现代大学英语精读第二版（第五册）学习笔记（原文及全文翻译）——9 - Al Gore‘s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptable Speech（阿尔·戈尔诺贝尔和平奖获奖感言）

Unit 9 - Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize Acceptable Speech

Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize Acceptable Speech

Al Gore

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Honorable members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

I have a purpose here today. It is a purpose I have tried to serve for many years. I have prayed that God would show me a way to accomplish it.

Sometimes, without warning, the future knocks on our door with a precious and painful vision of what might be. One hundred and nineteen years ago, a wealthy inventor read his own obituary, mistakenly published years before his death. Wrongly believing the inventor had just died, a newspaper printed a harsh judgment of his life's work, unfairly labeling him the "Merchant of Death" because of his invention, dynamite. Shaken by this condemnation, the inventor made a fateful choice to serve the cause of peace.

Seven years later, Alfred Nobel created this prize and the others that bear his name.

Seven years ago tomorrow, I read my own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken, if not premature. But that unwelcome verdict also brought a precious, if painful gift: an opportunity to search for fresh, new ways to serve my purpose.

Unexpectedly, that quest has brought me here. Even though I fear my words cannot match this moment, I pray that what I am feeling in my heart will be communicated clearly enough that those who hear me will say, "We must act."

The distinguished scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to share this award have laid before us a choice between two different futures, a choice that to my ears echoes the words of an ancient prophet: "Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live."

We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency, a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential, even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: We have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst, though not all, of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.

However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world's leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler's threat and I quote: They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.

So today we dumped another 70 million tons of global warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.

As a result, the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not a passing affliction that will heal by itself. We asked for a second opinion. And a third. And a fourth. And the consistent conclusion, restated with increasing distress, is that something basic is wrong.

We are what is wrong, and we must make it right.

Last September 21, as the Northern Hemisphere tilted away from the sun, scientists reported with unprecedented alarm that the North Polar icecap is, in their words, "falling off a cliff." One study estimated that it could be completely gone during summer in less than 22 years. Another new study, to be presented by U.S. Navy researchers later this week, warns it could happen in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.

In the last few months, it has been harder and harder to misinterpret the signs that our world is spinning out of kilter. Major cities in North and South America, Asia and Australia are nearly out of water due to massive droughts and melting glaciers. Desperate farmers are losing their livelihoods. Peoples in the frozen Arctic and on low-lying Pacific islands are planning evacuations of places they have long called home. Unprecedented wildfires have forced a half million people from their homes in one country and caused a national emergency that almost brought down the government in another. Climate refugees have migrated into areas already inhabited by people with different cultures, religions and traditions, increasing the potential for conflict. Stronger storms in the Atlantic and Pacific have threatened whole cities. Millions have been displaced by massive flooding in South Asia, Mexico and 18 countries in Africa. As temperature extremes have increased, tens of thousands have lost their lives. We are recklessly burning and clearing our forests and driving more and more species into extinction. The very web of life on which we depend is being ripped and frayed.

We never intended to cause all this destruction, just as Alfred Nobel never intended that dynamite be used for waging war. He had hoped his invention would promote human progress. We shared that same worthy goal when we began burning massive quantities of coal, then oil and natural gas.

Even in Nobel's time, there were a few warnings of the likely consequences. One of the very first winners of the Prize in chemistry worried that in his words, "We are evaporating our coal mines into the air." After performing 10,000 equations by hand, Svante Arrhenius calculated that the earth's average temperature would increase by many degrees if we doubled the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Seventy years later, my teacher, Roger Revelle and his colleague Dave Keeling began to precisely document the increasing CO2 levels day by day.

But unlike most other forms of pollution, CO2 is invisible, tasteless and odorless, which has helped keep the truth about what it is doing to our climate out of sight and out of mind. Moreover, the catastrophe now threatening us is unprecedented, and we often confuse the unprecedented with the improbable.

We also find it hard to imagine making the massive changes that are now necessary to solve the crisis. And when large truths are genuinely inconvenient, whole societies can, at least for a time, ignore them. Yet as George Orwell reminds us: "Sooner or later, a false belief bumps up against a solid reality, usually on a battlefield."

In the years since this prize was first awarded, the entire relationship between human kind and the earth has been radically transformed. And still we have remained largely oblivious to the impact of our cumulative actions.

Indeed without realizing it, we have begun to wage war on the earth itself. Now we and the earth's climate are locked in a relationship familiar to war planners: "Mutually assured destruction."

More than two decades ago, scientists calculated that nuclear war could throw so much debris and smoke into the air that it would block life-giving sunlight from our atmosphere, causing a nuclear winter. Their eloquent warnings here in Oslo helped galvanize the world's resolve to halt the nuclear arms race.

Now science is warning us that if we do not quickly reduce the global warming pollution that is trapping so much of the heat our planet normally radiates back out of the atmosphere, we are in danger of creating a permanent "carbon summer."

As the American poet Robert Frost wrote, "Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice." Either, he notes, "would suffice."

But neither need be our fate. It is time to make peace with the planet.

We must quickly mobilize our civilization with the urgency and resolve that has previously been seen only when nations mobilized for war. These prior struggles for survival were won when leaders found words at the 11th hour that released a mighty surge of courage, hope and readiness to sacrifice for a protracted and mortal struggle.

These were not comforting and misleading assurances that the threat was not real, or imminent, that it would afflict others but not ourselves; that ordinary life might be lived even in the presence of extraordinary threat; that Providence could be trusted to do for us what we would not do for ourselves.

No, these were calls to come to the defense of the common future.

They were calls upon the courage, generosity and strength of entire peoples, citizens of every class and condition who were ready to stand against the threat once asked to do so. Our enemies in those times calculated that free people would not rise to the challenge; they were, of course, catastrophically wrong.

Now comes the threat of climate crisis, a threat that is real, rising, imminent and universal. Once again, it is the 11th hour. The penalties for ignoring this challenge are immense and growing, and, at some near point, would be unsustainable and unrecoverable. For now we still have the power to choose our fate, and the remaining question is only this: Have we the will to act, vigorously and in time, or will we remain imprisoned by a dangerous illusion?

Mahatma Gandhi awakened the largest democracy on earth and forged a shared resolve with what he called "Satyagraha" or "truth force."

In every land, the truth, once known, has the power to set us free.

Truth also has the power to unite us and bridge the distance between "me" and "we" creating the basis for common effort and shared responsibility.

There's an African proverb that says, "If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." We need to go far, quickly.

We must abandon the conceit that individual, isolated, private actions are the answer. They can and do help, but they will not take us far enough without collective action. At the same time, we must ensure that in mobilizing globally, we do not invite the establishment of ideological conformity and a new lockstep "ism."

That means adopting principles, values, laws and treaties that release creativity and initiative at every level of society in multi-fold responses, originating concurrently and spontaneously.

This new consciousness requires expanding the possibilities inherent in all humanity. The innovators who will devise a new way to harness the sun's energy for pennies, or invent an engine that's carbon-negative may live in Lagos or Mumbai or Montevideo. We must ensure that entrepreneurs and inventors everywhere on the globe have the chance to change the world.

When we unite for a moral purpose that is manifestly good and true, the spiritual energy unleashed can transform us. The generation that defeated fascism throughout the world in the 1940s found in rising to meet their awesome challenge that they had gained the moral authority and longterm vision to launch the Marshall Plan, the United Nations and a new level of global cooperation and foresight that unified Europe and facilitated the emergence of democracy in Japan, Germany, Italy and much of the world. One of their visionary leaders said, "It is time we steered by the stars, and not by the lights of every passing ship."

In the last year of that war, you gave the Peace Prize to a man from my hometown of 2,000 people, Carthage, Tennessee in the U.S.A. Cordell Hull was described by Franklin Roosevelt as the Father of the United Nations. He was an inspiration and hero to my own father, who followed Hull in the Congress and the U.S. Senate, and in his commitment to world peace and global cooperation.

My parents spoke often of Hull, always in tones of reverence and admiration. Eight weeks ago, when you announced this prize, the deepest emotion I felt was when I saw the headline in my hometown paper that simply noted I had won the same prize that Cordell Hull had won. In that moment, I knew what my father and mother would have felt were they alive.

Just as Hull's generation found moral authority in rising to solve the world crisis caused by fascism, so too can we find our greatest opportunity in rising to solve the climate crisis. In the characters used in both Chinese and Japanese, "crisis" is written with two symbols: the first meaning "danger," the second "opportunity." By facing and removing the danger of the climate crisis, we have the opportunity to gain the moral authority and vision to vastly increase our own capacity to solve other crises that have been too long ignored.

We must understand the connections between the climate crisis and the afflictions of poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDS and other pandemics. As these problems are linked, so, too, must be their solutions. We must begin by making the common rescue of the global environment the central organizing principle of the world community.

Fifteen years ago, I made that case at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Ten years ago, I presented it in Kyoto. This week, I will urge the delegates in Bali to adopt a bold mandate for a treaty that establishes a universal global cap on emissions and uses the market in emissions trading to efficiently allocate resources to the most effective opportunities for speedy reductions.

This treaty should be ratified and brought into effect everywhere in the world by the beginning of 2010, two years sooner than presently contemplated. The pace of our response must be accelerated to match the accelerating pace of the crisis itself.

Heads of state should meet early next year to review what was accomplished in Bali and take personal responsibility for addressing this crisis. It is not unreasonable to ask, given the gravity of our circumstances, that these heads of state meet every three months until the treaty is completed.

We also need a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store carbon dioxide.

And most important of all, we need to put a price on carbon, with a COz tax that is then rebated back to the people, progressively, according to the laws of each nation, in ways that shift the burden of taxation from employment to pollution. This is by far the most effective and simplest way to accelerate solutions to this crisis.

The world now needs an alliance, especially of those nations that weigh heaviest in the scales where earth is in the balance. I salute Europe and Japan for the steps they've taken in recent years to meet the challenge, and the new government in Australia, which has made solving the climate crisis its first priority.

But the outcome will be decisively influenced by two nations that are now failing to do enough: the United States and China. While India is also growing fast in importance, it should be absolutely dear that it is the two largest C02 emitters, and most of all my own country, that will need to make the boldest moves or stand accountable before history for their failure to act.

Both countries should stop using the other's behavior as an excuse for stalemate, and instead develop an agenda for mutual survival in a shared global environment.

These are the last few years of decision, but they can be the first years of a bright and hopeful future if we do what we must. No one should believe a solution will be found without effort, without cost, without change. Let us acknowledge that if we wish to redeem squandered time and speak again with moral authority, then these are the hard truths:

The way ahead is difficult. The outer boundary of what we currently believe to be feasible is still far short of what we actually must do. Moreover, between here and there, across the unknown, falls the shadow.

That is just another way of saying that we have to expand the boundaries of what is possible. In the words of the Spanish poet Antonio Machado, "Path walker, there is no path. You must make the path as you walk."

We are standing at the most fateful fork in that path. So I want to end as I began, with a vision of two futures, each a palpable possibility, and with a prayer that we will see with vivid clarity the necessity of choosing between those two futures and the urgency of making the right choice now.

The great Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, wrote, "One of these days the younger generation will come knocking at my door."

The future is knocking at our door right now. Make no mistake, the next generation will ask us one of two questions. Either they will ask: "What were you thinking; why didn't you act?"

Or they will ask instead: How did you find the moral courage to rise and successfully resolve a crisis that so many said was impossible to solve?"

We have everything we need to get started, save perhaps political will, but political will is a renewable resource.

So let us renew it, and say together: "We have a purpose. We are many. For this purpose we will rise and we will act."

参考译文——阿尔·戈尔诺贝尔和平奖获奖感言

阿尔·戈尔诺贝尔和平奖获奖感言

阿尔·戈尔

尊贵的国王陛下，尊贵的各位殿下，尊敬的各位挪威诺贝尔学会的会员们，诸位阁下，女士们、先生们：

我怀着一个目的来到这里，为了这个目的我已经奋斗多年。我曾向上帝祈祷，希望他能为我指出一条实现这一目标的道路。

有时，在毫无警告的情况下，未来会突然叩响我们的房门，让我们看到宝贵而令人痛苦的未来景象。119年前，一位富有的发明家在自己去世数年前就在报上读到了自己的讣告，是一家报纸误登的。那家报纸误以为发明家刚刚离世，对他的一生进行了非常严厉的批评，将他称为“死亡商人”，因为他发明了炸药。这一评价有失公允，但发明家却因这指责而深受震动，做出了一个极为重要的决定——为和平而不懈努力。

七年之后，阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔设立了诺贝尔和平奖，以及其他诸多以他的名字命名的奖项。

到明天就整整七年了，就在七年前，我在一则判决中读到了我的政治生涯讣告，这讣告是残忍和错误的，再说也为时过早。虽然令人痛苦，但这份不受欢迎的判决书也带给我一份珍贵的礼物：一个寻求全新途径来实现目标的机会。

出乎我的意料，这一新的追求将我带到了这里。尽管我此刻恐怕言不达意，但我祈求上帝将我心中所感清晰地传达给大家，每一位听众听完后都能说：“我们必须行动起来！”

我一生中极大的荣幸就是与这些尊贵的科学家们分享诺贝尔和平奖，他们将两种不同未来的选择摆在了我们的面前，而这一选择在我听起来类似一位古老的预言家曾说过的话：“生与死，福与祸，你们要选择生，那样，你和你的后代将可能存活下去。”

我们人类正面临一场全球性的危机，威胁到人类文明的存亡。即使我们在这里相聚商讨对策，这一危机仍在积聚力量——不祥的、具有毁灭性的力量。但也有一个好消息：我们有能力解决这场危机，虽然无法完全免于不幸，但可以避免出现最糟糕的情况。前提是我们能勇敢、果断而且迅速地行动起来。

然而，世界领导人中除了一小部分令人肃然起敬的例外情况之外，尽管这部分人的数目在增加，绝大部分领导人都像丘吉尔所描述的那些对阿道夫·希特勒的威胁视而不见的人那样，此处我引用原文：“他们陷在一个矛盾的怪圈中，决定的结果是举棋不定，毫不动摇地犹豫不决，坚定不移地随波逐流，强大有力却安于无能为力。”

所以，我们今天又将7000万吨温室气体排放到大气层中，这一层包裹着地球的薄薄的大气层被我们当成了开放式下水道。明天，我们会排放更多。随着大气层中温室气体浓度越来越髙，越来越多的太阳热能被截留在地球上。

因此，地球就会“发烧而且温度越来越高”。专家们告诉我们，这不是可以不治而愈的一时的病痛。我们问了许多不同的专家，两批、三批、四批。但是一遍又一遍地听到同样的结论令我们日益沮丧——我们犯了根本性的错误。

气候的变化是我们人类自己造成的，因此，也必须由我们予以纠正。

在去年9月21日，当北半球朝着离太阳的位置稍微倾斜之时（即秋季刚刚开始时），科学家们带着前所未有的恐惧报告说，北极冰帽“正在从悬崖落下”。一份研究结果预测北极冰帽将在不到22年的时间里在某个夏天彻底消失。美国海军研究人员将在本周稍晚些时候发布一项新的研究结果，结果表明北极冰帽完全融化的时间可能短至七年。七年，就从此刻开始计时。

在过去数月中，种种迹象显示我们的地球越来越失去平衡，这些迹象如此淸晰，没有人会对此产生误解。由于大规模的旱灾和冰川融化，南北美洲、亚洲和澳洲的大城市都陷于水荒。绝望的农民们失去了生计，居住在北极冻原和太平洋低洼岛屿上的人们不得不准备撤离他们长久以来生活的家园。前所未有的野火迫使一国近50万人口背井离乡并在另一国引发国家危机，几乎使该国政府垮台。气候难民涌入其他地区，但那里已经居住着不同文化、不同宗教和不同习俗的人们，这些地区面临着更大的冲突风险。越来越强的太平洋和大西洋风暴威胁着整个城市的安全。南亚、墨西哥和非洲18个国家的数以百万计的人口因为大规模洪灾而流离失所。随着极端气温的幅度扩大，成千上万人失去了生命。而我们肆无忌惮地焚烧、砍伐森林，导致越来越多的物种灭绝，我们赖以生存的生命之网正在被粗暴地撕裂和承受过重的压力。

我们从未意图造成这样的破坏，就像当初阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔也从未想过将炸药用于战争。他的初衷是他的发明有助于人类的进步。当我们开始燃烧大量的煤炭、是石油和天然气时，我们也有同样崇高的愿景。

甚至在诺贝尔的时代，就有不少人对人类行为可能的后果发出了警告。诺贝尔化学奖的最早获奖者之一就曾在言辞间表示过忧虑：“我们正将煤矿蒸发到空气中。”斯凡特·阿伦尼斯在手工计算一万个方程式之后认为，如果我们使大气中的二氧化碳含量增加一倍，则地球的平均气温将上升好几度。

七十年后，我的老师罗杰·雷维尔和他的同事迪夫·基林开始每天精确记录大气中日益上升的二氧化碳含量。

然而，与其他形式的污染不同，二氧化碳无色无味，使我们不易看到它对我们的气候造成的危害，因而也使我们往往忽视了它的破坏性。更糟的是，正在威胁我们的灾难是前所未有的，而我们经常错误地认为是前所未有的就意味着是不可能的。

我们同样发现，为了应对这场危机我们所要采取的行为规模之大超出想象。当重要的真理带来麻烦时，整个社会都可能，至少在一段时间内，对这些真理视而不见。但是乔治·奥威尔曾提醒过我们：“早晚有一天，错误的思想会迎面撞上铁铮铮的现实，但那时已是战火纷飞。”

自诺贝尔奖设立至今，人类与自然的关系已发生了重大变化。但我们却对自己的行为对地球日积月累造成的影响视而不见。

事实上，我们在不知不觉间已经向地球开战。如今我们与地球气候之间的关系陷入僵局，正如战略家们所熟悉的用语：“两败俱伤。”

二十多年前，科学家计算得出，核战争会将大量的灰尘和烟雾释放到大气中，隔绝我们赖以生存的阳光，造成“核冬天”。就在这里，奥斯陆，他们的雄辩警示推动了全球抑制核军备竞赛的决心。

现在科学家警告我们，如果我们不迅速减少温室气体排放，原本被地球反射出大气层外的热量就会被聚集在大气层中，越聚越多，我们将面临一个永久“碳夏天”的危险。

正如美国诗人罗伯特·弗罗斯特曾写道：“有人说世界将毁于火，有人说毁于冰。”他评注说：“两者皆能导向灭亡。”

但这两者未必就是我们的命运。是时候与地球握手言和了。

我们必须迅速动员起来，让全社会都产生危机感和决心，就像我们以前动员全民应对战争一样。领袖们曾经在生死存亡之际发表的演说使人们心中涌起勇气和希望，愿意为一场持久的、崇高的战争牺牲自我。我们因此在这场为生存而战的斗争中获得了胜利。

这些演说不是安慰，不是误导人们相信这些威胁都是虚假的、遥远的，或这些威胁只会危害到其他人而不会危害到我们自己；也不是让人以为即使出现了超乎寻常的危险，我们依然能维持正常生活；更不是让人相信上帝会替我们去做这些我们自己不愿做的事情。

不，这些演说是召唤我们一起捍卫我们共同的未来。

召唤每一个民族、每一个人的勇气、无私和力量，不分阶级、不分境遇，一旦有需要，随时都能站出来与敌人斗争。当时，我们的敌人以为未陷人战争的人们不会站出来，但是他们犯了致命的错误。

如今，我们面临的是气候危机，一个切切实实的威胁，日趋严重、迫在眉睫、波及全球。我们再次面临生死存亡的时刻。无视这个挑战的后果将是极为严重且愈演愈烈的，而且，一旦到了一定程度，地球将无法延续，创伤将无法修复，而这一程度距今已不远。现在，我们还有能力选择我们的命运，剩下的问题只有一个：我们是否有决心采取积极而及时的行动，还是继续耽于致命的幻想？

圣雄甘地唤起了全世界最大规模的民主运动，他以“真理的力量”令民众树立共同的决心。

在每一片土地上，真理一旦为人们所知，就具备解放我们的力量。

真理的力量还能使我们团结起来，消除自私小“我”和无私大“我”之间的障碍，为我们并肩奋斗、共担责任创造基础。

非洲有一句谚语：“欲行速，须独行；欲行远，须同行。”我们既要行远，也要行速。

有观点认为个别的、单独的、私下的行为就可以解决问题，我们必须摒弃这样的想法。这样的行为固然有所帮助，但没有集体的行动他们走不了多远。同时，我们必须确保在全球总动员中，我们不会导致建立统一的意识形态或形成一种新的要求机械一致的某种主义或理论。

这意味着采取新的原则、价值观、法律和协议，这些新事物都必须能够使社会各个层次以多种方式同时地并自然地响应，释放出他们的创造性和主动性。

这一新的意识要求激发所有人类固有的潜能。也许就在拉各斯、孟买或者蒙得维的亚生活着能够设计出新方法以非常低的成本来控制太阳热能的设计师或能发明“零碳型”引擎的设计师。我们必须确保世界上每一位企业家或发明家都能够获得机会去改变世界。

当我们为了一个崇髙的目标，一个显然是高尚而正确的目标而团结起来时，由此产生的巨大精神力最会改变我们。20世纪40年代，我们在全球范围内击溃了法西斯主义。这一代人发现，正是在起来迎接挑战的过程中他们获得了道义的力量和长远的目光，才在此后实施了马歇尔计划，建立了联合国，推动了更高程度的国际合作。他们的远见促成了欧洲的团结，促进了日本、德国、意大利以及世界许多地方的民主进程。他们之中有一位富有远见卓识的领导人曾说过：“是时候追随天上星光的指引，而不是盲目跟随过路船只的灯光。”

在第二次世界大战结束之年，诺贝尔和平奖颁给了来自美国田纳西州一个只有2000人的小镇迦太基的科德尔·赫尔，我的同乡。科德尔·赫尔被富兰克林·罗斯福誉为联合国之父。他是我父亲心中的英雄，也给了我父亲莫大的鼓舞。无论是在国会还是参议院，我父亲都是他的追随者，也随他一同致力于世界和平与全球合作事业。

每当我父母亲提起赫尔，他们的语气中都充满了尊敬和仰慕。八周前诺贝尔奖获奖人选公布，小镇报纸头条简单明了，仅说我所获得的奖项与科德尔·赫尔当年获得的相同，但这却是最令我激动的时刻。那一刻，如果我的父母亲尚健在，我能体会到他们心底的感受。

正如同赫尔这一代人在应对法西斯主义引起的世界危机时获得了道义的力量我们也可以在应对气候危机时获得最佳机遇。在中文和日文中“危机”由两个字符组成：第一个字符表示“危险”，而第二个字符表示“机会”。通过直面气候危机并将其解除，我们将有机会获得道义的力量，并且发展长远的目光来迅速提高我们的能力来应对长久以来一直被我们所忽视的其他危机。

我们必须认识到气候危机与贫穷、饥饿、艾滋病以及其他流行疾病等灾难是紧密相连的。正因为它们互相关联，它们的解决方法也必然相互结合。我们首先必须将共同拯救全球环境作为人类社会的最髙组织原则。

十五年前，我在里约热内卢的地球髙峰会议上提出了这个提案。十年前，在京都又再次提出。本周我将敦促巴厘岛会议的代表采取一项大胆的授权，以达成一项协定，这一协定将对全球温室气体排放施行最高限额，并通过排污权交易市场的形式将资源分配给最有效的机会，以便实现迅速减排。

这一协定应当于2010年新年到来之前在全球范围内获得认可并付诸实施，比目前计划提前两年。我们必须加快脚步采取应对措施，因为危机本身正在以越来越快的速度加深。

国家领导人应当于明年年初再次碰面，以回顾在巴厘岛达成的共识并承担起各自应对危机的职责。考虑到我们所处情况的严重性，要求各国首脑在协议完成之前每三个月开一次会应该是并不为过的。

同时我们还需要暂时停止建设一切燃烧煤炭而却没有能力安全截留和储存二氧化碳的发电设施。

最重要的是我们需要给碳标价，征收二氧化碳排放税，根据各国法律逐步返还给各国民众，将纳税的负担从就业转移到污染排放，这是目前为止最简单有效的加快危机解决的方法。

全世界都要联合起来，尤其是那些对地球的命运具有决定作用的国家更需要加入进来。我要向欧洲和日本致敬，向它们近几年为应对气候危机所采取的行动致敬；也要向澳大利亚本届新政府致敬，因为它们将应对气候危机列于政府工作首位。

但是，对这场全球合作的结果具有决定性影响作用的两个国家——美国和中国——却做得远远不够。虽然印度的重要性也日益凸显，但我们必须淸醒地看到，现在美中两国是全球最大的二氧化碳排放国，尤其是我自己的国家。它们必须采取最果断的措施减排，否则它们必将为各自的失误承担历史责任。

这两个国家应该停止利用对方的行为作为僵持的借口，而应当为了在共同拥有的全球环境下共存而制定议事日程。

现在是必须做出决定的最后几年，但是如果我们做到我们必须做的事，这也能够成为光明的和充满希望的未来的开始。人们不该认为不做出努力、不付出代价、不进行改变就能找到解决问题的办法。我们必须清楚地认识到，如果我们想要挽回浪费的时间并获得道义的力量，以下几方面是不可否认的事实：

前方道路艰难险阻。我们当前认为可行的最大范围和我们实际上必须做到的相比仍然远远不足。而且，在我们认为可行的范围到我们应采取的行为之间仍有大片未知的领域，阴影重重。

也就是说，我们必须去探索可能的途径。以西班牙诗人安东尼奥·马查多的话来说：“路人呐，世间本无路，路在君足下。”

此刻，我们站在决定命运的岔路口，所以，我想再次重申我在演说开始时的话作为演说的结朿。我们的面前有两种未来，每一种都可能成为现实，触手可及。我祈祷我们都能清晰地看到，在这两种未来之间的选择不可避免，而且刻不容缓，此刻必须做出正确的选择。

伟大的挪威剧作家亨利克·易卜生曾说道：“很快，年轻的一代会敲响我的门。”

此刻，未来正在敲响我们的门。毋庸置疑，下一代会问我们以下两个问题之一：“你们到底在想什么？为什么不采取行动？”

或者，他们会问：“许多人认为这个问题是无法解决的，你们如何能坚持道义、鼓起勇气站起来面对这一危机，并将其成功解决？”

现在我们万事俱备，只待开始，也许唯一欠缺的就是政治决心，但政治决心是可再生的资源。

让我们下定决心，同声髙喊：“我们怀着共同的目标，万众一心，向着目标，奋起战斗。”

Key Words:

premature [.premə'tjuə]

adj. 提前的，过早的，早产的 n. 早产儿，早熟

misinterpret ['misin'tə:prit]

v. 误解

unprecedented [ʌn'presidəntid]

adj. 空前的，前所未有的

improbable [im'prɔbəbl]

adj. 未必然的，不像会发生的，似不可信的

protracted [prə'træktid]

adj. 延长的，拖延的

galvanize ['gælvənaiz]

v. 通电，镀锌，刺激

proverb ['prɔvə:b]

n. 谚语，格言

afflict [ə'flikt]

vt. 使苦恼，折磨

moratorium [.mɔrə'tɔ:riəm]

n. 延期偿付，延期偿付期间

palpable ['pælpəbl]

adj. 易觉察的，明显的

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