2021-07-20全球高温

第三周，视频：https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1QB4y1N7AJ

The Guardian view on the heat dome（热穹）: burning through the models

Politicians must respond to the latest warnings that climate science has underestimated（低估） risks

Last week’s shockingly high temperatures in the north western US and Canada were – and are – very frightening. Heat and the fires it caused killed hundreds of people, and are estimated to have killed abillion sea creatures. Daily temperature records were smashed（打破） by more than 5C(9F) in some places. In Lytton, British Columbia, the heat reached 49.6C(121F). The wildfires that consumed（彻底烧毁） the town produced their own thunderstorms,alongside thousands of lightning strikes（雷击）.

smash：常常和 record 一起使用 表示打破记录

An initial study shows human activity made this heat dome – in which a ridge of high pressure（高压脊） acts as a lid（盖子） preventing warm air from escaping – at least 150 times more likely. The World Weather Attribution Group of scientists, who use computer climate models（气候模型） to assess global heating trend sand extreme weather, have warned that last week exceeded even their worst-case scenarios（最坏情况）. While it has long been recognised that the climate system has thresholds（门槛） or tipping points（爆发点） beyond which humans stand to lose control of what happens, scientists did not hide their alarm（惊恐） that a usually cool part of the Pacific northwest had been turned into a furnace（熔炉）. One climatologist said the prospect opened up by the heat dome “blows my mind（令某人兴奋）”.

open sth up:使.....成为可能

The disturbing（令人不安的） signs of climate disruption（混乱） are not limited to north America. Pakistan and Siberia have also had record-breaking（打破纪录） high temperatures within the last few weeks, as have Moscow, Helsinki and Estonia. In Madagascar, the worst drought（干旱） in 40 years has left a million people facing food shortages. The climate author David Wallace-Wells suggested that current conditions should be regarded as heralding（预示……的来临） a “permanent emergency”.With policymakers struggling to absorb the very serious implications（可能的影响） for human societies of current models, it is frankly difficult to take in the suggestion that these models may underestimate the threat. The prospect of the jet stream becoming locked, and weather systems such as tropical storms ceasing to move in the way to which we are accustomed, carries nightmarish（噩梦般的） possibilities. More hot weather is on its way to California, with the bulk of the wildfire season ahead.

cease to do.停止做某事

the bulk of sth. 大部分

If there is anything positive to be taken from this new information, and reports of the suffering and destruction caused by the heat, it can only be that it intensifies（加剧；强化） the pressure on policymakers to act.On Wednesday, the Switzerland-based Financial Stability Board（金融稳定理事会） issued a warning in advance of a G20 meeting in Venice this weekend. It urged finance minister（财政部长） sand central banks to take more notice of “far-reaching” climate impacts. Just how far-reaching these impacts will be depends on decisions taken by governments in the next months and years. So far, binding commitments（承诺） to make the cuts in carbon emissions that are needed to avoid temperature rises above 2C are not able by their absence. With every worrying piece of climate news, the stakes（风险） ahead of November’s Cop26 conference keep growing.

stake 常与high stake 连用 高风险的

Environmentalists used to shake their heads when highly unusual weather was reported in terms（措辞、说法） that ignored climate change’s contribution. Now, thanks to attribution（归因） science, the link is firmly made. To avoid future heat domes, countries including the US and Canada must stop pumping（输送） so much energy into the climate system.