紐時賞析／氣候變遷劇烈 距離零碳排仍有長遠之路要走

A Signal of Climate Change Just Got More Dire

氣候變遷之兆愈顯不祥

The rapid warming of the Arctic, a definitive sign of climate change, is occurring even faster than previously described, researchers in Finland said Thursday.

芬蘭研究人員周四表示，北極迅速暖化是氣候變遷的一個明確跡象，暖化速度比之前所描述更快。

Over the past four decades, the region has been heating up four times faster than the global average, not the two to three times that has commonly been reported. And some parts of the region, notably the Barents Sea north of Norway and Russia, are warming up to seven times faster, they said.

過去40年，該地區暖化速度是全球平均水準的四倍，而非一般報導的兩到三倍。他們表示，該地區的一些地方，尤其是挪威與俄羅斯以北的巴倫支海，變暖速度快了七倍。

One result of rapid Arctic warming is faster melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which adds to sea-level rise. But the impacts extend far beyond the Arctic, reaching down to influence weather such as extreme rainfall and heat waves in North America and elsewhere. By altering the temperature difference between the North Pole and the equator, the warming Arctic appears to have affected storm tracks and wind speed in North America.

北極快速變暖的一個結果是，格陵蘭冰蓋融化速度加快，加劇海平面上升，其影響遠遠超出北極，還往下影響了天氣，如北美和其他地區的極端降雨和熱浪。透過改變北極和赤道之間的溫差，變暖的北極似乎影響了北美的風暴路徑與風速。

Manvendra Dubey, an atmospheric scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico, and an author of an earlier study with similar findings, said the faster rate of warming of the Arctic was worrisome, and points to the need to closely monitor the region.

新墨西哥州洛薩拉摩斯國家實驗室大氣科學家杜貝，先前曾撰寫一份研究報告得出類似結論。他表示，北極暖化速度加快令人擔憂，並指出有必要密切監測該區。

“One has to measure it much better, and all the time, because we are at the precipice of many tipping points,” like the complete loss of Arctic sea ice in summers, he said.

他說，「人們必須更妥善的測量，而且要一直如此，因為我們正處於許多臨界點的邊緣」，例如夏季北極海冰完全消失。

The two studies serve as a sharp reminder that humans continue to burn fossil fuels and pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at rates that are dangerously heating the planet and unleashing extreme weather.

這兩項研究強烈提醒人們，人類繼續燃燒化石燃料並向大氣排放溫室氣體的速度，正危險的讓地球變暖，並釋放出極端天氣。

Weeks after a deadly heat wave clamped down on European capitals, extreme temperatures are again engulfing western Europe this week. The heaviest rainfall in decades inundated Seoul, South Korea, killing at least nine and damaging nearly 3,000 structures. The McKinney wildfire continues to rage in Northern California, destroying 60,000 acres, killing four people and triggering a mass fish kill.

在致命熱浪席捲歐洲各國首都數星期後，極端高溫本周再次席捲西歐。數十年來最大的降雨淹沒了南韓首爾，造成至少9人死亡，近3000棟建築受損。麥金尼野火繼續在北加州肆虐，燒毀6萬英畝土地，造成4人死亡並引發大量魚類喪生。

If the rate of warming in the Arctic continues to speed up, the influence on weather could worsen, one of the researchers said. Projections of future climate impacts might need to be adjusted, said Mika Rantanen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki.

一名研究人員說，如果北極暖化速度持續加快，對天氣的影響可能會惡化。位於赫爾辛基的芬蘭氣象研究所研究員米卡．蘭塔南表示，對於未來氣候影響的預測可能需要調整。

Even as the U.S. Congress is on the cusp of passing historic climate legislation, the country is still far from its goal to stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2050.

即便美國國會即將通過歷史性的氣候法案，美國距離在2050年前停止向大氣排放二氧化碳的目標仍很遙遠。

文／Henry Fountain　譯／陳韋廷

說文解字看新聞

【陳韋廷】

北極暖化速度遠快過預期，除了讓海平面加速上升外，還代表地球調節氣候功能將愈來愈差。

the Arctic即指北極，為環繞北極點（the North Pole）的地區，字首A通常大寫，小寫指「北極的、嚴寒的」，例如arctic animals或者arctic air。

Extreme weather表示為「極端天氣」，近年隨著氣候變遷加劇而常常在新聞中出現，惡劣天氣可能會讓人感到身體不適，俚語under the weather即是表示「身體不適」的。

Ice sheet指的是冰蓋，為冰川冰（glacier ice）覆蓋超過5萬平方公里陸地面積以上的冰層，亦稱continental glacier（大陸冰川），5萬平方公里以下則稱之為ice cap（冰帽），而從陸地延伸至海上的冰體則為ice shelf（冰棚），崩解後的冰棚則會形成iceberg（冰山）。