国家地理 融化的北极正使一场新的冷战升温(5)

For most of human history, the world above 66 degrees latitude¹ has remained largely out of play for large-scale commerce. Explorers, speculators, and scientists long believed rich resources and shipping² routes lay hidden beneath the Arctic's ice and snow, but the true nature of its wealth was obscured by the same deadly cold, debilitating³ darkness, and enormous distances that blocked its exploitation.

在人类历史的大部分时间，纬度66度以上的世界是被大规模的商业活动排除在外的。探险家、投机者、科学家一直相信北极深厚的冰层和雪地里藏着丰富的资源和航线，但这些财富都被死寂一般的寒冷和黑暗隐藏了，遥远的距离进一步阻拦了对它的开发。

Today the Arctic landscape is greener than you are probably comfortable imagining, with fewer caribou⁴ and reindeer⁵, more mosquitoes, warmer summers. The most visible and disturbing change has come at sea, where summer sea ice -- the floating expanse that covers much of the Arctic Ocean during the region's brief thaw⁶ -- has been disappearing at an astonishing rate.

现在北极比你想象的要更绿一些，只是驯鹿的数量在减少，蚊子增多，夏天温度更高。最明显的影响也最大的变化发生在海上，夏季海上的冰块--曾经即使在短暂的解冻期，它们也会覆盖住几乎整个北冰洋，正在以令人恐慌的速度消失。

While this floating sheet always shrinks in warm months and grows again with the return of the cold, the scale of ice loss has been unprecedented⁷, and some researchers believe it's speeding up. NASA scientists estimate that on average the Arctic loses nearly 21,000 square miles of ice each year, and the experts who prepared the 2014 National Climate Assessment⁸ predict the Arctic Ocean will be ice free in summer before 2050.

这个冰盖的面积在稍暖的月份会变小，天气变冷的时候会再变大，消失的冰块的面积变得前所未有的大，而一些研究人员认为这个数据还会上涨。美国航天局的科学家预测每年北冰洋平均减少的冰块面积达近21000平方英里，2014年国际气候评估会议上的专家预测2050年的夏天到来之前北冰洋上的冰块将会全部消失。

"It's all happening much faster than anyone thought," said Michael Sfraga, director of the Polar Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. "There's an ocean opening before us in real time."

华盛顿威尔逊中心基地研究所主任迈克尔·斯弗拉加表示：“这一切发生的比任何人想象的还要快。我们面前马上就要出现一片汪洋大海。”

1 latitude   

n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区

参考例句：

• The latitude of the island is 20 degrees south.该岛的纬度是南纬20度。
• The two cities are at approximately the same latitude.这两个城市差不多位于同一纬度上。

2 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

3 debilitating   

a.使衰弱的

参考例句：

• The debilitating disease made him too weak to work. 这个令他衰弱的病，使他弱到没有办法工作。
• You may soon leave one debilitating condition or relationship forever. 你即将永远地和这段霉运说拜拜了。

4 caribou   

n.北美驯鹿

参考例句：

• Afar off he heard the squawking of caribou calves.他听到远处有一群小驯鹿尖叫的声音。
• The Eskimos played soccer on ice and used balls filled with caribou hair and grass.爱斯基摩人在冰上踢球，他们用的是驯鹿的毛发和草填充成的球。

5 reindeer   

n.驯鹿

参考例句：

• The herd of reindeer was being trailed by a pack of wolves.那群驯鹿被一只狼群寻踪追赶上来。
• The life of the Reindeer men was a frontier life.驯鹿时代人的生活是一种边区生活。

6 thaw   

v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和

参考例句：

• The snow is beginning to thaw.雪已开始融化。
• The spring thaw caused heavy flooding.春天解冻引起了洪水泛滥。

7 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。

8 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？