美宇航局和谷歌拟联手监测碳排放
NASA, the American agency which landed men on the moon, and Google, the go-to company of the early 21st Century, are trying to give the world the ability to monitor both the carbon dioxide pollution and the levels of forest destruction that contribute to global warming.
NASA plans to launch a satellite which could help monitor deforestation and carbon emissions. For its part, Google has rolled out a new program call Earth Engine which essentially is a massive storehouse for satellite and other data that forest countries will be able to access for free by the time of the next UN climate conference in Mexico next year.
"Just having the thing flying around there imaging would just about make everybody act differently," said professor Steve Pacala, director of the Princeton Environmental Institute. "The idea that you could pull a fast one would be different."
Deforestation is the biggest cause of climate change in much of the developing world, and industrial countries plan to pay billions of dollars to poor countries to stop deforestation. The Google system could help many keep track of what forests are saved.
"The science is out there, but the ability to run it on large numbers of machines by countries in previous years who couldn't afford it is now possible," said Brian McClen, vice president of engineering for the Google Geo Group, who demonstrated the new program in Copenhagen.
The relaunch of the NASA satellite is awaiting White House approval and is going through the budget process for next year.
"I'm optimistic," White House science adviser John Holdren told reporters at climate talks Wednesday.
Until another satellite actually gets into the air, the way the world knows about carbon dioxide involves a lot of guesswork, math and monitoring machines and a good amount of trust.
Experts' estimates of carbon dioxide emissions are based on fuel going into power plants and complex formulas that calculate power plant efficiency. But those estimates are also dependent on reliable information about fuel and efficiency, so they could be skewed by inaccurate input.
实现人类登月的美国宇航局和本世纪初出现的搜索引擎巨头谷歌公司将联手出击，使整个世界有能力监测影响全球变暖的二氧化碳排放和森林毁坏程度。
美国宇航局计划发射一颗可帮助监测森林砍伐和碳排放的卫星。谷歌则推出了一个名为“地球引擎”的新项目，该引擎实质上是一个储存卫星和其他数据的巨大资料库，在明年联合国气候大会在墨西哥召开前，森林国家就可免费使用这一数据库。
普林斯顿环境研究院院长史蒂夫•帕卡拉教授说：“只需让卫星在那飞行拍摄照片就足以让人们改变行为方式。你不会再有那些蒙混过关的想法。”
森林砍伐是多数发展中国家气候变化的最大诱因，发达国家计划为贫穷国家提供数十亿美元的资助以阻止森林砍伐。谷歌最新开发的这一系统可以帮助很多国家追踪哪些森林被挽救。
“谷歌地理工作组”工程部副主任布莱恩•麦克兰说：“这项科技已经具备了，前些年各国无法提供数量庞大的设备来进行监测，如今这一科技成为可能。”麦克兰在哥本哈根展示了这一新项目。
目前，美国宇航局的卫星再发射项目正在等待白宫批准，并将进入明年的预算审核程序。
上周三，白宫科学顾问约翰•霍尔德伦在气候会谈上接受记者采访时说：“我很乐观。”
目前世界对二氧化碳的了解方式包括很多猜测、数学计算、监测仪器和相当程度的“信赖”，下一颗人造卫星升空后监测方式有望得到改善。
专家对二氧化碳排放量的估算主要依据进入电力厂的燃料以及计算电力厂能效的各种复杂公式。但这些估算同时也要依赖于有关燃料和能效的可靠信息，这样如果出现输入错误，结果就会出问题。
Vocabulary:
go-to company: the best company to turn to for a specific reason or purpose
deforestation: the cutting down and removal of all or most of the trees in a forested area 森林砍伐
roll out: to launch (sth.) in a series of stages over an area 展开
pull a fast one on..:deceive somebody（捣鬼；欺骗；例如：You can't count on nathalie. She'll pull a fast one on you. 你不能指望娜塔莉，她会捣鬼的。）
skew: distort 歪曲（His conception of human nature is skewed. 他对人性的看法带有偏见。）
