「黃左」談洛杉磯聖經級大洪水/ 鴨嘴獸協會主辦「中國與左派」討論

美國「黃左」？：洛杉磯聖經級大洪水 我們束手無策

觀點：在洛杉磯，這相當於聖經中的洪水 我們沒有應對

傑夫·楊 (Jeff Yang) 的觀點

編者註：傑夫·楊 (Jeff Yang) 經常為 CNN Opinion 撰稿。 他是播客「他們叫我們布魯斯」的共同主持人，也是暢銷書《崛起：從九十年代至今亞裔美國人的流行史》的合著者，也是《黃金銀幕：成就亞裔美國人的電影》一書的作者 」。 本評論中表達的觀點是他自己的。(Editor』s note: Jeff Yang is a frequent contributor to CNN Opinion. He co-hosts the podcast 「They Call Us Bruce」 and is co-author of the bestselling book 「Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now」 and author of 「The Golden Screen: The Movies That Made Asian America.」 The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. ) 

當我寫這篇文章時，雨水不僅僅只是落在床單上——我們談論的是全套加州特大號床上用品、濕透的枕套和充滿水的羽絨被，將自由放養的 Acqua Panna 傾倒在我們通常乾燥的洛杉磯景觀上。 由於一條富含水分的大氣河懸掛在南部地區，洛杉磯和文圖拉縣的一些地區在過去 48 小時內已經出現了超過 10 英寸的大雨，而且還會有更多的雨。(As I write this, rain isn』t just coming down in sheets — we』re talking full California King bed sets, drenched pillow shams and water-filled duvet covers dumping free-range Acqua Panna on our usually parched L.A. landscape. Due to a moisture-rich atmospheric river hanging over the Southland, some areas of Los Angeles and Ventura County have already gotten more than 10 inches of big wet in the past 48 hours, with plenty more on the way.)

誠然，對於世界上潮濕地區的讀者來說，我們在這裡經歷的風暴可能看起來很奇怪。 來自亞洲的朋友給我發簡訊詢問我如何享受「季風季節」。 就連我在紐約的親戚也沒有同情心，他們給我發了他們自己的特大風暴的鏈接，其中有遊客之前涉水穿過拉瓜迪亞機場、被可疑徑流淹沒的曼哈頓地鐵站以及人們在城市大道上划皮划艇的照片。(Granted, for readers in soggier parts of the world, the storm we』re experiencing here might seem almost quaint. Friends from Asia have texted me asking how I』m enjoying 「monsoon season.」 Even my relatives back in New York have been unsympathetic, sending me links from their own massive storms, featuring images of tourists previously wading through LaGuardia Airport, Manhattan subway stations inundated with suspicious-looking runoff and people kayaking down city avenues.)

但對於洛杉磯這個習慣了永久乾旱警告和高速公路沿線自發叢林火災的城市來說，這樣的降水量是歷史性的。 兩天內的降雨量已經超過了過去 20 年來的任何時候，而且不會很快停止。 儘管在氣候變化不祥地推進的時代，我們不斷收到有關極端氣象波動的嚴厲警告，但洛杉磯人仍然無法應對從天而降的液體的可怕威脅。(But for L.A, a city used to permanent drought warnings and spontaneous brushfires along its freeways, this amount of precipitation is historic. We』ve already gotten more rain in a two-day period than any time in the past 20 years, and it』s not stopping soon. And despite the stark warnings we continue to get about extreme meteorological volatility in an era of ominously advancing climate change, Angelenos still just can』t when it comes to the diabolical threat of fluid falling from the sky.)

即使是微弱的霧氣也足以將高速公路交通變成一場高速、全接觸的州際汽車九柱遊戲。 當雨水威脅到後院的游泳池時，人們就會開始囤積食物。 因此，連續三天的傾盆大雨相當於聖經中的洪水，絕望的當地人準備用瑜伽墊為他們的吉娃娃狗和查斯狗建造方舟，月亮汁空了，脫脂乳(Skim) 膨脹了。(Even a faint mist is enough to turn highway traffic into a high-velocity, full-contact interstate game of automotive skittles. When rain threatens to top off backyard pools, hoarding commences. As such, three solid days of downpour is the equivalent of the biblical flood, with desperate locals preparing to build arks for their Chihuahuas and Chausies out of yoga mats, Moon Juice empties and inflated Skims.)

洛杉磯的房屋也不是為垂直水而建造的。 住在平屋頂的房子里，幾乎沒有一層薄薄的太陽能電池板連接在一起，這意味著我和 SoakedCal 的許多其他居民被迫從我們的智能手機上抬起頭來，繞過我們家中放置的水桶和平底鍋來接滴水。 -從上面滴下來。 （說到太陽能電池板：隨著每天不間斷的灰色，我的電費增加了一個檔次。電動汽車紅利就這麼多了。）(L.A. houses are also not built for vertical water. Living in homes with flat roofs barely held together by a thin layer of solar panels means that I and many other denizens of SoakedCal are being forced to actually look up from our smartphones to step around buckets and pans placed throughout our homes to catch drip-drip-drips from above. (Speaking of solar panels: With every day of nonstop gray, my electric bill ratchets up a notch. So much for that electric vehicle dividend.))

這場風暴造成了真實而可怕的損失。 三人因樹木倒塌砸中自己或房屋而死亡。 據報道，洛杉磯消防局已經應對了 130 起洪水緊急情況、49 起泥石流事件（在某些情況下房屋受損並導致社區疏散），並對被困在被水包圍的汽車中的駕車者進行了多次水上救援。 洛杉磯時報。 數千人仍然斷電。 州和市都宣布進入緊急狀態，人們被明確告知：待在家裡。(Detaching tongue from cheek, there have been real and horrific losses to this storm. Three people have died from separate incidents of trees falling on them or their homes. The Los Angeles Fire Department has had to respond to 130 flooding emergencies, 49 mud and debris flow incidents (which have in some cases damaged homes and led to neighborhood evacuations), and several water rescues for motorists trapped in cars surrounded by water, according to the Los Angeles Times. Thousands remain without power. The state and the city have both declared a state of emergency, and people are being told in no uncertain terms: Stay the hell at home.)

在暴風雨中被困在城市裡已經夠糟糕的了，但考慮到即使天氣晴朗，我們的支線機場也是一場地獄般的噩夢，過去幾天真正的恐怖是被趕出洛杉磯並試圖 回家。 當天空開始變暗時，我的朋友艾米·安德森錯誤地前往俄勒岡州度過了一個有趣的周末。 在返回的航班上，他們經歷了極度顛簸，被迫降落並繞機場飛行了 40 分鐘，然後改道飛往聖地亞哥，幾小時后，航空公司慷慨地為他們提供了返回洛杉磯的航班，並在聖何塞中轉過夜 沒有酒店優惠券。

(Being stuck inside in the city in a storm is bad enough, but given that our regional airports are an infernal nightmare to negotiate even when the weather is fair, the true horror of the past few days was being caught away from Los Angeles and trying to get home. My friend Amy Anderson made the mistake of being in Oregon for a fun weekend getaway when the skies began to darken. On the flight back in, they experienced extreme turbulence, pulled back up and circled the airport for 40 minutes, then were rerouted to San Diego, where hours later, the airline generously offered them a flight back to L.A. featuring an overnight layover in San Jose with no hotel voucher.)

「我決定與飛機上坐在我旁邊的一位陌生人合租一輛汽車前往聖費爾南多谷，」艾米說。 「我們在瘋狂的風雨中行駛了幾個小時。 我直到凌晨1點40分才回到家，我已經12個小時沒有吃東西了，我的膀胱都快要爆炸了。」(「I decided to share a rental car to the San Fernando Valley with a stranger I sat next to on the plane,」 Amy said. 「We drove through crazy wind and rain for hours. I didn』t get home until 1:40 a.m., I hadn』t eaten for 12 hours, and my bladder was about to explode.」)

現實情況是，當談到天氣時，一切照舊不再是平常，即使對於因下雪天而關閉的城市來說也是如此。(The reality is that when it comes to the weather, business as usual is no longer usual, even for places that smirk at cities that shut down for snow days.)

氣候變化不是未來，而是現在，我們才剛剛開始親身體驗其影響。 鑒於我們幾乎肯定會突破科學家警告的「升溫 1.5 度」閾值，這將導致災難，因此我們能否避免即將發生的最壞情況尚無定論。 根據聯合國的數據，過去 50 年來，極端天氣事件導致全球超額死亡 200 萬人，造成 4.3 萬億美元的經濟損失，而且這些情況只會變得更加頻繁、更加嚴重。(Climate change isn』t the future, it』s the present, and we have just begun to experience its impact firsthand. The jury is still out as to whether we can stave off the worst of what』s coming, given that we』re almost certainly going to blow through the 「1.5 degrees of warming」 threshold that scientists warned would lead to catastrophe. According to the United Nations, we』ve already seen over the past 50 years, 2 million excess global deaths and $4.3 trillion in economic losses from extreme weather events, and these are only becoming more frequent — and more intense.)

大多數美國人，當然還有大多數洛杉磯人，仍然基本上沒有受到「千年一遇」氣象事件造成的傷害，儘管伊利諾伊州、肯塔基州、聖路易斯和達拉斯就沒有那麼幸運了，這四個州都經歷了數千年的氣象災害。 僅 2022 年就有一年的風暴。 但也許我們現在遇到的每兩年一次的洪水在未來幾十年內發生頻率會增加 2.5 倍的消息會促使愛樂之城的居民更加嚴肅地對待氣候危機。(Most Americans, and certainly most Angelenos, are still mostly insulated from the harm caused by 「once in a millennium」 meteorological incidents, though Illinois, Kentucky, St. Louis and Dallas haven』t been so lucky, with all four of them experiencing thousand-year storms in 2022 alone. But maybe news that this once-every-two-decade deluge we』re getting right now will happen 2.5 times more frequently in decades to come will prod annoyed and anxious residents of La La Land to take the climate crisis more seriously.)

要麼這樣，要麼我們將不得不開始從紐約進口街頭皮划艇。(Either that, or we』ll have to start importing street kayaks from New York.)