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The Chukchi Sea lies between Alaska and Russia just north of the Bering Strait. Shell Oil hopes to begin drilling in these Arctic waters in the next few days—if the U.S. government grants permission.
楚科奇海位于阿拉斯加和俄國之間的白令海峽北部。如果美國政府授權許可，未來幾天殼牌石油將會在這片北極海域上鉆探石油。
The ship Noble Discoverer will drill two exploratory wells to determine what, if any, hydrocarbons are beneath the seabed—and how well drilling equipment can withstand the rigors of the far north. Those rigors include everything from swirling currents and floating ice chunks to migrating whales.
“高貴發現者號”將鉆井勘測海底蘊藏著什么碳氫化合物，以及鉆井設施可否承受遙遠北地的艱苦環境。那些艱苦環境包括旋轉的水流和漂浮的冰塊，還有遷徙的鯨魚。
There's coral there—scientists sent to the region by Greenpeace have found sea raspberry, a soft, deep sea species. Other such deep sea corals bore the brunt of BP's catastrophic blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
這里還有珊瑚——由綠色和平組織派往此地的科學家們已經發現了海樹莓，一種柔軟的深海物種。其它深海珊瑚首當其沖，遭受英國石油公司2010年在墨西哥油田井噴的沖擊。
It remains to be seen whether offshore drilling in the Arctic can be any safer than drilling in balmier waters. Already, Russia spills some 30 million barrels of oil in the Arctic each year, according to Greenpeace, and that's on land.
北極海上鉆探是否比在溫水水域鉆探安全系數更高，這個問題尚待分曉。據綠色和平組織報道，俄國每年向北極大陸泄漏大約3000萬桶石油。
Regardless, burning oil is one of the primary causes of climate change. Such global warming has thawed the Arctic above all, opening access to yet more oil. Humanity's thirst for oil has yet to gauge its own depths.
然而，石油燃燒是氣候變化的始發原因。氣候變暖會將北極融化殆盡，因此會向人類開放更多石油。人類對石油的饑渴也加速了人類的滅亡。
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