Being a mom is hard — the heat is making it harder
Being a mom is hard — the heat is making it harder
当妈妈本就不易，高温让这一切难上加难
According to a new study, kids are growing up with an extra month of heat stress thanks to climate change. 根据一项最新研究，由于气候变化，孩子们正在经历额外一个月的“高温压力”成长环境。
It’s 8:52 AM and 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius) where I live in Southern California. My husband just came back from a morning outing with our four-month-old. “How was the botanic garden?” I ask him. “It was okay. It was just too hot,” he tells me. I didn’t expect us to spend so much of our son’s first summer cooped up inside, hiding from the heat. 现在是上午 8 点 52 分，我居住的南加州气温已经达到了 86 华氏度（30 摄氏度）。我丈夫刚带着我们四个月大的孩子晨间外出回来。“植物园怎么样？”我问他。“还行，就是太热了，”他回答。我没料到儿子人生的第一个夏天，我们竟有这么多时间只能躲在室内避暑。
As I write this, an extreme heat warning for my area is glaring at me from my phone, effective for at least the next three days. “Dangerously hot conditions with high temperatures up to 110 [degrees Fahrenheit] expected,” my weather app warns me. “Stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun.” 在我写下这段文字时，手机上正闪烁着针对我所在地区的极端高温预警，且至少在未来三天内有效。天气预报应用警告我：“预计将出现高达 110 华氏度（约 43 摄氏度）的危险高温天气，请留在空调房内，避免阳光直射。”
It’s the sort of warning more kids are growing up with as global average temperatures climb. Around the world, 560 million children under the age of 10 are experiencing at least one additional month of heat stress each year as a result of climate change, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances. 随着全球平均气温攀升，越来越多的孩子在成长过程中不得不面对此类警告。根据发表在《科学进展》（Science Advances）期刊上的一项新研究，受气候变化影响，全球有 5.6 亿 10 岁以下的儿童每年正经历至少额外一个月的“高温压力”。
“I hope that this increases public awareness that climate change is a problem that is already happening today, that’s already affecting us,” says Rosa Pietroiusti, lead author of the study and a PhD researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. “It’s affecting the health of the most vulnerable.” “我希望这能提高公众意识，让大家认识到气候变化是一个当下正在发生、且已经影响到我们的问题，”该研究的主要作者、布鲁塞尔自由大学的博士研究员罗莎·皮特罗尤斯蒂（Rosa Pietroiusti）表示，“它正在影响最脆弱群体的健康。”
Pietroiusti’s team used an international standard for moderate heat stress, days when taking protective measures like rest breaks are recommended to prevent heat-related illness. The threshold is set at a WetBulb Globe Temperature of 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 F), a measure that takes heat, humidity, wind speed, and cloud cover into account. Thanks to advances in climate attribution science, they were able to assess the number of days crossing that threshold and how many of those heat stress days were added by climate change. 皮特罗尤斯蒂的团队采用了中度高温压力的国际标准，即建议采取休息等保护措施以预防高温相关疾病的天气。该阈值设定为湿球黑球温度（WBGT）28 摄氏度（82.4 华氏度），这一指标综合考量了热度、湿度、风速和云量。得益于气候归因科学的进步，他们得以评估超过该阈值的天数，以及其中有多少天是由气候变化额外导致的。
They found that children are disproportionately exposed to dangerous heat, as compared to older age categories. Climate change has led to at least one additional month of heat stress for 43 percent of all kids in the 0-9 age group — 560 million little ones. That’s nearly triple the number of people aged 60-69 exposed to the same amount of climate-induced heat stress. 研究发现，与老年群体相比，儿童面临危险高温的风险不成比例地更高。气候变化导致 43% 的 0-9 岁儿童（即 5.6 亿名幼童）每年额外承受至少一个月的高温压力。这一数字几乎是 60-69 岁人群面临同等气候诱发高温压力人数的三倍。
That’s due to even more socio-political inequity at a global scale; the highest increases in heat stress due to human-caused climate change take place in countries in the Global South that have contributed least to the fossil fuel pollution raising temperatures. These countries have younger populations, and they also tend to have less access to air conditioning or infrastructure designed to withstand extreme weather events. 这归因于全球范围内更深层的社会政治不平等；由人类活动引起的气候变化所导致的高温压力增幅，主要集中在“全球南方”国家，而这些国家对导致气温升高的化石燃料污染贡献最少。这些国家的人口结构更年轻，且往往缺乏空调或能够抵御极端天气的基础设施。
And if countries blow past the targets they agreed upon in the Paris climate accord, the number of children under the age of 10 that are exposed to an extra month of heat stress rises to 650 million with just 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, the new study finds. 研究还发现，如果各国未能实现《巴黎协定》中商定的目标，仅在全球变暖 2 摄氏度的情况下，面临额外一个月高温压力的 10 岁以下儿童人数将上升至 6.5 亿。
Heat in particular can sneak up on you because it doesn’t always arrive with the same public safety warnings as a big storm might. And yet it’s a leading cause of weather-related deaths globally, according to the World Health Organization. Heat stress can lead to dehydration, heat stroke, and eventually organ failure. 高温尤其具有隐蔽性，因为它不像大型风暴那样总是伴随着明确的公共安全预警。然而，根据世界卫生组织的说法，高温是全球与天气相关死亡的主要原因之一。高温压力可能导致脱水、中暑，最终引发器官衰竭。
Babies and kids are even more susceptible than most adults. Their small bodies have a higher surface area-to-body mass ratio that makes it easier for them to overheat. Think of a small ice cube melting in the sun compared to a big block of ice. Babies’ sweat glands are still developing, making it even harder for them to regulate their body temperature. They’re totally dependent on adults to take life-saving precautions, like staying hydrated. 婴儿和儿童比大多数成年人更易受高温影响。他们娇小的身体具有更高的表面积与体重比，这使得他们更容易过热。想象一下在阳光下融化的小冰块与大冰块的区别。婴儿的汗腺仍在发育中，这使得他们更难调节体温。他们完全依赖成年人采取救命的预防措施，例如保持水分摄入。
Heat-related illness is preventable as long as a kid can find a place to stay cool. And we can stop summers from getting even hotter than they already are today by turning to energy sources like solar and wind that don’t emit planet-heating pollution. 只要孩子能找到凉爽的地方，高温疾病是可以预防的。我们可以通过转向太阳能和风能等不排放导致地球变暖污染物的能源，来阻止夏季变得比现在更加炎热。
There are already plenty of ways the heat makes being a new mom even harder than it needs to be. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents avoid taking babies outside for long stretches whenever the ‘feels like’ temperature reaches higher than 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 Celsius). With this summer’s heatwaves, that meant that my family was mostly stuck indoors from about 11:00 in the morning or earlier until past sunset. 高温已经让新手妈妈的生活变得比原本更艰难。美国儿科学会建议，当“体感温度”超过 90 华氏度（32.2 摄氏度）时，家长应避免带婴儿长时间外出。在这个夏天的热浪中，这意味着我们一家人从上午 11 点甚至更早开始，直到日落后才能出门。
My son typically loves walks outside, and spending time outdoors can be especially beneficial for a parent’s mental wellbeing postpartum. I hate that it’s not even safe to explore his grandparents’ backyard after a certain time. Sometimes there’s a doctor’s appointment or groceries to grab midday. That often means blasting the AC to cool down a sweltering car while we wait in a hot parking lot. 我儿子通常很喜欢户外散步，而户外活动对产后家长的心理健康尤其有益。我讨厌的是，甚至连在特定时间去他祖父母的后院玩耍都不安全。有时中午需要去看医生或买菜，这意味着我们必须在炎热的停车场等待时，开足空调来冷却闷热的车厢。
As irritating as this all is, I’m one of the lucky parents with a car and air conditioning at home. We had a taste of what it would be like without AC when we lost power one hot July afternoon. Power outages have grown longer in the US as extreme weather has become more common. Heatwaves can trigger blackouts because of electricity demand peaks when people blast the AC, or when utility companies preemptively shut off power lines to keep them from sparking wildfires. 尽管这一切令人恼火，但我还算幸运，有车且家里有空调。七月的一个炎热午后，我们经历了一次停电，那让我们尝到了没有空调的滋味。随着极端天气变得越来越普遍，美国的停电时间也越来越长。热浪可能引发停电，因为人们大量使用空调导致电力需求激增，或者公用事业公司为了防止电线引发野火而主动切断电源。