全球变暖将如何影响人们的吃饭问题

Warming temperatures will exacerbate crop-destructive events, ranging from fires to floods.

全球温度升高将会使破坏农作物的灾害更加严重，这些灾害包括火灾和洪涝。

　　


How Will Climate Change Impact Bread?

全球变暖将如何影响我们的吃饭问题

　　

Climate change may have begun to hit humans where it hurts-in the stomach. Research has shown how changing temperatures have influenced wheat yields in Montana over the last 60 years. And now catastrophic fires sweeping Russia give a taste of what climate change may bring to that bread basket.

气候变化可能已经开始影响人们最根本的问题了－－吃饭的问题。有研究已经表明，在过去六十年里升高的气温如何影响蒙塔纳洲的小麦产量。目前肆虐俄罗斯的灾难性大火让人们多少了解到气候变化可能对产粮区带来的严重后果。

　　

Millions of hectares of this year's wheat crop have been lost to the heat, drought and fires this summer in Russia-prompting U.S. wheat prices to double in a matter of days. Fears of a shortage led Russian and Ukrainian officials to impose controls on wheat exports. And that means higher costs for staples like bread or cereal.

今年夏天，俄罗斯因为高温、干旱和大火损失了几百万公顷的小麦，这使得美国的小麦价格在几天时间里就翻倍了。由于担心小麦短缺，俄罗斯和乌克兰的官员们对小麦出口进行了限制。这就意味着诸如面包或者谷物类食品会涨价。

　　

Fortunately, global wheat stockpiles are in better shape than during the last food crisis in 2007 and 2008. The supply may allow the world to dodge a repeat.

幸运的是，全球小麦的储备要比2007年和2008年发生粮食危机的时候多。全球小麦充足的供应量可能会让世界避免粮食危机再次发生。

　　

But climate change means that the risk of such fires-and the catastrophic floods that have affected 20 million people in Pakistan-continues to increase. In fact, the two events were connected by the same weather system, leading some scientists to blame human greenhouse gas emissions. That may or may not be the case with this individual weather event, which generally cannot be tied to global warming. But scientists will likely have to be very clever to assure that vital food crop yields keep pace with the coming climate of change.

但是，气候变暖意味着像发生俄罗斯这样的大火以及像影响巴基斯坦2千万人的洪灾的风险会持续增加。事实上，这两次灾难都与相同的天气系统有关，这就让一些科学家把灾难的原因归于人类温室气体的排放。对于这种独立性的天气情况（人们一般都不认为这与全球变暖有关），这样的指责或许成立，也或许不成立。但是，科学家们很可能会及其聪明的指出，主要农作物的产量应该跟上气候变化的步伐。

　　

　　

Vocabulary:


Exacerbate：恶化

Destructive：破坏性的

Catastrophic：灾难性的

Drought：干旱

Prompt：促使

Impose：强制实行；迫使

Staple：主食；支柱产品

Cereal：谷类食物；谷类作物

Stockpile：储备

Dodge：避开；逃避

Affect：影响

Vital：主要的；关键的