关于洪水灾难的英语段落：Judgment day

The overwhelming good news is that storms and flooding have caused far fewer deaths in recent decades, thanks to better warning systems and the construction of levees, ditches and shelters. The cyclone that struck Bangladesh in 1970 killed 300,000-500,000 people; the most recent severe one, in 2007, killed 4,234. The bad news is that storms and floods still account for almost three-quarters of weather-related disasters, and they are becoming more common. According to the Munich Re, a reinsurer, their number around the world has increased from about 200 in 1980 to over 600 last year. Harvey was the third “500-year” storm to strike Houston since 1979.

巨大的好消息是，由于更完善的预警系统以及防洪堤坝、沟渠、避难所的建造，最近几十年暴雨和洪灾造成的死亡人数大大减少。1970年，重创孟加拉的飓风造成30至50万人丧生，而在2007年一场近年来发生的最严重的飓风中，4234人丧生。但坏消息是，暴雨和洪灾仍占据气象灾害的四分之三，而且越来越普遍。据慕尼黑再保险公司，其全球客户数量从1980年的约200家增至去年的600多家。飓风“哈维”是自1979年以来袭击休斯敦的第三个500年一遇的风暴。

At the same time, floods and storms are also becoming more costly. By one estimate, three times as many people were living in houses threatened by hurricanes in 2010 as in 1970, and the number is expected to grow as still more people move to coastal cities. The UN reckons that, in the 20 years to 2015, storms and floods caused $1.7trn of destruction; the World Health Organisation estimates that, in real terms, the global cost of hurricane damage is rising by 6% a year. Flood losses in Europe are predicted to increase fivefold by 2050.

与此同时，洪灾和暴雨也造成越来越大的损失。据一项估计， 2010年受飓风威胁的居民人数是1970年时的三倍，而且随着更多人迁至沿海城市，预计这一数字将继续增长。联合国估计，在1995至2015年的20年间，暴雨和洪灾已造成1.7万亿美元损失。世界卫生组织估计，按市值计算，全球飓风损失每年增长6%。预计到2050年，欧洲洪灾损失将增长五倍。

One cause is global warming. The frequency and severity of hurricanes vary naturally—America has seen unusually few in the past decade. Yet the underlying global trend is what you would expect from climate change. Warmer seas evaporate faster and warmer air can hold more water vapour, which releases energy when it condenses inside a weather system, feeding the violence of storms and the intensity of deluges. Rising sea levels, predicted to be especially marked in the Gulf of Mexico, exacerbate storm surges, adding to the flooding. Harvey was unusually devastating because it suddenly gained strength before it made landfall on Friday; it then stayed put, dumping its rain on Houston before returning to the Gulf. Again, that is consistent with models of a warmer world.

其中一个原因是全球变暖。飓风的频率和严重程度各不相同，过去十年美国出现的飓风异常少，但是潜在的全球变化趋势仍能从气候变化中预测到。海水温度升高，蒸发加快;空气温度升高，容纳更多的水蒸气，而水蒸气在气候系统凝结成雨时又释放能量，加剧暴雨和洪灾的猛烈程度。海平面的上升(根据预测墨西哥湾会尤其显著)也加剧了暴雨和洪灾。“哈维”飓风的.毁灭性异乎寻常，因为其在周五登陆前突然加强，然后驻留，给休斯顿带来倾盆大雨，最后回到墨西哥湾。这种情况再次与全球变暖的模式一致。

Poor planning bears even more blame. Houston, which has almost no restrictions on land-use, is an extreme example of what can go wrong. Although a light touch has enabled developers to cater to the city’s rapid growth—1.8m extra inhabitants since 2000—it has also led to concrete being laid over vast areas of coastal prairie that used to absorb the rain. According to the Texas Tribune and ProPublica, a charity that finances investigative journalism, since 2010 Harris County has allowed more than 8,600 buildings to be put up inside 100-year floodplains, where floods have a 1% chance of occurring in any year. Developers are supposed to build ponds to hold run-off water that would have soaked into undeveloped land, but the rules are poorly enforced. Because the maps are not kept up to date, properties supposedly outside the 100-year floodplain are being flooded repeatedly.

糟糕的城市建设规划更是众矢之的。休斯顿对于土地使用几乎没有任何限制，也因此变成了事态恶化的极端例子。尽管政府的低干预使得开发者们能够迎合城市的高速发展——自从2000年来休斯顿新增居民180万——但也导致大量的可吸收雨水的沿海草原被水泥地覆盖。据德州论坛报和ProPublic(一家资助调查性报刊的公益机构)报道，自2010年起，德州哈里斯县允许人们在百年一遇泛洪区内建造逾8600栋建筑，在这些地区，任何一年都有1%的几率发生洪灾。开发商应修建池塘容纳本将渗入未开发土地的径流，但这些规定执行不力。因为地图没有及时更新，据信建在百年一遇泛洪区之外的地产正反复受到洪灾侵袭。

【本文作者：徐州七中彭向梅。(公众号：草根英语行思教)】

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