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We can be thankful that carbon dioxide is keeping us comfortably warm, but the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is going up steadily and that is where the villainy comes in. In 1958, carbon dioxide made up only 0.0316 percent of the atmosphere. Each year since, the concentration has crept upward and it now stands at 0.0340 percent. It is estimated that by 2020 the concentration will be nearly twice what it is now.
我們該感到欣慰，二氧化碳給我們溫暖使我們舒舒服服，但是大氣中二氧化碳的濃度正在穩步升高，其惡跡也就由此而生。在1958年，二氧化碳只占大氣總量的0.0316%。此后，其濃度逐年悄悄攀升，而現在已達到0.0340%。據估算，到2020年時，二氧化碳的濃度將接近現在的兩倍。
This means that in the coming decades, Earth's average temperature will go up slightly. As a result, the polar ice caps will begin to melt.
這就意味著，在未來幾十年間，地球的平均溫度將要稍許升高。極地冰蓋因此將開始融化。
Something like 90 percent of the ice in the world is to be found in the huge Antarctica ice cap, and another 8 percent is in the Greenland ice cap. If these ice caps begin to melt, the sea level will rise, with the result that I have already described.
世界上大約90%的冰都聚積在巨大的南極冰蓋中，另有8%在格陵蘭冰蓋。如果這些冰蓋開始融化，海平面將要升高，其結果就是我上面描述的那個樣子。
But why is the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere steadily rising?
可是大氣中的二氧化碳濃度為什么正在不斷升高呢？
To blame are two factors. First of all, in the last few centuries, first coal, then oil and natural gas, have been burned for energy at a rapidly increasing rate. The carbon contained in these fuels, which has been safely buried underground for many millions of years, is now being burned to carbon dioxide and poured into the atmosphere at a rate of many tons per day.
難辭其咎的有兩個因素。首先，在近幾個世紀中，先是煤，其后是石油和天然氣，以快速增長的態勢被用做燃料獲取能量。這些燃料中所含的碳，在過去數百萬年的歲月里一直安全地埋在地下，而現在正被燒成二氧化碳，并以每天數噸的速率大量排放到大氣中。
