VOA慢速英语2019 格陵兰岛有大量的冰融化（在线收听）

Greenland Sees Massive Ice Melt

The recent heat wave that broke temperature records across Europe broke different records when it arrived in Greenland.

最近破纪录的高温席卷欧洲，在抵达格陵兰岛后又创下了新的高温记录。

On August 1, the Greenland Ice Sheet experienced its biggest single-day of ice loss in recorded history. About 12.5 billion tons of ice melted and poured into the Atlantic Ocean, satellite data showed.

8月1日，格陵兰岛冰盖经历了有记录以来单日最大规模的融冰。据卫星数据显示，大约125亿吨冰块融化冰流入大西洋。

One day earlier, over 10 billion tons of ice melted.

一天前，超过100亿吨的冰川融化了。

Every 1 billion tons of ice lost creates enough water to fill 400,000 Olympic swimming pools, the Danish Meteorological Institute noted late last week. The center offered the comparison to help people try to understand just how much ice melted.

丹麦气象研究所上周晚些时候指出，每融化10亿吨冰，所产生的水足以蓄满40万个奥运游泳池。该机构提供了这个对比，来帮助人们了解冰融化的具体规模。

One Danish scientist offered a different comparison. Climate expert Martin Stendl said the total ice that melted in Greenland on July 31 and August 1 could cover all of Germany with seven centimeters of water.

丹麦一位科学家提供了另一种比较方法。气候专家马丁·斯坦德尔(Martin Stendl)表示，格陵兰岛7月31日和8月1日的融冰可能会令整个德国淹没在7厘米深的水中。

The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 80 percent of the island. It has developed over many thousands of years from snow that has continually pressed itself into ice. It is the world’s second-largest body of ice, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

格陵兰岛80%的面积被冰盖覆盖。数千年来，该岛的积雪不断累积，逐渐发展成冰川。它是仅次于南极冰盖的世界第二大冰盖。

Greenland’s so-called “melt season” usually goes from June to the end of August. During these months, billions of tons of ice melts and flows into the Atlantic. A lot of what melts, however, does not flow away. It later refreezes onto the ice sheet when the weather cools.

格陵兰岛所谓的“融化季节”通常从6月持续到8月底。短短数月里，数十亿吨的冰融化并流入大西洋。然而，许多融化的水并没有流失。当气候变冷时，它会再次冻结在冰盖上。

The ice sheet has lost about 248 billion tons so far this year, says polar scientist Marco Tedesco. He is with Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory.

极地科学家马克罗·特德斯科（Marco Tedesco）说，今年以来，冰盖已经减少了2480亿吨。他就职于哥伦比亚大学拉蒙特·多尔蒂地球天文台。

Greenland saw its most expansive ice melt on record in July 2012. That month, over 90 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet was at least partly melting, scientists say. By late July 2012, about 250 billion tons of ice had melted.

2012年7月，格陵兰岛见证了有史以来最大规模的冰层融化。科学家指出，当月，格陵兰岛超过90%的冰盖至少部分出现融化。到2012年7月底，约2500亿吨冰已经融化。

Last week, Tedesco spoke with reporters at National Geographic. He told them Greenland’s 2019 melt season could end up breaking the record set in 2012. “We’re basically on pace,” he said.

上周，特德斯科通过《国家地理》杂志接受了记者的采访。他表示，格陵兰岛2019年的融化季可能会最终打破2012年创下的纪录。他说：“我们基本上是在步调一致。”

A June 2019 study by scientists in the United States and Denmark found that melting ice in Greenland will add between 5 and 33 centimeters to sea level rise by the year 2100.

2019年6月，美国和丹麦科学家进行的一项研究发现，到2100年，格陵兰岛融化的冰层将使海平面上升5至33厘米。

The recent extreme melting in Greenland was caused by the same burst of hot air that hit Europe in late July. Places across Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Britain broke hot temperature records.

格陵兰岛最近的极端融化现象是由7月底席卷欧洲的一阵热浪引起的。比利时、德国、卢森堡、荷兰和英国各地都打破了高温记录。

Heat waves have always happened, notes Mike Sparrow, an expert at the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization. But he says extreme heat waves are happening 10 times more often now than they were a century ago.

联合国世界气象组织的专家迈克·斯派洛指出，热浪总是会发生。但是他说，现在发生极端热浪的频率是一个世纪以前的10倍。

Sparrow told The Associated Press that such heat waves are weather events than can happen naturally. “But,” he said, “studies have shown that the frequency and intensity…have increased due to global warming.”

斯派洛告诉美联社，这种热浪是一种自然发生的天气现象。他说，“但是，研究表明，频率和强度……会随着全球变暖而增加。”

He also noted that sea ice spread in the Arctic and Antarctic are both currently at record lows.

他还指出，北极和南极的海冰面积目前都处于创纪录的低点。

On Monday, scientists confirmed that July 2019 was the hottest month in Earth’s recorded history. It beat the record set in July 2016, when the planet was experiencing an especially strong El Ni?o event.

周一，科学家证实2019年7月是地球历史上最热的一个月。它打破了2016年7月创下的纪录，当时地球正在经历一场特别强烈的厄尔尼诺现象。

Words in This Story

ice sheet - n. a very large and thick area of ice that covers a region

pace - n. the speed at which someone or something moves

frequency - n. the number of times that something happens during a particular period

global - adj. involving the entire world

El Ni?o ?- n. a flow of unusually warm water along the western coast of South America that causes many changes in weather in other places (such as a lot of rain in areas that are usually dry)