2020年12月四级第3套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

The terms "global warming" and "climate change" are used by many, seemingly interchangeably. But do they really mean the same thing?

“全球变暖”和“气候变化”这两个术语被许多人使用，似乎可以互换。但它们真的意思相同吗？

Scientists shaped the history of the terms while attempting to accurately describe how humans continue to alter the planet. Later, political strategists adopted the terms to influence public opinion. In 1975, geochemist Wallace Broecker introduced the term "climate change" in an article published by Science. In 1979, a National Academy of Sciences report used the term "global warming" to define increases in the Earth's average surface temperature, while "climate change" more broadly referred to the numerous effects of this increase, such as sea-level rise and ocean acidification (酸化).

科学家在试图准确描述人类如何持续改变地球的过程中，塑造了这些术语的历史。后来，政治策略师采纳这些术语来影响公众舆论。1975年，地球化学家Wallace Broecker在《科学》杂志上发表的一篇文章中引入了“气候变化”这一术语。1979年，国家科学院的一份报告使用“全球变暖”来定义地球平均表面温度的升高，而“气候变化”更广泛地指代这种升高带来的众多影响，如海平面上升和海洋酸化。

During the following decades, some industrialists and politicians launched a campaign to sow doubt in the minds of the American public about the ability of fossil-fuel use, deforestation and other human activities to influence the planet's climate.

在接下来的几十年里，一些实业家和政治家发起了一场运动，在美国公众心中播下对化石燃料使用、森林砍伐和其他人类活动影响地球气候能力的怀疑。

Word use played a critical role in developing that doubt. For example, the language and polls expert Frank Luntz wrote a memo encouraging the use of "climate change" because the phrase sounded less scary than "global warming," reported the Guardian.

词汇的使用在制造这种怀疑中起到了关键作用。例如，语言和民意调查专家Frank Luntz写了一份备忘录，鼓励使用“气候变化”，因为这个短语听起来比“全球变暖”不那么可怕，据《卫报》报道。

However, Luntz's recommendation wasn't necessary. A Google Ngram Viewer chart shows that by 1993 climate change was already more commonly used in books than global warming. By the end of the next decade both words were used more frequently, and climate change was used nearly twice as often as global warming.

然而，Luntz的建议并非必要。Google Ngram Viewer图表显示，到1993年，“气候变化”在书籍中已经比“全球变暖”更常用。到下一个十年末，两个词都使用得更频繁，而“气候变化”的使用频率几乎是“全球变暖”的两倍。

NASA used the term "climate change" because it more accurately reflects the wide range of changes to the planet caused by increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

NASA使用“气候变化”这一术语，因为它更准确地反映了大气中温室气体增加所引起的地球广泛变化。

The debate isn't new. A century ago, chemist Svante Arrhenius started one of the first debates over the potential for humans to influence the planet's climate. Arrhenius calculated the capability of carbon dioxide to trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, but other chemists disagreed. Some argued that humans weren't producing enough greenhouse gases, while others claimed the effects would be tiny. Now, of course, we know that whatever you call it, human behavior is warming the planet, with grave consequences ahead.

这场辩论并不新鲜。一个世纪前，化学家Svante Arrhenius开启了关于人类影响地球气候潜力的首批辩论之一。Arrhenius计算了二氧化碳在大气中捕获热量的能力，但其他化学家不同意。一些人认为人类产生的温室气体不够多，而另一些人声称影响会很小。当然，现在我们知道，无论你怎么称呼它，人类行为正在使地球变暖，未来将带来严重后果。