Coldest Continent Warming, Too

Of the seven continents, only one has not shown a consistentwarming in recent decades: Antarctica. But that's been largely thanks to a lack of long-term, reliable temperature records.

Now scientists have combined weather station records with satellite measurements to find that the frozen continent is indeed warming, according to research published in the scientific journal Nature.

Study author Eric Steig is a geochemist at the University of Washington: "What we found, in a nutshell, is that Antarctica is not cooling. ... On average, the entire continent is warming and especially, it is warming in winter and spring."

In fact, Steig and his colleagues found that western Antarctica has warmed by as much as one degree Celsius since 1957. And even the extra cooling of eastern Antarctica by the ozone hole has not stopped the overall trend.

To be sure, the ice-sheathed continent is bathed in cold by fierce circumpolar winds and other climate factors and the lands east of the Transantarctic Mountains are getting even colder.

But this new research and other recent studies reveal that this cooling is outpaced by the heating of the western Antarctic.

As a whole, the continent at the bottom of the Earth has warmed by roughly half a degree Celsius in the last 50 years-cold comfort for climatologists.

最冷的大陆也在变暖

在最近的几十年里，七大洲中仅仅只有一个大洲还没有变现出一致的气候变暖现象：南极洲。但是这很大程度上是由于缺乏长期可靠的温度记录。



目前科学家们综合气象站的记录以及卫星测量的数据，发现南极这个冰冻的大陆实际上也在变暖。这项研究结果发表在科学杂志《自然》(Nature)上。



该项研究的作者Eric Steig是来自华盛顿大学（University of Washington）的一名地球化学家，他说："简言之，我们发现南极没有变冷......平均来看，整个大陆正在变暖，尤其是在冬季和春季。"

实际上，Steig和他的同事发现从1957年以来，南极西部的温度升高达1摄氏度之多。南极东部由于臭氧洞的关系使得其温度下降，即使这样，整个大陆的气温还是呈上升之势。



当然，冰雪覆盖的南极大陆由于极地周围凌冽的寒风以及其它一些气候因素使得它被严寒包裹，而且南极横贯山脉（Transantarctic Mountains）以东的陆地甚至变得越来越冷。



但是这项新的研究以及其它最近的研究表明，南极西部的变暖超过了南极东部的变冷。



总的来说，我们地球底端的大陆在过去50年里暖了差不多0.5摄氏度---对气候学家来说，这是个不起任何作用的安慰。

Vocabulary:

Consistent：一致的；始终如一的

Antarctica：南极洲

Thanks to：归因于

Geochemist ：地球化学家

In a nutshell：简言之

Ozone hole：臭氧洞

Circumpolar：极地周围的

Outpace：超过

Climatologist：气候学家

Cold comfort: 简直不起作用的安慰
关键字:双语新闻
生词表: