关于洪水的英语段落：Mend the roof while the sun shines

What to do? Flooding strengthens the case for minimising climate change, which threatens to make wet places wetter and storms stormier. Even those who doubt the science would do well to see action as an insurance policy that pays out if the case is proven. However, that will not happen fast, even if all countries, including America, sign up to international agreements. More immediately, therefore, politicians can learn from Houston. Cities need to protect flood defences and catchment areas, such as the wetlands around Kolkata and the lakes in and around Pokhara in Nepal, whose value is becoming clear. Flood maps need to be up to date. Civil engineers, often starved of funds and strangled by bureaucracy, should be building and reinforcing levees and reservoirs now, before it is too late. The NFIP should start to charge market premiums and developing countries should sell catastrophe bonds. All this is a test of government, of foresight and the ability to withstand the lobbying of homeowners and developers. But politicians and officials who fail the test need to realize that, sooner or later, they will wake up to a Hurricane Harvey of their own.

怎么办?洪灾使得减小气候变化带来的影响变得更加迫切，因为全球变暖有可能使湿地更湿，暴雨更烈。如果这个 情况得到证实，即便那些怀疑科学的人也会将行动视为有好处的保险。不过即使包括美国在内的所有国家签订国际协议这样的情况也不会很快发生，。所以，更直接快速的方法是，政治家应该从休斯顿的遭遇中借鉴经验。各城市需保护防洪设施和集水区，比如加尔各答周围的湿地，尼泊尔博卡拉市内及周围的湖泊，这些地区的'价值正变得愈加清晰。洪水地图须按时更新。常常苦于资金不足和受到官僚部门限制的土木工程师应在为时未晚前修建、加固堤坝和水库。NFIP应开始收取市场溢价费用，发展中国家也应发售灾难债券。所有这些措施都是对政府眼光和能否经受业主与开发商游说的考验。不过那些未能经受考验的政治家和官员要认识到，他们自己迟早会面临一场属于自己的“哈维”飓风。

【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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