Name: 永凍土融化後會發生什麼？| BBC 創意 (What happens when the permafrost thaws? | BBC Ideas)
Uploaded: 2025-06-19T18:12:21.000Z
Duration: 8 min 27 s

When you think of the Arctic, maybe you picture this, or this, or this.

提到北極，也許你會想到這個、這個或這個。

You're not going to imagine a piece of scrubby brown dirt.

你不可能想象出一塊擦洗過的褐色泥土。

No one is born, like, fascinated with permafrost.

I do find it exciting to think about different sediments and so on.

我確實覺得思考不同的沉積物等問題很令人興奮。

LAUGHTER But what permafrost does is of huge importance to the entire planet.

但是永凍土的作用對整個地球都非常重要。

This is a map of permafrost, and you see in purple here, the dark purple especially, the areas that are permafrost.

這是一張永久凍土地圖，你可以看到這裡的紫色部分，尤其是深紫色部分，是永久凍土區域。

Around 11% of the Earth's landmass is covered by permafrost.

大約 11% 的地球陸地被永久凍土覆蓋。

Half of Canada, two-thirds of Russia, even the Tibetan Plateau.

加拿大的一半，俄羅斯的三分之二，甚至青藏高原。

And this place, the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.

而這個地方，就是遙遠的挪威斯瓦爾巴群島。

Arctic and Antarctic regions composed of organic material.

北極和南極地區由有機物質組成。

用兩個字來形容，那就是 "凍土"。

這裡，這裡，這裡，這裡，這裡。

Permafrost is rock, sediment or ice that remains at or below zero degrees Celsius for two or more consecutive years.

永久凍土是指連續兩年或兩年以上保持在零攝氏度或零攝氏度以下的岩石、沉積物或冰。

Most of it has been frozen for much, much longer than that.

大部分冰凍的時間都比這長得多。

Arctic permafrost tends to be a few thousand years old, and areas in Antarctica, we find permafrost that's millions of years old.

北極的永久凍土往往有幾千年的歷史，而在南極地區，我們發現的永久凍土有幾百萬年的歷史。

But just because it's ancient doesn't mean all the permafrost is always frozen.

但是，古老並不意味著所有的永久凍土都永遠凍結。

The active layer sits on top of the permafrost and thaws and freezes on an annual basis.

活動層位於永久凍土之上，每年都會解凍和凍結。

We take a measure of how far the thaw has evolved through the summer.

我們將衡量整個夏季的解凍程度。

And then the maximum depth at each point will represent the active layer depth for that year.

然後，每個點的最大深度將代表當年的活動層深度。

This active layer allows for different ecosystems to sit on top of the permafrost, from huge forests to treeless plains known as the tundra.

這種活躍的地層使得永久凍土層上形成了不同的生態系統，從巨大的森林到被稱為苔原的無樹平原。

But this delicate balance is now being disrupted by climate change.

但這種微妙的平衡現在正被氣候變化所打破。

I've got pictures here that show the mean annual temperature, and you can see basically the blue areas that are on here.

我這裡有顯示年平均氣溫的圖片，你基本上可以看到這裡的藍色區域。

These are areas we'd expect to be permafrosted.

我們希望這些區域能實現永久凍土。

This is gradually becoming redder and redder.

The Arctic, it's warming at three to four times the rate of the rest of the planet.

北極的變暖速度是地球其他地區的三到四倍。

This kind of weather, it's not supposed to be like this in October.

這樣的天氣，十月不應該是這樣的。

天氣晴朗，氣候乾燥，但事實並非如此。

As temperatures rise, the permafrost is thawing.

隨著氣溫的升高，永久凍土正在解凍。

On average, the active layer has been deepening about 0.6 centimetres per year for the last 10 years, which is about this much.

在過去 10 年中，活動層平均每年加深約 0.6 釐米，也就是這麼多。

But think about that through the whole landscape.

但是，從整個景觀來看，想想看。

We're seeing that the active layer is getting deeper and deeper in permafrost regions around the world.

我們看到，在世界各地的永久凍土地區，活動層越來越深。

As the surface of the permafrost thaws downwards, many things that were frozen are uncovered.

隨著永久凍土表面向下解凍，許多被凍結的東西被揭開。

This could include as many as 10 million woolly mammoths.

這其中可能包括多達 1000 萬頭長毛猛獁象。

And there are fears that ancient viruses could reawaken and infect humans.

人們擔心遠古病毒會甦醒並感染人類。

But there's something else which concerns scientists much more.

但科學家們更關心的是另一件事。

The scariest thing that is happening with permafrost is what it is doing to the climate itself.

永凍土最可怕的地方在於它對氣候本身的影響。

It locks up the carbon from dead vegetation quite effectively, and it's accumulated over many thousands of years.

它能非常有效地鎖住枯死植被中的碳，而且這些碳已經積累了數千年之久。

We have this organic matter that's stored in the freezer, and as soon as you open the freezer door, then that becomes available to decay.

我們在冰箱裡儲存了這些有機物，只要打開冰箱門，這些有機物就會腐爛。

There's estimated to be four times more carbon trapped in permafrost than all of the human-generated CO2 emissions in modern history.

據估計，永久凍土中蘊藏的碳比現代史上人類排放的所有二氧化碳還要多四倍。

The release into the atmosphere of even a fraction of this as carbon dioxide and methane will have a profound effect on the climate.

哪怕其中的一小部分以二氧化碳和甲烷的形式釋放到大氣中，都會對氣候產生深遠的影響。

The more greenhouse gases that are in the atmosphere, the warmer the climate, the thicker the active layer, and the more greenhouse gases can escape from that portion of the permafrost that was locked away.

大氣中的溫室氣體越多，氣候就越溫暖，活動層就越厚，被鎖住的那部分永久凍土就能釋放出更多的溫室氣體。

There's sort of an underlying low level of change slowly creeping up on us.

有一種潛在的低水平變化正在慢慢向我們逼近。

People will frame permafrost thaw as something that is a future catastrophe, when actually there is a catastrophe going on right now for people who live on top of permafrost.

人們會把永久凍土融化說成是未來的災難，而實際上，對於生活在永久凍土之上的人們來說，災難正在發生。

People like Jessie, who lives here, in the Inuvik region of the Northwest Territories in Arctic Canada.

像傑西這樣的人就住在加拿大北極地區西北地區的伊努維克地區。

Just being out on the land, it really puts my soul at ease.

只要在這片土地上，我的靈魂就會得到安寧。

This is the land that our ancestors have walked in.

When I was younger, I didn't really know what permafrost was.

我年輕的時候，並不知道什麼是永久凍土。

In recent years, it's been thawing fairly rapidly.

The most obvious way that the permafrost melting impacts on human society is that the ground that was once really solid and hard suddenly becomes squishy.

永凍土融化對人類社會最明顯的影響是，原本堅實堅硬的地面突然變得鬆軟。

There are things called thermocast megaslumps, which is a fantastic name for a band, where the ground kind of collapses in on itself and creates these huge craters.

有些地方被稱為 "熱鑄巨坑"（thermocast megaslumps），這是一個非常好聽的樂隊名字，在那裡，地面會自行塌陷，形成這些巨大的隕石坑。

There's one in Arctic Russia, which is called the doorway to the underworld, and it's getting bigger by the day.

俄羅斯北極地區就有一個，被稱為通往陰間的大門，而且規模越來越大。

And you have large masses of land just flowing away because they're no longer solid.

由於不再堅固，大片土地就這樣流走了。

I see the wounds in the landscape from the landslides, and it reminds me that the whole earth is crying out.

我看到山體滑坡給大地造成的創傷，這讓我想到整個地球都在哭泣。

We're going to go on the back of it, because that's where you can really see the damage.

我們要從它的背面開始，因為那裡才能真正看到損傷。

We noticed that our home was starting to crack.

我們注意到，我們的房子開始出現裂縫。

So me and my dad, we always tried to just adapt to it to keep our house level.

是以，我和我父親一直努力適應它，以保持房子的平整。

Buildings start to crack, the roads will buckle, power lines will tear.

建築物開始開裂，道路會倒塌，電線會斷裂。

We just try to fix things for now and just take it year by year.

我們現在只想把事情解決好，然後一年一年地來。

People have lived in the Arctic for thousands of years now, and they're seeing unprecedented changes to their environment.

數千年來，人們一直生活在北極地區，而他們的環境正在發生前所未有的變化。

In the Klavik, our motto is never say die.

在克拉維克，我們的座右銘是永不言敗。

So when it floods or when our roads start to disappear, there are still people that live here and love it here, and they wouldn't want to move anywhere else.

是以，當洪水氾濫或我們的道路開始消失時，仍有人生活在這裡，熱愛這裡，他們不願搬到其他地方。

Knowing that all of this ice is going to melt underneath us makes me a little bit scared for the future.

知道所有這些冰層都將在我們腳下融化，這讓我對未來有些恐懼。

Permafrost thaw could bring some new possibilities, from mining areas opening up to the potential to grow new crops.

永凍土融化可能帶來一些新的可能性，從開闢礦區到種植新作物的潛力。

But both could exacerbate climate change and be of little consolation to the people losing their homes.

但這兩者都會加劇氣候變化，對失去家園的人們來說也是無補於事。

In terms of slowing down or stopping this, is there anything we can do?

就減緩或阻止這種情況而言，我們能做些什麼嗎？

The thing we can do is to stop climate from warming in the first place.

我們能做的首先是阻止氣候變暖。

There isn't, unfortunately, very much we can do if we warm the planet to then stop the permafrost from melting.

不幸的是，如果我們讓地球變暖，然後阻止永久凍土融化，我們能做的並不多。

One cold winter will not freeze back permafrost.

一個寒冷的冬天並不能凍回永久凍土。

What we can do is make more informed decisions and make sure that we build communities that are resilient to changes that are going to occur.

我們能做的就是做出更明智的決定，確保我們建設的社區能夠適應即將發生的變化。

If they continue to listen to our people about all the stuff that's happening, then that gives me a little bit of hope.

如果他們繼續傾聽我們的人民對正在發生的一切的看法，那就會給我帶來一點希望。

I think this is the beginnings of us starting to think in a way that highlights the more entangled ways that humans exist with nature and their environments.

我認為，這是我們開始以一種強調人類與自然及其環境之間存在更多糾葛的方式進行思考的開端。

There's a lot of northern folks all around the globe.

They all have their own traditions and values.

他們都有自己的傳統和價值觀。

I think my message would just be to help us out up here.

我想我要傳達的資訊就是幫助我們。

你知道，成為解決方案的一部分。

If you enjoyed that, be sure to check out these videos next.

如果您喜歡，請務必查看接下來的視頻。

And if you haven't already, hit the subscribe button and click the bell to get a notification each time we upload a new video.

如果您還沒有訂閱，請點擊訂閱按鈕，然後點擊鈴鐺，這樣我們每次上傳新視頻時您都會收到通知。

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永凍土融化後會發生什麼？| BBC 創意 (What happens when the permafrost thaws? | BBC Ideas)

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ancient

resilient

solid