“We’re on the front lines of vulnerability,” says Tina Stege.

蒂娜·斯泰奇说:“我们脆弱的不堪一击。”

She would know: Stege is the climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, a country of roughly 60,000 people spread mostly among coral atolls halfway between Hawaii and Australia that is facing an imminent existential threat from climate change.

她应该知道:斯泰奇是马绍尔群岛的气候特使。马绍尔群岛这个国家大约有6万人口，主要分布在夏威夷和澳大利亚之间的珊瑚环礁之间，目前正面临着气候变化带来的迫在眉睫的生存威胁。

In the Marshalls, sea-level rise has already led to increased flooding and the degradation of water used for drinking and cooking.

在马绍尔地区，海平面上升已经导致洪水泛滥，污染了饮用水和烹饪用水。

Ongoing coral bleaching affects local fish stocks, which Marshallese rely upon for food as well as for income from nations that apply to fish in the country’s waters.

持续的珊瑚白化影响了当地的鱼类资源，马绍尔群岛的住民依靠这些鱼类资源获取食物，依靠从本国水域捕鱼的国家那里获取收入。

And a warmer, wetter world means a greater risk of waterborne disease — the country was hit hard by an outbreak of Dengue fever in 2019.

更温暖、更潮湿的世界意味着水源传染疾病的风险更大——该国在2019年爆发了登革热传染病。

The horizon is dark and will only get darker if the rest of the world doesn’t make the changes necessary to stay below 1.5 Celsius degrees of warming above preindustrial levels (which appears highly unlikely).

地平线是黑暗的，如果世界其他地区不做出必要的改变，将气温上升幅度保持在较前工业化水平前的1.5摄氏度以下(这似乎极不可能)，地平线只会变得更黑暗。

While her country’s situation may seem uniquely dire,

虽然她所在国家的情况似乎十分糟糕，

Stege knows that the Marshalls, site of horrific damage caused by U.S. nuclear weapons testing in the 1940s and 1950s,

但斯泰奇知道，美国在上世纪40年代和50年代进行的核武器试验造成了可怕的破坏，

offers both a window into a possible future of even more widespread uninhabitability as well as a shared opportunity.

马绍尔地区提供了一扇窗户，让我们看到未来可能出现的更广泛的不适宜居住的情况，同时也提供了一个共同的机会。

“Climate change is a preventable crisis,” says Stege, who is 45. “There are pathways. But can we achieve what needs to be achieved?”

“气候变化是一场可以预防的危机，”45岁的斯泰奇说。 “有很多途径。 但我们能实现需要实现的目标吗?”

I have two questions to start, about power and morality:

首先，我有两个关于权力和道德的问题:

Your country’s continued existence is dependent on the decisions of far more powerful, far less at-risk countries.

贵国能否继续存在，取决于那些远比贵国强大、风险小得多的国家的决定。

So how has your advocacy work affected your thinking about global power?

那么，您的倡导工作如何影响了您对全球权力的看法呢?

And second: I’ve seen people argue that global warming is likely to wind up at something like 2.2 or 2.7 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels,

第二，我看到有人说，全球变暖可能会比工业化前的水平高2.2或2.7摄氏度，

and therefore we shouldn’t freak out because at those levels life for us in rich Western countries won’t be all that different.

因此我们不应该惊慌失措，因为在那样的水平下，我们在富裕的西方国家的生活不会有什么不同。

How do you view that argument from a moral perspective?

你从道德的角度如何看待这个论点?

The way I was raised in my community was with this idea that when you protect those who are the most vulnerable in your community, you are protecting your entire community.

我在社会中成长的方式是这样的：当你保护社会中最脆弱的人时，你就是在保护整个社会。

This translates to the message we’ve had for the world on why they should care about the Marshall Islands:

这就是我们向全世界传达的为什么他们应该关心马绍尔群岛的信息:

Climate change is going to affect everyone on this planet.

气候变化将影响地球上的每一个人。

I think in 2020, 30 million people were displaced by climate change.

我想在2020年，有3000万人因为气候变化而流离失所。