在线英语听力室_免费在线英语听力学习网站

Dire¹ Warnings Issued on Diminishing Arctic Ice

Polar bears hunt seals from sea ice, but could drown if forced to swim long distances in open water. Satellite photos released by America’s space agency, NASA, illustrate² the daunting³ threat to such bears. An image shows the amount of Arctic Sea ice in 1979. Another shows the record minimum set this year on September 16. The shrinkage is equivalent to an area greater than Texas, an impossible distance for even the mightiest⁴ polar bear to swim.

Scientists say fossil fuels are increasing carbon emissions⁵ in the atmosphere. This not only warms the oceans, but threatens biodiversity in cold and warm waters alike.

“As we increase the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a high proportion, about 40 percent of that, goes back into the ocean, and so it’s increasing the acid content of the ocean and that’s threatening coral reefs,” said Ben Orlove, a Columbia University climate research scientist.

Orlove notes that the demise⁶ of coral reefs subsequently threatens fisheries around them.

Scientists at a recent symposium⁷ at Columbia University’s Earth Institute said less ice is likely to draw some shipping⁸ away from the Panama Canal. This is because a northern route, though still hazardous⁹, reduces the distance between Europe and Asia by about 6,500 kilometers.

Anne Siders of Columbia’s Center for Climate Change Law said countries bordering the Arctic are not the only ones with interests there.

“There certainly will be interest in the Arctic from nations that don’t touch physically¹⁰ on the Arctic; that’s very clear for natural resources, for fishing, for a variety of reasons,” said Siders.

Energy supplies are among those reasons. Siders says China and Japan are seeking influence - so far unsuccessfully - in the Arctic Council, an international forum¹¹ of eight countries that border the Arctic.

Scientists say more open water in the Arctic means more evaporation¹² and extreme weather elsewhere. The Earth Institute’s Peter Schlosser adds that warmer water around Greenland could melt some of the island’s glaciers¹³ to the detriment¹⁴ of low-lying areas everywhere.

“They are impacting sea levels, for example. If you look at the tropical Pacific and island nations there, they experience sea level rise and their existence is actually threatened by that,” said Schlosser.

The Arctic is far from most of the world’s population. Scientists, however, caution that distance is no guarantee people will be spared the effects of warming in the planet’s northernmost regions.