關於洪水的英語段落：Mend the roof while the sun shines

What to do? Flooding strengthens the case for minimising climate change, which threatens to make wet places wetter and storms stormier. Even those who doubt the science would do well to see action as an insurance policy that pays out if the case is proven. However, that will not happen fast, even if all countries, including America, sign up to international agreements. More immediately, therefore, politicians can learn from Houston. Cities need to protect flood defences and catchment areas, such as the wetlands around Kolkata and the lakes in and around Pokhara in Nepal, whose value is becoming clear. Flood maps need to be up to date. Civil engineers, often starved of funds and strangled by bureaucracy, should be building and reinforcing levees and reservoirs now, before it is too late. The NFIP should start to charge market premiums and developing countries should sell catastrophe bonds. All this is a test of government, of foresight and the ability to withstand the lobbying of homeowners and developers. But politicians and officials who fail the test need to realize that, sooner or later, they will wake up to a Hurricane Harvey of their own.

怎麼辦?洪災使得減小氣候變化帶來的影響變得更加迫切，因為全球變暖有可能使濕地更濕，暴雨更烈。如果這個 情況得到證實，即便那些懷疑科學的人也會將行動視為有好處的保險。不過即使包括美國在內的所有國家簽訂國際協議這樣的情況也不會很快發生，。所以，更直接快速的方法是，政治家應該從休斯頓的遭遇中借鑑經驗。各城市需保護防洪設施和集水區，比如加爾各答周圍的濕地，尼泊爾博卡拉市內及周圍的湖泊，這些地區的'價值正變得愈加清晰。洪水地圖須按時更新。常常苦於資金不足和受到官僚部門限制的土木工程師應在為時未晚前修建、加固堤壩和水庫。NFIP應開始收取市場溢價費用，發展中國家也應發售災難債券。所有這些措施都是對政府眼光和能否經受業主與開發商遊説的考驗。不過那些未能經受考驗的政治家和官員要認識到，他們自己遲早會面臨一場屬於自己的“哈維”颶風。

【本文作者：徐州七中彭向梅。(公眾號：草根英語行思教)】

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