从气候研究必威官网是真的吗人员到气候观众：见证北极融化

Svalbard is sublimely quiet. Unlike my hometown of Boston, in this Arctic region 600 miles from the North Pole, there are no cars honking, no emergency vehicles blasting their sirens, no chatter of people on cell phones. But there is a different, more subtle kind of musical score – a lone auk calling above, a stream flowing down the valley from melting ice in the tundra above. I listened for a few minutes, then dug my fingers deep into the permafrost. I realized that despite reading hundreds of papers on melting permafrost and its associated climate risks over the past 20 years, I had never actually put my hands in the stuff. The top layer full of moss and lichen felt moist but still bouncy, like a soggy carpet. I dug a bit deeper and felt the hard, frozen soil.

While I happily discovered that the permafrost was still frozen a few inches underground, I knew this wasn’t the case in other locations. And this particular patch of tundra may feel very different in just afew years’ time.

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. Melting permafrost releases甲烷，温室气28times more potent than carbon dioxide.研究人员recently found that melting permafrost and changes in surface reflectivity in the Arctic will cause $67 trillion of economiclosses, even if countries follow through on their current emissions-reduction pledges.

这些事实我知道是气候研究人员。必威官网是真的吗然而，他们在林金/国家地理探险队前往北极之后对我来说更加真实。

Spotting Polar Bears

作为Lindblad Expeditions的一部分，我赢得了Svalbard之旅#WintheArctic video competition(seemy entry here）。这次旅行本身就是奖品，但是这次旅行的奖项是看到​​北极熊，而不是在酒吧或玻璃后面，而是在其自然栖息地。我终于在冰熊的土地上，它已经发展了数千年，以至于他们居住的恶劣条件如此完美地设计。

On the third day of my eight-day expedition, I saw a cub and its mother move along the ice next to the shoreline. The cub played like a young child, throwing itself into the water over and over, making large splashes as it tried to catch nearby seabirds. The mother walked ahead, but would turn around every few minutes to see what her devious cub was up to. I was fortunate enough to see six bears on the trip, but this encounter will be forever etched in my mind.

Theconnection在温暖的世界和北极熊之间well documented. As sea ice, the bears’ primary habitat, diminishes, the species’ survival isat stake.

Gliding by Walls of Ice

斯瓦尔巴德是冰川的土地。我从未如此迅速地看到这么多的人。在最后一天，我将一艘十二宫船接近最大的船之一。它的飙升与我在纽约市长大的摩天大楼一样高。坐在距离延伸数英里的大冰墙旁边的小橡胶船上，令人沮丧。一块小块在我们面前静止，暴露了下面的灿烂蓝冰。

This wasn’t the only time where disappearing ice was apparent. Early into the trip, the captain warned us one night that we would be woken up in the wee hours of the morning to the sound of ice hitting the bottom of the ship. But we weren’t. We continued to sail through a fjord for about 10 hours more than the captain thought we’d be able to, due to the lack of sea ice.

那个冰可能还没有融化。它可能只是由于洋流而移动。但是我们知道，北极海冰范围在6月初创下了创纪录的纪录。对北极海冰的变化不会仅影响我看到的壮观的小动物和植物，这些小动物和植物非常适合北极 - 从北极狐的变化羽毛，到海弗林的海雀到紫色的saxifrage花朵开花。这些变化将影响我们所有人。无冰的海洋将吸收更多的太阳辐射，为更多的变暖加油，并将狂野的冬季风暴推向mid-latitudes.

为子孙后代保护北极

My 6-year-old daughter was able to join me for this trip of a lifetime. It struck me that she may not even be 30 years old by the time there are ice-free summers in the Arctic. A contest to see the polar bears may not even be possible when she is my age. By then, their population will likely be cut by至少三分之一; some studies suggest eventwo-thirds.

Traveling to the Arctic was transformative—not only to see the spectacular wildlife and landscapes of mountains, ice and sea, but to see this rapidly changing world firsthand. I am resolved to fight even harder to protect these magical places.