The vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than prev

游客2023-10-11  25

问题     The vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than previously thought, and that melting is accelerating, according to a new report that verifies 18 years of melting via two independent techniques. Left unchecked, the extra water dumped into the oceans could push average global sea level six inches higher by 2050, the report finds. That would mark the ice sheets as the largest contributors to sea level rise, outstripping(超过)melting from Earth’s two other huge, frozen reservoirs, mountain glaciers and polar ice caps.
    The new estimate of ice sheet melting—and the subsequent rise in sea level—outstrips more modest figures offered by the International Panel on Climate Change in 2007, the last time that international body published a comprehensive assessment of the ice sheets. "It’s going to be a concern for people in coastal areas," said Isabella Velicogna of the California Institute of Technology and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a co-author of the report online at Geophysical Research Letters. While six inches of additional sea height may sound small, the increase will distribute unevenly across the globe, Velicogna said, and disproportionately(不匀称地)impact low-lying countries like Bangladesh.
    The study used two techniques to measure the melting of the ice sheets. The most thorough data set, from 1992 through the present, employed satellite radar readings of ice movement, soundings of ice thickness, and other grown-based observations to build a complete picture of the size of the ice sheets from month to month. The second technique drew on unique twin satellites, together called Grace, which measure minute differences in gravity over the entire Earth. The Grace satellites, an acronym for Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, were launched by NASA and the German Aerospace Center in 2002. [br] According to Velicogna, what will happen if the sea level rise six inches?

选项 A、It will distribute unevenly across the globe and impact low-lying countries.
B、It will influence people in mountain areas and accelerate global warming.
C、It will improve the world’s climate and slow down the pace of global warming.
D、It is harder to measure the melting rate of the ice sheets in the polar regions.

答案 A

解析 由题干中的Velicogna, six inches定位到第二段最后一句。该句指出,尽管海平面升高的六英寸可能听起来很小,但是这种增长将会不均匀地分布于全球,并且不均匀地影响如孟加拉那样的低海拔国家,由此可知A)正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3089037.html
最新回复(0)