海洋吸热延缓全球变暖

    凭借可靠的变化指南，科学家们能够理解过去60年发生的变化。他们发现，过去60年，海底温度上升的速度比过去1万年海底自然升温的速度快了14倍。

    这项研究目前还不完整，它主要的价值可能在于帮助完善气候科学家使用的模型。但研究显示，本该被大气吸收的热量现在被深海吸收了。

    没有理由自满

    不过，这并不意味着气候科学家们不用担心全球变暖了。罗森塔尔说：“我们过去可能低估了海洋储存热量和能源的效率。海洋能为我们争取一些时间（具体有多少时间我并不清楚），为我们最终处理好气候变化提供一臂之力。但它无力阻止气候变化。”

    罗森塔尔的同事——拉蒙特•多赫帝地球观测实验室的布拉多克•林斯利说：“我们的研究显示，大约1万年前，太平洋的中层水温一直在稳步下降。然而近来，这个水域的温度在上升。换言之，长期以来太平洋中层水温稳步下降的趋势已经被彻底逆转，深海温度正在上升。”—— 气候新闻播报 （Climate News Network）（财富中文网）

    译者：项航           

    So equipped with a reliable guide to change the scientists were able to make sense of the changes in the last 60 years. And they found that ocean temperatures, at such depths, had warmed 15 times faster in the last 60 years that they did during the natural warming cycles of the last 10,000.

    The research is incomplete, and its chief value may be in helping to improve the models used by climate scientists. But the implication is that the heat that should be registered in the atmosphere is now being absorbed by the deep oceans.

    No cause for complacency

    This does not mean that climate scientists can stop worrying about global warming. “We may have underestimated the efficiency of the oceans as a storehouse for heat and energy,” Rosenthal said. “It may buy us some time – how much time I don’t really know – to come to terms with climate change. But it’s not going to stop climate change.”

    His colleague Braddock Linsley of Lamont-Doherty said: “Our work showed that the intermediate waters in the Pacific had been cooling steadily from about 10,000 years ago. This places the recent warming of the Pacific intermediate waters in temporal context. The trend has now reversed in a big way and the deep ocean is warming.” – Climate News Network