海洋變暖如此之快，就像每秒鐘有5顆原子彈爆炸

海洋變暖如此之快，就像每秒鐘有5顆原子彈爆炸

Yet another new study has confirmed some of our most alarmist fears about global warming: that it's tracking according to our worst-case projections, the effects are accelerating, and it's undoubtedly man-made, reports CNN.

然而，另一項新的研究證實了我們對全球變暖的一些最危言聳聽的擔憂:根據(jù)我們的最壞情況預測，它的影響正在加速，毫無疑問，這是人為的，CNN報道。

The report, released in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, paints a dire picture of our oceans in crisis. While our oceans warmed steadily between 1955 and 1986, the rate of warming we've seen in the last few decades has been through the roof. Since 1987, ocean warming has been 450 percent greater than during the earlier time period.

這份發(fā)表在《大氣科學進展》雜志上的報告描繪了一幅處于危機中的海洋的可怕畫面。雖然我們的海洋在1955年到1986年間持續(xù)變暖，但在過去幾十年里，我們看到的變暖速度已經(jīng)達到了頂峰。自1987年以來，海洋變暖的幅度比前一時期增加了450%。

A brilliant sunset over the ocean, eerily symbolic of the warming crisis. (Photo: Bob n Renee/Flickr [CC 2.0 License])

In fact, scientists now say that our oceans are heating up at a rate equivalent to five Hiroshima atomic bombs being dropped into the water every second.

事實上，科學家現(xiàn)在說，我們的海洋正在升溫，其速度相當于每秒鐘五顆廣島原子彈投進水里。

"The Hiroshima atom-bomb exploded with an energy of about 63,000,000,000,000 Joules," said Lijing Cheng, the paper's lead author. "I did a calculation ... the amount of heat we have put in the world's oceans in the past 25 years equals to 3.6 billion Hiroshima atom-bomb explosions."

“廣島原子彈爆炸的能量約為6300,000,000,000,000焦耳，”論文的第一作者李靜(音)說。“我做了一個計算……在過去的25年里，我們給世界海洋帶來的熱量相當于36億次廣島原子彈爆炸。”

That actually pans out to "only" four bombs exploding per second, but the rate keeps increasing, so today the effect is much worse.

這實際上意味著每秒“只有”4枚炸彈爆炸，但爆炸速度在不斷增加，所以今天的效果更糟。

"We are now at five to six Hiroshima bombs of heat each second," said John Abraham, another of the study's authors.

該研究的另一名作者約翰·亞伯拉罕說，“我們現(xiàn)在每秒有五到六顆原子彈爆炸。”

This trend is so steep that there's simply no natural explanation for it. The only factors that can account for this crisis are greenhouse gas emissions spewed by human civilization. The past decade has been the warmest on record for global ocean temperatures, and the hottest five years ever recorded all came in the last five.

這種趨勢是如此的陡峭，以至于根本沒有自然的解釋。造成這場危機的唯一因素是人類文明排放的溫室氣體。過去十年是有記錄以來全球海洋溫度最高的十年，而有記錄以來最熱的五年都是在最近五年。

"The upward trend is relentless, and so we can say with confidence that most of the warming is man-made climate change," said Kevin Trenberth, distinguished scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

國家大氣研究中心的著名科學家凱文·特倫伯斯說:“氣溫上升的趨勢是無情的，因此我們可以有把握地說，大部分的變暖是人為造成的氣候變化。”

Why it matters

為什么它很重要

The reason that our oceans are warming at such an alarming rate is because they cover almost three-quarters of the Earth's surface. It's not just their surface area, though. The mass of the oceans far exceeds the mass of the atmosphere, so actually more than 90 percent of the planet's excess heat ends up in the ocean, with only 4 percent ending up in the atmosphere and the land. For this reason, ocean temperatures are a better barometer than atmospheric temperatures for measuring global warming.

我們的海洋正在以如此驚人的速度變暖，原因是它們覆蓋了地球表面近四分之三的面積。不僅僅是表面積。海洋的質量遠遠超過大氣的質量，所以實際上地球上超過90%的多余熱量最終進入海洋，只有4%最終進入大氣和陸地。因此，在測量全球變暖方面，海洋溫度是一個比大氣溫度更好的晴雨表。

Warming ocean temperatures are also the main driving force behind climate change. More frequent and intense tropical storms have been linked to warmer oceans, and the temperature change has profound effects on atmospheric currents and global weather systems. Many of these changes are occurring at such a rapid rate that biological evolution can't keep up, which contributes to the global extinction crisis.

海洋溫度升高也是氣候變化的主要驅動力。更頻繁和強烈的熱帶風暴被認為與海洋變暖有關，而溫度變化對大氣流和全球天氣系統(tǒng)有著深遠的影響。這些變化中有許多正以如此快的速度發(fā)生，以至于生物進化無法跟上，這導致了全球物種滅絕危機。

Furthermore, rising ocean temperatures cause widespread coral bleaching, and because roughly 25 percent of our ocean's biodiversity can be found around our coral reefs, that's what we stand to lose if these trends continue for much longer.

此外，不斷上升的海洋溫度導致了大面積的珊瑚白化，因為我們海洋中大約25%的生物多樣性可以在我們的珊瑚礁周圍找到，如果這種趨勢繼續(xù)下去，我們就會失去這些生物多樣性。

There's no way to softball the results of this study, but scientists think it might still be possible to turn things around. It will take profound and immediate measures, but not impossible ones.

目前還沒有辦法對這項研究的結果進行預測，但科學家們認為仍有可能扭轉局面。它將采取深遠而直接的措施，但不是不可能的。

"If the leaders of the world changed course, a revolution could take place over about 15 years... this requires the leaders of China, and the U.S. in particular, along with Europe, to take a strong leadership role and set the stage for the rest of the world to follow," said Trenberth.

“如果世界領導人改變路線，一場革命可能在15年內發(fā)生……這要求中國領導人，特別是美國領導人，以及歐洲領導人，發(fā)揮強有力的領導作用，為世界其他國家的領導人效仿做好準備。”