新气象数据表明：2005年是历史上有记录的最热的一年

Winter hides a chilling fact that scientists have known for years. The world is getting warmer. After three years of steady warming, the global mean temperature rose 1.36 degree Fahrenheit in 2005 to equal the record set in 1998 as the hottest year on record. The increase may seem slight, but scientists say the impact is not. One of them, Karen Masters, says forests are drying up, threatening the extinction of some animal and plant species. “I don’t see how extinction can be avoided,” she said.

And humans are not immune. A study in the journal Nature confirms previous estimates that 150,000 more people die each year, and five million more become ill because global warming is promoting the spread of insect and water-borne diseases, especially in poor countries. It’s also causing problems in areas where few people live. In the Arctic, melting sea ice has forced polar bears to wander further, some of them to drown in the open seas.

Dr. Lara Hansen, with the World Wildlife Fund, calls it a disaster for polar bears who depend on the sea ice so they can hunt and breed. “We know there is a weight minimum that a polar bear female has to be in order to reproduce, and polar bears are getting precariously close to that limit.” The situation has prompted at least three environmental groups to sue the U.S. government to list polar bears as an endangered species that are threatened by global warming.

Kassie Siegel, an environmental lawyer, says, “force the Bush administration to confront global warming in a court case for the first time.” A growing number of experts blame the world’s rising temperature on the use of fossil fuels and other activities that spew carbon dioxide and so called “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere. The United States, the world’s largest energy consumer, remains the holdout among developed countries. The others have signed the Kyoto protocol, an international agreement which sets limits on the emission of greenhouse gases.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin chastised the Bush administration at a UN conference on climate change. “To the reticent nations, including the United States, I’d say this:  there is such a thing as a global conscience and now is the time to listen to it.” But U.S. ambassador David Wilkins defends U.S. policy, and says his country is reducing greenhouse gases and promoting cleaner energy sources. “When comes to climate change, we are making significant progress, more progress than many of those who have been most critical of us.” While the debate continues, some scientists predict worldwide temperatures will rise another degree by the year 2030 and two to four degrees more by the end of this century.

冬天隐藏了一个科学家已经知道多年的严酷的事实。世界正变得变暖。在三年的持续变暖后，2005年的平均温度比记录上最热的1998年的温度上升了1.36华氏摄氏度。增长可能看起来很小，但是，科学家说，影响可不小。他们中的一位，克伦·马斯特说，森林正在干枯，导致一些动物和植物有灭绝的危险。“我找不到避免它们灭绝的方法”她说。

同时，人类也会被殃及。一项自然杂志的研究进一步证实了先前的判断，由于全球变暖促进了害虫和水生疾病的传播，尤其是在贫穷的国家传播，这会导致每年150,000多人死亡，5百多万人生病，。它也给那些人烟稀少的地方造成了些问题。在北极，融化的冰帽使得北极熊被迫向更远的地方迁徙，它们有些在海中溺水而亡。

劳拉·汉森博士和世界野生动植物基金，都把它称作北极熊的灾难，因为它们依赖着这些冰山捕食和繁殖。“我们知道，雌性北极熊为了繁殖，体重不能轻于最轻的重量，而它们正在慢慢的接近这个极限。”这种情况促使至少三个环境组织向美国政府提议把北极熊列为因为全球变暖而濒临灭绝的物种。

凯西·西格尔，一个环境法律家，说她正在上诉，“迫使布什政府在法庭上首次直面全球变暖问题”。越来越多的专家抱怨全球温度上升是因为化石燃料的使用，和其他的二氧化碳和所谓的“温室气体”的排放。美国，世界上最大的能源消费者，在其他发达国家都签署了限制温室气体排放的《京都协议书》的同时，仍然顽固地保持自己的立场。

加拿大总理保罗·马丁在一个关于气候改变的联合国会议上指责布什政府。“对那些沉默的民族，包括美国，我想说，现在是服从全球公德的时候了。”但是美国大使大卫·维尔金斯为美国的政策辩护，说他的国家正在减少温室气体的排放，发展清洁能源。“当说到气候改变，我们正在做出重大的进步，比那些批评我们的大部分国家有更大的进步。”虽然辩论仍在继续，一些科学家预言世界的温度到2030年将再升高一度。到这个世纪末，将升高2到4度。