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Last summer, after months of unusually heavy monsoon rains, and temperatures that approached the limits of human survivability, Pakistan – home to thousands of melting Himalayan glaciers – experienced some of the worst floods in its history.
去年夏天，在历经数月罕见的强季风性降雨以及接近人类生存极限的高温之后，巴基斯坦--喜马拉雅地区无数正在融化的冰川水的存放地--遭遇了该国历史上最严重的洪水。
The most extensive destruction was in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan, but some estimated that up to a third of the country was submerged.
最严重的破坏发生在巴基斯坦的信德省和俾路支省，但一些人估计该国多达三分之一的地区被洪水淹没了。
The floods killed more than 1,700 people and displaced a further 32 million – more than the entire population of Australia.
洪水造成1700多人遇难，另有3200万人流离失所--比澳大利亚总人口还多。
Some of the country’s most fertile agricultural areas became giant lakes, drowning livestock and destroying crops and infrastructure.
该国一些最肥沃的农业地区变成了巨大的湖泊，湖泊淹没了牲畜，摧毁了农作物和基础设施。
The cost of the disaster now runs to tens of billions of dollars.
这场灾难造成的损失目前已达数百亿美元。
In late August, as the scale of this catastrophe was becoming clear, the Pakistani government was trying to avert a second disaster.
8月下旬，随着这场灾难的规模变得越来越清晰，巴基斯坦政府正试图避免二次灾难。
It was finally reaching a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avoid missing payment on its foreign debt.
为避免拖欠外债，该国最终与国际货币基金组织达成协议。
Without this agreement, Pakistan would likely have been declared in default – an event that can spark a recession, weaken a country’s long-term growth, and make it more difficult to borrow at affordable rates in the future.
如果没有这项协议，巴基斯坦可能已经被宣布违约——这一事件可能引发经济衰退，削弱一个国家经济的长期增长，使未来以负担得起的利率借款变得更加困难。
The terms of the deal were painful: the government was offered a $1.17bn IMF bailout only after it demonstrated a real commitment to undertaking unpopular austerity policies, such as slashing energy subsidies.
这项协议的条款让巴基斯坦痛苦: 该国政府只有在表现出要实施不受欢迎的紧缩政策(如削减能源补贴)的真正承诺之后，才能获得国际货币基金组织11.7亿美元的纾困资金。
But the recent fate of another south Asian country appeared to show what happens if you put off the IMF for too long.
但另一个南亚国家最近的命运似乎表明，如果使国际货币基金组织等待太久会发生什么。
Only weeks before, the Sri Lankan government, shortly after its own default – and after months of refusing to implement IMF-demanded reforms – was overthrown in a popular uprising.
就在几周前，斯里兰卡政府在一场民众起义中被推翻，不久前，该国政府还拖欠债务--数月来一直拒绝实施国际货币基金组织要求的改革。
The correlation of Pakistan’s crises – exceptionally devastating floods and the threat of economic meltdown – was partly bad luck.
巴基斯坦的危机——极具破坏性的洪水以及经济崩溃的威胁——这场危机的相关性在一定程度上是因为运气不好。
But it was also emblematic of a challenge faced by many countries at the forefront of the climate crisis:
但这也象征着许多处于气候危机前沿的国家所面临的挑战:
how can they afford to deal with extreme weather events and prepare themselves for the coming disasters, while suffering under crippling debt loads and facing demands for austerity as the price of relief?
在承受着沉重债务负担、面临以经济紧缩为救济代价的要求时，他们如何才能应对得起极端天气事件，并为即将到来的灾难做好准备?
