红海底部冒出的大气污染源

Hydrocarbon gases bubbling from the bottom of the Red Sea are polluting the atmosphere at a rate equivalent to the emissions of some large fossil fuel exporting countries, researchers said Tuesday.

研究人员周二表示，从红海底部冒出的碳氢化合物气体对大气的污染速度，相当于一些大型化石燃料出口国的排放量。

The gases seeping from the waters - which are ringed by the resorts and ports of several countries, including Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia - then mix with emissions from industrial shipping and turned into noxious pollutants that are very harmful to human health.

这些从海水中渗出的气体被埃及、以色列、约旦和沙特阿拉伯等几个国家的度假胜地和港口所包围，然后与工业船舶的排放混合，变成对人类健康非常有害的有害污染物。

The Middle East holds more than half of the world's oil and gas reserves and the intense fossil fuel exploitation that takes place there, and the region releases enormous amounts of gaseous pollutants into the atmosphere.

中东地区拥有世界上一半以上的石油和天然气储量，而且那里的化石燃料开采十分密集，该地区向大气中排放大量的气态污染物。

But during a 2017 expedition around the Gulf, researchers at the Max Plank Institute for Chemistry noticed that levels of ethane and propane in the air above the Northern Red Sea were up to 40 times higher than predicted, even accounting for regional manmade emissions.

但在2017年的一次海湾考察中，马克斯普朗克化学研究所(Max Plank Institute for Chemistry)的研究人员注意到，北部红海上空的空气中乙烷和丙烷的含量比预测的高了40倍，甚至包括了该地区的人为排放。

The team analysed possible sources for the gas emissions, including traffic, agriculture, burning of biomass, and power generation from hydrocarbons.

该小组分析了可能的气体排放来源，包括交通、农业、生物质燃烧和碳氢化合物发电。

They came to an unexpected conclusion: the two gases had to be seeping out of the sea bed after escaping natural subterranean oil and gas reservoirs.

他们得出了一个意想不到的结论:这两种气体一定是从天然地下油气藏中逸出的。

They were then carried by currents to the surface, where they mix with another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, which is emitted in high amounts by industrial shipping.

然后它们被洋流带到表面，与另一种由工业船运大量排放的温室气体一氧化二氮混合。

The resulting gas compounds are extremely harmful to human health, according to the team's study, published in Nature Communications.

根据发表在《自然通讯》(Nature Communications)杂志上的研究，由此产生的气体化合物对人类健康极其有害。

I have to admit that I was surprised myself with these results, lead author Efstratios Boursoukidis told AFP.

“我必须承认，我自己也对这些结果感到惊讶。”该研究的第一作者ef层莱斯·布尔苏基迪斯告诉法新社。

We spent almost two years working on this dataset to confidently prove that the emissions were coming some two kilometres below the sea surface.

“我们花了近两年的时间来研究这个数据，确信排放物来自海平面以下约两公里处。”

The team calculated that the rate of ethane and propane leakage was "comparable in magnitude" to those of several hydrocarbon exporting nations, such as the United Arab Emirates or Kuwait.

该小组计算出，乙烷和丙烷的泄漏率与几个碳氢化合物出口国(如阿联酋或科威特)的泄漏率“大小相当”。

The emissions result in another source of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas, the study said.

研究称，这些排放是大气中一种强有力的温室气体——甲烷的另一个主要来源。

The situation is exacerbated by nitrous oxide pollution from the large number of shipping containers passing through the northern Red Sea, one of Earth's busiest transport lanes.

作为地球上最繁忙的运输通道之一，因大量的集装箱经过北红海，一氧化二氮的污染使情况更加恶化。

And it's only likely to get worse as the route gets busier.

而且，随着线路变得繁忙，情况只会变得更糟。