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If you scroll across the world on the wildfire tracking app, Windy, it seems like all of Central Africa is engulfed in flames.
如果你在野火跟踪应用软件Windy上浏览世界各地，你会发现好像整个中非都被大火吞噬了。
A region decidedly larger than the Amazon.
大火吞噬的地区明显比亚马逊还要大。
But there’s a difference between Amazonian fires and those in the Congo Basin.
但亚马逊大火和刚果盆地的大火是不同的。
The fires in Central African countries are primarily seasonal and situated on savanna and grasslands.
中非国家的火灾主要是季节性的，发生在稀树草原和牧场上。
They lick at the edges of the Congo Rainforest but have yet to encroach as much onto the forest’s core.
它们舔舐着刚果热带雨林的边缘，但还没有侵占森林的核心。
In part, this is due to the way grasslands react to fire, as well as how fires are used.
这在一定程度上是由于草原对火的反应，以及火的使用方式。
Farmers and Ranchers in Central Africa have implemented controlled burns on grasslands for centuries.
几个世纪以来，中非的农民和牧场主一直在草原上实施受控焚烧。
They set fire to dried grasses before the wet season to use as ash for fertilizer and purge disease and pests from the lands, this is a much different process than in Brazil, where fires are used indiscriminately as a tool to clear old-growth rainforests out of the way for large, high-carbon animal agriculture businesses.
他们在雨季之前放火焚烧干草，将灰烬用作肥料，并清除土地上的病虫害，巴西的做法则大不相同，在巴西，人们不加区分地用火来清除古老的雨林，为大型、高碳的畜牧业企业铺平道路。
Indeed, the Central African savanna might not even exist without continuously controlled burns.
事实上，如果没有持续的受控燃烧，中非稀树草原甚至可能不会存在。
After the fire season, savanna often grows back quickly and vibrantly.
火季过后，稀树草原通常会迅速恢复生机。
So, many of these fires are seasonal, small, agricultural burns in the resilient savanna, as opposed to the highly destructive Brazilian practices of setting fire to swaths of rainforest that can take over 30 years to grow back.
因此，这些火灾中有许多都是季节性的、小规模的农业燃烧，发生在有复原能力的稀树草原上，而巴西人放火焚烧大片雨林的做法具有极强的破坏性，可能需要30多年才能恢复。
But if left unchecked, unregulated fires reaching into the Congo Rainforest could mean a real problem its ecosystem.
但如果不加以控制，蔓延到刚果热带雨林的不受管制的大火可能会导致其生态系统面临真正的问题。
And as climate change heats up the planet, and inevitably makes these regions drier, the Congo Rainforest becomes much more susceptible to out-of-control fires.
随着气候变化使地球变暖，并不可避免地使这些地区变得更加干燥，刚果雨林变得更容易受到失控大火的影响。
Senior Forest Manager with Greenpeace Africa, Irène Wabiwa Betoko, told French public radio service, RFI “[they’re] very worried that the forests in the Congo Basin are more and more exposed, more vulnerable to fire because those forests are threatened by an increase in the pace of deforestation.”
非洲绿色和平组织的高级森林经理艾琳·瓦比瓦·贝托科告诉法国公共广播电台RFI:“(他们)非常担心刚果盆地的森林发生火灾的几率越来越大，且越来越容易受到火灾的影响，因为砍伐速度加快对这些森林造成了威胁。”
Activists like Vanessa Nakate are taking action to raise consciousness, but it will require large cultural and agricultural shifts across several Central African countries to prevent the encroaching pace of deforestation of the Congo Rainforest.
像凡妮莎·纳卡特这样的活动人士正在采取行动以提高人们的意识，但这需要在几个中非国家进行大规模的文化和农业变革，以防止刚果热带雨林被砍伐的速度越来越快。
At the end of the day, it comes down to regulation.
归根结底，这取决于监管。
Some of these fires are inevitable and natural or tied to long-held agricultural traditions that are essential to healthy grasslands.
其中一些火灾是不可避免的自然火灾，或者与长期以来对维持草原健康至关重要的农业传统有关。
But the increased intensities of the infernos we are seeing recently are in part caused by the dismantling of environmental regulations in favor of neoliberal free market policies that allow large corporations to harm people and land with impunity.
但我们最近看到的大火之所以愈演愈烈，部分原因是环境法规被废除，转而支持新自由主义的自由市场政策，这些政策使得大公司可以在伤害人民和土地后不受惩罚。
So, let’s travel back to Australia for a moment, and talk about Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
所以，让我们暂时回到澳大利亚的问题，谈谈澳大利亚总理斯科特·莫里森。
In December, while the country was battling raging infernos, its leader was safely tucked away on vacation in Hawaii.
去年12月，当这个国家正在与熊熊大火作斗争时，其领导人被安全地藏在夏威夷度假。
This speaks volumes to how Morrison has ignored the issue and consequences of climate change in favor of more profitable and comfortable avenues.
这充分说明莫里森忽视了气候变化的问题和后果，转而选择了更有利可图、更舒适的林荫大道。
The Prime Minister is a champion of Australia’s $70 billion coal industry.
这位总理是澳大利亚700亿美元煤炭行业的拥护者。
In 2015, as treasurer, he brought a piece of coal to the parliament floor and told us all not to be afraid.
2015年，作为财政部长，他把一块煤带到议会大厅，告诉我们所有人都不要害怕。
While the country he works for continues to burn, he still stands behind the coal industry.
当他为之工作的国家继续燃烧时，他仍然支持煤炭行业。
An industry that undoubtedly gave rise to the climate change that is now intensifying the tragedies of Australian bushfires.
而毫无疑问，正是这个行业引起了气候变化，现在又导致澳大利亚的森林大火悲剧更加严重。
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has taken a similar approach.
巴西总统雅伊尔·博索纳罗也采取了类似的做法。
He slashed Brazil’s environmental enforcement agency by $23 million, penned an executive order handing the control of certifying indigenous lands over to the Agriculture administration, and nominated an environmental minister convicted of fudging environmental protection plan maps to aid mining companies.
他将巴西环境执法机构的资金削减了2300万美元，签署了一项行政命令，将土著土地认证的控制权移交给农业局，并提名了一名因伪造环境保护计划地图来帮助矿业公司而被定罪的环境部长。
Leaders like Morrison and Bolsonaro, are thus partly to blame for the fires their country’s face.
因此，像莫里森和博索纳罗这样的领导人要为他们国家面临的火灾承担部分责任。
They have the power and influence to regulate and transition their societies towards an emissions-free, just world.
他们有权力和影响力来规范社会，并将其转变为一个零排放、公正的世界。
One that would mean less climate-change and ultimately more manageable fires.
一个气候变化减少，最终让火灾更容易得到控制的世界。
And yet, in the face of this clear, but difficult path, they refuse to do anything of the sort.
然而，面对这条清晰但艰难的道路，他们拒绝做任何这样的事情。
Instead, they fight tooth and nail to give for-profit industries ever more power at the expense of the health of the land and the safety of their countries, all in exchange for political gain.
他们反而以土地健康和国家安全为代价，竭尽全力给予营利性行业更多权力，而这一切都是为了换取政治利益。
