阿拉斯加暴风雨竟与海冰减少有关(中)

Clinton Slats was in Chevak’s community hall days after the storm to report his losses to two employees who the village’s tribal council had hired to take reports on the damage.

风暴发生几天后，克林顿·斯拉茨来到切瓦克的社区大厅，向村里部落委员会雇用的两名员工报告损失情况。

He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to retrieve his boat from the bottom of the Ninglikfak River.

他不确定是否能从宁利克法克河底打捞起他的船。

It’s hard to put into words how much it impacts us.

很难用语言来描述它对我们的影响有多大。

I have no way to go hunt and gather with the remainder of the season now by boat.

现在我已经没有办法在余下的季节里坐船去打猎和采集食物了。

The storm didn’t just destroy boats and motors.

这场暴风雨不仅摧毁了船只和车辆。

Nearly a dozen fishing sheds that held all sorts of gear from rifles to nets, gas cans and rain gear were destroyed.

近12个渔棚被毁，这些渔棚里放置着步枪、渔网、煤气罐、雨具等各种装备。

Some had completely disappeared from the riverbank.

有些装备已经完全从河岸上消失了。

Elsewhere across Alaska, summer fish camps and hunting cabins were destroyed.

在阿拉斯加的其他地方，夏季钓鱼营地和狩猎小屋也遭到了破坏。

And because the storm arrived in Alaska before the ground was frozen, coastal erosion was extreme.

因为这场暴风雨是在地面结冰之前抵达了阿拉斯加，所以海岸侵蚀非常严重。

And so, of course, it’s much easier to erode material that doesn’t even have any ice in there to help stabilize it even a little, as compared to the same storm, say, now, where things have started to freeze up.

现在一切事物都开始结冰了，要是对比同样的暴风雨的话，那时的海岸被侵蚀更容易，因为海边没有任何冰来帮助稳固泥沙，哪怕是一点点冰。

That’s Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

这是里克·托曼，他是一名气候专家，就职于费尔班克斯市阿拉斯加大学的阿拉斯加气候评估和政策中心。

But the warming oceans contribute to that longer period of time before freeze up gets going. And that again is something that is sure to continue into the future.

但海洋变暖导致结冰时间变得更短。而且这种情况肯定会持续到未来。

He says conditions this year in the south Pacific were ripe for the development of a storm like Merbok.

他表示，今年南太平洋的环境对于发展“苗柏”这样的风暴非常适宜。

Historically, the waters in that part of the subtropical Pacific are just not warm enough to support typhoon development.

从历史上看，亚热带太平洋这部分水域的温度不足以支撑台风的发展。

But this year much of the subtropical Pacific east of Japan is far warmer than normal.

但今年，日本以东的亚热带太平洋的大部分水域比往年温暖得多。

Some areas are the warmest on record.

一些水域是有记录以来温度最高的。

This storm was rare. Alaska hasn’t seen anything like it in 50 years. Dozens of rural communities saw infrastructure damage in addition to flooding.

这场暴风雨很罕见。阿拉斯加50年来从未见过这样的景象。加之洪水的侵袭，数十个农村社区的基础设施也遭到了破坏。

Many scientists, including Thoman, believe the storm, which originated as a typhoon in the northwestern Pacific, is a harbinger of what climate change could bring to the northernmost U.S. state in coming years.

包括托曼在内的许多科学家认为，这场风暴--起初只是西北太平洋的台风--预示着未来几年气候变化会给美国最北部的州带来什么。