Q: Have you noticed the effects of climate change recently?
A: Of course. The most noticeable is also the most annoying to me, personally! Autumn is my favorite season, and every year it gets shorter and shorter. It makes me really sad, as I have memories of playing in huge piles of beautiful leaves every year on the way to school (school starts in September in most of the US). My friends and I would kick the piles of leaves that were left on the sidewalks, and throw leaves at each other on our walk to school.
These days, it is still very hot in September, most of the time. For the past 5 years or so, autumn has not started until mid-October. In the past, autumn lasted until the very end of November, but these days the winter weather comes in more quickly, at the very beginning of November.
A few years ago, hot summer weather lasted until mid-October! It was crazy! Then the leaves didn’t even have time to finish changing color before the freezing winter weather hit at the beginning of November. It was such a short autumn. I feel that it’s disappearing.
(和訳)
Q: 最近、気候変動を感じることはある？
A: もちろんあるわ。最も顕著なのは、私としては個人的に最も気に入らないことなの！私の一番好きな季節は秋なんだけど、年々短くなっているわ。私はとても悲しい。なぜなら毎年学校に行く途中でたくさん積もった美しい落ち葉で遊んだ思い出があるから。（アメリカのたいていの学校が９月に始まる。）友達と一緒に学校へと歩きながら側道に積み重なった落ち葉を蹴ったり、葉っぱを投げあったりしたものよ。
最近では、たいてい９月はまだ暑いの。ここ５年くらいは１０月中旬まで秋が始まらないわね。かつて、秋は１１月の終わりまで続いていたけど、最近は、冬になるのが１１月の初めでもっと早い。
数年前は、夏の暑さが１０月半ばまで続いたの！狂っているわ！葉が紅葉する時間がないまま、１１月の初めに凍える冬になったわ。秋がとても短かった。秋はなくなっていくと感じているわ。
