美国国家公共电台 NPR How Climate Change Is Affecting Alaska's Military Radar Stations

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A document by the Defense¹ Department has a simple title, "Report On Effects Of A Changing Climate To The Department Of Defense." The Pentagon paper lists dozens of military installations that are more vulnerable to wildfires, flooding and drought. In Alaska, the U.S. military has to think about the shifting ground beneath its feet. Alaska Public Media's Zachariah Hughes traveled to 1 of 15 remote radar² sites that scan the airspace over the Arctic.

ZACHARIAH HUGHES, BYLINE³: Getting out to the military's radar station at Tin City starts with a flight from Anchorage's Joint⁴ Base Elmendorf-Richardson in a small Air Force plane - 630 miles, the pilot tells us.

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: Our flight time today is just a couple hours, so hopefully everyone would be good there.

HUGHES: Early in the 20th century, Tin City was a small mining town. But since the 1950s, it's been the site of a long-range radar that's supposed to watch for Soviet⁵ bombers⁶. It used to take well over a hundred airmen to manage it. Over time, though, improved technology has whittled⁷ down the number of personnel to just four private contractors⁸.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR SHUTTING)

HUGHES: After the flight, we'd take a quick drive to the building where the site technicians sleep, eat and give safety briefings to the occasional visitor.

JEFF BOULDS: If you got your warm gear, you'd have to bring it with you. There's no way of getting out of that.

HUGHES: Jeff Boulds, a mustachioed Montanan with graying hair, gets ready to take us from down here at the lower camp site up a steep mountainside to see the radar itself.

BOULDS: You're not going up to the top camp without some kind of arctic gear. Other than that, welcome to Tin City.

HUGHES: What comes next is a half-hour trip up snowy switchbacks that look like they're about to drop away at every single turn. Workers make the 2,300-foot ascent⁹ in a treaded vehicle called a PistenBully. It looks like a cross between a bulldozer and a tank.

We going in that?

BOULDS: Yes.

HUGHES: Get out.

Running these radar sites has never been easy to do, but now it's getting even less manageable. Coastal¹⁰ erosion driven by warming seawater is nibbling¹¹ away at land around vital infrastructure¹² that support basic operations. Runways used for resupply are in jeopardy¹³, and permafrost beneath some buildings is thawing¹⁴. Colonel Daniel Lemon is the Air Force commander in charge of remote radar sites stretching from the Pacific to the high Arctic.

DANIEL LEMON: Climate change is happening, and there is erosion going on on the North Slope of Alaska. That's a fact. We know that's a fact. I don't know what's causing it, but we have to do something about it. It is impacting our mission.

HUGHES: So far, 3 of the 15 radar stations in Alaska, all of them along the Arctic coastline, are grappling with climate-driven threats to infrastructure. The installation at Tin City, perched here on a hill overlooking the Bering Strait, is not yet one of them. However, environmental changes are undeniable. During our visit, the strait was completely free of sea ice - a month later than freeze-up used to begin.

BOULDS: Sixteen degrees right now.

HUGHES: This is the most western point of the North American continent. From the radar site, the Russian mainland is only 48 miles away - blocked today by clouds. The radar building itself is covered with ice.

All the metal out here has - I mean, it looks like Hoth in "Star Wars." There's just snow crystals and totally wind-strafed buildup on everything.

Inside the radar building, most of the equipment is classified and looks like the kind of metal filing cabinets and fluorescent¹⁵ lighting¹⁶ that you'd find in an accountant's basement - albeit¹⁷ with an unsettling hum.

BOULDS: If you can hear...

(SOUNDBITE OF RADAR HUM)

BOULDS: ...That's the radar rotating right now.

HUGHES: Everything at Tin City - from the runway for the plane, to the cafeteria that keeps Boulds fed - it all exists so that this machine can keep spinning. For the military, maintaining sovereignty over U.S. airspace means being able to know what's moving through it, even at the remote fringes of the continent. The military is already spending big to slow down impacts from a warming Arctic. Colonel Lemon says that at another site, about 200 miles to the north, waves from the encroaching Chukchi Sea were washing over the airstrip.

LEMON: So we have a $47 million seawall project. They're actually building a seawall to protect that runway.

HUGHES: Tens of millions of dollars to protect one runway at one site, and it's only the start. A 2014 government report found that the installations are seeing erosion that the Pentagon didn't expect until the year 2040. Other sites will need boulders¹⁸ barged in for fortifications of their own. And while the military acknowledges the problem, there is no comprehensive plan yet for how to keep the radar spinning. For NPR News, I'm Zachariah Hughes in Tin City, Alaska.

(SOUNDBITE OF NIKLAS PASCHBURG'S "SONAR")

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

5 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

6 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 whittled   

v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He whittled a simple toy from the piece of wood. 他把那块木头削成了一个简易的玩具。
• The government's majority has been whittled down to eight. 政府多数票减少到了八票。

8 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 ascent   

n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高

参考例句：

• His rapid ascent in the social scale was surprising.他的社会地位提高之迅速令人吃惊。
• Burke pushed the button and the elevator began its slow ascent.伯克按动电钮，电梯开始缓慢上升。

10 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

11 nibbling   

v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的现在分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬

参考例句：

• We sat drinking wine and nibbling olives. 我们坐在那儿，喝着葡萄酒嚼着橄榄。
• He was nibbling on the apple. 他在啃苹果。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

13 jeopardy   

n.危险；危难

参考例句：

• His foolish behaviour may put his whole future in jeopardy.他愚蠢的行为可能毁了他一生的前程。
• It is precisely at this juncture that the boss finds himself in double jeopardy.恰恰在这个关键时刻，上司发现自己处于进退两难的境地。

14 thawing   

n.熔化，融化v.（气候）解冻( thaw的现在分词 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化

参考例句：

• The ice is thawing. 冰在融化。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• It had been snowing and thawing and the streets were sloppy. 天一直在下雪，雪又一直在融化，街上泥泞不堪。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

15 fluorescent   

adj.荧光的，发出荧光的

参考例句：

• They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
• This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。

16 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

17 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

18 boulders   

n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾

参考例句：

• Seals basked on boulders in a flat calm. 海面风平浪静，海豹在巨石上晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The river takes a headlong plunge into a maelstrom of rocks and boulders. 河水急流而下，入一个漂砾的漩涡中。 来自《简明英汉词典》