國家地理:融化的北極正使一場新的冷戰(zhàn)升溫(3)

Around the time of my visit, though, the Canadian government had been reappraising the rangers. Rumblings about an international scramble to stake new claims in the warming Arctic and on its vast trove of untapped resources had prompted politicians in Ottawa to promise the rangers better gear and funds to recruit more volunteers. Meanwhile U.S. military officials also were interested in the program, with an eye toward creating something similar in Alaska.

在我拜訪期間，加拿大政府已開始重新評估巡邏民兵。有消息和傳言指出，各國將對逐漸暖化的北極地區(qū)和其龐大尚未開發(fā)的資源提出新的所有權(quán)主張，因此首府渥太華的政治人物承諾給巡邏民兵更好的裝備，以及用來招募更多志愿兵的資金。同時美國軍方官員也對這項計劃感興趣，打算在阿拉斯加創(chuàng)立類似的計劃。

Atqittuq welcomed the attention. He was raised in the Arctic and was now raising his own son there, so he understood the different ways the far-off government could go from friendly to fickle to forgetful. But this time it wasn't hard to guess what was on politicians' minds: After years spent ignoring the fact that the Arctic is warming faster than any other place on the planet, Canada was finally coming around.

艾奇圖克樂見這些關(guān)注。他成長于北極地區(qū)，現(xiàn)在也在這里養(yǎng)育自己的兒子，因此他了解遠(yuǎn)在他方的政府可能從支持到反反復(fù)復(fù)，到最后忘了一干二凈的態(tài)度轉(zhuǎn)變。但這一次不難猜到政客們在想什么：在多年來忽視北極地區(qū)比世界其他地方暖化都快的事實后，加拿大終于要正視這個問題。

"We Inuit have been talking about this climate change stuff for a long time," Atqittuq told me before we headed out onto the tundra. "Now the government's catching up, and they want us to keep a lookout. Well, OK. We're proud Canadians." Then he grinned. "Just wish we were Canadian enough to get good phone service, eh?"

“我們因紐特人談氣候變遷很久了，”艾奇圖克在我們動身前往凍原前跟我說?！艾F(xiàn)在政府跟上來了，他們要我們保衛(wèi)這里。好吧，沒問題。我們是愛國的加拿大人。”他接著笑著說：“只是希望我們能像一般加拿大人一樣擁有好的電信服務(wù)，好嗎？”