It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

現在是下午 3 點鐘。

The reason Sao Paulo is so dark is because the city is drowning in smoke from a massive fire over a thousand miles away, in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.

聖保羅市之所以如此黑暗，是因為它被淹沒在幾千英里外、亞馬遜雨林大火所產生的濃煙之中。

And it's not the only one.

這還不是單一案例。

Nearly 73,000 fires were recorded in the Amazon between January and August of 2019.

2019 年一至八月間，在亞馬遜就有近 7.3 萬起火災被記錄到。

That's an 83% increase from last year.

這比去年增加了 83%。

And it's not accidental.

而這樣的數據並非意外。

Forest fires like this one are highly unnatural in the wet rainforest.

此類森林大火在潮濕的雨林中是極不正常的。

Humans are behind this burn.

人類是這火苗背後的主謀。

Every year, huge swathes of the Amazon are deliberately and illegally burned to make room for cattle ranching.

每一年，亞馬遜都有大面積的土地被惡意且違法地燒毀，為畜牧業製造空間。

This season is called the "queimada".

這個時節被稱為「燃燒季（葡萄牙語：queimada）」。

And it can lead to wildfires like these ones, which burn massively out of control.

而它可能導致像這樣大規模燃燒且不受控制的野火。

The wildfires have been especially widespread this year, which is also Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's first year in office.

野火在今年特別廣泛地發生，今年恰好也是巴西總統 Jair Bolsonaro 上任第一年。

And that's no coincidence.

那可不是巧合。

Bolsonaro wants to open up the Amazon to mining and ranching, and has vowed to eliminate all protected areas.

Bolsonaro 想要將亞馬遜開放供採礦和畜牧用，並承諾要消除所有保護區。

He says the environmental laws that protect the Amazon are suffocating his country.

他說保護亞馬遜的環境法，遏止了他國家的發展。

And he thinks global warming is nothing more than "greenhouse fables."

而且他認為全球暖化也只不過是「溫室傳說」。

This kind of rhetoric sends a strong message to those who hope to illegally burn the forest for their own gain:

這種煽動性的言論向那些為自身利益想要非法焚燒森林的人，傳達出一個強烈的訊息：

"Go for it. We're not coming after you. We just don't care."

「放手做吧。我們不會抓你。我們單純就是不在乎。」

Illegal cattle ranchers seem to have gotten that message.

非法畜牧業者似乎了解了這個訊息。

And these are the results.

而這些就是後果。

All for hamburgers.

都只是為了吃個漢堡。

It shouldn't take the financial center of Brazil going dark in the middle of the day to get the world to pay attention to this problem.

世人不應該等到巴西金融中心在大白天陷入黑暗後，才注意到這個問題。

Because even when soot isn't plunging 12 million people into darkness, the Amazon is still disappearing at the rate of three football fields a minute.

因為即使煤灰沒有將 1.2 億人籠罩在黑暗中，亞馬遜還是以每分鐘三座足球場大的面積消失中。

Humans have already destroyed 15% of the Amazon.

人類已經摧毀亞馬遜的 15%。

Scientists say if we lose another 10%, the entire ecosystem could collapse.

科學家表示，若我們再喪失 10%，整個生態系可能會瓦解。

And that would be catastrophic to life on Earth.

而那對地球上所有生命，都是極具災難性的。

The rainforest isn't just home to countless plants, animals, and indigenous people.

這座雨林不僅是無數植物、動物及原住民的家鄉。

It's one of the most important weapons we have in the fight against climate change.

它也是我們對抗氣候變遷最重要的武器之一。

The massive rainforest absorbs up to 2 billion tons of carbon emissions each year.

這片巨大的雨林每年吸收高達 20 億噸的碳排放。

That's more carbon than Russia emits.

這比俄羅斯排放的碳還要多。

It also safely stores carbon from decades past.

它也將數十年前的碳排放，安全地保存著。

150 to 200 billion tons of carbon.

介於 1,500 億噸到 2,000 億噸的碳量。

That's over 140 years' worth of human emissions.

那相當於人類 140 年的排放量。

If the Amazon collapses, this carbon will be released.

若亞馬遜瓦解，這些碳將會被釋放。

That would rock the world with unprecedented rapid warming.

這會使全世界受到空前迅速的暖化衝擊。

And we would lose our biggest ally in the fight against the climate crisis.

而我們會失去與氣候危機搏鬥的最大盟友。

Forever.

永遠地。