Why the Fires in Australia Are So Bad
六个问题，了解澳大利亚火灾为何如此严重

This fire season has been one of the worst in Australia’s history, with at least 15 people killed, hundreds of homes destroyed and millions of acres burned. And summer is far from over.

这是澳大利亚史上最严重的火灾季之一，造成至少15人丧生，数百所房屋被摧毁，数万平方公里的土地过火。然而，夏天还远没有结束。

This week, thousands of residents and vacationers in southeastern Australia were forced to evacuate to shorelines as bush fires encircled communities and razed scores of buildings. Military ships and aircraft were deployed on Wednesday to deliver water, food and fuel to towns cut off by the fires.

本周，由于丛林大火包围了社区并夷平了数十座建筑物，澳大利亚东南部成千上万的居民和度假者被迫撤离到海岸线。周三，军舰和飞机出动，向被大火切断资源的城镇运送水、食物和燃料。
 

周二在澳大利亚康乔拉湖，一名男子试图与已经蔓延到邻居家的大火搏斗。

The hot, dry conditions that have fueled the fires are nothing new in Australia. Here’s why this fire season has been so calamitous.

在澳大利亚，炎热、干燥的环境助长大火，这并不是什么新鲜事。以下是这次火灾季节如此可怕的原因。

What is causing the fires?

是什么引起火灾？

Record-breaking temperatures, extended drought and strong winds have converged to create disastrous fire conditions.

创纪录的高温、持续的干旱和强风共同造成了灾难性的火灾。

As a severe heat wave gripped most of the country in mid-December, Australia recorded its hottest day on record, with average highs of 107.4 degrees Fahrenheit, or 41.9 degrees Celsius. The heat wave is continuing this week in southeastern Australia, with temperatures expected to reach 105 in Canberra, the capital.

12月中旬，澳大利亚大部分地区遭受强烈热浪袭击，创下有记录以来最热的一天，平均最高气温为41.9摄氏度。本周在澳大利亚东南部，热浪仍在继续，首都堪培拉的温度预计将达到40.6摄氏度。

The extreme heat has followed the driest spring on record. Most of New South Wales and Queensland have been experiencing shortfalls in rain since early 2017. The drought has hit the country’s most productive agricultural areas, including some of those now ablaze.

有记录以来最干燥的春天过去后，迎来了极度高温。自2017年初以来，新南威尔士州和昆士兰州的大部分地区都出现了降雨不足的情况。干旱袭击了该国产量最高的农业地区，其中包括一些正在燃烧大火的地区。

How extensive are the fires?

大火有多大？

By early September, Australia started seeing ominous signs about this year’s fire season.

9月初，澳大利亚开始看到有关今年火灾季的不祥迹象。

On Sept. 9, the Binna Burra Lodge, a historic getaway in the lush mountains of Queensland, was destroyed in a bush fire. The loss, and the blazes in the surrounding rain forests, alarmed scientists, who said that such fires were extremely rare in the usually cool and wet area.

9月9日，位于昆士兰州郁郁葱葱的山区、历史悠久的度假胜地宾纳布拉旅馆(Binna Burra Lodge)在丛林大火中烧毁。这个损失以及周围雨林的大火使科学家感到惊讶，他们说，这样的火灾出现在通常阴凉潮湿的地区极为罕见。

The fires have burned across the country in recent months, affecting four out of six states. Australia’s east coast has been hardest hit. By early November, 1,500 firefighters were battling 70 fires in New South Wales, the southeastern state that includes Sydney.

近几个月来，全国范围都发生了大火，6个州中有4个受到影响。澳大利亚的东海岸受灾最严重。到11月初，在悉尼所在的东南部新南威尔士州，有1500名消防员与70场火灾作斗争。

On Nov. 11, the state issued a “catastrophic” fire danger rating for the first time in the decade that the current warning system has been in place. In Sydney, which issued a total fire ban, heavy smoke has discolored the sky on many days, and air quality there has at times been among the worst in the world. On Tuesday, social media was filled with photos of blazing red skies and people fleeing to beaches between Sydney and Melbourne.

11月11日，该州发布了“灾难性”火灾危险等级，这是目前的警报系统启用十年来的首次。在颁布了全面防火禁令的悉尼，浓烟多日笼盖天空，空气质量有时甚至到达了世界上最差水平。周二，社交媒体上到处都是火光冲天和人们逃往悉尼和墨尔本之间海滩的照片。

What is the damage so far?

到目前为止造成的损害有多大？

About 10 million acres have burned in New South Wales, destroying nearly 1,000 homes. Around 90 fires are currently raging in the state, with about three dozen more to the south in Victoria.

在新南威尔士州，大约有4万平方公里的土地被烧毁，摧毁了近1000座房屋。该州目前还有约90处大火在燃烧，南部的维多利亚州约有30几处大火。

In total, roughly 12 million acres have been burned by the fires. By comparison, about 1.9 million acres burned in the 2018 fires in California; those fires, which were the state’s most destructive, killed about 100 people.

共计约4.86万平方公里的土地被烧毁。相比之下，2018年加利福尼亚大火烧毁了约770平方公里；这些火灾是该州最具破坏性的，造成约100人死亡。

As the blazes swept southeastern Australia early this week, the fire season’s death toll reached at least 15, and officials said it was likely to rise. At least seven people were killed on Monday and Tuesday in New South Wales — including a volunteer firefighter, the third to die this season — and another person died in Victoria.

随着大火在本周初席卷澳大利亚东南部，火灾季节的死亡人数至少达到15人，官员们表示，人数很可能还会上升。周一和周二，在新南威尔士州至少有7人丧生，包括一名志愿消防员，这是本次火灾季节丧生的第三名志愿消防员。维多利亚州也有一人丧生。

Who is fighting the fires?

谁在救火？

Tens of thousands of firefighters, the vast majority of them volunteers, have worked for weeks, sometimes putting in 12-hour days. The strain on the firefighters has raised questions about the country’s reliance on a volunteer force.

数万名消防员（其中绝大多数是志愿者）已经工作数周，有时每天工作12小时。消防队员所受的压力让人们质疑这个国家是否过于依赖志愿者。

Australia’s federal government announced last week that volunteers in New South Wales — as well as other states, if they requested it — would receive compensation of up to about $4,000. That change in policy was initially opposed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

澳大利亚联邦政府上周宣布，新南威尔士州的志愿者将得到最高4000美元的补偿，其他州的志愿者如果提出要求，也能获得补偿。这种政策改变最初遭到澳大利亚总理斯科特·莫里森(Scott Morrison)的反对。

This week, as the fires caused widespread destruction, Australia deployed its military and called on its allies for help. The Australian Defense Force said on Tuesday that it would send Black Hawk and Chinook military helicopters, airplanes and naval ships to Victoria and New South Wales.

本周，由于大火造成了广泛破坏，澳大利亚部署了军队，并呼吁盟友提供帮助。澳大利亚国防军(Australian Defense Force)周二表示，将向维多利亚州和新南威尔士州派遣黑鹰和奇努克军用直升机、飞机和军舰。

The government also asked the United States and Canada to provide water tanker aircraft. Canada has pledged to send more than 30 firefighters to help the Australians.

政府还要求美国和加拿大提供消防飞机。加拿大承诺派遣30多名消防员帮助澳大利亚人。

Is climate change to blame?

气候变化是罪魁祸首吗？

The devastating start to the fire season confirmed what scientists have been predicting: that Australia’s bush fires will become more frequent and more intense as climate change worsens.

这个火灾季的毁灭性开端证实了科学家们的预测：随着气候变化不断恶化，澳大利亚的丛林大火将变得更加频繁和剧烈。

Few if any other developed countries are as vulnerable to changing climate as Australia, according to scientific reports.

根据科学报告，几乎没有其他发达国家像澳大利亚一样容易受到气候变化影响。

Australia is normally hot and dry in the summer, but climate change, which brings longer and more frequent periods of extreme heat, worsens these conditions and makes vegetation drier and more likely to burn.

澳大利亚的夏季通常炎热干燥，但气候变化带来了持续更长时间、更频繁的极端高温，使得各种条件恶化，令植被更加干燥易燃。

The catastrophic fire conditions have put an intense focus on the Australian government’s failure to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, which traps heat when released into the atmosphere.

灾难性的火灾状况使人们高度关注澳大利亚政府在减少二氧化碳排放方面的失败，二氧化碳被排放到空气中时会吸收热量。

Even as emissions continue to soar, the country, currently governed by a conservative coalition, has found it difficult to reach a political consensus on energy and climate change policy. Those politics, in part, are influenced by Australia’s long mining history and its powerful coal lobby.

尽管排放量继续飙升，但目前由一个保守联盟治理的澳大利亚在能源和气候变化政策上难以达成政治共识。这方面的政治在一定程度上受到澳大利亚悠久的采矿史和强大的煤炭游说团体影响。

How does weather affect the blazes?

天气如何影响火灾？

Climate and weather are different but related concepts. Climate is a description of expected long-term weather patterns in a specific place, while weather is the mix of events occurring in the atmosphere at a particular time and place — think temperature, wind and precipitation.

气候和天气是两个不同但相关的概念。气候是指某一特定地点的预期长期天气模式，而天气则是某一特定时间和地点内各种大气事件的组合——比如温度、风和降水。

A changing climate has meant an increase in temperatures in the Indian and Southern Oceans, which in turn has meant drier and hotter weather across Australia this summer.

气候变化导致印度洋和南大洋的温度升高，反过来又导致今年夏天整个澳大利亚的天气更加干燥炎热。

The most dangerous fire days occur when hot, dry air blows from the desert center of the continent toward the populous coasts. A weather front — where air masses at different densities meet — can cause the direction of the wind to change rapidly. Ultimately, that means bigger fires spreading in multiple directions.

当炎热干燥的空气从大陆沙漠中心吹向人口稠密的海岸之时，就会发生最危险的火灾。锋面——即不同密度气团的交界面——可以使风的方向迅速改变。最终意味着更大的火灾会向多个方向蔓延。

Bush fires can be so large and hot that they generate their own dangerous, unpredictable weather systems. These so-called firestorms can produce lightning, strong winds and even fire tornadoes. What they don’t produce is rain.

丛林火灾的规模可能会非常大，温度也会非常高，因此会自行制造出危险的、不可预测的天气系统。这些所谓的火风暴可以产生闪电、强风甚至火龙卷风。但是不会导致降雨。

The volunteer firefighter who died on Monday was crushed after a fire tornado lifted a fire truck off the ground.

周一去世的志愿消防员是在龙卷风把消防车掀翻的事故中丧生的。

来源 ：好英语网