Come with me to the bottom of the world, Antarctica, the highest, driest, windiest, and yes, coldest region on Earth -- more arid than the Sahara and, in parts, colder than Mars. The ice of Antarctica glows with a light so dazzling, it blinds the unprotected eye. Early explorers rubbed cocaine in their eyes to kill the pain of it. The weight of the ice is such that the entire continent sags below sea level, beneath its weight. Yet, the ice of Antarctica is a calendar of climate change. It records the annual rise and fall of greenhouse gases and temperatures going back before the onset of the last ice ages. Nowhere on Earth offers us such a perfect record. And here, scientists are drilling into the past of our planet to find clues to the future of climate change.
跟我一起到地球的底端 南極吧 南極是地球上最高, 最乾燥, 風最大 同時也是最冷的地方 它比薩哈拉沙漠還沒生氣 它的部分地區比火星還要冷 南極的冰層發出的 耀眼光芒 足可讓裸眼為之失明 早期進入此區的探險家們必須在眼中擦古柯鹼 來消除疼痛 冰層的重量讓整的南極大陸 下陷到海平面之下 然而,南極冰層 是全球氣候變遷的一個活日曆 它完整紀錄每年溫室氣體 及溫度的上上下下 年代可以追溯到上一個冰河時期 地球上沒有其他地方 可以提供我們如此完美的紀錄 在這裡,科學家們正用鑽頭 鑽進地球的過往歷史 以便發現未來氣候變遷 的線索
This past January, I traveled to a place called WAIS Divide, about 600 miles from the South Pole. It is the best place on the planet, many say, to study the history of climate change. There, about 45 scientists from the University of Wisconsin, the Desert Research Institute in Nevada and others have been working to answer a central question about global warming. What is the exact relationship between levels of greenhouse gases and planetary temperatures? It's urgent work. We know that temperatures are rising. This past May was the warmest worldwide on record. And we know that levels of greenhouse gases are rising too. What we don't know is the exact, precise, immediate impact of these changes on natural climate patterns -- winds, ocean currents, precipitation rates, cloud formation, things that bear on the health and well-being of billions of people.
今年一月時 我到"南極洲西部冰原區(WAIS Divide)"這地方旅遊 它距離南極大約600英哩 很多人都認為這是地球上 最適合研究氣候變遷的地方 在那裏, 有大約45位科學家, 他們來自威斯康辛大學 內華達沙漠研究所及其他機構 他們一直致力於探討一個全球暖化 的重要問題 那就是 溫室氣體程度 和地球溫度之間 存在的真正關聯? 這工作有其急迫性.我們都知道全球溫度一直在上升 今年五月達到歷史新高 我們也知道溫室氣體的含量也在升高 但我們並不知道 這些變化對於 自然氣候型態 真正 精確 及立即的衝擊是甚麼 這些氣候型態包括風流, 海流♪ 降雨率, 雲的形成等 都是攸關幾十億人健康 及福利的事項
Their entire camp, every item of gear, was ferried 885 miles from McMurdo Station, the main U.S. supply base on the coast of Antarctica. WAIS Divide itself though, is a circle of tents in the snow. In blizzard winds, the crew sling ropes between the tents so that people can feel their way safely to the nearest ice house and to the nearest outhouse. It snows so heavily there, the installation was almost immediately buried. Indeed, the researchers picked this site because ice and snow accumulates here 10 times faster than anywhere else in Antarctica. They have to dig themselves out every day. It makes for an exotic and chilly commute.
這個營隊的所有帳篷及每一種用品 都是由885英里 外的McMurdo營站空運過來的 McMurdo營站是美國位於南極海岸 的主要供應基地 至於南極洲西部冰原區則是 由處於風雪中,圍成圓形的帳篷群所組成 在大風雪中 組員們必須藉著連在帳篷間的繩索 才能在最近的戶外廁所 及最近的冰房間 安全的穿梭 那邊風雪實在太大了 所有的設備幾乎都立刻被風雪所淹沒 事實上 研究者之所以會選擇這個地點 正因為在這裡累積冰雪的速度 比南極任何地方快十倍 工作人員必須每天由雪堆中把自己挖出來 這真是一條很奇異 且寒冷的通道
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
But under the surface is a hive of industrial activity centered around an eight-million-dollar drill assembly. Periodically, this drill, like a biopsy needle, plunges thousands of feet deep into the ice to extract a marrow of gases and isotopes for analysis. Ten times a day, they extract the 10-foot long cylinder of compressed ice crystals that contain the unsullied air and trace chemicals laid down by snow, season after season for thousands of years. It's really a time machine. At the peak of activity earlier this year, the researchers lowered the drill an extra hundred feet deeper into the ice every day and another 365 years deeper into the past. Periodically, they remove a cylinder of ice, like gamekeepers popping a spent shotgun shell from the barrel of a drill. They inspect it, they check it for cracks, for drill damage, for spalls, for chips.
在地表之下 積極的工業探索活動正如火如荼的進行著 他們圍繞著一台八百萬美元的鑽機 每隔一段時間,這台鑽機就像切片檢查的針一樣 深入上千英尺的冰層中 抽取其中所含的氣體 和同位素來作分析 每天十次,他們由 十英尺長的壓縮冰晶柱萃取其中 未經污染的氣體和微量化學物質 這些物質埋在 數千年來累積的雪層下 它就像一台時間機器 在今年初的探索高峰期時 研究者們每天把鑽頭再往冰層中 多鑽探了一百英尺 那意謂著又挖進 更早的365年的歷史 他們定期地將冰柱 由鑽頭筒中取下 就像獵場看守員將已經擊發的子彈殼 退下一樣。 研究員檢查冰柱是否有裂縫, 有無被鑽頭刮傷產生破塊等。
More importantly, they prepare it for inspection and analysis by 27 independent laboratories in the United States and Europe, who will examine it for 40 different trace chemicals related to climate, some in parts per quadrillion. Yes, I said that with a Q, quadrillion. They cut the cylinders up into three-foot sections for easier handling and shipment back to these labs, some 8,000 miles from the drill site. Each cylinder is a parfait of time.
更為重要的是, 他們為位於美國和歐洲的 27個獨立實驗室 提供樣品以進行檢測和分析 這些實驗室將檢測與氣候相關的四十種不同 的微量化學物, 有的含量僅為百萬的四次方(一千萬億)之一。 是的,我是指這個百萬的四次乘方(一千萬億)。 他們將冰柱分割成為三英尺的小段 以方便冰柱處理和搬運 到離鑽頭點約8000英里外 的實驗室 每個冰柱都是 某段時間的真實片段。
This ice formed as snow 15,800 years ago, when our ancestors were daubing themselves with paint and considering the radical new technology of the alphabet. Bathed in polarized light and cut in cross-section, this ancient ice reveals itself as a mosaic of colors, each one showing how conditions at depth in the ice have affected this material at depths where pressures can reach a ton per square inch. Every year, it begins with a snowflake, and by digging into fresh snow, we can see how this process is ongoing today. This wall of undisturbed snow, back-lit by sunlight, shows the striations of winter and summer snow, layer upon layer. Each storm scours the atmosphere, washing out dust, soot, trace chemicals, and depositing them on the snow pack year after year, millennia after millennia, creating a kind of periodic table of elements that at this point is more than 11,000 feet thick. From this, we can detect an extraordinary number of things. We can see the calcium from the world's deserts, soot from distant wildfires, methane as an indicator of the strength of a Pacific monsoon, all wafted on winds from warmer latitudes to this remote and very cold place.
這些冰塊是大約15800年 前的雪所形成, 那個時候人類的祖先還在玩塗料 及思考著關於文字的 先進技術。 在極光的浸沐下 古冰塊的截面 展示出了某種 馬賽克色彩, 每一個都展現出冰塊中的深度 如何影響了這種材料 在不同深度時 壓力可達到 每平方英寸一噸。 每年都下雪, 由鑽探進入最新鮮的雪層, 今天我們可以了解這個過程是如何進行的。 在未經開採的雪層下, 太陽光所造成的背光 映射出冬雪和夏雪的條紋, 一層接著一層。 每次暴風雪席捲著大氣, 沖洗掉灰塵,煤煙, 微量化學物, 並將其沉澱於雪層上 年復一年, 成千上萬年, 形成了本地 超過11000英尺厚的雪層中 的這種時代週期表 從冰柱中,我們可以檢測到種類繁多的物質。 我們可以找到 來自世界沙漠的鈣, 來自遙遠野火的煤煙, 以及被當作太平洋雨季的指示劑的甲烷等, 它們都從較溫暖的緯度 飄到這遙遠寒冷的地方
Most importantly, these cylinders and this snow trap air. Each cylinder is about 10 percent ancient air, a pristine time capsule of greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide -- all unchanged from the day that snow formed and first fell. And this is the object of their scrutiny. But don't we already know what we need to know about greenhouse gases? Why do we need to study this anymore? Don't we already know how they affect temperatures? Don't we already know the consequences of a changing climate on our settled civilization? The truth is, we only know the outlines, and what we don't completely understand, we can't properly fix. Indeed, we run the risk of making things worse.
最為重要的是, 這些冰柱和雪層 可捕捉氣體。 每個冰柱大約含有10%的古代氣體 是溫室氣體最原始的 時間膠囊---二氧化碳, 甲烷和氧化氮-- 從雪形成落下的那天開始 便未曾發生變化。 這就是這些研究要仔細調查的。 但是關於溫室氣體該知道的資訊 我們不是都已經瞭如指掌的嗎? 為什麼我們還需要進一步研究它呢? 我們不是已經知道它如何影響氣溫嗎? 我們不是已經都知道變化的氣候 所帶來的結果 將如何影響我們的文明社會嗎? 事實是,我們僅僅知道其大致輪廓, 並非是完全徹底理解, 我們不但沒有能力進行修復。 事實上,我們還冒著把事情弄得更糟的風險。
Consider, the single most successful international environmental effort of the 20th century, the Montreal Protocol, in which the nations of Earth banded together to protect the planet from the harmful effects of ozone-destroying chemicals used at that time in air conditioners, refrigerators and other cooling devices. We banned those chemicals, and we replaced them, unknowingly, with other substances that, molecule per molecule, are a hundred times more potent as heat-trapping, greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide.
舉個例子吧, 20世紀最為成功的 國際環境保護條例, 蒙特利公約 其目的在聯合世界各國以保護地球 免於受到當時使用於空調,電冰箱 和其它冷卻設備中 的臭氧破壞化學物的影響。 我們禁止這些化學物的使用 卻無知的用 另外一種物質替換, 但事實上新物質分子 就其捕捉的太陽熱能 都比二氧化碳 強一百倍
This process requires extraordinary precautions. The scientists must insure that the ice is not contaminated. Moreover, in this 8,000-mile journey, they have to insure this ice doesn't melt. Imagine juggling a snowball across the tropics. They have to, in fact, make sure this ice never gets warmer than about 20 degrees below zero, otherwise, the key gases inside it will dissipate. So, in the coldest place on Earth, they work inside a refrigerator. As they handle the ice, in fact, they keep an extra pair of gloves warming in an oven, so that, when their work gloves freeze and their fingers stiffen, they can don a fresh pair. They work against the clock and against the thermometer.
這樣的過程需要 特別的謹慎預防。 科學家們必須確保 冰柱未受到污染。 並且在以後未來長達8000英里的旅途中, 他們必須得確保冰柱不會融化。 想像一下夾著雪球穿過熱帶地區吧。 他們必須 確保冰柱溫度不會 高於零下20度, 否則冰柱中的關鍵氣體就會揮發。 因此在地球最為寒冷的地區 他們實質上是在冰箱裏面工作 事實上當他們處理冰柱的同時, 另外一雙手套是置於烤箱中的, 當他們帶在手上的手套凍結, 手指變得僵硬時, 他們就換上烤暖的那雙手套。 他們的工作,是必須與時間和溫差賽跑的
So far, they've packed up about 4,500 feet of ice cores for shipment back to the United States. This past season, they manhandled them across the ice to waiting aircraft. The 109th Air National Guard flew the most recent shipment of ice back to the coast of Antarctica, where it was boarded onto a freighter, shipped across the tropics to California, unloaded, put on a truck, driven across the desert to the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver, Colorado, where, as we speak, scientists are now slicing this material up for samples, for analysis, to be distributed to the laboratories around the country and in Europe.
目前為止,他們已經堆積了 大約4500英尺的冰雪, 這些冰雪都將會被運回美國。 在剛過去的季節中, 他們將這些冰雪搬運出冰層 以等待空運。 109號空軍護衛隊 將最近的冰雪 運到 南極洲海岸, 在這裡將會被搬上貨輪, 穿過熱帶以來到加州, 卸貨並裝運上貨車, 穿過沙漠 抵達位於丹佛(科羅拉多州)的國家冰雪中心研究室 在那裡,正於我們所說的那樣, 科學家將材料切成片 以製成用於分析的樣品, 再將樣品分送到 。 全國各地和歐洲 的 實驗室裡
Antarctica was this planet's last empty quarter -- the blind spot in our expanding vision of the world. Early explorers sailed off the edge of the map, and they found a place where the normal rules of time and temperature seem suspended. Here, the ice seems a living presence. The wind that rubs against it gives it voice. It is a voice of experience. It is a voice we should heed.
南極洲是 人類不斷擴張 的世界視野下 地球的最後一個未被探研的盲點。 早期的探險家們 航海來到地圖的邊緣地帶 他們找到一個 一般的時間和溫度規則 似乎都暫時失效的地區。 在這裡,冰雪就如同活生生的存在。 暴風雪不斷地侵蝕著南極洲, 賜於它獨特的魅力。 這是一種有魅力的體驗。 而這正是我們所需要的嗓音。
Thank you.
謝謝大家
(Applause)
(掌聲)