In early March, people who live along Mozambique's long coastline began to hear rumors about a cyclone.

三月初，居住在莫桑比克漫長海岸線上的人們開始聽到有關(guān)龍卷風(fēng)的傳言。

The storm was forming in the Indian Ocean, in the narrow band of warm water between Mozambique and the island of Madagascar. 

風(fēng)暴形成于印度洋在莫桑比克和馬達加斯加島之間的溫暖的狹長地帶。

Overnight on March 14, 2019, the storm struck Mozambique head-on, barreling over the port city of Beira and flooding an enormous swath of land as it moved inland toward Zimbabwe.

2019年3月14日夜間，風(fēng)暴正面襲擊了莫桑比克，席卷了港口城市貝拉，并向津巴布韋內(nèi)陸移動，淹沒了大片土地。

In low-lying, rural Buzi district, the wind arrived like an explosion. 

在地勢低洼的農(nóng)村布孜地區(qū)，大風(fēng)登陸時就像發(fā)生了一場爆炸。

It tore the roofs off homes and schools and churches. 

它掀翻了房屋、學(xué)校和教堂的屋頂。

It ripped trees out by their roots. 

它把大樹連根拔起。

When the floodwaters came the next day, there were perilously few high spots left where people could escape

當?shù)诙旌樗畞砼R時，幾乎沒有人可以用來躲避危險的高地了。

Those in some of the worst-hit areas were cut off for weeks. 

在一些受災(zāi)最嚴重的地區(qū)，電力供應(yīng)已經(jīng)中斷了數(shù)周。

Neighbors rescued each other and did their best to help each other survive. 

鄰居們互相救助，竭盡全力互相幫助。

At least 600 people died in Cyclone Idai, according to the United Nations.

根據(jù)聯(lián)合國的數(shù)據(jù)，至少有600人死于颶風(fēng)伊戴。

Mozambique's long coastline, sprawling river delta and changing weather patterns make it susceptible to multiple hazards as the climate changes. 

莫桑比克漫長的海岸線、廣闊的三角洲和不斷變化的天氣模式使其非常容易受到氣候變化帶來的多種危害的影響。

Flooding, heat waves, cyclones and drought are all getting more frequent and severe as the Earth gets hotter.

隨著地球變得越來越熱，洪水、熱浪、龍卷風(fēng)和干旱都變得越來越頻繁和嚴重。

Five weeks later, a second cyclone — this one dubbed Kenneth — hit a less populated area on the border between Mozambique and Tanzania. 

五周后，第二個氣旋——這次被稱為肯尼斯——襲擊了莫桑比克和坦桑尼亞邊境的一個人口較少的地區(qū)。

It was the strongest cyclone to ever make landfall in Africa.

這是有史以來在非洲登陸的最強颶風(fēng)。

In all, the back-to-back storms seriously affected about 2 million people.

連續(xù)的風(fēng)暴總共影響了大約200萬人。

"The example of Mozambique must be an alert for all," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said when he visited Beira over the summer.

“莫桑比克的例子必須引起所有人的警惕，”聯(lián)合國秘書長安東尼奧·古特雷斯今年夏天訪問貝拉時說。

The disasters put Mozambique's government and citizens in the unenviable position of responding to an onslaught of climate-driven disasters while also doing their best to prepare for an even more dangerous future. 

這些災(zāi)害使莫桑比克政府和公民處于一種危險的境地:一方面要應(yīng)對氣候引發(fā)的災(zāi)難，另一方面又要盡最大努力為更加危險的未來做準備。

They also have made clear that, absent international climate action, there's only so much that vulnerable countries can do to adapt to extreme weather.

他們還明確表示，如果沒有國際的氣候行動，脆弱國家在適應(yīng)極端天氣方面只能做這么多。

Long before the cyclones of 2019, Mozambique's government and the International Red Cross had realized that flooding was a serious problem in the country. 

早在2019年的颶風(fēng)之前，莫桑比克政府和國際紅十字會就意識到洪水是該國的一個嚴重問題。

In 2000 and again in 2013, rivers overflowed and hundreds were displaced by water.

2000年和2013年，河流再次泛濫，數(shù)百人因洪水而流離失所。

But far fewer people died as a result of the 2013 floods. 

但2013年的洪水造成的死亡人數(shù)要少得多。

In the intervening years, Mozambique's government and the International Red Cross had studied where and how people were vulnerable to floods and other disasters, then asked community leaders to volunteer to serve on Disaster Risk Reduction Committees for their towns and neighborhoods.

在此期間，莫桑比克政府和國際紅十字會研究了人們在哪里以及如何容易受到洪水和其他災(zāi)害的影響，然后要求社區(qū)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人自愿為他們所在的城鎮(zhèn)和社區(qū)的減災(zāi)委員會服務(wù)。

Such a decentralized approach to disaster preparedness is something that the Red Cross and others argue for around the world. 

紅十字會和其他組織在世界各地都主張采取這種分散的備災(zāi)方法。

The idea is that local leaders learn how to prepare for disasters and help their neighbors stay safe during extreme weather events.

他們的想法是，讓當?shù)仡I(lǐng)導(dǎo)人學(xué)習(xí)如何應(yīng)對災(zāi)難，并幫助他們的鄰居在極端天氣事件中保持安全。

Such programs are not a replacement for national and international climate action, but they are nonetheless an important part of building climate resilience in many places.

這些項目不能取代國家和國際氣候行動，但它們?nèi)匀皇窃谠S多地方建立氣候適應(yīng)能力的重要組成部分。

By 2017, more than 14,000 people were serving on more than 1,000 local committees around Mozambique, according to the World Bank.

世界銀行的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，截至2017年，有超過1.4萬人在莫桑比克各地的1000多個地方委員會工作。

"I'm responsible for making sure everyone knows where the high ground is," explains Luis Josine, who has lived in the farming community of Mondiane since 1961 and became the leader of his local disaster committee when it was founded five years ago.

“我負責(zé)確保每個人都知道高地在哪里，”路易斯·瓊西解釋道，他從1961年起就住在蒙戴安的農(nóng)業(yè)社區(qū)，五年前他的地方災(zāi)害委員會成立時，他成為了該委員會的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人。

The tools and training he received were relatively basic: a handheld radio for weather warnings, an orange vest, a whistle and three flags of different colors.

他所接受的工具和訓(xùn)練都是相對基礎(chǔ)的:一臺手持天氣警報收音機，一件橙色的背心，一個哨子和三面不同顏色的旗子。

Mondiane is near a river that's prone to flooding. 

蒙戴安靠近一條容易發(fā)洪水的河。

In 2000, dozens of people who lived in this area drowned, Josine says.

瓊西說，2000年，這個地區(qū)有數(shù)十人溺水身亡。

Today when there is a flood warning, Josine goes through town blowing a whistle and waving a flag. 

今天當有洪水警報時，瓊西吹著口哨，揮舞著旗子穿過小鎮(zhèn)。

If the flag is blue, it means a flood is likely in two or three days, he explains.

他解釋說，如果旗子是藍色的，這意味著兩到三天內(nèi)可能會有洪水。

If it's yellow, it means one day. 

如果旗子是黃色的，它意味著一天內(nèi)會發(fā)洪水。

If the flag is red, it's an emergency, and people should evacuate immediately.

如果旗子是紅色的，這表示是緊急情況，人們應(yīng)該立即疏散。

"It is good," he says. 

“這很管用，”他說道。

"People listen. They know to leave and go up the road." That makes him feel proud, especially since he has noticed that the flood risk in the town of Mondiane is increasing.

“人們會聽。他們知道該走了，該上路了?！边@讓他感到自豪，尤其是他注意到蒙戴安鎮(zhèn)的洪水風(fēng)險正在增加。

"We've been noticing the climate changing here since around the year 2000," he explains. 

“我們從2000年左右就開始注意到這里的氣候變化，”他解釋道。

"The floods are getting bigger and more severe. The droughts are getting longer."

“洪水越來越大，越來越嚴重。干旱時間也越來越長?！?/p>

Climate scientists say that's in keeping with trends in the whole region and that extreme weather is expected to get more common as the Earth continues to heat up.

氣候科學(xué)家表示，這與整個地區(qū)的趨勢一致，隨著地球繼續(xù)變暖，極端天氣預(yù)計會越來越常見。

"Disasters put people back into poverty," says Michel Matera, a senior analyst at the World Bank in the capital of Mozambique, Maputo. 

世界銀行駐莫桑比克首都馬普托的高級分析師米歇爾·馬泰拉說:“災(zāi)害使人們重新陷入貧困。

Without efforts to decrease the damage from floods and other disasters, he says, people will be "continuously trapped into poverty."

他說，如果不努力減少洪水和其他災(zāi)害造成的損失，人們將“繼續(xù)陷入貧困”。

It's particularly challenging to avoid that vicious cycle when climate change drives more than one disaster in a short period of time.

當氣候變化在短時間內(nèi)造成不止一場災(zāi)難時，避免這種惡性循環(huán)變得尤其具有挑戰(zhàn)性。

In the months after the cyclones drew international attention to Mozambique, another disaster was unfolding more quietly: a drought.

在颶風(fēng)引起國際社會對莫桑比克的關(guān)注后的幾個月里，另一場災(zāi)難悄然發(fā)生:干旱。

The rain from the cyclones had come all at once, in a torrent, but the more moderate, continuous rain that farmers rely on didn't fall in much of the country. 

颶風(fēng)帶來的降雨是一場傾盆大雨，但是農(nóng)民所依賴的更溫和的、持續(xù)的降雨并沒有降臨到這個國家的大部分地區(qū)。

Disaster Risk Reduction Committees worked to lessen the drought's blow.

減災(zāi)委員會一直在努力減輕旱災(zāi)的影響。

"We collect the water, we do our farming very carefully," explains Juliet Fernando Chaque, a member of the local committee in the town of Xidwaxine.

“我們會提前收集水，我們會非常謹慎地對待我們的農(nóng)業(yè)，”朱麗葉·費爾南多·查克解釋說，她是西達克瓦辛鎮(zhèn)當?shù)匚瘑T會的成員。

She says the community has done a lot in recent years to cope with extreme weather, including drought. 

她說，社區(qū)近年來為應(yīng)對包括干旱在內(nèi)的極端天氣做了很多工作。

For example, the town now has a communal silo to store food, and farmers plant crops that are tolerant of drought, like sweet potatoes.

例如，小鎮(zhèn)現(xiàn)在有一個公共糧倉來儲存食物，農(nóng)民們會種植耐旱的作物，比如紅薯。

But this ongoing drought has been so extreme, it has overwhelmed their efforts. 

但是這場持續(xù)的干旱太極端了，已經(jīng)超過了他們的努力。

It began in 2018, and at this point, any food that residents managed to store is long gone. 

它開始于2018年，在這一點上，任何居民設(shè)法儲存的食物都已經(jīng)吃光很久了。

The soil is dry and cracked. Planting season came in September and still there was no rain. 

土壤干裂。9月到了播種季節(jié)，但還是沒有下雨。

So there's almost no planting.

所以也沒法進行耕種。

Women from Xidwaxine have started walking three hours to a lake where water lilies grow to harvest the plants and eat the bitter tubers at the base of the roots.

來自西達克瓦辛的婦女們已經(jīng)開始步行3個小時到一個湖里去，那里生長著睡蓮，她們在那里收割莊稼，吃樹根下苦澀的塊莖。

"We are really suffering," Chaque says.

“我們真的太苦了，”查克說道。

Adapting to drought here will likely require comparatively big, expensive infrastructure projects to bring water out to the fields. 

為了適應(yīng)這里的干旱，可能需要相對大型、昂貴的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施項目來把水引入農(nóng)田。

Putting the brakes on climate change in general will require a global shift away from fossil fuels that has been slow at best.

要想在總體上遏制氣候變化，就需要全球改變對化石燃料的依賴。

That's a difficult reality for local leaders like Chaque, who have proudly, persistently pushed their communities to become more resilient to global changes that they cannot control.

對于像查克這樣的地方領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人來說，這是一個很難面對的現(xiàn)實，不過他們一直在自豪地、堅持不懈地推動自己的社區(qū)變得更能適應(yīng)他們無法控制的全球變化。

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