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The Chukchi Sea lies between Alaska and Russia just north of the Bering Strait. Shell Oil hopes to begin drilling in these Arctic waters in the next few days—if the U.S. government grants permission.
楚科奇海位于阿拉斯加和俄国之间的白令海峡北部。如果美国政府授权许可，未来几天壳牌石油将会在这片北极海域上钻探石油。
The ship Noble Discoverer will drill two exploratory wells to determine what, if any, hydrocarbons are beneath the seabed—and how well drilling equipment can withstand the rigors of the far north. Those rigors include everything from swirling currents and floating ice chunks to migrating whales.
“高贵发现者号”将钻井勘测海底蕴藏着什么碳氢化合物，以及钻井设施可否承受遥远北地的艰苦环境。那些艰苦环境包括旋转的水流和漂浮的冰块，还有迁徙的鲸鱼。
There's coral there—scientists sent to the region by Greenpeace have found sea raspberry, a soft, deep sea species. Other such deep sea corals bore the brunt of BP's catastrophic blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
这里还有珊瑚——由绿色和平组织派往此地的科学家们已经发现了海树莓，一种柔软的深海物种。其它深海珊瑚首当其冲，遭受英国石油公司2010年在墨西哥油田井喷的冲击。
It remains to be seen whether offshore drilling in the Arctic can be any safer than drilling in balmier waters. Already, Russia spills some 30 million barrels of oil in the Arctic each year, according to Greenpeace, and that's on land.
北极海上钻探是否比在温水水域钻探安全系数更高，这个问题尚待分晓。据绿色和平组织报道，俄国每年向北极大陆泄漏大约3000万桶石油。
Regardless, burning oil is one of the primary causes of climate change. Such global warming has thawed the Arctic above all, opening access to yet more oil. Humanity's thirst for oil has yet to gauge its own depths.
然而，石油燃烧是气候变化的始发原因。气候变暖会将北极融化殆尽，因此会向人类开放更多石油。人类对石油的饥渴也加速了人类的灭亡。
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