到年底的可能性為70%至80%。
Separately, warming oceans lead to sea level rise, more extreme weather and makes them less efficient in absorbing greenhouse emissions.
此外，海洋變暖會導致海平面上升、極端天氣更加頻發，并降低海洋吸收溫室氣體排放的效率。
Last year, the Guardian’s Damian Carrington reported that at least a dozen of the most serious weather events, including extreme heatwaves, would have been impossible without human-caused global heating. Ninety-three percent of heatwaves were found to have been made more likely or more severe by human-caused climate change. And this is all happening, Carrington pointed out, with a rise of just 1C in the planet’s average temperature. In short: things are going to get a lot worse.
2022年英國《衛報》的達米安·卡林頓報道稱，如果沒有全球氣候變暖，至少十幾起極端高溫等最惡劣的極端天氣事件將不會發生。研究發現，全球氣候變暖加劇了93%的熱浪形成的可能性或嚴重性。卡林頓指出，地球的平均溫度只上升了1攝氏度，就引發了這些后果。簡而言之：情況會變得更糟。
綜合《衛報》，ABC 17 NEWS，中國疾控中心，新華網
編輯：董靜
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