VOA常速英语2016--旱灾预警无动于衷致旱灾波及非洲百姓

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旱灾预警无动于衷致旱灾波及非洲百姓

Experts say there was plenty of warning that the Horn of Africa was likely to experience severedrought. Nevertheless, millions of people are now at risk. Scientific experts have been sayingfor years that the Horn of Africa was vulnerable. The warning came with recommendations toprevent drought or lessen¹ its effects. But to a large extent, those recommendationsremained just that -- recommendations. Like everyone, we are very much moved by the imageand news that we are seeing from not only Somalia, but also the whole Horn of Africa. MansourN'Diaye is chief of cabinet at the Secretariat of the UNCCD – the United Nations Convention toCombat Desertification. He describes what's happening in the Horn as "an illustration ofregret”.Regret that most of the knowledge that has been accumulated over years, not onlyfrom the UNCCD, but also from other relevant international organizations, about drought andhow to address the issue of drought. All those. We are unfortunate to say that they are notvery much put to the attention of policymakers for them to take preventive measures. N'Diayesays last January, meteorological experts warned that the Horn of Africa was on the verge² ofsevere drought. So no one can say that we didn't know. It was known, including bypolicymakers. The fact of the matter is that perhaps priorities were given to something else.And therefore, one has to face the fact that policy failures are here very much at stake. Andthat wasn't the first warning. The UNCCD official says a warning was issued as far back as 2007by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Go back to the IPCC report. It was clearlystated by scientists that have studied the issue of climate change that for nearly 10 years areasthat are prone³ to drought – and we are talking about areas like those in the Horn of Africa –will experience more frequent droughts and more intense droughts of a much wider distance.And near droughts will emerge where they never existed before. This is in the IPCC report.Now that drought has firmly taken hold in the Horn of Africa, with famine in parts of Somalia,is it too late to act? We cannot say that it's too late, because we have the knowledge as towhat is it that one should do to better manage land, including in the dry lands. And thereforethe UNCCD is there to facilitate, particularly in countries like those in Africa, precisely⁴ theimplementation of their action programs to combat desertification. N'Diaye said landsaffected by desertification can be reclaimed⁵. If they were fertile once, they can be again. Ittakes time, but it is time which is valued to be invested in. Because in the end, what is at stakeis precisely to improve the livelihoods⁶ of those inhabitants from the dry lands, like those in theHorn of Africa. That investment, he says, requires political will. Recommendations for dealingwith the drought include a political solution to Somalia's conflict. Also, U.N. Convention toCombat Desertification experts and others call for greater investment in smallholder farms,empowering community-based organizations to manage the land, addressing land ownershipand land degradation⁷ issues, and rolling out comprehensive national action plans on droughtprevention. In November, talks will be held in Casablanca on creating better ways to sharedrought information. The meeting is being organized by the UNCCD, the World MeteorologicalOrganization, the U.S. National Integrated Drought Information System and Morocco's nationalmeteorological service.

很多专家表示，非洲之角很可能遭受严重旱灾的警告早已经不绝于耳。然而，有成千上万的人们正身处危险之中。多少年来，科学家一直在警告世人非洲之角十分脆弱。在提出警告的同时，科学家们也提出了抵御旱灾或减少其影响的诸多建议。但从很大程度来看，这些建议也只是停留在建议的层面。我们每个人都被所见到的画面和听到的新闻触动，这些画面和新闻不只有关索马里，还有关整个非洲之角。

曼苏尔是联合国防治荒漠化公约秘书处内阁负责人。他认为非洲之角正在遭遇的一切是“惋惜的表现”。惋惜的是，这些年积累了这么多有关旱灾及对抗旱灾的知识（既有是来自联合国防治荒漠化公约的，也有相关国际组织的），所有这些知识，都很不幸地没有引起决策者的关注，没有落实在防御性措施上。曼苏尔称，去年一月份，气象专家已警告过：非洲之角即将遭遇严重旱灾。所以谁也不能说我们没有提前得知消息。这个消息大家都知道，包括决策者。这件事的关键在于，或许注意力都放在了其他事情上。因此，需要直面的事实是：政策的失败岌岌可危。并且这也不是第一次警告了。联合国防治荒漠化公约工作人员称，早在2007年，政府间气候变化专门委员会就发布了预警。回头看看政府间气候变化专门委员会的预警报告。其中，气候变化领域的资深科学家已明确提出，非洲之角将油近10年的时间处于旱灾濒危状态，会遭遇更加频繁的旱灾和程度更加严重、波及范围更广的旱灾。而这些旱灾将出现在此前并未出现的地方。这是政府间气候变化专门委员会中的内容。但是现在旱灾已经完全侵袭了非洲之角，索马里的部分地区出现了饥荒，现在行动是不是为时过晚？我们不能说为时过晚，因为我们知道应该怎么样做来更好地管理土地，包括干旱的土地。因此联合国防治荒漠化公约的角色就是在非洲等地区加速推进抗击沙漠化的行动。曼苏尔表示，受到沙漠化侵袭的地区可以得到开垦。荒芜过一次，就会有第二次。这需要时间，需要投入成本的时间。因为最终的关键还是要提升干旱区域人民的生活水平，比如非洲之角的人民。曼苏尔还表示，投入是需要政治方面的意愿的。应对干旱的建议中包括采用政治方案来解决索马里的冲突。此外，联合国防治荒漠化公约的专家等人还呼吁将更多的投资放在小型农场、给予以社区为基础的组织更多的权利来管理徒弟、解决土地所有权和土地退化的问题、制定全国性的旱灾全面防治行动方案。11月卡萨布兰卡市会举行有关创建分享旱灾信息解决途径的研讨会。