我的家乡，加州不再
我从出生至今几乎一直住在加利福尼亚，我对这个地方和这里的人的爱深沉而真实。过去几年里，我曾多次自称为加州民族主义者：是，美国好像是疯了，但至少我住在“金州”，这里仍然是个很惬意的地方。
But lately my affinity for my home state has soured. Maybe it’s the smoke and the blackouts, but a very un-Californian nihilism has been creeping into my thinking. I’m starting to suspect we’re over. It’s the end of California as we know it. I don’t feel fine.
但最近，我对家乡的感情开始恶化。也许是因为浓烟和停电，但一种很不加州的虚无主义已经潜入我的思维。我开始怀疑我们完蛋了。我们所知的那个加州完了。我感觉很不好。
It isn’t just the fires — although, my God, the fires. Is this what life in America’s most populous, most prosperous state is going to be like from now on? Every year, hundreds of thousands evacuating, millions losing power, hundreds losing property and lives? Last year, the air near where I live in Northern California — within driving distance of some of the largest and most powerful and advanced corporations in the history of the world — was more hazardous than the air in Beijing and New Delhi. There’s a good chance that will happen again this month, and that it will keep happening every year from now on. Is this really the best America can do?
不仅仅是着火——虽然这火烧的实在是，天呐。在这个美国人口最多、最繁荣的州，生活从此以后就会变成这样吗?每年都有数十万人疏散，数百万人被断电，成千上万的人失去财产和生命?去年，在我所在的北加州一带——开车没多久就能到达人类历史上规模最大、实力最强、最先进的企业所在地——空气质量比北京和新德里还要糟糕。本月，这种事很有可能会再次发生，而且从现在起，每年都会发生。美国真的就只有这点水平了吗?
Probably, because it’s only going to get worse. The fires and the blackouts aren’t like the earthquakes, a natural threat we’ve all chosen to ignore. They are more like California’s other problems, like housing affordability and homelessness and traffic — human-made catastrophes we’ve all chosen to ignore, connected to the larger dysfunction at the heart of our state’s rot: a failure to live sustainably.
很可能是这样，因为情况只会变得更糟。地震是一种我们选择忽视的天灾，火灾和停电则有所不同，它们更像是加州的其他问题，比如住房可负担性、无家可归人口和交通——这是我们选择忽视的人祸，它和位于我们这个州腐烂的核心的一种更广泛层面的失调有关：我们无法可持续地生活。
Now choking under the smoke of a changing climate, California feels stuck. We are BlackBerry after the iPhone, Blockbuster after Netflix: We’ve got the wrong design, we bet on the wrong technologies, we’ve got the wrong incentives, and we’re saddled with the wrong culture. The founding idea of this place is infinitude — mile after endless mile of cute houses connected by freeways and uninsulated power lines stretching out far into the forested hills. Our whole way of life is built on a series of myths — the myth of endless space, endless fuel, endless water, endless optimism, endless outward reach and endless free parking.
如今，加州因不断变化的气候带来的烟雾而窒息，有种被困住的感觉。我们是iPhone之后的黑莓，Netflix之后的百视达(Blockbuster)：我们用了错误的设计，我们押错了技术，我们得到了错误的激励，我们背负着错误的文化。这个地方的创始理念是无穷无尽——连绵不绝的可爱房子，由高速公路和延伸到森林覆盖的山中的未绝缘电线连接。我们的整个生活方式建立在一系列迷思之上：无尽的空间、无尽的燃料、无尽的水、无尽的乐观、无尽的拓展空间和无尽的免费车位的迷思。
One by one, those myths are bursting into flame. We are running out of land, housing, water, road space and now electricity. Fixing all this requires systemic change, but we aren’t up to the task. We are hemmed in by a resentful national government and an uncaring national media, and we have never been able to prize sustainability and equality over quick-fix hacks and outsized prizes to the rich.
这些迷思一个接一个突然燃烧起来。我们的土地、住房、水、道路空间即将用尽，如今电也快用完。解决所有这些问题需要系统性的变革，但我们无法胜任这项任务。我们被一个怀着憎恨的国家政府和漠不关心的全国媒体所束缚，并且我们从来没能把可持续性和平等置于权宜之计和对富人的巨额奖励之上。
All of our instincts seem to make things worse. Our de facto solution to housing affordability has been forcing people to move farther and farther away from cities, so they commute longer, make traffic worse and increase the population of fire-prone areas. We “solved” the problem of poor urban transportation by inviting private companies like Uber and Lyft to take over our roads. To keep the fires at bay, we are now employing the oldest I.T. hack in the book: turning the power off and then turning it back on again. Meanwhile, the rich are getting by: When the fires come, they hire their own firefighters. (Their gardeners and housekeepers still had to go to work, though.)
我们所有的本能似乎使事情变得更糟。我们对住房可负担性问题的解决方法，实际上就是迫使人们越来越远离城市，因此他们的通勤时间更长，交通状况更糟，并增加了火灾多发区域的人口。通过邀请优步(Uber)和Lyft等私人公司接管我们的道路，我们“解决了”城市交通状况不佳的问题。为控制火灾，我们现在采用的是我们所知的最古老的IT伎俩：关机，然后再打开。与此同时，富人们在勉力支撑：当火灾来临时，他们雇佣自己的消防员。(不过，他们的园丁和管家还是得上班。)
Does all this sound overdramatic? You might point out that if it seems like dystopian apocalypse in California, it’s because it has always felt like dystopian apocalypse in California. The California of Joan Didion, Charles Manson and Ronald Reagan was no picnic; nor was the California of Pete Wilson, Rodney King or Arnold Schwarzenegger. California has always been a place that seems to be on the edge and running on empty, and maybe the best you can ever say about it is, hey, at least we’re not Florida.
这一切听起来是不是太夸张了?你可能会指出，如果这看起来像是加州的反乌托邦天启，那是因为加州总给人一种反乌托邦天启的感觉。琼·迪迪安(Joan Didion)、查尔斯·曼森(Charles Manson)和罗纳德·里根(Ronald Reagan)的加州可不是个省油的灯;皮特·威尔逊(Pete Wilson)、罗德尼·金(Rodney King)或阿诺德·施瓦辛格(Arnold Schwarzenegger)的加州也不是。加州似乎一直是一个濒临发疯的、靠着虚妄在运转的地方，或者怎么把话说的好听点，就是至少我们不是佛罗里达吧。
But this time it’s different. The apocalypse now feels more elemental — as if the place is not working in a fundamental way, at the level of geography and climate. And everything we need to do to avoid the end goes against everything we’ve ever done.
但这次不同。现在的天启给人一种更原始的感觉——仿佛这里从根本上，在地理和气候的层面上，已经无法运转了。要避免走向末日，我们要做的事情，与我们过去在做的所有事情都背道而驰。
The long-term solutions to many of our problems are obvious: To stave off fire and housing costs and so much else, the people of California should live together more densely. We should rely less on cars. And we should be more inclusive in the way we design infrastructure — transportation, the power grid, housing stock — aiming to design for the many rather than for the wealthy few.
我们许多问题的长期解决方案显而易见：为避免火灾、住房成本以及其他许多问题，加州人应该生活在一个更密集的区域。我们应该减少对汽车的依赖。我们应该在基础设施——交通、电网、住房储备——的设计上更具包容性，以为多数人设计为目标，而不是为少数富人设计。
If we redesigned our cities for the modern world, they’d be taller and less stretched out into the fire-prone far reaches — what scientists call the wildland-urban interface. Housing would be affordable because there’d be more of it. You’d be able to get around more cheaply because we’d ditch cars and turn to buses and trains and other ways we know how to move around a lot of people at high speeds, for low prices. It wouldn’t be the end of the California dream, but a reconceptualization — not as many endless blocks of backyards and swimming pools, but perhaps a new kind of more livable, more accessible life for all.
如果我们为现代世界重新设计我们的城市，它们会变得更高，更少延伸到容易着火的地方——科学家所说的荒地-城市分界面。住房将变得可以负担，因为将有更多的住房。你的出行可以更便宜，因为我们将放弃汽车，转向公共汽车和火车，以及其他以低价格、高速度运输大量人群的方式。这不会是加州梦的终结，而是一种概念的重建——不再是无数街区的后院和游泳池，而或许是一种更宜居、更便捷的新的生活方式。
But who wants to do all this? Not the people of this state. Sure, we’ll ban plastic bags and try to increase gas-mileage standards (until the federal government tries to stops us, which of course it can, because our 40 million people get the same voting power in the Senate as Wyoming’s 600,000).
但谁愿意做这一切呢?不是这个州的人民。当然，我们将禁止使用塑料袋，并设法提高油耗标准(直到联邦政府试图阻止我们，它当然可以这么做，因为我们的4000万人在参议院拥有的投票权，与怀俄明州的60万人一样)。
But the big things still seem impossible here. In a state where 40 years ago, homeowners passed a constitutional amendment enshrining their demands for low property taxes forever, where every initiative at increasing density still seems to fail, where vital resources like electricity are managed by unscrupulous corporations and where cars are still far and away the most beloved way to get around, it’s hard to imagine systemic change happening anytime soon.
但在这里，大的事情似乎仍不可能。在这个州，很难想象系统性变革会很快发生——40年前业主通过了一项宪法修正案，把他们关于永远享受低房产税的要求写入法律;每一项增加楼房密度的举措似乎仍会以失败告终;电力等重要资源由寡廉鲜耻的企业管理，并且汽车无疑仍是最受欢迎的出行方式。
And so we muddle on toward the end. All the leaves are burned and the sky is gray. California, as it’s currently designed, will not survive the coming climate. Either we alter how we live here, or many of us won’t live here anymore.
我们就这样应付着走向终结。所有的树叶都被烧焦，天空变成灰色。按照目前的设计，加州将无法承受未来的气候变化。要么我们改变我们在这里的生活方式，要么我们中的许多人将不再生活在这里。
