“人造冰”可以挽救南極冰蓋免于崩潰

“人造冰”可以挽救南極冰蓋免于崩潰

Governments could stop the West Antarctic Ice Sheet from sliding into the ocean and submerging coastal cities by launching a last-ditch engineering project to blanket its surface with “artificial snow”, according to a study released on Wednesday.

本周三公布的一項研究顯示，各國政府可以啟動一項最后一道工程，用“人造雪”覆蓋南極西部冰蓋，防止其滑入海洋，淹沒沿海城市。

Scientists believe that global warming has already caused so much melting at the south pole that the giant ice sheet is now on course to disintegrate, which would trigger an eventual global sea-level rise of at least three meters (10 feet) over centuries.

科學家們認為，全球變暖已經(jīng)導致南極大量融化，巨大的冰蓋正在走向解體，這將引發(fā)全球海平面在未來幾個世紀內(nèi)至少上升3米(10英尺)。

The authors of the new study envisaged using 12,000 wind turbines to pump seawater 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) up to the surface, where it would be frozen into “snow” to try to weigh the sheet down enough to stop it collapsing any further.

這項新研究的作者，設想使用12000個風力渦輪機，將海水泵到1500米(4900英尺)高的海面上，在那里海水會被凍結(jié)成“雪”，以使冰蓋足夠重，防止它進一步坍塌。

“We have already awoken the giant at the southern pole,” said Anders Levermann, a professor at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, referring to the ice sheet.

德國波茨坦氣候影響研究所(Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research)教授安德斯·萊弗曼(Anders Levermann)提到冰蓋時說：“我們已經(jīng)喚醒了南極的巨人。”

“We are already at a point of no return if we don’t do anything,” Levermann, who co-authored the study published in Science Advances,told Reuters. “We can bring it back to the stable point by a small interference now – or by larger and larger interference later.”

“如果我們什么都不做，我們已經(jīng)到了無法回頭的地步，”Levermann說，他是《科學進展》雜志上這項研究的合著者。“我們現(xiàn)在可以通過一個小的干擾，或者稍后通過越來越大的干擾，將其恢復到穩(wěn)定點。”

With the droughts, floods, storms and wildfires associated with climate change intensifying globally, some scientists have begun to seriously contemplate interventions that would have been dismissed as wildly impractical even a few years ago.

隨著全球范圍內(nèi)與氣候變化有關的干旱、洪水、風暴和野火日益加劇，一些科學家開始認真考慮一些干預措施，即使在幾年前，這些干預措施也會被認為是極其不切實際的。

Echoing many other climate scientists, Levermann said the most urgent priority was to deliver the rapid cuts in carbon emissions needed to meet the temperature goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which is aimed at averting runaway climate impacts.

Levermann與許多其他氣候科學家一樣，表示最緊迫的任務是迅速減少碳排放，以達到2015年《巴黎協(xié)議》的溫度目標，該協(xié)議旨在避免失控的氣候影響。

Although Levermann said full sea-level rise projected to follow the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet might not unfold for hundreds of years, he said he published the paper out of concern for the fate of low-lying populations.

盡管Levermann表示，預計隨著南極西部冰蓋的崩潰，海平面將全面上升，但這可能要幾百年才能實現(xiàn)，但他說，他發(fā)表這篇論文是出于對低洼地區(qū)人口命運的擔憂。