2. 专升本
  3. The world’s oceans have warmed 50 percent faster over the last 40 years than previously thought due to climate change, Australia

The world’s oceans have warmed 50 percent faster over the last 40 years than previously thought due to climate change, Australia

admin2012-05-11  46
问题     The world’s oceans have warmed 50 percent faster over the last 40 years than previously thought due to climate change, Australian and US climate researchers reported Wednesday. Higher ocean temperatures expand the volume of water, contributing to a rise in sea levels that is covering small island nations and threatening to destroy the low-lying, densely-populated low regions around the globe.
    The study, published in the British journal Nature, adds to a growing scientific chorus of warnings about the pace and consequences rising oceans. It also serves as a corrective to a massive report issued last year by the Nobel-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to the authors.
    Rising sea levels are driven by two things: the thermal expansion of sea water, and additional water from melting sources of ice. Both processes are caused by global warming. The ice sheet that sits atop Greenland, for example, contains enough water to raise world ocean levels by seven meters, which would bury sea-level cities from Dhaka to Shanghai.
    Trying to figure out how much each of these factors contributes to rising sea levels is critically important to understanding climate change, and forecasting future temperature rises, scientists say. But up to now, there has been a puzzling gap between the projections of computer-based climate models, and the observations of scientists gathering data from the oceans.
    The new study, led by Catia Domingues of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, is the first to reunite the models with observed data. Using new techniques to assess ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 meters from 1961 to 2003, it shows that thermal warming contributed to a 0.53 millimeter-per-year rise in sea levels rather than the 0.32 mm rise reported by the IPCC.
Ultimately, the new study should help scientists to_____.
选项 A、lower water levels
B、change their opinions
C、better predict climate change
D、bury sea-level cities like Dhaka and Shanghai
答案C
解析 第三、四、五段。第三段说，造成海水水位升高有两个因素：海水的热水域加大和来自于冰融化产生的水。第四段说科学家认为，明白气候变化，准确预报未来气温升高对掌握这两个因素是很重要的。但到目前为止，来自计算机的气候模拟数据和来自科学家采集的海上数据不一致。第五段说，Catia Domingues进行了一个新的研究，将两个数据用新的技术整合起来：所以，这个新的研究为科学家提供了准确预报气候变化的方法。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/4dlC777K
本试题收录于： 英语题库成考专升本分类
0

英语

成考专升本

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)