═【立報】════════════════════════════
教 育 專 題 深 入 報 導
═══════════════════════《2003/07/25》═════
*****【本 期 內 容】
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教育專題 ◎ （國際專版）英文部分：暑氣逼人，英國和歐洲各地氣溫不斷刷新紀錄
◎ （國際專版）中文部分：暑氣逼人，英國和歐洲各地氣溫不斷刷新紀錄
◎ （國際專版）中文部分：氫動力車還派不上用場
◎ （國際專版） 英文部分：氫燃料車還派不上用場
◎ （國際專版）英文部分：全世界都熱的讓人難受
◎ （國際專版）中文部分：全世界都熱的讓人難受
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◎（國際專版）英文部分：暑氣逼人，英國和歐洲各地氣溫不斷刷新紀錄
Heat hits Britain and Europe wilts
Last Updated: 14 Jul 2003 18:50 BST
By Gideon Long
LONDON (Reuters) - Sun-drenched tourists have sought solace in the
fountains of Rome and Tour de France cyclists peeled back their bodysuits as
Europe shimmered in a blistering heat wave.
Even Britain belied its reputation as a country where the sun never
shines. Bookmakers said on Monday there was a chance temperatures would hit a
symbolic 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) this week for the first time since
records began.
France experienced a scorching Bastille Day, prompting thousands of
Parisians to flock to the city's elegant parks and open air pools.
The heat seeped as far north as Finland, where the temperature hit 29.8C
in the southeastern town of Utti. Meteorologists said the average there at this
time of year is a mere 19C.
The Swiss banned fishing in several of their cantons as the heat caused
oxygen levels to drop, endangering the lives of trout in the country's rivers
and streams. In some areas fish were being moved to oxygen-richer waters.
In neighbouring Germany, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper
warned that if Europe continues to experience hotter, drier weather, Berlin and
the surrounding Brandenburg region could become a desert by the middle of this
century.
"Already parts of Brandenburg have become Steppe-like," it
said in a report on global warming.
BRITISH BOOKIES WORRIED
The British indulged in their national sport -- talking about the
weather -- but for once, the conversation did not revolve around rain.
Bookmakers William Hill cut their odds against a 100F reading from 16/1
to an all-time low of 14/1.
"Even in the sweltering summer of 1976 the odds never dipped below
16/1," spokesman Graham Sharpe said. "But we're already fearing a
six-figure payout if it happens this year."
According to the Meteorological Office, the highest temperature ever
recorded in Britain was 99F in 1990.
The Welsh capital Cardiff was Britain's hottest city on Monday,
recording a high of 31.3C (88F).
In Rome, temperatures have been stuck above 35C for weeks, sapping the
strength of the city's thousands of tourists.
Some took a cooling bath in the famous Trevi fountain and Bernini's
Four Rivers' fountain in Piazza Navona, earning themselves a fine from the
police.
Weeks of hot weather in northern Italy have created drought in some
areas, sucking water from the mighty River Po, an essential source of
irrigation for the country's farms.
In France, cyclists on the Tour de France sacrificed aerodynamics for
air by unzipping their close-fitting bodysuits to cool off. One cyclist crashed
out of the race after his tyre blew on the melted tarmac road surface.
Only the Spaniards, used to scorching heat, seemed unfazed.
The temperature hit 37.1C in Zaragoza but Spanish meteorologists said
there was nothing unusual in that at this time of year.
◎（國際專版）中文部分：暑氣逼人，英國和歐洲各地氣溫不斷刷新紀錄
賴明芝
熱的讓人受不了的夏天，使得南歐義大利首都羅馬著名的噴泉景點，成了觀光客汲取涼意的熱門地點。入夏以後，義大利已經籠罩在攝氏35度的高溫達數週了。
甚至連英國人，都不敢把過去一直引以為傲的溫和氣候，掛在嘴邊。從前太陽無法直曬的英國，現在也苦於全球溫度不斷上升的惡夢。談論天氣是英國人的全民運動，現在，他們可不提「下雨」了，英國人目前滿腦子都在想要怎麼過得涼爽。
有趣的是，連日的高溫還讓英國人下起賭注。上個禮拜，不少英國人打賭，天氣會打破攝氏37度的歷史高溫紀錄。眼看著溫度計沒有往下跑的跡象，賭盤商已經把賠率降低，免得賠不起。威爾斯的首府加地夫也創下有史以來最高的溫度攝氏31.3度。
而法國人也是在頂著毒辣辣的太陽，慶祝法國革命紀念日，數千名巴黎人根本忍受不了酷暑襲擊，紛紛跑到公園裡，跳入噴水池內。看看這樣能不能夠消消暑氣。
◎（國際專版）中文部分：氫動力車還派不上用場
賴明芝
根據統計，全世界每年生產的石油中，美國消耗的比例就佔了25％；到了2025年，美國的石油消耗量將更高達全球年總產量的40％，而其中的70％，必須從外國進口。美國對石油的依賴極深，使得相關人士擔憂美國未來的能源使用問題。
去年，美國參議院就曾否決布希政府的北極保護區儲油的開採議案，並且要求布希政府應開發替代能源及減少石油消耗。同年年11月，美國能源部部長斯賓塞·亞伯拉罕姆在「個人交通工具生產者研討會」上提出了「國家氫動力計畫」。當時，這個構想引起不少人的注意，有專家認為，如果能夠實現「國家氫動力計畫」，將可以使美國經濟更少依賴石油和天然氣進口。
環保人士對此也相當關注，但認為，布希政府到目前為止的表現，還只是口惠而不實，看不到任何一盤牛肉端到民眾面前。例如，布希在今年1月28日對國會發表的國情咨文中，雖然強調要花12億美元發展氫動力汽車工業，以及另外投入12億美元開發替代能源，眼看這些都符合去年參議院對政府的要求。但是，仔細瞧瞧，卻發現一個骯髒又窩錯的詭計。也就是說，布希在國情咨文提到的24億美元的來源，是開挖和販售北極保護區儲油所得。這擺明了只是願意配合參議院的部分要求而已。還有，該法案還要求在氫動力汽車和電能上市後，政府必須進行一定量的採購，表示支持這項計畫的推廣。不少環保人士認為，這根本是個荒唐無嘰的案子。
這種以氫動力燃油電池（hydrogen-powered fuel cells）為動力來源的車子，給了人們環保生活的夢想。但到現在為止，雖然各大汽車製造廠商已投入上百億美元用於發展氫燃料電池，但是目前仍需克服的障礙就是怎樣提高競爭力，與傳統的內燃機一爭高下。去年11月，日本汽車巨頭本田公司推出了一款以壓縮的氫氣為燃料的汽車。這款型號為FCX的汽車預計於近日投入市場，其最高時速可達150公里，加滿氫氣後可行駛335公里，該車最初是為政府機關和東京的一些其他社團組織設計的。
過去這兩年，一直不斷有這類以環保為訴求的車子發表出來。根據中國新華網去年的報導，美國已有議員從美國能源安全的角度考慮，加大了對提高玉米乙醇比例的支持力度。
國內能源生產的比例將得到提高，特別是在中東能源環境對美國日益不利的情況下，不少議員從美國能源安全的角度考慮，也加大了對提高玉米乙醇比例的支持力度。分析家普遍認為，不管各派如何進行交易並達成妥協，新法案強制增加玉米乙醇在燃料中的比例，從總體來看畢竟是個進步，因這不但為玉米業拓展了發展前景，且將提高美國汽油排放的環保效應。
Hydrogen Cars Not Needed, U.S. Experts Say
Last Updated: 18 Jul 2003 19:18 BST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. energy experts cast more doubt on
Friday on a push to develop hydrogen-powered cars as a means to cut air
pollution and reduce oil imports.
Cheaper and faster ways already exist to achieve the same effect,
including raising fuel efficiency and toughening environmental standards, David
Keith and Alexander Farrell, wrote in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
"Hydrogen cars are a poor short-term strategy, and it's not even
clear that they are a good idea in the long term," Farrell, assistant
professor of energy and resources at the University of California, Berkeley,
said in a statement.
"Because the prospects for hydrogen cars are so uncertain, we need
to think carefully before we invest all this money and all this public effort
in one area."
President Bush has proposed spending $1.5 billion over five years to
spur development by 2020 of cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells in order to
cut dependence on imported oil.
The European Commission has said it plans to spend close to $2.3
billion (2.1 billion euros) on hydrogen-related research over the next four
years.
Hydrogen is present in water, oil, gas and coal. Supporters of a
"hydrogen economy" regard it as a clean source of energy that would
cut pollution and the carbon dioxide emissions some scientists link to global
warming.
Farrell and Keith, associate professor of engineering and public policy
at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, noted that hydrogen is derived
mostly from oil and coal, which produce substantial carbon dioxide.
They said better fuel efficiency, improvements to car technology and
stricter environmental rules could reduce air pollution at less than 100th the
cost of hydrogen cars and would be more effective for several decades.
"Automobile manufacturers don't need to invest in anything fancy.
A wide number of technologies are already on the shelf," Farrell said.
"The cost would be trivial compared to the changes needed to go to a
hydrogen car."
Other scientists have also questioned the benefits of hydrogen fuel
cells. Leading environmental groups have also criticized the U.S. government and
Europe for failing to put renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power
at the heart of their hydrogen policies.
By Alister Doyle
OSLO (Reuters) - With the world sweltering through one of the hottest
years on record, some icy bastions have been getting frostier in defiance of
global warming.
The rare cool spots, also from Canada to China, cause headaches for
policy makers seeking to impose expensive measures to curb emissions from cars
and factories blamed for blanketing the globe and driving up temperatures.
"We are disrupting the entire climate system," said Rajendra
Pachauri, the head of the U.N.'s main panel on climate change. "It's not
as though there is going to be a uniform warming of the entire planet."
He said that signs of global warming are overwhelming, from a heat wave
in India this year with temperatures up to 120 Fahrenheit that killed 1,500
people, to prolonged drought in Australia.
"There are also many of these (cooling anomalies). But merely to
cite one as evidence that there is no warming is not rational," he told
Reuters of lingering skepticism to the broad consensus that human pollution is
warming the planet.
And experts say that apparent anomalies, such as the growth of glaciers
in Norway in the 1990s, can often be explained by a wider picture of global
warming because of increased snowfall.
"When the oceans get warmer, you get more evaporation so you
create more clouds. Then you can have more precipitation and in some areas it
can be in the form of snow," said Josefino Comiso, a senior scientist at
the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
He said that his research, for instance, indicated that snow was
getting deeper over higher parts of Greenland. Ice and snow in some regions of
Antarctica was also getting thicker. "Some climate models suggest these
effects," he said.
GLACIERS SHRINK
In other areas, global warming seems to be catching up with some of the
icy exceptions. The Briksdal glacier in west Norway, for instance, has receded
about 426 feet since a peak in 2000 when it was splintering birch trees on
ground that had been free of ice for decades. "It's shrunk a lot, though
in the middle of the 17th century is was 1.5 km (one mile) longer than
now," said Frode Briksdal, a glacier guide whose family has long lived in
the area.
Climate experts say that recent hotter summers are melting the ice
despite more snowfall in winter that is adding to the overall mass of the
glaciers.
The U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says that 1998 was
the hottest year since records began in 1860, followed by 2002 and 2001. It
says the rise in global average surface temperatures since 1900 exceeds 0.6
Celsius.
So far this year, temperatures have also been high in many regions. The
WMO says that average surface temperatures in May were the second highest on record.
June temperatures in Switzerland, for instance, were the hottest in 250 years.
But some question the view of Pachauri's Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) that human activity is driving global warming. Many
skeptics point out experts were predicting a new Ice Age in the 1970s after a
long cold spell.
"There is an idea among the public that the 'science is
settled'," said James Schlesinger, a Republican and former U.S. Energy
Secretary. "We are in danger of prematurely embracing certitudes."
SUN SPOTS
Schlesinger said in a recent speech that the IPCC focused too narrowly
on factors like human emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide, volcanoes and
an 11-year sunspot cycle. He said it played down other possible factors like
long-term variations in solar activity.
President Bush has pulled out of the international Kyoto pact, which
aims to cut emissions of carbon dioxide by at least five percent by 2008-12,
arguing it is too costly and unfairly excludes developing countries.
Jon Ove Hagen, professor of glaciology at Oslo University, said most
glaciers from Alaska to the Himalayas were melting. "By contrast, in 100
years' time one expects that the Antarctic ice will increase in volume because
of more snow," he said.
Lynn Rosentrater, Arctic climate scientist at the WWF environmental
group, said sea levels were expected to rise this century more because water in
the oceans would expand with higher temperatures. Secondarily, melting glaciers
in Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia would add to water in the oceans.
Among anomalies in climate change, she said that a cooling over
northeastern Canada in recent years also "now seems to be stabilizing and
now looking more toward warming."
賴明芝
因為地球氣候轉變的關係，今年的夏天特別讓人難過。全世界各地都因為更加惡化的溫室效應，出現罕見的酷熱天氣。尤其是歐洲，誇張的高溫，讓民眾紛紛往有水又涼的地方跑。
聯合國有關氣候變遷的研究小組召集人帕恰里（Rajendra Pachauri）說：「人類正在瓦解整個氣候的系統。而非似乎是整個地球暖化的程度那樣。」 帕恰里表示，溫室效應的現象開始擋不住了。今年發生在印度的熱浪，讓當地人承受華氏120度高溫的痛苦，還有1千5百人活活被熱死，這股熱氣，延燒到澳洲。今年的澳洲人，過的是「暖冬」。
此外，氣候專家們表示，全球溫室效應版圖擴大，常能夠解釋類似發生於1990年代，挪威冰河變長等異常的氣候現象，因為，全球溫室效應增加了降雪量。
「美國太空總署Goddard宇宙飛行中心」（NASA Goddard Space Flight Center）的資深科學家表示：「當海洋變的更為溫暖的時候，蒸發量會增加，所以天空會有更多的雲出現。因此，下水的情形也會增加，在某些地方，降水則是以下雪的形式出現。」
在其他地方，全球溫室效應似乎開始對某些冰雪地形產生影響。舉個例子，2000年，挪威西部的Briksdal冰河（glacier）減少了426英尺，而過去數十年沒有被冰覆蓋的土地所生長出來的白樺樹，也被冰河的「淘選作用」連根拔起。長久以來一直住在Briksdal冰河地區，擔任導遊的Frode
Briksdal說：「這條冰河真的是縮短了不少，17世紀中期，這條冰河的長度可有1.5公里長呢！那可是比現在長的多。」
所以說，雖然全球溫度提高，導致降雪量提高，冰河本來是要變更長的。可是，雪下的多，沒錯，但降下來以後呢，有留住嗎？沒有，溫度提高會使海水蒸發較多，所以雪下得多。但，雪降下來以後，也因為溫度的提高而融化了，所以對冰河一點幫助都沒有。而且冰河的冰是萬年冰，不是一兩場雪就能讓他長度增加的。
到最後，人類還是會嚐到苦頭。美國總統布希當選後，立刻退出「京都議定書」的做法，只會讓地球發燙的情形更嚴重，因為美國是造成溫室效應大增的最大幫兇。全球的生態和氣候科學家，對冰河地形的變化莫不憂心忡忡。太平洋島國諾魯即將滅國，恐怕還有後繼的國家呢！