VOA慢速英语2015 巴黎气候变化大会探讨冰川融化

Melting Glaciers² on Climate Talk List in Paris 巴黎气候变化大会探讨冰川融化

Terrorist attacks in Paris are not expected to stop the United Nations from hosting a major climate conference in that city.

Next week nearly 120 heads of state and government will gather in the City of Lights to discuss ways to cut harmful pollution.

President Barack Obama, China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin are scheduled to attend. They will try to reach an agreement to fight changes in the Earth’s climate.

The meeting is known as COP21. The U.N. says it wants an agreement among nations to limit the rise in world temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius³.

Before the terrorist attacks, France hosted a pre-summit meeting. France's Laurent Fabius told journalists that “the task ahead is considerable.”

Governments are discussing how to lower harmful gas released from burning fossil fuels, like oil and gasoline. These have been blamed for climate change.

Experts warned recently that a major glacier¹ in Greenland is quickly melting and falling into the Atlantic Ocean.

If the entire glacier in the northeast of Greenland melts and falls, global sea levels could rise by a half meter.

The study, published in the journal Science, said the glacier melted three times faster than earlier. Known as Zachariae Isstrom, the glacier is losing 5 billion tons of mass per year, according to the study.

The glacier is dumping many icebergs⁴ into the ocean. That will raise sea levels in future decades, Jeremie Mouginot wrote. He is the study’s lead author and a professor at the University of California-Irvine.

The study based its findings on 40 years of data from satellite and aerial surveys. They looked at the shape, size and position of glacial ice. 

Warmer ocean water is eroding⁵ the glacier from below. Warmer air temperatures are melting it from above. Another Greenland glacier is also melting, but not as quickly because it is in a protected location.

The study said the two glaciers make up 12 percent of the Greenland ice sheet. It said if they fully⁶ collapse⁷, that would increase global sea levels by more than one meter.

Greenland is near the icy North Pole of the planet.

However, another recent study said that ice in Antarctica at the South Pole is growing.

In the Journal of Glaciology, NASA said satellites showed the Antarctic ice sheet gained 112 billion tons of ice from 1992 to 2001. The gain slowed to 82 billion tons from 2003 to 2008.

That is what Jay Zwally said. He is a glaciologist with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He is the study’s lead author.

Critics question the study. Many other studies have found that Antarctica is generally losing ice.

Zwally said he agrees with others that ice is melting in the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica.

But, he says that East Antarctica and other parts are gaining ice.

“There, we see an ice gain that exceeds the losses in the other areas,” he said.

Zwally and his team used satellites to measure changes over large and small areas.

Snowfall is not common in Antarctica because it is technically⁸ a desert. Antarctica is a dry desert, with cold, brutal⁹ weather.

Words in This Story

summit –n. a meeting of leaders to discuss a subject

glacier –n. a very large area of ice moving slowly down a slope or wide area of land

erode¹⁰ (ing) –v. to gradually destroy something by natural forces

exceeds -v. goes beyond something else

brutal - adj. harsh

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 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

4 icebergs   

n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The drift of the icebergs in the sea endangers the ships. 海上冰山的漂流危及船只的安全。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The icebergs towered above them. 冰山高耸于他们上方。 来自辞典例句

5 eroding   

侵蚀，腐蚀( erode的现在分词 )； 逐渐毁坏，削弱，损害

参考例句：

• The coast is slowly eroding. 海岸正慢慢地被侵蚀。
• Another new development is eroding the age-old stereotype of the male warrior. 另一个新现象是，久已形成的男人皆武士的形象正逐渐消失。

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

8 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

9 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

10 erode   

v.侵蚀，腐蚀，使...减少、减弱或消失

参考例句：

• Once exposed,soil is quickly eroded by wind and rain.一旦暴露在外，土壤很快就会被风雨侵蚀。
• Competition in the financial marketplace has eroded profits.金融市场的竞争降低了利润。