今年或成"有記錄以來最熱的一年"
The year 2014 is on track to be the hottest on record, the UN’s weather agency has reported, and leading scientists say humans are likely to be responsible.
聯合國旗下的世界氣象組織(World Meteorological Organisation, WMO)報告稱，2014年將成爲有記錄以來最熱的一年，而領先科學家們表示，人類活動可能應對此負責。
After a year of heatwaves from Australia to Argentina, provisional data from the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation show that if temperatures stay high for the rest of the year, 2014 will probably be the warmest year on record. This would mean 14 of the 15 warmest years will have been since the turn of the century.
WMO發佈的初步數據顯示，從澳大利亞到阿根廷，很多國家在過去一年遭受了熱浪襲擊，如果氣溫在今年剩餘時間繼續保持高位，2014年將很可能成爲有記錄以來最熱的一年。這將意味着，在有記錄以來的15個最熱年份中，有14個是在21世紀。The data came as British government scientists said that humans were likely to be responsible for the exceptional temperatures.
WMO發佈該數據之際，英國政府科學家表示，人類可能要對異常氣溫負責。
“We would not be breaking these records without human influence on the climate,” said Peter Stott, the UK Met Office’s head of climate attribution, an emerging field of research enabling the rapid detection of a link between weather extremes and climate change.
英國氣象局(Met Office)氣候歸因主任彼得•斯托特(Peter Stott)表示：“如果沒有人類對氣候的影響，我們將不會打破這些紀錄。”氣候歸因是一個快速發現極端天氣和氣候變化之間聯繫的新興研究領域。“We can say this because we have now got the ability to attribute climate change to specific weather extremes,” he added.
他補充稱：“我們之所以可以這麼說，是因爲我們現在有能力將氣候變化歸因於特定的極端天氣。”To determine such a link, scientists use climate models to see how likely an abnormal event would be in a world without the human greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming.
爲了確定此類聯繫，科學家們使用氣候模型來研究，如果沒有人類溫室氣體排放推動全球變暖，異常天氣發生的可能性有多大。Mr Stott said it was “remarkable” to see a record year of heat occur in the absence of an El Niño, a warming water pattern in the eastern Pacific Ocean that has boosted temperatures in the recent past. But he also added it was still too early to know whether 2014 signalled an end to the so-called pause in the rate of global warming that has occurred over the past decade.
斯托特表示，在沒有“厄爾尼諾”(El Niño)的一年，氣溫創出最高紀錄是“很不尋常的”。“厄爾尼諾”是太平洋東部海域的一種海水週期性升溫規律，它曾在前些年推升氣溫。但斯托特也補充稱，目前還不清楚2014年是否標誌着過去十年所謂的全球變暖速度暫停的結束。The UK is on course for what could be its warmest year in a record stretching back to 1659, the Met Office said, as well as its fourth wettest year since 1910. And human influences had made breaking the current UK temperature record about 10 times more likely, Mr Stott said.
英國氣象局表示，英國正迎來可能是1659年有記錄以來最溫暖的一年，以及自1910年以來第四潮溼的一年。斯托特表示，人類影響讓打破當前英國氣溫紀錄的可能性增加10倍左右。The WMO said the record-breaking heat and torrential rainfall seen around the world in 2014 were consistent with a changing climate.
WMO表示，2014年世界各地打破紀錄的高溫和暴雨與日益變化的氣候相符。“There is no standstill in global warming,” said Michel Jarraud, WMO secretary-general. “What is particularly unusual and alarming this year are the high temperatures of vast areas of the ocean surface, including in the northern hemisphere.”
WMO總幹事米歇爾•雅羅(Michel Jarraud)表示：“全球變暖沒有停步。今年尤其異常和令人不安的是，包括北半球在內的大片海洋表面的高溫。”
