水患带来新商机

    冬季下雨，春季和夏季也下雨。几乎可以肯定的是，秋天的雨水将来得更加猛烈。今年，爱荷华州、伊利诺伊州、密歇根州和威斯康星州比往年更加多雨；澳大利亚、印度、巴基斯坦和孟加拉国已经遭受严重水灾；新西兰的降雨量是平常的四倍。所有这一切都发生在飓风季节到来之前。飓风袭来时，波涛汹涌，不断上升的海平面必将吞没大量防浪堤。

    面对持续不断的洪涝灾害，我们应该怎么办？其中有一个答案来自投资者。许多投资者不再认为极端天气是一种可能性，转而将其视为必然。花旗集团（Citigroup）和德意志银行（Deutsche Bank）都发布了与此相关的综合报告，详细介绍了它们的客户可以采取哪些方式投资于气候变化，从中获得收益。在这些银行看来，有望斩获最多收益的行业包括交通和基础设施，即运送人、转移水和阻隔海洋等领域。世界银行(The World Bank )估计,在下个世纪，全球将出现高达10亿之众的气候难民（它还建议，受到极端气候威胁的农民应该饲养鸭，而不是鸡，因为前者会漂浮，后者却没这个本事）。流离失所的民众不得不远走他乡，但目的地在哪里？印度正在沿着该国与孟加拉国的边境建造一面长度堪称世界之最、高8英尺（约2.44米）的巨墙，以隔离邻国的气候难民。与此同时，格陵兰群岛负责应对冰水事务的政府部门(Department of Ice and Water,)正打算出口冰山。荷兰人拥有抵御潮水的悠久历史，而且已经开始通过阿卡迪斯公司(Arcadis)向外输出相关知识。2009年，阿卡迪斯公司提交了一项价值65亿美元的计划，打算横跨纽约港建造一面6,000英尺高的模块化高墙。事实证明，这项计划颇有先见之明：差不多三年后，纽约港就迎来了桑迪飓风(Hurricane Sandy)。这家公司现在与新奥尔良、纽约和旧金山签署了合同，去年的收入同比增长26%。对于一些人来说，气候变化将是一个福音。

    一段时间以来，摄影师吉迪恩•孟德尔一直在用他的镜头记录世界各地的水灾。他说：

    “自2007年以来，我一直供职于‘被淹没的世界’(Drowning World)，一个长期关注水灾的全球性项目，这是我个人应对气候变化的方式。我经常跟随我的拍摄对象穿过深水，返回他们被洪水淹没的家园，用照片记录下留下的一切。我选择的设备是老禄来福来相机，习惯用胶片拍摄。我的摄影作品涉及全球8个不同的国家：英国、印度、海地、巴基斯坦、澳大利亚、泰国、尼日利亚和德国。”（财富中文网）

    译者：任文科  

    The rains came in the winter. And in the spring and summer. Almost certainly, they will come, hard, in the fall. This year Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin have been wetter than ever before; Australia, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have severely flooded; in New Zealand the rainfall is four times the usual. And all this before hurricane season, when a violent and rising sea will surely push well past several breakwaters.

    What to do about the persistent floods? One answer is coming from investors, who are no longer viewing extreme weather as a possibility, but an inevitability. Both Citigroup and Deutsche Bank have published comprehensive reports, detailing how their clients might benefit from investing in climate change. Among the sectors they identify that stand to benefit most: transportation and infrastructure -- the transport of people, the movement of water, the means of keeping back the sea. The World Bank estimates up to 1 billion climate refugees in the next century (it also recommends that threatened farmers raise ducks, which float, rather than chickens, which do not). The displaced must move, but to where? India is currently building an eight-foot-high wall -- the longest in the world -- along its border with Bangladesh to keep its neighbor's climate refugees out. Greenland's Department of Ice and Water, meanwhile, is looking to export its icebergs. The Dutch have a long history of keeping back rising tides and are already exporting such knowledge through the firm Arcadis, which in 2009 presented a $6.5 billion plan to build a modular 6,000-foot wall across New York Harbor. The plan was prescient: Nearly three years later Hurricane Sandy happened. The company now has contracts in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco, and revenue was up 26% last year. For some, a changing climate will be a boon.

    Photographer Gideon Mendel has been documenting floods around the world for some time now. The project in his words:

    "Since 2007 I have been working on Drowning World, a long-term global project about flooding as my way of responding to climate change. I frequently follow my subjects returning through deep waters, making the photographs at the remains of their homes. I choose to shoot on film, using old Rolleiflex cameras. My images have been made in eight different countries around the world: The UK, India, Haiti, Pakistan, Australia, Thailand, Nigeria and Germany."