NASA稱今年全球氣溫將再創新高
The world is on pace to set another high temperature benchmark, with 2016 becoming the third year in a row of record heat.
全世界即將創下又一個高溫基準，而2016年是氣溫連續創紀錄的第三年。
NASA scientists announced Tuesday that global temperatures so far this year were much higher than in the first half of 2015.
美國航空航天局(NASA)科學家在週二宣佈，今年截至目前，全球氣溫遠高於2015年上半年。
Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that while the first six months of 2015 made it the hottest half-year ever recorded, “2016 really has blown that out of the water.” He said calculations showed there was a 99 percent probability that the full year would be hotter than 2015.
NASA戈達德太空研究所(Goddard Institute for Space Studies)所長加文·施密特(Gavin Schmidt)表示，儘管去年上半年是有記錄以來最熱的半年，但“2016真的把它打得落花流水”。他說，計算顯示，今年全年有99%的可能比2015年更熱。
Schmidt said the world was now “dancing” with the temperature targets set last year in the Paris climate treaty for nations to limit climate change.
施密特表示，全世界正在與去年巴黎氣候條約爲控制氣候變化而給各國制定的溫度目標“共舞”。
He attributed part of the rise in temperatures this year to El Niño, in which warming waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean pump a lot of heat into the atmosphere. El Niño is now ending and water temperatures in the Pacific are dropping, which should lead in 2017 to lower but still historically high temperatures.
他將今年的升溫部分歸咎於厄爾尼諾現象。發生厄爾尼諾現象時，赤道太平洋地區的海水不斷升溫，將大量熱量輸送至大氣層。這種現象現在正在結束，太平洋的水溫正在下降。在此作用下，2017年的氣溫應該會有所下降，但從歷史角度來看依然屬於高溫。
Average temperatures for the first six months of this year were about 1.3 degrees Celsius, or 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit, above the average in 1880, when global record-keeping began, and “quite close” to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, Schmidt said in a conference call with other NASA scientists.
施密特在與NASA其他科學家召開的電話會議上說，今年上半年的平均氣溫，比開始記錄全球氣溫情況的1880年的平均氣溫高出了1.3攝氏度，即2.3華氏度，“相當接近”比工業化前的水平高1.5攝氏度的情況。
The warming in the first half of this year extended across all parts of the planet except for most of Antarctica, Schmidt said. Warming was especially strong in the Arctic, where it had an impact on sea ice coverage.
施密特說，今年上半年的升溫延伸到了世界各個角落，只有南極洲的大部分地區除外。北極的升溫特別明顯，影響了海冰的覆蓋範圍。
Walt Meier, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the geographical extent of the Arctic ice so far this year was the lowest for any half-year since satellite record-keeping began in 1979, largely because warm temperatures caused melting to begin as much as two months earlier than usual.
NASA戈達德太空飛行中心(Goddard Space Flight Center)科學家沃爾特·邁耶(Walt Meier)表示，自1979年開始用衛星記錄相關數據以來，今年截至目前是北極冰層覆蓋範圍最小的半年，主要是因爲天氣溫暖導致冰層比平常提前兩個月開始融化。
Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius has special significance because at the Paris climate treaty in December the world agreed to aim to limit the increase in average global temperatures to that amount above preindustrial levels.
升溫1.5攝氏度有着特別的意義，因爲在去年12月的巴黎氣候條約中，世界各國同意把全球平均氣溫的升高控制在比工業化前的水平高1.5攝氏度以內，並以此爲目標。
Schmidt said that although El Niño contributed to some of the increase in temperatures from last year, almost all of the increase since the 1960s was because of human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
施密特稱，儘管厄爾尼諾現象是造成氣溫從去年開始上升的原因之一，但自上世紀60年代以來的幾乎所有升溫都是人類排放的二氧化碳和其他溫室氣體造成的。
