Melting ice sheet: Is it too late

6 Minute English

语言学习

2020-11-05

6 分钟
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  • This is a download from BBC Learning English.

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  • Hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English.

  • I'm Neil.

  • And I'm Georgina.

  • With no end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic,

  • many people can't wait for the year 2020 to end.

  • But with the coronavirus dominating the newspaper headlines,

  • attention has moved away from an equally serious global issue,

  • which has quietly been getting worse.

  • Climate change.

  • August 2020 saw the hottest temperature recorded anywhere in modern times,

  • 54.4 degrees Celsius in California's death valley.

  • The same month also saw record amounts of ice melting into the oceans around Greenland and the Arctic.

  • Huge icebergs breaking away from the edge of the ice sheet.

  • A thick layer of ice which has covered a large area for a long time.

  • Greenland's ice sheet is three times the size of Texas and almost two kilometers thick.

  • Locked inside is enough water to raise sea levels by six meters.

  • But global heating and melting polar ice has many scientists asking whether it's now too late to stop.

  • How can we reach the point of no return?