原文: If You Knew the World Would End in the Near Future, What Would You Do?

It’s a new take on the age-old question that takes the form, “If you could do something without getting caught, would you?”

A retreating ice shelf in Greenland. Photo by John Rudolph

Usually, the ’something’ involves having an affair, stealing a large amount of money, or even killing someone generally regarded as evil. The responses typically fall into one of three categories:

• Yes
• No, I’m not that type of person
• Well, you could never really be sure that someone wouldn’t find out, so…

The ‘No’ crowd claim to have an internal moral compass that keeps them from doing bag things. The ‘Yes’ group - well, may have many reasons, but the outcome is the same. The folks trying to avoid answering may have a point.

Now, however, imagine that there could be a real-life (and death) scenario. It could be this: We don’t take action on global warming, or enough action. For whatever reason. Perhaps it’s already too late. Perhaps our governments are too corrupted by corporate influence. Perhaps we, the people in the developed countries, refuse to give up our SUVs. Doesn’t matter. The point is, at some point, it becomes painfully clear that climate change is coming, that there are going to be significant effects in our lifetimes, and that those effects are going to be severe.

In fact, worst case, many people are experiencing the effects. (While some are now, let’s say we have passed a ‘tipping point’ where many people are affected, from severe droughts in the U.S. wheat belt, to water rationing and crop reductions in California, to spiking prices for food, fuel, and water, to spreading pestilence, to some coastal areas becoming uninhabitable due to storms, to widespread wars over resources and land and more.)

And it has become obvious that things are only going to get worse, much worse, and that civilization is going to collapse - soon. With the collapse of civilization, we all know that the earth cannot support the billions of people currently inhabiting it, and many of us - quite possibly most of us - are going to have to go.

Given all this, what would you do? And what do you think others will do?

Brian Gordon is a Canadian Green Party member and candidate trained by Al Gore to present An Inconvenient Truth.

译文: 如果世界不久后就将毁灭，你会怎么做？

   通常，“这件事”指的是有一段私情，偷盗大量钱财，甚至邪恶地杀死某人。大家的反应会典型地分为三类：

• 是的，我会。
• 不，我不是那种人。
• 嗯，你不能保证没人会发现，所以。。。。。。

   选择“不”的人内心有强烈的道德感约束自己不做坏事。选择“是”的这些人---也许他们有许多理由，但结果是相同的。选择回避答案的人也许有自己的观点。

   现在，想象现实生活中有这样一个（致命的）场景。它就像这样：我们由于任何理由，对全球变暖不采取行动，或者说没有采取足够的行动。也许因为已经太迟了。也许因为我们的政府太腐败，受大公司的影响控制。也许是发展中国家的人们不愿放弃他们的运动型多用途车（SUV）。这都没什么关系，关键是在某种意义上，我们痛苦地意识到气候变暖正在进行中，对我们的生活将产生重大且日益严重的影响。

   最糟的是，事实上许多人已经在受到影响了。（我们现在已经到达一个倾覆点，由于暴风雪，以及资源和土地等到处引发的战争使得许多人受到影响。像是美国严重的干旱，加利福尼亚小麦种植带水资源的定量配给和玉米产出的减少，食物，燃料和水的价格猛增，瘟疫横行，一些沿海地区变得不适宜人类居住。）

   很明显的是这些情况只会越变越糟，更糟的是人类文明将在不久以后崩溃。文明崩塌后，我们都知道地球将不再是数十亿人的家园，我们中的许多人---很可能是大多数人---不得不离开这里。

   既然如此，现在你将怎么做？你认为别人会怎么做呢？

   布莱恩·戈登是加拿大绿党成员，他是经阿尔·戈尔的指导来介绍《难以忽视的真相》的候选人。

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   发布于《Environmental Graffiti》：如果世界不久后就将毁灭，你会怎么做？