欧美人文风情第203篇:北极暖化,全球气候即将大洗牌

 Have you ever wondered how the rapid warm-up in the Arctic and climate change  你曾想过北极剧烈的暖化和气候变迁

could disrupt winds at high altitudes across the United States, Europe, and Asia?  可能会怎样扰乱美国、欧洲和亚洲地区高空的风吗？

Well, if you're like most people, you probably haven't given it a thought.  这个嘛，如果你和多数人一样，你大概从来没有去思考过。

But as a meteorologist, I'm paying close attention to what's going on because it often leads to weather like this. 不过身为一个气象学家，我正密切关注着情况，因为那常会导致像现在这样的天气。

There's no place on Earth where the climate is changing as fast as it is here.  地球上没有任何地方的气候变化得和此处一样快。

You've probably seen pictures like this of Alaskan glaciers². This is 1902; here's the same location now.  你或许看过像这样的阿拉斯加冰河照片。这是 1902 年的景象；这是同样地点目前的样子。

In this part of Alaska, we're losing ice at a rate of nearly two cubic miles per decade.  在阿拉斯加的这个地区，我们正以将近每十年两立方英里的速度丧失冰。

Not all glaciers are shrinking this fast, but most of them in the mid- and higher-mid latitudes³ are melting pretty quickly.  并非所有冰河都消退得如此快，不过多数在中纬度和高纬度地区的冰河都正颇快速地融化。

Here's another one: It's the Muir Glacier¹ in 1941. Here it is now. 这里是另一个例子：这是 1941 年的缪尔冰河。这是它现在。

These are maps of the earth's surface temperature anomalies that are variance⁴ from normal over the last few decades.  这些是地球表面温度异常的地图，那些是和过去数十年来正常温度的差异。

Everywhere you see yellow, orange, and red is where the temperature is now averaging above normal.  你看见呈黄色、橘色以及红色的每个地方就是目前温度平均高于正常的区域。

Look at where most of the global warmth is occurring. 看看全球暖化大多发生在哪里。

As a meteorologist, I am finding this pretty amazing,  身为一名气象学家，我发现这颇为惊人，

because the warmth that I'm seeing in the Arctic isn't just at the earth's surface;  因为我正在观察的北极暖化不只发生在地球表面；

it's extending thousands of feet up in altitude.  它还延伸好几英尺高。

So why, though, should the warmth at high altitudes over the Arctic matter to us  然而，为什么北极高海拔发生的暖化会和我们有关系，

thousands of miles away farther south across the United States, Europe, and Asia? Well, it's all connected, and I'll show you how. 对往南好几千英里远的美国、欧洲和亚洲的我们有什么影响？嗯，这全都有关联，我来让你看看是怎样。

First, we all know that the sun heats the equator more than at the poles,  首先，我们都知道太阳加热赤道比两极来得多，

but what you may not know is because of that difference in heating,  不过你可能不知道的是，因为那加热程度的差异，

the atmosphere is deeper at the equator than it is at the poles, and this is important.  大气层在赤道比在两极厚，而这很重要。

That difference in atmosphere depth is what drives winds in the upper atmosphere which travel around the world.  大气层厚度的那种差异驱动了在高层大气层流动于全球的风。

Those are the winds that create our weather. They move storms, warm, and cold air masses around. 那些就是创造出我们的天气的风。它们将暴风雨、暖气团和冷气团四处移动。

When the Arctic is anomalously⁵ warm, those winds have to shift south.  当北极异常温暖时，那些风就得往南移。

In effect, the refrigerator door, so to speak, is opened, and the Arctic's warmth spills south, becoming a mid-latitude chill.  实际上，可说是冰箱门被打开了，而北极的热量散到南方，成为中纬度的寒冷。

Not theory, it's measurably happening. We saw some extreme examples of this in the winters of 2010 and 2011:  这并非理论，这是可测量地正在发生的事。我们在 2010 和 2011 年的冬天见识到一些这样的极端例子：

the record cold and snow in Europe; the record cold in Florida.  欧洲的低温纪录和降雪纪录；佛罗里达州的低温纪录。

A rapid succession of snowstorms over the eastern part of the United States  美国东部接踵而来的暴风雪

and historic snows over the Great Lakes are all part of a pattern of record warmth in the Arctic,  以及五大湖区历史性的降雪都是北极空前暖化的模式的一部分，

especially over Greenland and Alaska. This displaces the Arctic weather farther to the South. 特别是在格陵兰和阿拉斯加地区。这迫使北极的天气向南移。

What's meteorologically interesting about this is that the effect is most prominent during the winter.  这在气象学上有趣的地方是，这影响在冬季最为明显。

That's when the temperature differences are at their greatest between the equator and the poles.  冬天是赤道和两极间的温度差异最剧的时节。

So when the Arctic is anomalously warm, the mid-latitudes across North America, Europe, and Asia often end up like this. 所以当北极异常温暖时，北美洲、欧洲和亚洲的中纬度地区最后常就会变得像这样。

And, looking into the future, global climate models continue to show change with a steady decrease in Arctic sea ice,  然后，检视未来，全球气候模式持续伴随着北极海冰的平稳减少显现出变化，

a likely result of both warmer temperatures and disruptions in Arctic wind patterns.  一个很可能是温度上升和北极风模式扰乱下的结果。

In the coming decades, climate models also show significant increase in global temperature, especially in the Arctic.  在未来几十年，气候模式在全球温度也显示出明显上升，特别是在北极。

But this is an average. As the Arctic warms, there will be disruptions in atmospheric⁶ circulation.  不过这是一般状况。随着北极变暖，大气环流将会有扰乱情况。

Some, as we've seen, won't be so warm. 有些地区，如我们已经见到的，不会太温暖。

In this video, we've only touched on just one of the many potential impacts a warmer Arctic can have on us  在这部影片中，我们只触及到暖化的北极可能会对我们造成的许多潜在影响之一，

as it feeds back into the climate system. The notion that climate change is a good thing  在北极暖化反应到气候系统中时。气候变迁是件好事这样的看法，

and that we're all gonna be basking⁷ in warmer weather in the coming decades is most certainly a misunderstanding.  以及我们所有人在未来数十年将沐浴在更温暖的天气中这种想法，很肯定是种误解。

As the world continues to warm so unevenly⁸, it seems very likely there's going to be additional disruptions and 随着世界持续如此不平均地变暖，很可能将会有额外的扰乱

storm tracks and precipitation across the Northern Hemisphere.  以及风暴路径和降雨在北半球发生。

Put simply, it probably means that most of us are going to end up with what used to be somebody else's weather. 简而言之，这或许代表我们大多数人最后将活在以前曾是他人所习惯的气候中。

 

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 latitudes   

纬度

参考例句：

• Latitudes are the lines that go from east to west. 纬线是从东到西的线。
• It was the brief Indian Summer of the high latitudes. 这是高纬度地方的那种短暂的晚秋。

4 variance   

n.矛盾，不同

参考例句：

• The question of woman suffrage sets them at variance. 妇女参政的问题使他们发生争执。
• It is unnatural for brothers to be at variance. 兄弟之间不睦是不近人情的。

5 anomalously   

参考例句：

• In this case an anomalously high oxidation rate is observed with respect to the model. 在这种情况下发现有比这模型要高得多的氧化速率。 来自辞典例句
• This man behaves anomalously. 这个人行事不正常。 来自互联网

6 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

7 basking   

v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽

参考例句：

• We sat basking in the warm sunshine. 我们坐着享受温暖的阳光。
• A colony of seals lay basking in the sun. 一群海豹躺着晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 unevenly   

adv.不均匀的

参考例句：

• Fuel resources are very unevenly distributed. 燃料资源分布很不均匀。
• The cloth is dyed unevenly. 布染花了。