TED演讲:对最近气候趋势的警告(2)

 　　And one reason is, this enormous heat sink heats up Greenland from the north. 有一个原因，北方沉积的大量热能加热了格陵兰岛。

　　This is an annual melting river. But the volumes are much larger than ever. 这是一条每年融化的河。但流量却比往年都要大。

　　This is the Kangerlussuaq River in southwest Greenland. 这是格陵兰岛西南的康克鲁斯瓦格河。

　　If you want to know how sea level rises from land-base ice melting this is where it reaches the sea. 如果你想了解陆地上的冰块融化如何使得海平面上升，这里就是它的入海口。

　　These flows are increasing very rapidly. 这里的流量正在急速上升。

　　At the other end of the planet, Antarctica the largest mass of ice on the planet. 南极，地球的另一端，这个行星上最大的冰块。

　　Last month scientists reported the entire continent is now in negative ice balance. 上个月，科学家报告整个大洲正处于冰量减少的阶段。

　　And west Antarctica cropped up on top some under-sea islands, is particularly rapid in its melting. 在南极洲的西部突然发现几个低于海平面的岛屿正在加速融化。

　　That's equal to 20 feet of sea level, as is Greenland. 这相当于海平面上20英尺，和格陵兰岛一样。

　　In the Himalayas, the third largest mass of ice: at the top you see new lakes, which a few years ago were glaciers². 在世界第三大的冰层，喜马拉雅山脉，你所看到这些山顶的湖，几年前是冰河。

　　40 percent of all the people in the world get half of their drinking water from that melting flow. 全世界有40%的人口都从这溶冰水中获得日常一半的饮用水。

　　In the Andes, this glacier¹ is the source of drinking water for this city. 在安地斯山脉，这里的冰河是这个城市饮用水的来源。

　　The flows have increased. But when they go away, so does much of the drinking water. 这里的水流量已经增加。但当这些水消失时，饮用水也会不见。

　　In California there has been a 40 percent decline in the Sierra snowpack. 在加州Sierra，积雪场面积已缩小40%。

　　This is hitting the reservoirs. And the predictions, as you've read, are serious. 这就像是对蓄水池加热。如你所知，预测结果显示这样后果会严重。

　　This drying around the world has lead to a dramatic increase in fires. 如此全球性的干旱将导致火灾发生次数戏剧性地增加。

　　And the disasters around the world have been increasing at an absolutely extraordinary and unprecedented³ rate. 并且在全球各地所发生的灾难也绝对是以非比寻常并且史无前例速率的大量增加。

　　Four times as many in the last 30 years as in the previous 75. 这将会是近三十年来所发生次数的四倍，是过去七十五年所发生的总量。

　　This is a completely unsustainable pattern. 这是个令人完全无法承受的景象。

　　If you look at in the context of history you can see what this is doing. 如果你回头看看历史上的过往，你会发现我们正在所经历的是什么。

1 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

2 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

3 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。