世界经历“最热的十年”

 　　Weather extremes mark 21st century’s first decade

　　The first 10 years of this century were the hottest in 160 years and filled with more temperature records than any other decade as global warming accelerated, the UN’s weather agency has reported.

　　联合国气候机构报告称，随着全球变暖加快，本世纪最初10年是160年来最热的10年，最高气温纪录数量超过其他任何10年。

　　An “unprecedented¹” series of weather extremes also marked the years from 2001 to 2010, from hurricane Katrina in the US, to Russian heat waves, Amazonian drought and Pakistani floods, said the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization.

　　总部位于日内瓦的联合国世界气象组织(World Meteorological Organization, WMO)表示，从2001年到2010年，全球还出现了“空前”的一系列极端天气，从美国的卡特里娜(Katrina)飓风到俄罗斯的热浪，从亚马逊的干旱到巴基斯坦的洪涝。

　　The decade was the second wettest since 1901, as well, while 2010 alone was the wettest since instrumental records began.

　　2001-2010年间也是自1901年以来降水最多的10年，而2010年是有仪器记录以来降水最多的年份。

　　“Rising concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are changing our climate, with far-reaching implications for our environment and our oceans, which are absorbing both carbon dioxide and heat,” said Michel Jarraud, WMO secretary-general.

　　WMO总干事米歇尔?雅罗(Michel Jarraud)表示：“吸热温室气体浓度不断上升，正在改变我们的气候，对吸收着二氧化碳和热量的环境与海洋有着深远影响。”

　　Carbon dioxide, the main man-made greenhouse gas scientists say is warming the atmosphere to potentially dangerous levels, is emitted when fossil fuels such as coal or gas are burnt. Concentrations of the gas reached a record 400 parts per million in May, the highest level in millions of years.

　　煤炭或天然气等化石燃料燃烧时释放出二氧化碳。科学家指出，二氧化碳是主要的人造温室气体，正导致大气温度升至潜在危险的水平。今年5月温室气体含量达到400 PPM，这是数百万年以来最高水平。

　　The WMO report also underlines the confusing nature of temperature records. Yearly temperatures have not risen as fast this century as they did in the 1990s, when they soared up to 1998, one of the hottest years on record and a period of an El Ni?o event – the naturally occurring warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean, as opposed to a cooling La Ni?a pattern.

　　WMO的报告也突显了温度记录令人困惑的特性。年度温度上升并不像20世纪90年代那样快。90年代气温飙升直至1998年，那年是有记录以来温度最高的一年之一，当时也适逢厄尔尼诺时期——太平洋部分自然变暖的现象，与变冷的拉尼娜现象相反。

　　That slowdown in temperature rises has led skeptics to claim global warming has stopped. But when decade-long averages are measured, as the WMO has done in this report, they show a sharp warming, from 14.26 centigrade in 1991-2000, to 14.47C in 2001-2010, a rise the agency said was unprecedented.

　　温度上升放慢让怀疑者宣称，全球变暖已经停止。但从10年平均数据来看（正如WMO在本报告中的做法），温度急剧变暖，从1991-2000年的14.26摄氏度提高到2001-2010年的14.47摄氏度。WMO表示，这一升幅史无前例。

　　This has happened because temperatures have stayed high between 2001 and 2010, with every year of the decade except 2008 among the 10 warmest on record. 2010 itself was the warmest year ever, followed closely by 2005.

　　出现这种局面是因为，2001-2010年间，每年气温都很高，除了2008年以外，期间每一年的温度都进入了记录前十。2010年是有史以来最热的一年，紧随其后的是2005年。(FT)

1 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。