国家地理:融化的北极正使一场新的冷战升温(10)

The opening of the new frontier can be traced to a calm morning in August 2007, when a pair of Russian submersibles dropped 14,000 feet to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and planted a flag made of titanium at the North Pole. Images broadcast around the world of the Russian tricolor on the seabed drew quick condemnation in the West.

这片新领域的开发可以追溯到2007年8月的一个安静的上午，一对俄罗斯潜水员下潜了14000英尺并到达了北冰洋的底部。他们把一面钛制的旗子插在了北极。四处传播的俄罗斯三色旗插在海床上的照片很快引起了西方社会的一片谴责。

It had been one of the hottest years on record, and just a month later scientists monitoring the ocean by satellite announced that sea ice had shrunk to the lowest extent ever witnessed. "It was the largest Arctic ice loss in human history and was not predicted by even the most aggressive climate models," said Jonathan Markowitz, a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California. "This shock led everyone to suddenly understand that the ice was rapidly disappearing, and some nations decided to start making moves."

那是历史上最热的一年，就在一个月后科学家们用卫星监测到海面的冰川量减少到前所未有的地步。“这是人类历史上冰川融化面积最大的一次，即使是数据最夸张的气候模型都没能预测到”，乔纳森·马科威茨说道，他是南加利福尼亚大学教授国际关系的一名教授。“这次事件让所有人突然意识到冰川在急剧消失，一些国家决定开始要采取措施了。”

Today Russia has become, by most measures, the dominant power in the Arctic. It has the world's largest fleet capable of operating year-round in extreme northern waters and maintains dozens of military bases above the Arctic Circle. The U.S. maintains one base in the Arctic, an airfield, on borrowed ground in northern Greenland.

今天俄罗斯在很多方面已经成了北极的主宰力量。该国有世界上最强大的舰队，可以在北方的水里作业一年之久，还在北极圈以内建立了十几个基地。而美国在北极只有一个基地，另外在租借地有一个机场。

Russia has stationed new troops in the north, increased submarine activity, and returned warplanes to Arctic skies, where they now routinely buzz NATO airspace. But Markowitz and several other researchers told me Russian activity in the north was a mirror more of internal plans than of global ambitions.

俄罗斯在北方驻扎了一支新的部队，增加了潜艇活动，还在北极上空开起了飞机，他们现在每天都在北约的领空打转。但马科威茨和其它的研究人员认为，俄罗斯在北方的行动只是更多的反映了他们内部的计划，而不是对全球的野心。

Two million Russians inhabit the country's Arctic territory, which has several large cities, including Murmansk and Norilsk. The combined Arctic populations of Canada and the U.S. equal less than a quarter of that number. In the U.S., the largest Arctic town, Utqiagvik, formerly Barrow, is home to just over 4,000 people.

200万俄罗斯人居住在北极的领土上，那里有好几个大城市，包括摩尔曼斯克和诺里尔斯克。居住在北极的加拿大人和美国人加起来都不到这个数字的四分之一。美国位于北极的最大的镇叫乌特起亚格维克，也就是曾经的巴罗，只住了4000多人。