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  3. Expending Earth’s remaining fossil fuels resources would eliminate the ice shelf in Antarctica and lead to dramatic global sea l

Expending Earth’s remaining fossil fuels resources would eliminate the ice shelf in Antarctica and lead to dramatic global sea l

admin2022-04-20  34
问题     Expending Earth’s remaining fossil fuels resources would eliminate the ice shelf in Antarctica and lead to dramatic global sea level rises, according to a new research. Sea levels around the world have been on the rise for years, but ice from Antarctica has contributed a relatively small fraction of water to that total. The study, published in the journal Science Advances, shows how that will change if humans continue to burn fossil fuels.
    Recent research suggests that fossil fuels—oil, coal and natural gas—sufficient to create more than 10,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide still remain on the planet. Each year human activity results in around 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions, a number which has risen swiftly in recent decades. And, while the numbers suggest the Earth has sufficient fossil fuels to supply humankind with energy for centuries, climate scientists say the climate change that would result from burning those fuels could remake the planet.
    The most dramatic results documented in the new study would occur over thousands of years. Only a small fraction of the Antarctic ice shelf would remain in 10,000 years if humans consumed remaining fossil fuels in the coming centuries. Were the Antarctic ice shelf to melt totally, global sea levels could rise more than 50 meters(164 feet).
    The study shows burning fossil fuels now creates effects that extend into the distant future because ice melt does grow linearly with carbon emissions. Study author Ricarda Winkelmann, a professor of climate systems analysis at the Potsdam Institute For Climate Impact Research, emphasized that ice melt in Antarctica thousands of years from now would be triggered by actions humans take in the much more immediate future. "It would take a long time for the entire ice sheet to vanish," she said. "But that doesn’t mean we can ignore it. "
    For this study, researchers evaluated the effects of climate change on Antarctica over the very long term. Other earlier research shows how climate change may alter the ice-covered continent in the coming decades. Melting from the continent’s ice has led to approximately a quarter of a millimeter of sea level rise each year between 1999 and 2019, according to a 2019 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That number is dwarfed by ice loss from glaciers and ice loss from Greenland. But that may not be the case for long.
    "Currently Antarctica is one of the minor contributors to sea level rise, and that’s simply because it responds more slowly," said Winkelmann. "If you look at the longer time scales, at some point it will become the key level rise when it comes to sea level rise. "
According to the last paragraph, from the long run,________.
选项 A、sea level rise could be effectively controlled
B、Antarctica ice melt would become a primary cause of sea level rise
C、Antarctica would rise to a higher level above the sea
D、Antarctica would contribute more resources to human development
答案B
解析 本题是细节题。根据题干定位至末段。该段提到“目前，南极洲还只是导致海平面上升的一个次要因素，但如果你从更长远的角度来看，在将来的某一时刻，当它将成为海平面上升的关键因素”。可知，从长远来看，南极洲的冰层融化将会成为导致海平面上升的一个主要原因，故答案选B。A项“海平面上升能得到有效控制”；C项“南极洲将升到海平面以上更高的地方”和D项“南极洲将为人类发展提供更多的资源”在文中均未提及，故排除。
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