人类成气候变化受害者全新代言人

    根据政府间气候变化专门委员会 (IPCC)的最新报告，气候变化将造成大规模的粮食短缺，把沿海社区置于危险境地，破坏淡水供应，同时还会导致世界各地的冲突增加。它的影响不是均衡分布的：那些身处拥挤的边缘区域，最负担不起的人群将遭受最大的伤害。

    这一切都足以要求你做好未雨绸缪的打算，尝试着从国家地理频道(National Geographic Channel)的节目《末日生存者》(Doomsday Preppers)中寻找生存诀窍。但我并不完全这么想。

    这份报告最终让气候变化有了一个新面孔：我们的面孔。这是我们所需要的改变。

    就在几年前，气候变化的“面孔”还是一只漂泊在浮冰上的北极熊，与此相关的新闻重点是关于喜马拉雅山脉的温度变化和冰川融化的种种预测。

    但正如IPCC的最新报告所示，毫无疑问，气候变化已不再是一件发生在遥远未来，发生在一个我们大多数人永远也不会光临的遥远地带，发生在野生动物身上的事情。这一幕就发生在现在，就发生在我们自己身上，发生在我们的土地上，正在影响我们的食物供应，我们的水源，我们的工作，我们的安全，我们的健康和我们的生活方式。

    最近在日本举行的一场会议上致开幕词时， IPCC主席拉金德拉•帕乔里说：“在这个星球上，没有哪个人不会受到气候变化的影响。”

    尽管这一切或许非常可怕，但这个问题与越来越多的人越来越相关，也就意味着我们更有可能会就此采取一些行动。

    这也是《危及生存这些年》(Years of Living Dangerously)传递的讯息，这个具有突破性意义的全新系列节目将于4月13日在Showtime频道首播。

    过去的一年，一批星光熠熠的撰稿人和制作人在美国心脏地带和世界各地认真研究气候对人们日常生活的影响，我也是其中一员。我跟随气候科学家在缅因州、夏威夷、圣诞岛和安第斯山脉等地进行了实地研究。唐•钱德尔等撰稿人前往美国西南部的炙热沙漠，哈里森•福特去印度尼西亚考察伐木情况，汤姆•弗里德曼则从严重缺水的中东地区发来报道。

    这个系列节目通过阐明气候变化现象，同时使用人性化的故事来捕捉气候变化带来的影响，很有希望鼓励公众采取行动——这正是IPCC新报告所做的事情。我很高兴地看到，在我们这些背负传递气候变化讯息任务的人当中，许多人似乎正朝着同一个方向迈进。

    阅读IPCC报告时，大家会发现另一种转变——人们似乎正在适应不断变化的气候。在一些人看来，这个现象或许预示着坏消息。我们是不是已经放弃了减排努力？所谓的适应，不就是在一艘正在下沉的轮船上重新排列一下甲板上的躺椅吗？

    我不这样看。

    According to the latest IPCC report, climate change will cause massive food shortages, put coastal communities at risk, destroy freshwater supplies and increase conflict worldwide. And the impact will not be evenly spread; those who can least afford it, in marginal crowded geographies, will suffer the most.

    It’s enough to make you batten down the hatches and look for tips from the National Geographic Channel’s “Doomsday Preppers.” But I don’t look at it entirely that way.

    The report finally puts a new face on climate change: ours. And that’s a change we need.

    Just a few years ago, the “face” of climate change was a polar bear adrift on an ice floe, and the news was focused on predictions about temperature changes and melting glaciers in the Himalayas.

    But as the new IPCC report reveals in no uncertain terms, climate change is no longer something that’s happening to wild animals in the distant future in a faraway place most of us will never visit. It’s us. It’s now. It’s happening to our land, impacting our food supplies, our water, our jobs, our security, our health and our way of life.

    In an opening statement at the recent Japan meeting, IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri said, “Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by climate change.”

    As frightening as this may be, the increasing relevance of the issue to more and more people makes it much more likely that we’ll do something about it.

    That’s also the takeaway of “Years of Living Dangerously,” a groundbreaking new series set to debut April 13 on Showtime.

    Over the past year, I joined a stellar cast of contributors and producers to examine how climate is impacting everyday lives, in the American heartland and around the world. My journey following climate scientists into the field took me to Maine, Hawaii, Christmas Island and the Andes. Other contributors such as Don Cheadle traveled to the baking desert of the American Southwest, while Harrison Ford examined logging in Indonesia and Tom Friedman reported from the water-starved Middle East.

    By bringing climate change “home” and using human-interest stories to capture its impacts, this series holds significant promise to encourage the public to take action — exactly what the new IPCC report does. I’m glad to see that many of us tasked with communicating about climate change seem to be moving in the same direction.

    Local boy wades through water to get to his flooded house near Santa Marta, Colombia. (© Robin Moore/iLCP)

    Reading the IPCC report, you’ll notice another shift — one toward adaptation to a changing climate. For some this might herald bad news. Have we given up on reducing emissions? Isn’t adaptation basically rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship?

    Not from my standpoint.