面对一位称全球变暖为骗局的总统，官员们已对石油公司提起数十起诉讼，试图覆盖极端天气的成本。
Faced with a president who has called global warming a hoax, officials have filed dozens of suits against oil companies to try to cover the costs of extreme weather.
关于谁应承担气候变化飙升成本——日益加剧的野火、风暴和热浪——的争斗已转移到法庭。
The fight over who should pay the soaring costs of climate change — the intensifying wildfires, storms and heat waves — has moved to the courts.
全国范围内，超过60个州和地方政府已提起数十起诉讼，就全球变暖（由化石燃料燃烧引起）向石油公司索赔。面对一位称气候变化为骗局的总统和陷入僵局的国会，法庭已成为寻求救济的社区为数不多的剩余选择之一。
Nationwide, more than 60 state and local governments have filed dozens of lawsuits seeking damages from oil companies over global warming, which is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. With a president who has called climate change a hoax and a gridlocked Congress, courtrooms have become one of the few remaining options for communities seeking relief.
哥伦比亚大学萨宾气候变化法律中心主任迈克尔·杰拉德表示：“在全球范围内，无论是国家立法机构还是政府都没有采取足够的行动，因此气候行动的倡导者们正转向法庭。”
“Globally, neither national legislatures nor governments are taking adequate action, and so the advocates of climate action are turning to the courts,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.
现在，国家最高法院已介入这场争斗。周一，它审理了科罗拉多州博尔德市和县针对两家能源公司提起的诉讼的辩论。全国数十起其他案件中的许多（如果不是大多数）都取决于最高法院的裁决。
Now the highest court in the land has entered the fray. On Monday, it heard arguments over a lawsuit filed by the city and county of Boulder, Colo., against two energy companies. Many, if not most, of the dozens of other cases nationwide hinge on the Supreme Court’s decision.
该市和县起诉了埃克森美孚和Suncor Energy，声称它们误导公众关于气候变化的信息，并应赔偿损失。这些能源公司已请求最高法院驳回该案件。
The city and county had sued Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy, claiming they misled the public about climate change and should pay for damages. The energy companies have asked the Supreme Court to throw out the case.
行业的主要论点之一是气候变化过于复杂，无法由个别法院处理。公司律师卡农·尚穆加姆周一告诉大法官们：“此案及类似案件反映了一个令人遗憾的趋势，即试图在法庭上解决重大政治问题，而不是将其留给本应处理这些问题的政治部门。”
One of the industry’s main arguments has been that climate change is too complex a problem to be handled by individual courts. “This case and others like it reflect an all too regrettable trend of trying to resolve major political issues in court rather than leaving them to the political branches where they belong,” Kannon Shanmugam, a lawyer for the companies, told the justices on Monday.