2016-02-12 Climate change ‘to make flights longer’ 气候变化“导致飞行时间加长”

英国雷丁大学的一项新的研究显示，由于天气变化的影响从英国到美国的飞行时间有可能会延长。以下是 BBC Matt McGrath 的报道：

Flights coming from the US to Europe normally benefit from the powerful winds from the jet stream, which can boost speeds by up to 300 km/h. But this new study says that advantage will be undermined by rising emissions of CO2.

Climate change could increase the jet stream wind by 15 per cent. Flights from New York would speed up. But journeys from London would be twice as likely to take over seven hours. The overall result is that round trips would get significantly longer with planes spending an extra 2,000 hours in the air, costing around $22 million every year.

While the study only looked at flights between Europe and the US, the authors believe the same impact is likely to be seen in the southern hemisphere as well.

And with warming expected to increase turbulence, flying to the US could be longer, bumpier and more expensive as airlines seek to recoup their costs though higher ticket prices.

词汇表

boost 提高，增加
undermined 削弱
overall 总体上
significantly 巨大地
impact 影响
turbulence （气流）湍流，颠簸
recoup 补偿

测验

请听报道并回答下列问题。

1. What makes planes from America to Europe go faster at the moment?

2. How much would longer flights cost the airlines if the results of the study are confirmed?

3. True or false? Only flights between New York and London would take longer due to climate change.

4. Why would flights between the US and Europe be bumpier, according to the report?

答案

1. What makes planes from America to Europe go faster at the moment?
The powerful winds from the jet stream.

2. How much would longer flights cost the airlines if the results of the study are confirmed?
The extra hours of planes on the air could cost them around $22 million every year.

3. True or false? Only flights between New York and London would take longer due to climate change.
False. Researchers believe the same would happen to flights going east through the Atlantic in the southern hemisphere.

4. Why would flights between the US and Europe be bumpier, according to the report?
Because one of the effects of climate change could be an increase in turbulence and the plane would ‘shake’ more.