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Building models is also made hard by lack of knowledge about the ways that carbon—
由于缺乏關于碳在環境中移動方式的知識，建立模型也很困難—
the central atom in molecules of carbon dioxide and methane,
碳是二氧化碳和甲烷分子中的中心原子，
the main heat-capturing greenhouse gases other than water vapour—moves through the environment.
是除了水蒸氣外的主要吸熱溫室氣體。
Understanding Earth's carbon cycles is crucial to understanding climate change.
了解地球碳循環是理解氣候變化的關鍵。
But much of that element's movement is facilitated by living organisms,
但這些元素的大部分運動都是由活的生物體推動的
and these are even more difficult to understand than physical processes.
并且這些甚至比物理過程更難理解。
Plants absorb carbon from the air during photosynthesis and then return it during respiration. Animals that eat those plants also respire.
在光合作用下，植物從空氣中吸收碳，然后在呼吸過程中將其返回。吃這些植物的動物也呼吸。
Bacteria and fungi similarly break down dead plants and animals to pillage materials and energy from them,
細菌和真菌也會分解死去的動植物，從它們身上掠奪物質和能量
releasing carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as they do so.
并在此過程中將二氧化碳和甲烷釋放到大氣中。
Some organic matter, nevertheless, gets buried rather than broken down, and is thus removed from climatic consideration.
然而一些有機物質會被掩埋而不是分解，因此要將它們從氣候的考慮中移除
But, over time, this buried material is transformed by heat and pressure into oil, gas and coal—
但隨時間消逝，這種掩埋材料通過加熱和壓力轉化成石油、天然氣和煤炭—
substances pertinent to the climate in the context of one particular biological agent, Homo sapiens.
在特殊的生物媒介—智人的背景下，這些物質和氣候有關。
This species uses them to power its civilisation,
這一物種利用它們強大了其文明，
taking mere decades to fill the air with carbon that took hundreds of millions of years to accumulate underground.
僅僅用了幾十年就使空氣充滿了碳，而這些碳在地下積累了數億年
Organic matter may also be trapped in ice: on land in areas of permafrost, and at the bottom of the sea in molecular structures called clathrates.
有機物質或許也被困在冰里：在陸地上的永久凍土地區，在海底被稱為籠形化合物的分子結構中。
On top of all this, the oceans themselves contain vast amounts of dissolved carbon dioxide,
最重要的是，海洋本身含有大量的溶解二氧化碳，
and many sea creatures draw on that reserve to build themselves shells and carapaces out of calcium carbonate.
并且很多海洋生物利用這個保護區，用碳酸鈣為自己建造貝殼和甲殼。
Not all of this material is recycled. Some ends up on the seabed and eventually turns into limestone.
并不是所有這種物質都可回收。一些會沉入海床，最終變成石灰巖。
Changes in temperature are also a consideration.
溫度變化也是一個考慮因素。
The relationship between warmth and carbon-dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is a two-way street.
氣溫和大氣中二氧化碳濃度之間的關系是雙向的。
Warm water holds less of the gas than cold water.
溫水所含的氣體比冷水少。
During past ice ages, oceans therefore drew carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as they cooled, amplifying the process of cooling.
在過去的冰河時代，海洋在冷卻過程中從大氣中吸收二氧化碳，放大了冷卻過程。
Today's warmer oceans still act in aggregate as sinks for CO2. The warmer they get, however, the less that will continue to be true.
如今更加溫暖的海洋仍是二氧化碳的吸收池。然而，海洋變得越暖，這種情況越不可能持續下去。
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