全球变暖导致自然灾害增多

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全球变暖导致自然灾害增多

Global Warming Blamed For Increase in Natural Disasters

Lisa Schlein

Geneva

28 Jun 2001 17:49 UTC

The

1)International Red Cross Federation

is blaming global warming for an

increase in natural disasters around the world. In its annual World Disasters

Report, the Red Cross says people in poorer countries are particularly

2)vulnerable

.

Last year, the Red Cross report says, a record 256 million people were

affected by natural disasters. Over the past decade, according to the report,

natural disasters have killed 750,000 people.

While the number of earthquakes and

3)volcanic

4)eruptions

has remained

steady over the past decade, what the report refers to as hydro-meteorological

disasters - floods,

5)droughts

and

6)hurricanes

- have increased dramatically.

The head of Red Cross Operations in Africa and the Middle East, Roger Bracke,

says the agency believes these increases are related to global warming.

We

see total

7)abnormal

patterns, repetition of floods in areas where we have

seen those less frequently,

he said.

We also have seen massive droughts -

India ... Tajikistan ... Uzbekistan ... - on a much larger scale than we have

seen before.

The frequency and extent of the problem have no other

8)explanation

today than global warming.

The report says people in poorer areas, because they lack resources, are

usually the ones who suffer the most after a natural disaster strikes. Red

Cross senior officer Sean Deely says any aid program to disaster-stricken

areas should include ways of helping people rebuild their lives. Ignoring

economic realities, Mr. Deely says, puts people at greater risk from future

disasters.

What we really need to do is have the

9)flexibility

to take a longer-term

approach to programming, a longer-term approach that focuses on rebuilding

livelihoods and focuses on building and

10)reinforcing

local economies, so

that people and communities not only have the capacity to resist disaster and

the

11)consequences

of disaster, but have the capacities and resources to

rebuild their lives afterwards,

said Mr. Deely.

The Red Cross

12)acknowledges

that there is a limit to what the humanitarian

world can do to help victims of natural disasters. If these phenomena continue

to increase, Red Cross officials fear humanitarian agencies will no longer be

able to help all people in need.

注释：

(1) International Red Cross Federation n.

国际红十字会联盟

(2) vulnerable [

?????????????

] adj.

易受攻击的

,

易受

...

的攻击

(3) volcanic [

?????????

] adj.

火山的

,

象火山的

,

猛烈的

,

易突然发作的

,

爆

发的

(4) eruption [

??????????

] n.

爆发

,

火山灰

, [

医

]

出疹

(5) drought [

?????

] n.

干旱

,

缺乏

(6) hurricane [

????????

] n.

飓风

,

狂风

(7) abnormal [

???????????

] adj.

反常的

,

变态的