LOS ANGELES — For more than a century, California has been the state where people flocked for a better life — 164,000 square miles of mountains, farmland and coastline, shimmering with ambition and dreams, money and beauty. It was the cutting-edge symbol of possibility: Hollywood, Silicon Valley, aerospace, agriculture and vineyards.
洛杉矶——一个多世纪来，加利福尼亚一直吸引着人们纷至沓来，追寻更美好的生活——16.4万平方英里的山区、农田和海岸线，闪耀着野心和梦想、金钱和美女。它是一个迷人的象征，代表着种种机会：好莱坞、硅谷、航空航天业、农业和葡萄园。

But now a punishing drought — and the unprecedented measures the state announced to compel people to reduce water consumption — is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth that has for so long been this state's driving engine has run against the limits of nature. The 25 percent cut in water consumption ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown raises fundamental questions about what life in California will be like in the years ahead, and even whether this state faces the prospect of people leaving for wetter climates — assuming, as Brown and other state leaders do, that this marks a permanent change in the climate, rather than a particularly severe cyclical drought.
人们希望它不受约束地发展，长期以来，这一直是推动该州增长的动力，但现在，严重的干旱——以及前所未有的措施，该州宣布要强制大家减少用水量——让人不得不重新考虑，这个愿望是否已经达到了大自然的极限。州长杰里·布朗(Jerry Brown)下令削减25%的用水量，这提出了根本性的问题：如果像布朗和该州其他领导人假设的那样，这不是一次特别严重的周期性干旱，而是标志着气候发生永久性的改变，那么加州未来几年的生活会是什么样？人们是否甚至会离开加州，前往气候更湿润的地方？
This state has survived many a catastrophe before — and defied the doomsayers who have regularly proclaimed the death of the California dream — as it emerged, often stronger, from the challenges of earthquakes, an energy crisis and, most recently, a budgetary collapse that forced years of devastating cuts in spending. These days, the economy is thriving, the population is growing, the state budget is in surplus, and development is exploding from Silicon Valley to San Diego; the evidence of it can be seen in the construction cranes dotting the skylines of Los Angeles and San Francisco. But even California's biggest advocates are wondering whether the severity of this drought, now in its fourth year, is going to force a change in the way the state does business.
加州以前也经历过很多灾难——而且也有很多灾难预言者经常宣布“加州梦”已成泡影——但当它从挑战中恢复时，加州往往会变得更强大；这些挑战包括地震、能源危机，以及较近期的预算危机，迫使他们不得不以极大的幅度削减支出。如今加州经济蓬勃发展，人口不断增长，预算也有盈余，从硅谷到圣地亚哥，很多地方都出现爆炸式增长；点缀在洛杉矶和旧金山天际线的塔吊，就是这种现象的明证。但是，这场旱灾目前已进入第四个年头，就连加州最热烈的拥护者都在猜测，它的严重程度是否会迫使该州改变它的运转方式。
Can Los Angeles continue to dominate as the country's capital of entertainment and glamour, and Silicon Valley as the center of high tech, if people are forbidden to take a shower for more than five minutes and water bills become prohibitively expensive? Will tourists worry about coming? Will businesses continue their expansion in places like San Francisco and Venice?
如果居民的洗澡时间不准超过五分钟，水费账单高得离谱，洛杉矶还能维持“美国娱乐和魅力之都”的地位吗，硅谷还会继续是高科技中心吗？游客会望而却步吗？公司会继续在旧金山和威尼斯这样的地方扩张吗？
“Mother Nature didn't intend for 40 million people to live here,” said Kevin Starr, a historian at the University of Southern California who has written extensively about this state. “This is literally a culture that since the 1880s has progressively invented, invented and reinvented itself. At what point does this invention begin to hit limits?”
“大自然母亲本没有打算让4000万人住在这里，”南加州大学(University of Southern California)的历史学家凯文·斯塔尔(Kevin Starr)说，他撰写了许多关于加州的文章。“这实际上是一种文化，自19世纪80年代起，它逐步创造并重新创造自己。到哪个点上，这种创造开始触及极限呢？”
California, Starr said, “is not going to go under, but we are going to have to go in a different way.”
斯塔尔说，加州“不会衰落，但我们要采取不同的方式”。
An estimated 38.8 million people live in California today, more than double the 15.7 million people who lived here in 1960. California's $2.2 trillion economy today is the seventh largest in the world, more than quadruple the $520 billion economy of 1963, adjusted for inflation, and the median household income jumped to an estimated $61,094 in 2013 from $44,772 in 1960, adjusted for inflation.
目前大约有3880万人居住在加州，比1960年时的1570万人增加了一倍以上。加州今天的经济规模为2.2万亿美元，在全球位列第七，排除通货膨胀因素之后，相比1963年的5200亿美元增长了三倍以上。根据排除通货膨胀因素后的估算，加州家庭收入中位数已经从1960年的44772美元，增加到2013年的61094美元。
“You just can't live the way you always have,” said Brown, a Democrat who is in his fourth term as governor.
“你不能再沿用一直以来的那种方式了，”布朗说。这已经是这位民主党州长的第四个任期。
“For over 10,000 years, people lived in California, but the number of those people were never more than 300,000 or 400,000,” Brown said. “Now we are embarked upon an experiment that no one has ever tried: 38 million people, with 32 million vehicles, living at the level of comfort that we all strive to attain. This will require adjustment, this will require learning.”
“人类居住在加州已经有1万多年，但人数从未超过30万或40万，”布朗说。“现在我们在做一个以前从未有人尝试的实验：3800万人，3200万辆车，过着我们奋斗而来的舒适日子。需要调整，需要学习。”
This disconnect, as it were, can be seen in places like Palm Springs, in the middle of the desert, where daily per capita water use is 201 gallons — more than double the state average. A recent drive through the community offered a drought-defying tableau of burbling fountains, flowers, lush lawns, golf courses and trees. The smell of mowed lawn was in the air.
这种脱节可以在棕榈泉这样的地方看到，它地处沙漠腹地，每天人均用水量为201加仑——超过该州平均数字的两倍。不久前驱车穿过这个社区时，你看不到旱灾的迹象：漩涡喷泉、鲜花、郁郁葱葱的草坪、高尔夫球场和树木。修剪过草坪的气味在空气中弥漫。
But the drought is now forcing change in a place that long identified itself as “America's desert oasis.” Palm Springs has ordered 50 percent cuts in water use by city agencies, and plans to replace the lawns and annual flowers around city buildings. It is digging up the grassy median into town that unfurled before visitors like a carpet at a Hollywood premiere. It is paying residents to replace their lawns with rocks and desert plants, and offering rebates to people who install low-flow toilets.
棕榈泉多年来一直以“美国的沙漠绿洲”自居，但旱情正在迫使它做出改变。棕榈泉已经下令，市政机构削减50%的用水，并计划用别的东西替代市政建筑物周围草坪和一年生花卉。之前在游客眼前仿佛好莱坞首映式红毯一般展开的草坪卷，被他们挖了出来。棕榈泉还付钱给居民，让他们用石块和沙漠植物来替代自家的草坪；安装低流量马桶的居民，也会获得补贴。
At the airport that once welcomed winter-chilled tourists with eight acres of turf and flowers, city officials are in the early stages of replacing the grass with cactus, desert bushes and paloverde trees.
机场曾用八英亩的草坪和鲜花欢迎前来这里享受温暖气候的冬季游客，城市官员正在做一些初步工作，用仙人掌、沙漠灌木和绿皮树取代这些草坪。
“Years ago the idea was, come to Palm Springs, and people see the grass and the lushness and the green,”said David Ready, the city manager. “We've got to change the way we consume water.”
“前些年的想法是：来到棕榈泉，人们能看到草坪，又绿又茂盛，”市执行长戴维·瑞迪(David Ready)说。“我们必须改变水资源的消耗方式。”
Richard White, a history professor at Stanford University, said the scarcity of water could result in a decline in housing construction, at a time when there has been a burst of desperately needed residential development in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.“It's going to be harder and harder to build new housing without an adequate water supply,” he said. “How many developments can you afford if you don't have water?”
斯坦福大学(Stanford)的历史学教授理查德·怀特(Richard White)说，缺水会导致住宅施工量减少，而此时，在洛杉矶和旧金山这样的城市，人们对住宅开发的需要相当迫切。“没有足够的供水，修建新的住宅就会越来越难，“他说。“如果没有水，你能负担得起多少房屋的开发成本呢？”
Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, pointing to Brown's executive order and his own city's success in reducing water consumption, said he was confident that the state would find ways to deal with an era of reduced water supplies, in a way that would permit it to continue to grow and thrive.
在谈到布朗的行政命令，以及洛杉矶在降低水耗方面的成功时，该市市长埃里克·加希提(Eric Garcetti)认为加州可以想出办法，应对一个供水减少的时代，并且同时保持繁荣昌盛。他声称自己很有信心。
“We have to deal with a new normal,” Garcetti said. “That said, do we have enough water to sustain life here? Absolutely. Do we have enough water to grow economically? Absolutely.”
“我们必须面对一个新常态，”加希提说。“话虽如此，我们是否有足够的水维持生命？当然有。我们是否有足够的水来发展经济？绝对有。”
“Cities that are much drier and truly desert — Phoenix, Las Vegas — have shown the ability to have economic growth,” he said.
“有些城市非常干燥，地处真正的沙漠，比如拉斯维加斯，凤凰城。事实已证明，这些城市也能实现经济增长，”他说。
The critical question is the extent to which Brown has succeeded in persuading people here to shake long-held habits and assumptions.
关键的问题是，布朗能在多大程度上说服这里的人，改变长久以来的习惯和假设。
“I'm not going to stop watering,” said Matthew Post, 45, referring to the gardens around his Benedict Canyon home. “The state does not know how to arrange the resources they have and so we have to pay for it,” he said. “They say that they will raise the prices because there is a drought, but when the drought ends, will they reduce the prices?”
“我不会停止浇水的，”45岁的本尼迪克特峡谷居民马修·波斯特(Matthew Post)说。他指的是其住宅周围的花园。“这个州不知道如何安排自己的资源，却让我们来付出代价，”他说。“他们说因为旱灾，所以会提高水价，但旱情结束时，他们会降低水价吗？”
The governor's executive order mandates a 25 percent overall reduction in water use throughout the state, to be achieved with varying requirements in different cities and villages. Much of it is expected to be done by imposing new restrictions on lawn watering.
州长的行政命令要求全州的用水量总体减少25%，但是在不同的城市和乡村，要求是不同的。按照预期，这25%的节水指标有相当一部分要靠限制草坪灌溉来实现。
But even a significant drop in residential water use will not move the consumption needle nearly as much as even a small reduction by farmers. The 25 percent reduction does not apply to farms. Of all the surface water consumed in the state, roughly 80 percent is earmarked for the agricultural sector.
但是对于节水效果而言，住宅用水量下降得再多，也比不过农业用水的一点点减少。节水25%的行政命令不涵盖农场。该州消耗的所有地表水中，大约有80%被指定用于农业。
“The big question is agriculture, and there are difficult trade-offs that need to be made,” said Katrina Jessoe, assistant professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California at Davis.
“最大的问题是农业，加州必须对一些难以取舍的东西加以取舍，”加州大学戴维斯分校的农业和资源经济学助理教授卡特里娜·杰索(Katrina Jessoe)说。
State officials signaled that reductions in water supplies for farmers were likely, and there is also likely to be increased pressure on the farms to move away from certain water-intensive crops — like almonds.
州政府官员暗示可能会减少对农民的供水量，而且也可能会施加更大压力，让农场逐步减少某些耗水量大的作物的种植，比如杏仁。
Mayor Robert Silva of Mendota, in the heart of the agricultural Central Valley, said unemployment among farmworkers had soared as the soil turned to crust and farmers left half or more of their fields fallow. Many people are traveling 60 or 70 miles to look for work, Silva said, and families are increasingly relying on food donations. “You can't pay the bills with free food,” he said. “Give me some water, and I know I can go to work, that's the bottom line.”
门多塔市位于农业区“中央山谷”的心脏地带，市长罗伯特·席尔瓦(Robert Silva)说，农场工人失业率出现了飙升，因为土壤干燥起壳，至少一半的土地已经休耕。很多人前往60或70英里之外的地方去找工作，席尔瓦说，农业家庭越来越多地靠别人捐赠的食物过日子。“你无法用免费的食物支付账单，”他说。“给我一些水，我就可以去工作，这是最低限度的要求。”
Bill Melzer, 72, a bond broker walking his dog on a sunny morning in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, said he was worried about the drought, about the prospect of higher fines for using too much water and about what might happen to the agriculture industry. But he said he was not worried about the future of his state.
72岁的比尔·梅尔泽(Bill Melzer)是债券经纪人，一个阳光明媚的上午，他在旧金山的金门公园遛狗。梅尔泽表示，他很担心干旱，担心以后用水过多会被处以更高的罚款，担心农业可能会发生哪些变化。但他说自己不担心加州的未来。