[ti:Arctic Ocean Ice Shrinks to Second Lowest Level on Record]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.04]Scientists say ice in the Arctic Ocean
[00:04.00]melted to its second lowest level on record this summer.
[00:11.40]Arctic sea ice melts over the summer,
[00:15.52]reaching its lowest point sometime during September.
[00:21.40]Then, during the winter, ice builds up again
[00:25.56]and reaches its highest level in March.
[00:30.64]The National Snow and Ice Data Center
[00:34.52]at the University of Colorado Boulder
[00:38.08]uses satellite imagery to observe and measure the ice levels.
[00:45.88]The center recently announced its latest findings
[00:50.20]about sea ice levels at the North Pole, as well as areas off Canada,
[00:56.84]Greenland, Russia and the U.S. state of Alaska.
[01:03.12]Researchers reported Arctic Ocean ice levels reached a summertime low
[01:10.00]of 3.7 million square kilometers on September 15.
[01:18.00]That is the second lowest level recorded since 1979,
[01:24.32]when satellite observations of the sea ice began.
[01:29.36]The lowest level recorded was in 2012,
[01:33.76]when the ice shrank to 3.4 million square kilometers.
[01:39.84]In the 1980s, the ice cover was about
[01:43.96]2.7 million square kilometers bigger than current summer levels.
[01:51.56]Mark Serreze is director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
[01:58.36]"It's been a crazy year up north, with sea ice at a near-record low,"
[02:04.60]he told the French news agency AFP.
[02:09.24]He noted the heat waves and massive forest fires
[02:13.56]in the Siberian area of Russia.
[02:17.40]He said the heat wave last spring and natural climate conditions
[02:23.28]in the Arctic played a part in the latest sea ice melt.
[02:29.56]He noted that temperatures for much of the year in the Siberian Arctic
[02:35.24]were 8 to 10 degrees Celsius above normal.
[02:40.80]Some of the warming was caused by the burning of coal,
[02:45.72]oil and natural gas, he added.
[02:50.56]"Absolutely we're seeing climate change at work
[02:54.28]because the warm summers become warmer and the cold winters
[02:59.72]aren't as cold as they were," Serreze said.
[03:04.96]Melting sea ice does not directly add to rising sea levels.
[03:10.88]But scientists say it can have a direct effect on rising temperatures.
[03:18.08]"When the sea ice disappears, the incident sunlight gets absorbed in the ocean,
[03:25.44]helping to further warm the Earth," Claire Parkinson told AFP.
[03:32.88]She is a climate scientist with the U.S. space agency NASA.
[03:39.44]Parkinson added that the lower ice coverage this year
[03:44.40]was "in line with the overall downward" patterns of the past 40 years.
[03:51.88]"What we are seeing here in the Arctic
[03:54.96]is really the opening up of a new ocean on top of the world,
[04:00.44]which means that we need to be protecting the area," she added.
[04:06.96]In another recent study, U.S. researchers suggested
[04:11.92]the Arctic has experienced such intense warming in recent decades
[04:18.00]that it is now changing to a completely "new climate state."
[04:24.64]The study was carried out
[04:26.80]by the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
[04:32.20]The researchers said Arctic sea ice has seen such major melting
[04:38.16]in recent decades that even an unusually cold year
[04:43.04]"will no longer have the amount of summer sea ice
[04:47.32]that existed as recently as the mid-20th century."
[04:53.36]The study predicted that autumn and winter temperatures
[04:57.92]will also warm enough to enter
[05:01.28]a "statistically distinct climate" by the middle of this century.
[05:07.28]This will likely result in seasonal changes
[05:11.20]to include months when rain will fall instead of snow.
[05:16.96]The scientists based their research on hundreds of detailed computer models
[05:23.32]and observations of Arctic climate conditions.
[05:28.92]They used this data to define climate conditions
[05:33.20]of what they considered the "old Arctic."
[05:38.00]The team then attempted to identify future climate changes
[05:43.28]linked to human-caused warming.
[05:47.12]The study was based on high-end predictions
[05:50.68]for future levels of greenhouse gases,
[05:54.68]pollutants that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere.
[06:00.24]The researchers noted that lower greenhouse gas levels
[06:05.24]would lessen future climate changes in the Arctic.
[06:10.48]I'm Bryan Lynn. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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