Just look at it.

看看就知道了。

A monument to human achievement.

人類成就的紀念碑

Over 1.5 trillion pounds of modern megaliths, scratching at the heavens.

超過 1.5 萬億磅的現代巨石，劃破蒼穹。

A metropolis ever-soaring.

一個不斷騰飛的大都市。

Up.

向上。

Up.

向上。

Up.

向上。

And then one day you find out, it's literally going down.

然後有一天你發現，它真的要倒了。

New York City is sinking.

紐約市正在下沉。

And all that high-up human achievement isn't helping.

而所有這些人類的偉大成就也無濟於事。

The city is sinking under its own weight.

這座城市正在自己的重壓下沉沒。

Researchers at the United States Geological Survey and the University of Rhode Island calculated the weight of all the city's buildings and found that it is contributing to what they call subsidence.

美國地質調查局和羅德島大學的研究人員計算了該市所有建築物的重量，發現這就是所謂的地陷。

There's more than a million buildings in the city.

這座城市有超過一百萬座建築。

So it's a massive amount of weight.

所以這是一個巨大的重量。

Engineers know that each building they construct settles into the earth over time.

工程師們知道，他們建造的每一棟建築都會隨著時間的推移沉降到土層中。

How much it settles depends on what's underneath.

沉降的程度取決於下面是什麼。

It's going to be really important for us to learn more about the natural geology underlying New York City, which we tend to forget because it's so paved over.

對我們來說，更多地瞭解紐約市底層的自然地質情況非常重要，而我們往往會忘記這一點，因為紐約市的路面鋪得太多了。

As you get down into lower Manhattan, there's a lot of fill where people have essentially just dumped stuff.

當你走到曼哈頓下城時，會發現有很多填土，人們基本上都是把東西倒在那裡。

And then they're like, hey, now we've got land here, let's build on it.

然後他們就會說，嘿，我們現在有地了，就在這上面蓋房子吧。

And those areas are really susceptible to sinking.

而這些地區確實很容易下沉。

All told, the skyscrapers are not the main culprit.

總而言之，摩天大樓並不是罪魁禍首。

The bigger truth is that New York is sinking for a variety of reasons.

更重要的事實是，由於各種原因，紐約正在下沉。

Turns out there are heavier things than buildings.

原來還有比建築物更重的東西。

They're called glaciers.

它們被稱為冰川。

The majority of the sinking is caused by GIA.

大部分下沉是由 GIA 引起的。

So it's Glacier Isostatic Adjustment.

所以是冰川等靜壓調整。

During the last glacial maximum, an ice sheet miles thick covered the land north of New York.

在上一次冰川最盛時期，厚達數英里的冰層覆蓋了紐約北部的土地。

And that held it down.

這就壓住了它。

And when it held it down, actually the land to the south of the ice sheet bulged up.

當冰層被壓住時，冰原南面的陸地實際上隆起了。

It's a little bit like a barge that was loaded on one side and we are on the upside.

這有點像一艘駁船，一邊裝滿了貨物，而我們卻在顛簸。

And when you remove the weight of the glaciers... the barge gets unloaded, comes up, and New York goes down.

當你把冰川的重量去掉......駁船就會卸載，升空，紐約就會沉沒。

Of course, the ground going down... is not the only thing to worry about here.

當然，地面塌陷......並不是這裡唯一需要擔心的事情。

The story with the sinking of Manhattan from the weight of the building is a little bit like a monkey compared to the elephant in the room, which is sea level rise combined with storm surges.

與海平面上升和風暴潮這頭大象相比，曼哈頓因大樓重量而下沉的故事就像一隻猴子。

The term we use is relative sea level rise.

我們使用的術語是相對海平面上升。

So you have to account everything, including how fast the water is going up and also whether your land is going up or down.

是以，你必須考慮到一切，包括水位上升的速度，以及你的土地是上升還是下降。

Add the average sea level rise of 3 to 4 millimeters per year to New York's subsidence of 1 to 2 millimeters per year, and you start to get a serious problem.

海平面平均每年上升 3 到 4 毫米，而紐約每年下沉 1 到 2 毫米，兩者相加，就會產生一個嚴重的問題。

So how can we stop the sinking?

那麼，我們怎樣才能阻止沉沒呢？

In New York, there's probably not much that can be done to stop the sinking.

在紐約，可能沒有什麼辦法可以阻止沉沒。

Cool.

酷斃了

Then how do we adapt?

那我們該如何適應呢？

New York needs to turn itself into a sponge.

紐約需要把自己變成一塊海綿。

What we need to make sure is that every piece of infrastructure can hold and absorb water so our 100-year sewer system can catch up and process it.

我們需要確保的是，每項基礎設施都能容納和吸收水，這樣我們的百年下水道系統才能趕上並處理這些水。

There's a lot of coastal infrastructure projects, such as one called the Big U, which wraps around all of Manhattan, kind of in a U shape.

有很多沿海基礎設施項目，比如一個名為 "大 U "的項目，它環繞整個曼哈頓，有點像 "U "形。

And that is under construction right now.

目前正在建設中。

And there is something the buildings can do.

這些建築可以做些什麼呢？

Buildings are actually our primary source of greenhouse gas emissions.

建築物實際上是我們溫室氣體排放的主要來源。

So 70% of our heat traffic gas emissions in New York City come from the buildings themselves.

是以，紐約市 70% 的熱交通氣體排放來自建築物本身。

There's a lot of new technologies that we could start to adapt very rapidly to reduce the emissions from our buildings here in New York City and serve as a model for cities all over the globe.

我們可以迅速採用許多新技術，以減少紐約市建築物的排放，併為全球城市樹立典範。

But at some point, the situation may call for more drastic action.

但在某些時候，情況可能需要採取更激烈的行動。

Eventually, you have to retreat to higher ground.

最後，你必須撤退到地勢較高的地方。

Luckily, New York City has high topography.

幸運的是，紐約市地勢較高。

We have to move together a little bit, and we have to make room for water.

我們必須一起移動一點，我們必須為水騰出空間。