紐時賞析／極端高溫每年致49萬人喪命…2溫室氣體最大產出國也難逃危機

沙烏地阿拉伯救難隊員在朝覲期間擔架擡走中暑病患。（法新社）

Well Beyond the U.S., Heat and Climate Extremes Are Hitting Billions

遠超美國 高溫、極端氣候殃及數十億人

Poll workers. Pilgrims. Tourists on a hike.

投票所工作人員。朝聖者。健行的遊客。

All have died in blistering heat in recent weeks around the world, a harrowing reminder of the global dangers of extreme weather as a heat wave bears down on nearly 100 million Americans this week.

上述這些人近幾周在世界各地的酷熱高溫下喪生，沉痛提醒人們極端天氣的全球性危機。而在本週，熱浪襲擊美國近一億人口。

Dozens of cities in Mexico broke heat records in May and June, killing more than 100 people. India has been under an extraordinarily long heat wave that killed several election workers. Greece is bracing for wildfires this week, after back-to-back heat waves killed several tourists. In Bamako, the capital of Mali, hospitals reported more than 100 excess deaths in the first four days of April, The Associated Press reported.

在5月和6月，墨西哥數十座城市打破高溫的紀錄，造成逾百人死亡。印度一直處於異常漫長的熱浪，導致多名投票所工作人員喪生。希臘歷經連續熱浪導致多名觀光客死亡後，本週要防備野火。美聯社報導，在馬利首都巴馬科，醫院通報4月頭四天超量死亡的人數超過百人。

Between May 2023 and May 2024, an estimated 6.3 billion people, or roughly 4 out of 5 people in the world, lived through at least a month of what in their areas were considered abnormally high temperatures, according to a recent analysis by Climate Central, a scientific nonprofit.

非營利科學組織「氣候中央」近期分析顯示，2023年5月至2024年5月，估計有63億人，即全球每五人就有四人在其所在地區經歷異常高溫至少一個月。

Extreme heat killed an estimated 489,000 people annually between 2000 and 2019, according to the World Meteorological Organization, making heat the deadliest of all extreme weather events. Swiss RE, the insurance industry giant, said in a report this week that the accumulating hazards of climate change could further drive the growing market for insurance against strikes and riots. “Climate change may also drive food and water shortages and in turn civil unrest, and mass migration,” the report said.

聯合國世界氣象組織指出，2000年至2019年，極端高溫估計每年導致48萬9000人死亡，使高溫成爲最致命的極端天氣事件。保險業巨頭「瑞士再保險」本週在一份報告中表示，不斷累積的氣候變遷危害，可能進一步促使針對罷工和騷亂的保險市場成長。報告指出，「氣候變遷可能也會促使食物和水源短缺，進而引發內亂和大規模移民」。

As for the world’s two rival economic powers, China and the United States, both face a common peril this summer. As one-fifth of all Americans were under an extreme heat alert this week, several areas in China’s north broke maximum temperature records. And earlier in the week the capital, Beijing, was under a heat alert as temperatures reached 37 degrees Celsius.

全球兩個相互競爭的經濟強權中國大陸和美國，今年夏季面臨共同的危險。五分之一的美國人本週身處極端高溫警示之際，中國大陸北部多個地區也打破高溫紀錄，本週稍早首都北京的氣溫達到攝氏37度而處於高溫警示。

The two countries are also the two biggest producers of greenhouse gases warming the planet. China’s current emissions are by far the highest in the world, and the United States’ cumulative emissions over the past 150 years of industrialization are the highest in the world.

兩國也是導致全球暖化的溫室氣體最大產出國。大陸目前的排放量顯然是全球最多，而美國過去150年工業化過程累積的排放量是舉世最高。

Emissions like these, produced by the burning of fossil fuels, are what drive these bouts of abnormally high temperatures, scientists have repeatedly found. “Unsurprisingly, heat waves are getting deadlier,” Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College in London, said Thursday.

科學家已一再發現，燃燒化石燃料產生氣體排放是造成異常高溫的原因。倫敦帝國學院氣候科學家奧托週四表示：「不出所料，熱浪正變得更致命。」

文／Somini Sengupta　譯／羅方妤