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The problem with climate change is that it's a timed test.
气候变化的问题在于它是一项定时测试。
If we don't solve it very rapidly we will never solve it.
如果我们不迅速解决它，就可能永远都无法解决了。
I mean the sad part of this story is we knew everything there really was to know that really mattered back at the very beginning of the story.
我的意思是，这个故事的悲哀之处在于，我们从一开始就知道了所有重要事项。
When you burn coal, gas, and oil you put CO2 in the atmosphere.
当你燃烧煤、天然气和石油时，会向大气中排放二氧化碳。
We know that the molecular structure of CO2 traps heat that would otherwise radiate back out to space.
我们知道二氧化碳的分子结构能够捕获热量，否则热量就会辐射向太空。
We knew it was accumulating.
我们知道它在积聚。
The only things we didn't know were how fast and how hard it was going to pinch.
我们唯一不知道的是它来得有多快、多难。
We are beginning to see this transition towards renewable and clean energy and that is a transition that will doubtless continue.
我们开始向可再生和清洁能源过渡，毫无疑问，这种过渡会继续下去。
Not just because it's clean, but because these fuels are cheaper, too, than the fossil fuels they replace.
不仅因为它是清洁的，更是因为这些燃料比它们所取代的化石燃料更便宜。
The reason the Paris Climate Accords are not an official treaty is because at some point 10 or 15 years ago the rest of the world figured out that no treaty would ever get 2/3 of the vote in the U.S. Senate.
《巴黎气候协定》之所以不是官方条约，是因为在10年或15年前，世界其他地区的人们发现，任何条约都不会在美国参议院获得2/3的投票。
The fossil fuel industry essentially owns one of our political parties.
化石燃料行业基本上拥有我们的一个政党。
Its biggest contributors, the Koch brothers and their network, are one of the biggest oil and gas barons.
其最大的贡献者，科赫兄弟及其联络网，是最大的石油和天然气巨头之一。
And they continue to hold 50 seats in the Senate so it's not an easy task to figure out how you go around it.
他们继续在参议院拥有50个席位，所以要想绕过它并不是一件容易的事情。
It's going to take continued efforts to soften some of their base and the most important of that work is what we're calling the sort of "Just Transition" work, around making sure that workers in coal mines and oil fields have an easy transition to good-paying jobs.
我们将继续努力弱化他们的底基，其中最重要的是我们所说的“公正过渡”工作，主要确保煤矿和油田工人能够轻松过渡到高薪工作。
To the extent that that happens, some of that resistance will become less politically powerful.
在这种情况下，一些阻力在政治上就不那么强大了。
There's been a shift in the zeitgeist of a profound dimension.
时代精神发生了深刻的转变。
Polling shows that most people now understand that climate change is a serious problem and they want government action.
民意调查显示，大多数人现在都明白气候变化是一个严重的问题，他们希望政府采取行动。
There's been a decade of enormous organizing, of enormous engineering advance, and there's been a decade of hideous climate effects.
过去十年，是一个巨大的组织，巨大的工程进步的十年，也是深受可怕的气候影响的十年。
In California summer is a time of mild dread waiting for the next fire to break out.
在加利福尼亚，夏天是一个稍带恐惧的季节，时不时总有火灾爆发。
The Gulf Coast and Florida wait through hurricane season with bated breath.
墨西哥湾沿岸和佛罗里达紧张地等待着飓风季节的离去。
And that's one of the reasons that so many of us continue to fight hard against these industries and try to weaken their political power.
这也是我们许多人继续与这些行业斗争并试图削弱它们的政治权力的原因之一。
And the more that we can, the better the odds of some change along the way.
我们做得越多，在这一过程中发生改变的可能性就越大。
Solar and wind and other clean technologies will come of their own accord.
太阳能、风能和其他清洁技术将自动出现。
If we have enough time.
前提是我们有足够多的时间。
But if it takes 75 years to get there, or even if it takes 25 years, then the world we run on sun and wind will be broken.
但如果这一过程需要75年，哪怕只有25年，那么我们依靠太阳能和风能的世界就会倾覆。
And so the job of governments and all of us is to force the sprint, as it were.
因此，政府和我们所有人的工作就是努力冲刺。
To make it happen much more quickly than we otherwise would.
让这一过程进展更快。
