Is It Hot Enough Yet(到目前為止) for Politicians to Take Real Action(采取行動)？

The lastest(最近的，最新的) record temperatures are driving, again precisely(adv. 恰好，正如) as scientists have predicted(v. 預(yù)測), a cascading(adj. 瀑布般的) series of(一系列) disasters around the world. We've crushed(v. 打破，壓碎) so many temperature records recently--the hottest day ever measured by average global temperature, the hottest June, the highest ocean temperatures, the lowest sea--ice levels--that it would be easy to overlook(v. 忽略) a couple of additional(adj.額外的) data points from this past weekend. But they're important, because they help illuminate(v.說明，闡明) not just the size(n.規(guī)模) of our predicament(n.困境) but the political weaknesses that make it so hard to confront(v.遭遇，比較，面對).

Fort Good Hope(好望堡),at 66.2 degrees(n. 角度，度數(shù)) north latitude(n. 維度), in Canada's Northwest Territor(y)ies(n. 領(lǐng)土，管區(qū)，范圍)(which is to say, just a few miles below the Arctic Circle(北極圈)), hit 99.3 degrees Fahrenheit(n. 華氏度) on Saturday afternoon, surpassing(v. 超過，勝過) the old record by four degrees. The town of Norman Wells, a little to the south, topped(v. 達(dá)到) a hundred. These are close to the high-temperature record anywhere that far north; it was hotter there over the weekend than it has ever been in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, which is twenty degrees latitude to the south. Canada was far from alone: Beijing experienced more than a week straight(adj. 連續(xù)的，不間斷的) of temperatures higher than ninety-five degrees in a record heat (n. 熱度，高溫)wave affecting hundreds of millions of people( authorities(n.當(dāng)局，官方) opened air-raid(空襲) shelters(防空洞),some dating from(追溯于) the Japanese invasion(n. 入侵，侵犯) in 1937, as cooling centers); temperatures were a hundred and twenty-two degrees in Kuwait and Iraq; on Thursday, Africa recorded its hottest nighttime ever, with the temperature at one site in Algeria failing to(未能夠) drop below 103.3 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remember one of the essential(adj. 必不可少的，重要的) facts of our century: warm air holds more water vapor(n. 蒸汽) than cold. In dry areas that leads to drought(n. 旱災(zāi)), but once that water is in the atr it's going to come down. In the past few days, we've seen devastating(adj. 毀滅性的) flooding(v. 泛濫 n. 洪水) and mudslides(n. 泥石流) in Japan( Al Jazeera reported that the rain had brought "southwestern Japan to a halt(n. 停止，停滯)"), China( where more than a dozen people died in seasonal mountain floods, even amid(prep. 在其中) a heat wave), northern India ( where bridges and buildings were washing into rivers), Spain ( cars were swept away(sweep away 清除，一掃而空) down narrow(adj. 狹窄的) streets), and the Hudson Valley, where roads disappeared and the historic buildings at West Point are feared to have sustained(v. 遭到) damage.

So the crisis is everywhere-that's why it's called global warming.But the case of Canada is interesting, because it's a liberal(adj. 自由的) democracy(n. 民主國家) with a strong environmental sentiment(n. 情緒)-polling(n. 民意調(diào)查) earlier this year found that seventy-five percent of Canadains were anxious(adj. 擔(dān)憂的，焦慮的) about climate(n. 氣候) change;twenty-one percent of the population was having fewer or no children as a result(結(jié)果). And the nation has a absolute front-row seat(首席) to the crisis(n. 危機(jī)): the Arctic is warming faster than any other place on Earth. As a result of(作為...的結(jié)果，由于) an extraordinary(adj. 非同尋常的) spring heat wave, wildfires have already burned more of the country this year than in any full year on record--so far(到目前為止，迄今為止), the fire season has consumed(v. 燒毀，毀滅) fourteen hundred percent more forest than usual.The costs of this kind of change are enormous(adj. 巨大的，龐大的).