Nowhere on Earth is safe from the effects of climate change, but Greenland gets it particularly bad. Warmer temperatures disproportionately affect the Arctic, and ice-filled Greenland is especially vulnerable. New research finds that warming has caused Greenland to lose ice more quickly today than at any point over the last 350 years.

全球没有任何角落可以幸免于气候变化带来的影响，但格陵兰岛尤为糟糕。气候变暖对北极地区的影响更大，常年被冰雪覆盖的格陵兰岛尤其脆弱。新的研究发现，气候变暖导致格陵兰岛冰层融化的速度比过去350年的任何时候都要快。

Previous studies have measured just how much the island’s ice is melting, and even spotted melting in the typically robust northern sea ice. All the science agrees: Greenland is warming and its ice is disappearing. But this new study puts that warming and melting into context, by looking at the island’s history.

此前的研究只是测量了格陵兰岛上的冰融化了多少，甚至发现，通常很坚不可摧的北部海冰都正在融化。所有的科学都认为：格陵兰岛正在变暖，它的冰层正在融化。但这项新研究通过回顾格陵兰岛的历史，将这种变暖和融化融入了整个进程中。

The researchers drilled deep holes into Greenland’s ice and used those to extract samples of ice from hundreds of feet below the surface. With those samples, the researchers were able to create a timeline of Greenland’s ice cover going back 350 years. As part of that timeline, the researchers calculated how much ice melted in Greenland every year.

研究人员在格陵兰岛的冰层上钻了很深的洞，并通过这些洞，从几百英尺深的冰层中提取样本。通过这些样本，研究人员能够绘制出格陵兰岛350年前冰层覆盖的时间轴，研究人员又根据这个时间轴计算出了格陵兰岛每年融化的冰量。

Typically, ice on Greenland melts during the summer months and then accumulates in the winter. Ideally, both of those amounts would be equal, so Greenland doesn’t gain or lose very much ice in a typical year. But lately, ice has been melting faster in the summer than it has in the past, and warmer winter temperatures mean the island is slower to build new ice.

通常情况下，格陵兰岛的冰在夏季融化，在冬季又结冰。理想情况下，这两个量应该是相等的，因此，在正常年份里，格陵兰岛不会增加或减少太多的冰。但是最近，冰层夏天的融化速度比过去快，而冬天温度升高则意味着结冰的速度变慢了。

The end result, according to the study, is that over the past two decades Greenland has been losing ice more quickly than it has in centuries. More than just that, the rate at which the island is losing ice has been accelerating. This suggests that over the next few decades, Greenland will lose ice even faster than it is right now. If that’s true, the Arctic-and the entire planet-is in serious trouble.

根据这项研究，最终的结果是，在过去20年里，格陵兰岛的冰层流失速度比几个世纪以来的任何时候都要快。不仅如此，冰流失的速度也在加快。这意味着，在未来几十年里，格陵兰岛的融冰速度将比现在更快。如果这是真的，北极——乃至整个地球——的麻烦就大了。