But the climate has changed.
但是气候变了。
Temperatures have reached record highs in the Arctic
北极的气温已经达到历史新高,
and Greenland's ice sheet is melting at an unprecedented rate,
格陵兰岛的冰盖正在以前所未有的速度融化,
which could turn Camp Century's abandoned waste into a major environmental risk.
这可能会使世纪营的废弃垃圾成为重大的环境风险。
So, a team of scientists, including William, went back to the site.
于是,包括威廉在内的一组科学家又返回了基地。
"In 2017, the government of Denmark, at the request of the government of Greenland, started the Camp Century climate monitoring program.
“2017年,丹麦政府应格陵兰政府要求,启动了世纪营气候监测项目。
We set up a bunch of instruments that are erected on the ice sheet surface, and then we drill in and we put probes into the ice sheet.
我们先是在冰盖表面安装了一些设备,然后往下钻,把探测器放到冰盖内部。
It keeps a real-time data stream coming from the Camp Century site
这样我们就能持续收到来自世纪营的实时数据流了,
where we monitor a bunch of things, mainly the temperature of the snow, the temperature of the ice, the air temperature.
我们监测着基地的很多数据,主要是雪的温度,冰的温度,还有空气的温度。
That will help us model how the snow and ice at Camp Century is going to behave over the next century."
这些数据能帮助我们模拟下个世纪世纪营的冰雪状态。
They also mapped the debris left behind using ice penetrating radar.
他们还利用能穿透冰盖的雷达绘制出了废料场的地图。
"The radar is perhaps the most time-consuming because you have to manually tow it at a slow speed.
“雷达监测的环节可能是最耗时的,因为你必须手动以很慢的速度牵引它。
It sends out a pulse of energy that goes down into the ice, and then it reflects off different things and comes back to a receiver.
首先,雷达会发出一个能量脉冲进入冰盖,经过不同物质的反射后回到接收器。
It was 80 kilometers in total.
基地总长80公里。
That's a lot of radar."
所以需要很多雷达。”
They turned the radar profiles into a 3D map of the entire debris field.
他们用雷达数据绘制出了整个废料场的3D地图。
"At Camp Century, you get those horizontal lines of annual accumulation layers, but then you also get these big pockets of chaos.
“在世纪营,你会看到每年都在不断增加的成排的设备线,也会看到很多大型的非常凌乱的设备。
You can see the main tunnels.
可以看到那些主隧道,
You can see pieces of debris down to about the size of a vehicle, maybe even a fuel drum.
也能看到小到汽车大小,甚至是燃料桶大小的一个个零件。
Our preliminary estimate is that we think the debris field is about 55 acres in size, which is about 100 football fields,
我们的初步估计是,废料场的面积约为55英亩,也就是差不多100个足球场那么大,
and we think it contains just over 9,000 metric tons of debris.
而且,我们估计的重量是9000吨多一点儿。
We're very interested in how deep everything is and where it is
我们非常感兴趣的是所有废料的具体位置和具体深度,
so that when we go to do our simulations of how much melt water that might be at the site over the next century
这样,我们就能对下个世纪在这个地方可能有多少融冰
and how deep it is going to percolate into the ice sheet.
以及融冰会渗透到冰盖下多深的位置进行模拟了。
There is concern that if melt water starts interacting with the debris field, it could mobilize some contaminants."
针对如果融冰开始与废料场发生相互作用,就可能调动废料场的某些污染物这一点,我们也是有一些担忧的。
Those contaminants include diesel fuel, nuclear waste like radioactive coolant water,
这类污染物包括柴油、放射性冷却剂水之类的核废料,
and other toxic chemicals from the camp's buildings and general infrastructure.
以及基地的建筑以及基地常规的基础设施中含有的其他有毒化学物质。
And all of that is on track to seep into the environment.
所有这些物质都会渗入环境。
"In the 1960s, the building codes were a little different.
“60年代的建筑规范和现在的稍有不同。
So we know, for example, that the materials they were using at Camp Century were rich in PCBs and other types of persistent contaminants.
比如,他们在世纪营使用的材料中含有大量的多氯联苯和其他类型的比较顽固的污染物。
And they still come out of the ground kicking. I mean, They don't deteriorate at all.
现在要是暴露出来还是能爆发出强大的污染力,它们的污染力是完全不会退化的。
We're at a fork in the road for Camp Century.
所以,我们现在已经走到世纪营命运的岔路口了。
Under the "business as usual" climate, it looks likely that we will start to see more melt than snowfall at Camp Century by the end of the century.
在气候条件“一切如常”的情况下,相比降雪,到本世纪末之前,世纪营开始发生冰盖融化的几率要更大 。
But if we stick with something like Paris Agreement, we can keep more snowfall than melt beyond the end of the century."
但如果我们牢抓《巴黎协定》这样的协议,我们还是能将控制融冰的速度在降雪速度之内的时间延长到本世纪之后。”
But this does raise questions about who is ultimately responsible for the clean up.
但这也确实提出了一个问题,那就是,说到底,谁应该负责这里的清理工作。
And that leads us into a geopolitical gray area.
而这又将我们带到了地缘政治的一个灰色地带。
Camp Century was a U.S. base on Greenland soil, which was governed by Denmark.
因为世纪营是美国在格陵兰岛修建的一个基地,而格陵兰岛是属丹麦管辖的。
And currently, no party has taken responsibility for the abandoned base.
目前,还没有任何一方站出来对被遗弃的基地负责。
And International environmental law really hasn't figured something like this out yet.
而且国际环境法也还没有想出解决这类问题的办法。
"It's really a microcosm of the multi-generational, even multinational implications in climate change facing us now,
“这实际上也是我们现在面临的多代人、甚至多国影响气候问题的一个缩影,
and we have to be very aware of future projections, and take action today to go on the high mitigation and low emissions route."
我们必须非常清楚未来的预测,并在今天就采取行动,走上高减排和低排放的道路。”