美国国家公共电台 NPR Earth's Oceans Are Getting Hotter And Higher, And It's Accelerating

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

The U.N. has released a new climate science report on oceans. Here's are the headlines. Ice is melting everywhere and sea level rise is accelerating. The oceans are getting hotter faster. This is killing¹ sea animals and disrupting fisheries. And there's also a relatively² new problem - heat waves in the oceans.

NPR's Rebecca Hersher has the story.

REBECCA HERSHER, BYLINE³: The report is a synthesis of everything we know about climate change in the oceans so everyone's on the same page about what's happening. And what's happening, in the most basic terms, is that the oceans are getting a lot hotter. The rate of ocean warming has doubled since 1993. And marine⁴ heat waves are getting more frequent and intense. Haven't heard of marine heat waves? That's because they're new.

Andrew Pershing is the chief scientific officer at the Gulf⁵ of Maine Research Institute.

ANDREW PERSHING: It's sort of remarkable⁶ that prior to 2012, 2013, nobody kind of thought about heat waves in the ocean. And then in 2012, we had a huge event here in the Northwest Atlantic. And the Gulf of Maine was right at the center of it.

HERSHER: Just like a heat wave on land, the water near Maine got abnormally hot that year. Scientists had never seen anything like it. And it was happening in other places, too.

PERSHING: It was a real surprise. And then subsequently, these kind of heat wave events have popped up all over the ocean. So we've actually had three major heat waves in the Gulf of Maine - 2012, 2016 and 2018 - and repeat heat waves in the North Pacific. Australia's had some repeat heat waves. So it's really becoming a part of the conversation in oceanography.

HERSHER: Because they're so new, scientists still aren't able to predict ocean heat waves or say much about how long they'll last once they start. In fact, right now, there's a marine heat wave off the west coast of the U.S. where there's an area of abnormally hot water known as the blob.

HILLARY SCANNELL: How hot is it? So right now, it is up to 4 degrees Celsius⁷ above what we would normally expect.

HERSHER: Hillary Scannell studies marine heat waves at the University of Washington. Four degrees Celsius is about 7 degrees Fahrenheit⁸ hotter than usual - a big enough difference where you'd notice it if you touched the water.

SCANNELL: This patch of warm water is very unusual because it is so extreme and intense.

HERSHER: Which is bad news for the animals that live in that water. Noah Oppenheim is the executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation⁹ of Fishermen's Associations. He's also a former marine researcher.

NOAH OPPENHEIM: The impacts to the ocean sort of cascade¹⁰ up through the food web starting with plankton¹¹ and into the krill, which form the prey¹² base for animals as small as sardines¹³ all the way up to salmon¹⁴ and then whales.

HERSHER: That cascade comes up in the new report. As oceans get hotter and marine heat waves get more intense, it knocks everything in the ocean out of equilibrium¹⁵. That's already happened in the Pacific Northwest in recent years. Blobs of hot water there caused blooms of toxic¹⁶ algae¹⁷, which meant the region's Dungeness crab¹⁸ fishery was closed for months. Salmon was also decimated.

The federal government declared fishery disasters in 2016 and 2017. It's one of the many economic challenges that come with warmer oceans in addition to the costs of dealing¹⁹ with sea level rise. And hotter oceans also affect the weather far from the coasts, contributing to droughts and driving bigger, wetter storms. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions²⁰ dramatically will help with all of these effects but slowly.

OPPENHEIM: Even if we cut carbon emissions right now, we are still looking at 20 or 30 years of change. And so that means no matter what we do, we have to figure out how are we going to adapt to these changes?

HERSHER: Which will mean remaking the global economy, rebuilding infrastructure²¹ and rethinking how we manage coastal²² communities.

Rebecca Hersher, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF BALLPOINT'S "SPECTRA")

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

5 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

6 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

7 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

8 Fahrenheit   

n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的)

参考例句：

• He was asked for the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit.他被问到水的沸点是华氏多少度。
• The thermometer reads 80 degrees Fahrenheit.寒暑表指出华氏80度。

9 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

10 cascade   

n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下

参考例句：

• She watched the magnificent waterfall cascade down the mountainside.她看着壮观的瀑布从山坡上倾泻而下。
• Her hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of curls.她的卷发像瀑布一样垂在肩上。

11 plankton   

n.浮游生物

参考例句：

• Plankton is at the bottom of the marine food chain.浮游生物处于海洋食物链的最底层。
• The plankton in the sea feeds many kinds of animals. 海的浮游生物成为很多种动物的食物。

12 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

13 sardines   

n. 沙丁鱼

参考例句：

• The young of some kinds of herring are canned as sardines. 有些种类的鲱鱼幼鱼可制成罐头。
• Sardines can be eaten fresh but are often preserved in tins. 沙丁鱼可以吃新鲜的，但常常是装听的。

14 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

15 equilibrium   

n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静

参考例句：

• Change in the world around us disturbs our inner equilibrium.我们周围世界的变化扰乱了我们内心的平静。
• This is best expressed in the form of an equilibrium constant.这最好用平衡常数的形式来表示。

16 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

17 algae   

n.水藻，海藻

参考例句：

• Most algae live in water.多数藻类生长在水中。
• Algae grow and spread quickly in the lake.湖中水藻滋蔓。

18 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

19 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

20 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

21 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

22 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。