VOA慢速：全球冰川融化速度比以往任何时候都要快

欢迎来到今天的VOA慢速专区。

今天为大家带来一篇关于环境的新闻。

The world's glaciers are melting quickly.

世界上的冰川正在迅速融化。

Scientists from the magazine Nature looked at 20 years of satellite data of the world's 220,000 mountain glaciers.

《自然》杂志的科学家们研究了20年来全球22万条高山冰川的卫星数据。

They found that since 2015, glaciers have lost 298 billion metric tons of ice and snow per year.

他们发现，自2015年以来，冰川每年损失2980亿公吨冰雪。

That is 31 percent more than 15 years ago,

这比15年前增加了31%，

and enough ice melt to put Switzerland under 7.2 meters of water each year.

而且每年的冰雪融化足以让瑞士淹没在7.2米深的水下。

Scientists say the melting is caused by climate change.

科学家表示，冰川融化是由气候变化引起的。

They have long warned that warming temperatures are shrinking glaciers around the world.

他们早就警告说，全球变暖正在导致全球冰川减少。

Romain Hugonnet studies glaciers at ETH Zurich and the University of Toulouse in France.

罗曼·胡哥内特在苏黎世联邦理工学院和法国图卢兹大学研究冰川。

He led the report.

他主持了这份报告。

The thinning rate of glaciers is twice as high as it was 20 years ago, and "that's enormous," he said.

冰川变薄的速度是20年前的两倍，“这是巨大的，”他说。

Half of the world's glacier melt is in the United States and Canada.

世界上一半的冰川融化在美国和加拿大。

Alaska's melt rates are "among the highest on the planet," Hugonnet said.

胡哥内特说，阿拉斯加的融化速度是“地球上最高的”。

Alaska's Columbia Glacier is losing about 35 meters a year, he added.

他补充说，阿拉斯加的哥伦比亚冰川正在以每年约35米的速度消融。

Almost all of the world's glaciers are melting.

世界上几乎所有的冰川都在融化。

Even glaciers that used to be solid are now melting, such as ones in Tibet.

即使是曾经坚硬的冰川现在也在融化，比如西藏的冰川。

The melting "mirrors" the worldwide increase in temperature and is from the burning of coal, oil and gas, Hugonnet said.

胡哥内特说，融化“反映”了全球温度的上升，这是由燃烧煤炭、石油和天然气造成的。

Some smaller glaciers are totally lost.

一些较小的冰川完全消失了。

Two years ago, scientists, activists and government officials in Iceland even held a funeral for a small glacier.

两年前，冰岛的科学家、活动人士和政府官员甚至为一座小冰川举行了葬礼。

The study is the first to use satellite images to examine all of Earth's glaciers that are not connected to ice sheets in Greenland or the Antarctic.

这项研究首次使用卫星图像来检查地球上所有与格陵兰岛或南极冰盖无关的冰川。

Past studies looked at just a small number of the world's glaciers.

过去的研究只关注了世界上的一小部分冰川。

Shrinking glaciers are a problem for millions of people who use regular glacial melt for drinking water.

对于数以百万计的人来说，冰川的萎缩是一个问题，他们使用冰川融水作为饮用水。

Very fast melting can also cause deadly floods in places like India, Hugonnet said.

胡哥内特说，冰川的快速融化也会导致像印度这样的地方发生致命的洪水。

But the biggest threat to the world is rising sea levels.

但是对世界最大的威胁是海平面的上升。

The world's oceans are already rising from climate change because water expands when it gets warmer.

由于气候变化，全球海洋已经在上升，因为水在变暖时就会膨胀。

Glaciers are responsible for 21 percent of sea level rise.

冰川造成了21%的海平面上升。

Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica also cause sea level rise, but to a lesser amount.

格陵兰岛和南极洲冰盖的融化也会导致海平面上升，但幅度较小。

Mark Serreze is director of the American National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado.

马克·塞雷泽(是科罗拉多州美国国家冰雪数据中心(NSIDC)的主任。

He thinks "sea level rise is going to be a bigger and bigger problem as we move through the 21st century."

他认为，“随着我们进入21世纪，海平面上升将成为一个越来越大的问题。”

The NSIDC was not involved in the study.

NSIDC没有参与这项研究。

Scientists said that it could take tens or even hundreds of years to regrow melted glaciers.

科学家们表示，融化的冰川可能需要几十年甚至几百年才能重新生长。

Twila Moon studies glaciers at the NSIDC.

特威拉·莫恩在NSIDC研究冰川。

She is not confident the glaciers can regrow, even if there is a worldwide reduction in emissions and the planet's temperature is controlled.

即使全球范围内减少排放，地球温度得到控制，她也不相信冰川能够重新生长。

"We're at a point where we're trying to keep as much ice as possible and slow that rate of loss," she said.

她说:“我们正试图尽可能多地保留冰，并减缓冰的流失速度。”

I'm Bryan Lynn.

布莱恩·林恩报道。