關于洪水災難的英語段落：Judgment day
The overwhelming good news is that storms and flooding have caused far fewer deaths in recent decades, thanks to better warning systems and the construction of levees, ditches and shelters. The cyclone that struck Bangladesh in 1970 killed 300,000-500,000 people; the most recent severe one, in 2007, killed 4,234. The bad news is that storms and floods still account for almost three-quarters of weather-related disasters, and they are becoming more common. According to the Munich Re, a reinsurer, their number around the world has increased from about 200 in 1980 to over 600 last year. Harvey was the third “500-year” storm to strike Houston since 1979.
巨大的好消息是，由于更完善的預警系統(tǒng)以及防洪堤壩、溝渠、避難所的建造，最近幾十年暴雨和洪災造成的死亡人數(shù)大大減少。1970年，重創(chuàng)孟加拉的颶風造成30至50萬人喪生，而在2007年一場近年來發(fā)生的最嚴重的颶風中，4234人喪生。但壞消息是，暴雨和洪災仍占據(jù)氣象災害的四分之三，而且越來越普遍。據(jù)慕尼黑再保險公司，其全球客戶數(shù)量從1980年的約200家增至去年的600多家。颶風“哈維”是自1979年以來襲擊休斯敦的第三個500年一遇的風暴。
At the same time, floods and storms are also becoming more costly. By one estimate, three times as many people were living in houses threatened by hurricanes in 2010 as in 1970, and the number is expected to grow as still more people move to coastal cities. The UN reckons that, in the 20 years to 2015, storms and floods caused $1.7trn of destruction; the World Health Organisation estimates that, in real terms, the global cost of hurricane damage is rising by 6% a year. Flood losses in Europe are predicted to increase fivefold by 2050.
與此同時，洪災和暴雨也造成越來越大的損失。據(jù)一項估計， 2010年受颶風威脅的居民人數(shù)是1970年時的三倍，而且隨著更多人遷至沿海城市，預計這一數(shù)字將繼續(xù)增長。聯(lián)合國估計，在1995至2015年的.20年間，暴雨和洪災已造成1.7萬億美元損失。世界衛(wèi)生組織估計，按市值計算，全球颶風損失每年增長6%。預計到2050年，歐洲洪災損失將增長五倍。
One cause is global warming. The frequency and severity of hurricanes vary naturally—America has seen unusually few in the past decade. Yet the underlying global trend is what you would expect from climate change. Warmer seas evaporate faster and warmer air can hold more water vapour, which releases energy when it condenses inside a weather system, feeding the violence of storms and the intensity of deluges. Rising sea levels, predicted to be especially marked in the Gulf of Mexico, exacerbate storm surges, adding to the flooding. Harvey was unusually devastating because it suddenly gained strength before it made landfall on Friday; it then stayed put, dumping its rain on Houston before returning to the Gulf. Again, that is consistent with models of a warmer world.
其中一個原因是全球變暖。颶風的頻率和嚴重程度各不相同，過去十年美國出現(xiàn)的颶風異常少，但是潛在的全球變化趨勢仍能從氣候變化中預測到。海水溫度升高，蒸發(fā)加快;空氣溫度升高，容納更多的水蒸氣，而水蒸氣在氣候系統(tǒng)凝結(jié)成雨時又釋放能量，加劇暴雨和洪災的猛烈程度。海平面的上升(根據(jù)預測墨西哥灣會尤其顯著)也加劇了暴雨和洪災。“哈維”颶風的毀滅性異乎尋常，因為其在周五登陸前突然加強，然后駐留，給休斯頓帶來傾盆大雨，最后回到墨西哥灣。這種情況再次與全球變暖的模式一致。
Poor planning bears even more blame. Houston, which has almost no restrictions on land-use, is an extreme example of what can go wrong. Although a light touch has enabled developers to cater to the city’s rapid growth—1.8m extra inhabitants since 2000—it has also led to concrete being laid over vast areas of coastal prairie that used to absorb the rain. According to the Texas Tribune and ProPublica, a charity that finances investigative journalism, since 2010 Harris County has allowed more than 8,600 buildings to be put up inside 100-year floodplains, where floods have a 1% chance of occurring in any year. Developers are supposed to build ponds to hold run-off water that would have soaked into undeveloped land, but the rules are poorly enforced. Because the maps are not kept up to date, properties supposedly outside the 100-year floodplain are being flooded repeatedly.
糟糕的城市建設規(guī)劃更是眾矢之的。休斯頓對于土地使用幾乎沒有任何限制，也因此變成了事態(tài)惡化的極端例子。盡管政府的低干預使得開發(fā)者們能夠迎合城市的高速發(fā)展——自從2000年來休斯頓新增居民180萬——但也導致大量的可吸收雨水的沿海草原被水泥地覆蓋。據(jù)德州論壇報和ProPublic(一家資助調(diào)查性報刊的公益機構(gòu))報道，自2010年起，德州哈里斯縣允許人們在百年一遇泛洪區(qū)內(nèi)建造逾8600棟建筑，在這些地區(qū)，任何一年都有1%的幾率發(fā)生洪災。開發(fā)商應修建池塘容納本將滲入未開發(fā)土地的徑流，但這些規(guī)定執(zhí)行不力。因為地圖沒有及時更新，據(jù)信建在百年一遇泛洪區(qū)之外的地產(chǎn)正反復受到洪災侵襲。
【本文作者：徐州七中彭向梅。(公眾號：草根英語行思教)】
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