新“出埃及记”揭示气候变化的人类现实

一些地方因为水太多（洪水、涨潮）感到恐慌，一些地方因为缺水（极度干旱、枯井）备受困扰。这不是圣经故事，而是世界各地人们因为气候变化面临的现实。

Weather.com新发表了一个系列专栏《出埃及记》，气象数据工作者们在专栏中展示了一个令人心痛的全球现象。世界银行的数据表明，截至2050年，将有超过1.43亿人因为气候变化的影响被迫离开家园，而这仅仅是拉丁美洲、撒哈拉以南非洲、南亚的数据。

当然，气候变化的影响波及全球每一个角落，包括美国。

“我们会谈到风暴带来的立竿见影的影响，也会尽量用普通人可以理解的说法解释气候变化的长期影响，在一些案例中，气候变化带来了毁灭性的影响”，天气频道（The Weather Channel）的全球新闻主管兼主编格里格·吉尔德曼（Greg Gilderman）说。该频道属于同名的天气公司（The Weather Company），该公司2015年起成为科技巨头IBM的子机构。

目前，《出埃及记》为马萨诸塞州的斯基尤特撰写了专栏，去年冬天四场东北风暴袭击了此地，房屋大量损毁。其中两场风暴造成损失超过10亿美元，31人死亡。

在马里兰州的埃里克特城，致命洪水频频肆虐，原因是气候变暖让美国东北部更容易下大暴雨，而在世界其它地方，约旦的干旱让战争难民成为环境难民。农民被迫离开农村，去城里找生计，因为在极度高温中庄稼根本无法存活。

未来的专题将会讲述库尔德斯坦、西西里、尼日利亚、孟加拉湾的故事，Weather.com的执行编辑凯文·海耶斯（Kevin Hayes）称，他们希望在专栏结束时，其中一半是美国国内的故事，一半是其它国家的故事。

“我们想讲范围更广、更多元、更全球性的故事，因为我们面临的问题是多元的、全球性的、影响世界各地”，海耶斯告诉本刊。

尽管天气公司认为气候变化是科学事实，它也明白并非所有读者都承认这一点。公司在《出埃及记》的介绍中写道：“如果你不承认气候变化正在发生这一事实，这个专栏很可能也无法说服你，因为其它事都没让你信服。但气候失调的确给人类造成了混乱。”

尽管目前只发表了三个故事，但已经有几百万人次通过网页、手机、社交媒体、视频等公司的各个平台看过《出埃及记》。

吉尔德曼说，“我确实觉得新闻机构在很多事情上都不能再闪烁其词了，特别是在气候变化的问题上”，他还说，这个系列并没有用权威科学家的说法和否定气候变化的说法对质。

《出埃及记》意在描述气候变化用“微妙又直接”的方式迫使人们迁徙，这种说法在气候科学中是有研究依据的。

“对我而言，能够给人们讲这些故事是我的荣幸”，海耶斯说，“这能让他们接触到气候变化的现实。”（财富中文网）

译者：Agatha

An excess of water (floods, rising tides) causes panic in some communities, while the lack of water (extreme drought, depleted wells) threatens others. This is not a biblical tale, but reality for people around the world facing the results of climate change.

In a new editorial series called Exodus, published on Weather.com, the people behind the meteorologists’ data show the sometimes heart-wrenching effects of a global phenomenon. According to the World Bank, more than 143 million people could be forced to relocate within their own countries by 2050 in response to the impacts of climate change—and that’s in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia alone.

Of course, the effects of climate change reach every corner of the globe, including the U.S.

“Much as we would cover the immediate impact of a storm, we’re commuting the long term effects—which in many cases are really devastating—of climate change, in what we hope are really human terms,” says Greg Gilderman, global head of news and editor-in-chief of The Weather Channel. The Weather Company, which publishes the channel of the same name, has been a division of tech giant IBM since 2015.

So far, Exodus has featured the community of Scituate, Mass., where homes were slammed by four nor’easters last winter. Two of the storms caused more than $1 billion in damage and killed 31 people.

In Ellicott City, Md., devastating floods hit every few years as a warming climate increases the likelihood of heavier rains in the northeast U.S., while across the world, in Jordan, droughts are turning refugees of war into refugees of their environment. Farmers have been forced to move to the city to find work, unable to grow crops in the extreme heat.

Future features will tell the stories of Kurdistan, Sicily, Nigeria, the Bay of Bengal. Kevin Hayes, an executive editor at Weather.com, says they expect to have half domestic and half international stories by the end of the series.

“We’re trying to tell stories that are broader and more diverse and more global, because the problem is worldwide, global, and diverse,” Hayes tells Fortune.

While the Weather Company addresses climate change as scientific fact, it’s aware that not all readers will acknowledge the truth. In its introduction of Exodus, the Weather Company wrote, “Look, if you’re reading this and you reject the fact that climate change is happening, these pieces probably aren’t going to convince you, because you haven’t been convinced by anything else. But climate disruptions cause human disruptions.”

With just three stories published, Exodus has already reached several millions viewers across all the company’s platforms: web, mobile, social, and video.

“I do think there was a demand…for news organizations to not equivocate on many issues, but particular on this issue,” says Gilderman, adding that the series does not put statements by credible scientists against those of a climate change denier.

Backed by climate science, Exodus aims to address the “subtle and direct” ways in which climate change is forcing people to migrate.

“For me it feels like a privilege to be able to tell stories to those people,” says Hayes, “and get them to interact with the reality of climate change.”