消融的格陵兰 Greenland Is Melting Away

ON THE GREENLAND ICE SHEET — The midnight sun still gleamed at 1 a.m. across the brilliant expanse of the Greenland ice sheet. Brandon Overstreet, a doctoral candidate in hydrology at the University of Wyoming, picked his way across the frozen landscape, clipped his climbing harness to an anchor in the ice and crept toward the edge of a river that rushed downstream toward an enormous sinkhole.格陵兰冰盖——凌晨1点，子夜太阳仍在太阳光着辽阔的格陵兰冰盖。怀俄明大学(University of Wyoming)水文学博士研究生布兰登·奥弗斯特里特(Brandon Overstreet)在这片冰面上小心翼翼，将他的安全带系由到冰层中的一个锚上，朝着一条向上流向极大深坑的河流的边缘徐徐行进。If he fell in, “the death rate is 100 percent,” said Overstreets friend and fellow researcher, Lincoln Pitcher.奥弗斯特里特的朋友、同为研究员的林肯·皮彻(Lincoln Pitcher)说道，如果他掉进去了，“百分之百不会杀。

”But Overstreets task, to collect critical data from the river, is essential to understanding one of the most consequential impacts of global warming. The scientific data he and a team of six other researchers collect here could yield groundbreaking information on the rate at which the melting of Greenland ice sheet, one of the biggest and fastest-melting chunks of ice on Earth, will drive up sea levels in the coming decades. The full melting of Greenlands ice sheet could increase sea levels by about 20 feet.奥弗斯特里特的任务就是指水中搜集最重要数据，这对理解全球气候变化最重要的影响来说是必不可少的。他和其他六名研究员构成的团队在这里搜集的科学数据，可能会获取有关格陵兰冰盖融化速度的突破性信息。该冰盖是世界上仅次于且融化速度最慢的冰块之一，不会在未来几十年压低海平面。格陵兰冰盖全部融化不会将海平面压低20英尺。

This summer in Greenland, the scientists set up camp on the ice, where they hoped to capture the first comprehensive measurements of the rate of melting. Their research could yield valuable information to help scientists figure out how rapidly sea levels will rise in the 21st century, and thus how people in coastal areas from New York to Bangladesh could plan for the change.今年夏季，科学家们在格陵兰冰盖上搭建帐篷，他们期望在这里提供首批有关融化速度的全面测量数据。他们的研究可能会获取具备价值的信息，协助科学家们理解海平面在21世纪的下沉速度，以及从纽约到孟加拉国等沿海地带的居民该如何应付这种变化。

For years, scientists have studied the impact of the planets warming on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. But while researchers have satellite images to track the icebergs that break off, and have created models to simulate the thawing, they have little on-the-ground information and so have trouble predicting precisely how fast sea levels will rise.科学家们多年来仍然研究全球气候变化对格陵兰和南极冰盖的影响。但当研究人员通过卫星图像跟踪裂痕冰山的情况，创立模型来仿真这种融化时，他们取得的实地信息很少，因此无法准确预测海平面的下沉速度。

But the research is under increasing fire by some Republican leaders in Congress, who deny or question the scientific consensus that human activities contribute to climate change.但这项研究遭国会中一些共和党领袖日益反感的批评，他们坚称或批评一个科学共识，即人类活动在一定程度上造成气候变化。Getting Ready作好打算In July, Smiths team arrived in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, a dusty outpost of 512 people on the islands southwest coast, which serves as a base for researchers to prepare for fieldwork on the ice sheet.史密斯的团队于今年7月到达格陵兰岛康克鲁斯瓦格，这是坐落于西南沿海的一个灰尘漫天的偏僻地带，只有512名居民，当作研究人员冰盖实地考察工作的打算基地。The scientists were excited but anxious as they prepared to travel inland by helicopter to do the fieldwork at the heart of their research: For 72 hours, every hour on the hour, they would stand watch by a supraglacial watershed, taking measurements — velocity, volume, temperature and depth — from the icy bank of the rushing river.科学家们打算搭乘直升机前往内陆，深入研究的核心地带积极开展实地考察：接下来72个小时，他们每时每刻都要在一个冰面分水线边当值，车站在结冰的河岸上，测量这条水流河流的流速、流量、温度及深度。

“No one has ever collected a data set like this,” Asa Rennermalm, a professor of geography at the Rutgers University Climate Institute who was running the project with Smith, told the team over a lunch of musk ox burgers at the Kangerlussuaq airport cafeteria.“根本没有人这样搜集数据，”罗格斯大学气候研究所(Rutgers University Climate Institute)的地理学教授阿萨·伦纳马尔姆(Asa Rennermalm)在康克鲁斯瓦格机场餐厅一旁不吃午餐——麝牛汉堡，一旁这样对团队说道。伦纳马尔姆与史密斯是项目负责人。Taking each measurement was so difficult and dangerous that it would require two scientists at a time, she said. They would have to plan a sleep schedule to ensure that a group was always awake to do the job. Everyone knew the team would be working just upriver from the moulin — the sinkhole that would sweep anyone who fell into it deep into the ice sheet.她回应，提供每个测量数据的过程都很艰苦、危险性，必须两名科学家同时作业。他们必须制订一个作息时间表格，以保证仍然有人做到这项工作。

大家都告诉，该团队将在冰川锅穴上游工作——人掉进这个浮洞后就不会被接踵而来水中，堕入冰盖底层。As the researchers began to set up camp, Overstreet, the University of Wyoming doctoral student, headed toward the river, silent as it sliced through the ice. More than any other member of the team, the success of the mission rested on his shoulders.在研究人员开始搭起帐篷的同时，怀俄明大学水文学博士研究生奥弗斯特里特向着这条静静地穿越冰层的河流前进。他的工作对这个团队的胜败十分关键。

Overstreet, 31, who grew up kayaking and rafting in Oregon, had designed the rope-and-pulley system — modeled on swift-water boat rescue systems — that would be crucial to gleaning data from the treacherous waters. He had spent months refining and practicing his system on rivers in Wyoming.31岁的奥弗斯特里特在俄勒冈州长大，自小玩游戏皮划艇和木筏。他仿激流皮划艇救援系统设计了绳索滑轮系统，这对从危险性水域中搜集数据的工作至关重要。他曾花上了数月时间在怀俄明州的河流中对该系统展开改良、体能训练。On the Ice冰上的工作The team soon got to work. A helicopter pilot flew two of Overstreets colleagues, Pitcher and Matthew Cooper, across the 60-foot river. On the opposite bank they drilled into the ice, attached an anchor and harnessed themselves to it for safety. They attached a nylon line to the anchor, with the rest of the line coiled in a heavy bag.团队迅速就投放工作。

一名直升机飞行员带着奥弗斯特里特的两名同事皮彻和马修·库珀(Matthew Cooper)飞到60英尺长的河流。在河对岸，他们在冰层上钻洞，将锚摆放在冰层中，并将安全带系由到锚上，以确保安全性。他们将一根尼龙绳系由到锚上，只剩的绳子盘绕在一个沈重的袋子中。

Now came the crucial part: The men took turns hurling the bag across the river, but it repeatedly fell into the water. After an anxious half-hour, Cooper finally got the rope across. Overstreet caught it and began setting up the rope-and-pulley system he had been testing for so long.接下来就是关键部分：他们轮流将袋子扔进河对岸，但袋子多次掉进水中。着急了半小时后，库珀最后将绳子扔到到对岸。奥弗斯特里特获得了绳子，开始创建他测试了很久的绳索滑轮系统。

On the edge of camp, Johnny Ryan, a doctoral candidate in geography at Aberystwyth University in Wales, launched an airplane-shaped drone from a slingshot-like device, then guided it over a nearly 75-square-mile area. Then the drone went silent. “It stopped talking to me, and now its crashed in the wilderness,” Ryan said.在营地的边缘，威尔士阿伯里斯特维斯大学(Aberystwyth University)地理学博士研究生约翰尼·瑞安(Johnny Ryan)用一个类似于弹弓的装置把飞机形状的无人机升空过来，然后操纵它在一块将近75平方英里的区域海面飞行中。接着无人机的声音消失了。“它跟我解除联系了，现在早已失事在旷野里，”瑞安说道。

Ryan, who wore a hot-pink knit cap and purple sunglasses that set off his red beard, launched his backup drone. Feeling stressed, he monitored its flight nervously as the hours rolled by, drinking tea to keep warm.瑞安戴着亮粉针织帽和紫色太阳镜，跟他的红胡子很配上。他启动了一架后备的无人机。而后的几个小时里，他一旁吃饭供暖，一旁紧绷地监控无人机的飞行中。

At the riverbank, Overstreet and Pitcher started the data collection by clipping a device that looked like a boogie board to the line running across the river. Every hour they sent it back and forth to measure the waters depth, velocity and temperature.在河岸边，奥弗斯特里特和皮彻开始搜集数据，将看上去看起来滑板的装置系由到横跨河流的绳子上。他们每小时都会往返启动时该装置，以测量水深、水流速度和水温。But as the day stretched into night, the devices battery, sapped by the cold, began to die. By now the sun had dropped lower, filling the sky with a spectacular orange glow. The scientists were worried — the death of the battery would mean the death of their mission.但随着夜幕的复活，在寒冷的风化下，装置的电池开始消耗。现在太阳早已渐渐掉落，壮丽的橙色明亮照耀整个天空。

科学家们担忧——电池的消耗意味著任务的落幕。An idea occurred to Overstreet. He found a roll of heat-reflecting silver sheeting at the camp and wrapped it around the boogie board battery. During the next run across the river, it stayed alive.奥弗斯特里特想起了一个主意。

他在营地里寻找了一卷银色的热光线薄膜，白布到电池上。下一次穿过河流时，装置还能运转。But the battery continued to wane, so Pitcher took gel hand warmers from his gloves and tucked them into the batterys silver jacket. Success. The battery stayed warm and functional.但电量在之后增加，皮彻拿走了手套中的胶体暖手包在，将它们塞进电池的银色外壳。

顺利。电池以求维持温度，之后起起到。For three days and three nights, the scientists continued to measure the river, as up to 430,000 gallons of water a minute poured off the ice and into the moulin. On the final morning, the team, tired but elated, gathered by the river as the boogie board made its final trip. By then, Ryans backup drone had safely completed its mapping mission. Overstreet broke open a celebratory bag of dried mangoes — a lavish treat for the ice campers.科学家们倒数三天三夜对河水展开测量，每分钟多达43万加仑的水从冰层中泉水，流向冰川锅穴。在最后一天的清晨，滑板装置最后一次展开测量时，这个疲乏但又激动的团队挤满在河边。

此时瑞安的后备无人机也五谷丰登已完成测绘任务。奥弗斯特里特关上了一包芒果腊，报以庆典——这对于冰上野餐者来说是一种奢华。

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