潮湿的冬天，并没有结束科罗拉多河面临的气候变化风险

潮湿的冬天，并没有结束科罗拉多河面临的气候变化风险

Snow swamped mountains across the US West last winter, leaving enough to thrill skiers into the summer, swelling rivers and streams when it melted, and largely making wildfire restrictions unnecessary. But the wet weather can be misleading.

去年冬天，大雪淹没了美国西部的高山，让滑雪爱好者兴奋不已，导致河流和小溪在融雪时暴涨，这在很大程度上使得限制野火的措施变得没有必要。但潮湿的天气可能会误导人。

Climate change means the region is still getting drier and hotter.

气候变化意味着该地区仍在变得越来越干燥和炎热。

“It only demonstrates the wide swings we have to manage going forward,” James Eklund, former director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, an interstate agency that ensures river water is doled out properly, said earlier this year. “You can put an ice cube — even an excellent ice cube — in a cup of hot coffee, but eventually it’s going to disappear.”

今年早些时候，科罗拉多河上游委员会的前任主任詹姆斯·埃克隆德说：“这只是表明，我们必须设法向前推进。”“你可以在一杯热咖啡里放一块冰块，甚至是一块非常棒的冰块，但最终它会消失。”

For the seven states relying on the Colorado River, which carries melted snow from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California, that means a future with increasingly less water for farms and cities.

对于依赖科罗拉多河的七个州来说，这条河将融化的雪从落基山脉带到加利福尼亚湾，这意味着未来农场和城市的用水将越来越少。

Climate scientists say it’s hard to predict how much less. The river supplies 40 million people in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming as well as a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry.

气候科学家表示，很难预测会减少多少。这条河流为亚利桑那州、加利福尼亚州、科罗拉多州、内华达州、新墨西哥州、犹他州和怀俄明州的4000万人提供水源，同时每年还为农业带来50亿美元的收入。

The US Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday will release its projections for next year’s supply from Lake Mead, a key reservoir that feeds Colorado River water to Nevada, Arizona, California and Mexico.

美国垦务局(US Bureau of)周四将公布对米德湖(Lake Mead)明年供应量的预测。米德湖是科罗拉多河向内华达州、亚利桑那州、加利福尼亚州和墨西哥供水的一个关键水库。

After a wet winter, the agency is not expected to require any states to take cuts to their share of water.

在经历了一个潮湿的冬天后，该机构预计不会要求任何一个州削减其水资源份额。