2050年世界变成这样：汽车成患(组图)

汽车在给我们带来方便之余也带来麻烦

　　Four Wheels Good, Four Wheels Bad 成也汽车，败也汽车

　　The car has transformed the lives of people, but the planet is paying too high a price. It is almost incredible to think that when our grandparents were born cars were a rarity. Today there are 620 million private cars worldwide, to say nothing of buses, vans and lorries. With current growth trends, that number is expected to reach a staggering three billion cars worldwide by 2050.

　　小汽车改变了我们的生活，然而这个世界现在正为此付出高昂的代价。几乎让人难以想象的是，在我们祖辈出生的年代，汽车还为罕见之物。如今，全球光私人小汽车就有6亿2千万辆，更不用说公共汽车、货车和卡车了。按照眼下的增长态势来看，到了2050年，这个数字将达到惊人的30亿辆。

　　If we continue to burn fossil fuels at current rates, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will reach 550 ppm (parts per million)--double pre-industrial levels--by around 2050. This will increase global temperatures between 1.4 and 4.8℃ by 2050, and sea levels will rise between 0.09 and 0.78 meters.

　　如果我们继续按照目前的标准使用矿物燃料，到2050年全球大气中的二氧化碳含量将达到550ppm(百万分率)。这个数字是人类进入工业化社会前的两倍。受此影响，到2050年为止，全球温度将增长1.4到4.8摄氏度，海平面将升高0.09到0.78米。