紐時賞析／人工冷卻地球可行？英國砸重金贊助小型室外地球工程實驗

气候变迁影响变得愈来愈具破坏性，根据美国国家海洋暨大气总署，测量全球陆地与海洋表面平均温度显示，上个月是有史以来最热的八月。图为挤满人潮的英国多塞特郡伯恩茅斯海滩。美联社

UK to Fund 'Small-Scale' Outdoor Geoengineering Tests

英国赞助小型室外地球工程实验

A British science agency will provide 57 million pounds, or about $75 million, for researchers to examine ideas for artificially cooling the planet — including outdoor experiments to determine whether any of those ideas could actually work.

英国一间科学机构将提供5,700万英镑，约7,500万美元，让研究人员检视人工冷却地球的构想，包括户外实验，以确定这类想法是否确实可行。

The announcement, by the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, or ARIA, is among the largest single infusions of money to date toward research into “solar geoengineering”: the notion of injecting particles into the air to deflect some of the sun’s radiation back into space with the goal of reducing the Earth’s temperature.

先进研究与发明局（ARIA）的这项宣布，是迄今注入「太阳能地球工程」的最大单笔资金之一：概念是把微粒注入大气，将部分太阳辐射偏转回太空，达到降低地球气温目标。

The government initiative is focused on testing several types of solar geoengineering. Those approaches could include injecting aerosols, such as sulfur dioxide, into the stratosphere or shooting sea-salt aerosols into low-lying marine clouds to reflect more sunlight away from the Earth.

这项政府倡议聚焦在测试数种太阳能地球工程，方法包括将二氧化硫等气溶胶注入平流层，或将海盐气溶胶射入低层海洋云，以反射更多日光远离地球。

The funding comes as the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly destructive. Last month was the warmest August on record, as measured by average global land and ocean surface temperatures, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

这笔资金到来之际，气候变迁影响变得愈来愈具破坏性。根据美国国家海洋暨大气总署，测量全球陆地与海洋表面平均温度显示，上个月是有史以来最热的八月。

Yet, the greenhouse emissions that are driving climate change keep rising as humans continue to burn coal, oil and gas.

然而，随着人类持续燃烧煤炭、石油与天然气，导致气候变迁的温室气体排放持续上升。

ARIA said it was pursuing geoengineering research because “even under the most aggressive scenarios” of cutting greenhouse gasses, it may not be possible to reduce those emissions fast enough to prevent dangerous increases in global temperatures.

ARIA表示，推动地球工程研究，是因为「即使在最积极的情况下」减少温室气体，减缓排放的速度可能还是不够快，无法防止全球气温危险地上升。

That has led governments and scientists to increasingly consider ways to artificially cool the planet, effectively trying to buy time while heat-trapping pollution is reduced.

这让政府与科学家愈来愈注意人工冷却地球的方法，实际上这是在减少温室气体污染的同时争取时间。

But without conducting physical tests of those strategies, the agency said, “there is no prospect of being able to make proper judgments” about whether any type of geoengineering is “feasible, scalable, and controllable.”

该机构说，如没对这些策略实体试验，「就无法适当判断」任何地球工程是否「可行、可扩大及可控制」。

Opponents of geoengineering say it would distract from the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And they worry that the technology could have severe unintended consequences.

反对地球工程的人主张，该工程会分散减少温室气体排放迫切需要的注意力，他们并忧虑这项科技可能产生意想不到的严重后果。

To address the concern about outdoor experiments, the program will apply a set of constraints when it judges research proposals, British officials said. The technologies being examined must already have undergone modeling and indoor tests, and researchers must show that critical scientific questions “cannot be answered without an outdoor experiment.”

英国官员表示，为消除对于户外实验的疑虑，这项计划在审查研究提案时会设定一系列限制。送审的技术须经过模拟与室内测试，研究者也须证明实验的关键科学问题「非经户外实验无法解答」。

文／Christopher Flavelle and David Gelles　译／江昱蓁