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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  36
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. "
In Paragraph 4, what does Winkelmann say about the ice in Antarctica?
选项 A、The melting of ice in Antarctica would begin to accelerate in the near future.
B、We needn’t worry that the entire ice sheet in Antarctica would vanish.
C、Almost all the ice in Antarctica will melt soon.
D、The ice in Antarctica is melting at a surprising speed.
答案A
解析 本题是细节题。根据题干定位至第四段。该段指出，南极洲从现在到以后数千年的冰层融化将会被人类在不久的将来所采取的行动开启，即“在不久的将来人类的活动将会使南极洲冰层的融化速度开始加快”，故答案选A。第四段末句温克尔曼提到“整个冰盖消失将需要很长时间，但仍不容忽视”，故排除B项“我们不必担心南极洲的全部冰盖会消失”和C项“南极洲几乎所有的冰层都将很快融化”；D项“南极洲的冰层正以惊人的速度融化”在文中并未提及，故排除。
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