CNN News:南極冰融化

Ice in Antarctica, there`s a lot of it. It doesn`t sound much like breaking news. But new information suggests it`s increasing and that`s puzzling some scientists because research over the last 10 years suggested that Antarctica is losing ice and that the melt is contributing to rising levels.

南極有很多的冰。這聽起來不是什么驚人的消息。但是新的信息表明冰的數(shù)量在增加并且讓一些科學家感到疑惑的是，過去十年的研究表明南極冰架正在融化，這導致水平面上升。

Last year, NASA reported that Antarctic sea ice reached a new record size. Now, it looks like the continent`s ice sheet is growing.

去年NASA稱，南極洲冰的面積達到了歷史新高?，F(xiàn)在，似乎該大陸冰蓋面積正在增加。

We know that sea levels around the world are rising and current thinking is that part of that sea level rise comes from melting ice in Antarctica. But one recent study from NASA scientists says that may not be the case.

我們知道，全球的海平面正在上升，現(xiàn)在人們認為海平面上升的部分原因是因為南極洲冰融化。但是，NASA科學家最近的一項研究表明，情況可能不是這樣。

Antarctica is a big place, roughly the size of U.S. and Mexico combined. So, as you might expect, changes in its ice are not uniformed across the entire continent. Nearly, all scientists agree that ice is being lost from the western part of Antarctica and along its peninsula.

南極洲是個大地方，其面積相當于美國和莫斯科面積的總和。你可能期望，整個南極洲的冰面的變化并不一樣。幾乎所有的科學家都同意，南極洲西部地區(qū)以及沿海半島冰正在消失。

On the eastern side, ice is actually being gained. But where this study is different is they measured that that gaining of ice long eastern Antarctica is outpacing the loss on the western side.

在南極洲東部地區(qū)，冰的數(shù)量實際在增加。但是，其研究不同之處在于，科學家測量的東部地區(qū)冰的增加數(shù)量超過了西部地區(qū)冰消失的數(shù)量。

What`s behind this addition of ice? It`s snowfalls that started becoming heavier around 10,000 years ago. The scientists know this by looking into ice core data. Why is this important? It would mean that Antarctica is not contributing to sea level rise.

除了冰，其背后還有什么?科學家們通過調(diào)查冰的核心數(shù)據(jù)知道大約在哦1萬年前，南極洲的降雪量開始增加。為什么這一信息如此重要呢?因為，這就意味著，南極洲并未導致海平面上升。

Bottom line: there is still a lot we need to learn about how Antarctica is reacting to climate change.

結果：關于南極洲如何應對氣候變化，我們還有很多需需要學習。