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Eventually the sea will reach two hundred feet above its present level, and will be splashing against the windows along the twentieth floors of Manhattan's skyscrapers. Florida will disappear beneath the waves, as will much of the British Isles, the crowded Nile valley, and the low-lying areas of China, India, and Russia.
最后，海水將會高出目前海平面兩百英尺，一陣陣海浪將會拍打曼哈頓摩天大樓二十層樓的窗戶。佛羅里達將會沉沒在海浪之下，英倫三島的大部分，人口稠密的尼羅河流域，還有中國、印度和俄羅斯的低洼地區(qū)也都將遭到同樣的命運。
Not only will many cities be drowned, but much of the most productive farming areas of the world will be lost. As the food supply drops, starvation will be widespread and the structure of society may collapse under the pressure.
不僅許多城市將被淹沒，而且世界上大部分盛產糧食的地區(qū)也將會失去。由于食品供應下降，到處都會出現饑荒，在這種壓力下，社會結構有可能崩潰。
And all because of carbon dioxide. But how does that come about? What is the connection?
而這一切都是因為二氧化碳。可怎么會出現這種情況呢?兩者之間又有什么聯系呢？
It begins with sunlight, to which the various gases of the atmosphere （including carbon dioxide） are transparent. Sunlight, striking the top of the atmosphere, travels right through miles of it to warm the Earth's surface. At night, the Earth cools by radiating heat into space in the form of infrared radiation.
首先是太陽光，大氣層中的各種氣體(包括二氧化碳)對于太陽光來說是透明的。太陽光照射大氣層的頂部，徑直透過數英里的大氣層，溫暖著地球的表面。在夜間，地球將熱量以紅外線的形式放射到外層空間而冷卻下來。
However, the atmosphere is not quite as transparent to infrared radiation as it is to visible light. Carbon dioxide in particular tends to block such radiation. Less heat is lost at night, for that reason, than would be lost if carbon dioxide were not present in the atmosphere. Without the small quantity of that gas present, the Earth would be distinctly cooler, perhaps uncomfortably cool.
然而，大氣層對紅外線來說并不像它對可見光那樣透明。二氧化碳特別會阻擋這樣的熱量輻射。因此，在夜間失去的熱量要比在大氣中沒有二氧化碳的情況下失去的要少。要是沒有少量的二氧化碳存在，地球就會明顯冷得多，說不定就冷得不舒服了。
