潮濕的冬天，并沒有結束科羅拉多河面臨的氣候變化風險

潮濕的冬天，并沒有結束科羅拉多河面臨的氣候變化風險

Snow swamped mountains across the US West last winter, leaving enough to thrill skiers into the summer, swelling rivers and streams when it melted, and largely making wildfire restrictions unnecessary. But the wet weather can be misleading.

去年冬天，大雪淹沒了美國西部的高山，讓滑雪愛好者興奮不已，導致河流和小溪在融雪時暴漲，這在很大程度上使得限制野火的措施變得沒有必要。但潮濕的天氣可能會誤導人。

Climate change means the region is still getting drier and hotter.

氣候變化意味著該地區(qū)仍在變得越來越干燥和炎熱。

“It only demonstrates the wide swings we have to manage going forward,” James Eklund, former director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, an interstate agency that ensures river water is doled out properly, said earlier this year. “You can put an ice cube — even an excellent ice cube — in a cup of hot coffee, but eventually it’s going to disappear.”

今年早些時候，科羅拉多河上游委員會的前任主任詹姆斯·?？寺〉抡f：“這只是表明，我們必須設法向前推進。”“你可以在一杯熱咖啡里放一塊冰塊，甚至是一塊非常棒的冰塊，但最終它會消失。”

For the seven states relying on the Colorado River, which carries melted snow from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California, that means a future with increasingly less water for farms and cities.

對于依賴科羅拉多河的七個州來說，這條河將融化的雪從落基山脈帶到加利福尼亞灣，這意味著未來農(nóng)場和城市的用水將越來越少。

Climate scientists say it’s hard to predict how much less. The river supplies 40 million people in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming as well as a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry.

氣候科學家表示，很難預測會減少多少。這條河流為亞利桑那州、加利福尼亞州、科羅拉多州、內(nèi)華達州、新墨西哥州、猶他州和懷俄明州的4000萬人提供水源，同時每年還為農(nóng)業(yè)帶來50億美元的收入。

The US Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday will release its projections for next year’s supply from Lake Mead, a key reservoir that feeds Colorado River water to Nevada, Arizona, California and Mexico.

美國墾務局(US Bureau of)周四將公布對米德湖(Lake Mead)明年供應量的預測。米德湖是科羅拉多河向內(nèi)華達州、亞利桑那州、加利福尼亞州和墨西哥供水的一個關鍵水庫。

After a wet winter, the agency is not expected to require any states to take cuts to their share of water.

在經(jīng)歷了一個潮濕的冬天后，該機構預計不會要求任何一個州削減其水資源份額。