It is all, in the end, a matter of chemistry. Carbon dioxide is a form of what chemists call inorganic carbon—a simple molecule that is pretty inert. Fossil fuels are made of carbon in its organic form—often complex molecules that are far from inert. Combustion turns these organic complexities into inorganic simplicities: carbon dioxide, water vapour and heat.
根究底，一切都是化。二氧化碳是化家碳之一，非常惰性的分子形式。化石燃料以其有形式的碳成，通常是非惰性的分子。燃此些有的性化成的性：也就是，二氧化碳、水蒸及量。
Of the energy that people pay for (as opposed to the energy that comes from burning firewood) 34% comes from burning oil, 27% from coal and 24% from gas. Nuclear power, hydroelectric power and all other renewables combined provide just 15%. The result of all this fossil fuel use is a modern industrial economy and an annual flow of 9.5bn tonnes of carbon out of the ground and into the atmosphere.
人付的是於，34%自燃石油、27%自煤炭、24%自天然的能源(自燃木柴的能源完全不同)。核、水力及所有其他可再生能源，共提供15%。所有些化石燃料使用的果，是一代工系。因此，每年有95的碳出土、入大中。
Through its effects on the plants, animals and microbes which make up the biosphere, on the climate and on the oceans, this industrial flow of carbon links the Earth’s distant geological past to its future over millennia to come. It is the single clearest piece of evidence for the idea that humans now have a power over the Earth as great as the forces of nature, and that their use of this power has opened up a new geological epoch that some scientists call the Anthropocene.
透其成生物圈之植物、物微生物，及候海洋的影。工的碳流，地球的地去未千年的未起。有此解，目前人於地球，具有一大自然力量一大的力量，及人有此力量的使用，已一，有些科家人世(又人新世，是一尚未被正式可的地概念)的新地年代。是一最清晰的部分。
To appreciate the importance of this industrial carbon flow, you have to understand the carbon cycle in which it sits. At first, this context seems reassuring. Almost all microbes, nd all animals, get the energy that they need for life from breaking up food made of organic molecules.
了充分解工碳流的重要性，必解其所的碳循。起初，情似乎令人放心。乎所有微生物及物，皆分解由有分子成的食物，得生命所需的能量。
The flame-free, internalised form of combustion by which they do so, which biologists call respiration, produces much more carbon dioxide than industry does.
它做之火焰、化的燃形式，生物家之呼吸，生的二氧化碳比工多得多。
But respiration has a counterpart: photosynthesis, through which plants, algae and some bacteria use sunlight to turn inorganic carbon back into organic molecules. These new molecules are the raw material from which almost all living things on Earth are made; the sunlight stored within them is the source of all the energy that is released through respiration when those living things are eaten.
不，呼吸有一物：也就是，光合作用。透光合作用，植物、藻及一些菌利用光，碳回有分子。些新分子是造地球上，乎所有生物的原料。被存在其中的光，是那些生物被吃掉，透呼吸被出的所有能量源。
The other great flow of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is similarly balanced. Carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater naturally diffuses into the air above. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolves into seawater. Left to themselves, the two flows balance (see diagram).
二氧化碳入大中的另一股大流，同是平衡的。溶解於海水中的二氧化碳，自然地散到水面上的空中。大中的二氧化碳溶解到海水中。使得流，本身持平衡()。
These flows create a system in what is called dynamic equilibrium; if you push it away from current conditions, it pulls itself back. If atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels go up, the rate at which carbon dioxide dissolves into the “sinks” provided by the oceans and plants will also, all things being equal, go up.
在被的平衡中，些流生了一系。倘若其推前的，它自行拉回。倘若大中的二氧化碳水平上升，那二氧化碳溶解到，由海洋及植物提供之“”(大量吸收物的系)中的速度，也上升。也就是，一切等上升。
This reduces the surplus, restoring the status quo. Until the 19th century this dynamic equilibrium had kept atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels pretty stable for most of the 10,000 years since the end of the most recent ice age.
少多的量，恢。打最近之冰河期束以1年，直到19世，平衡，一直持大中的二氧化碳水平相定，大部分的。
The plants-and-food branch of the carbon cycle, though, is not quite perfect. Like the little bit left in the corner of the sardine can that you can’t get out, not all the organic matter made through photosynthesis gets used by creatures that respire. Some ends up buried in sediments instead.
然，碳循的植物食物部分，不十分完美。就像於沙丁罐角落所剩下，法取出的一。非所有透光合作用生的有物，都被呼吸的生物所利用。因此，有些最被埋在沉物中。
The amount of carbon which leaks out of the biosphere this way is tiny compared with the flow returned to the atmosphere. But the leak has gone unstopped for a very long time, and that has allowed the Earth’s crust to build up a significant store of organic matter.
返回大中的流量相下，以此方式漏出之生物圈的碳量，是微不足道的。不，漏一直持不，一段很的。而且，已使得地能聚集，相大量之有物的藏。
Now human industry’s use of the most concentrated and readily available deposits of these fossil fuels has returned to the carbon cycle in a couple of centuries a fair fraction of what was stashed away over hundreds of millions of years. It is the addition of this new source with no new sink that has knocked the cycle out of whack.
目前，人工上述化石燃料，最集中且最可容易得的藏使用，在世中，一直返回到年，被藏之相部分的碳循中。是已破此循之有新的增加部分。
The world’s seas and plants have tried their best to keep things in equilibrium, responding to rising levels of carbon dioxide by stashing more away in the biosphere and oceans. They suck up roughly half of all the extra carbon dioxide that industry puts into the atmosphere. But that is as much as they can do. And so the amount in the atmosphere grows.
世界上的海洋及植物，一直其全力保持平衡。也就是，在生物圈及海洋中，藉由藏更多，上升的二氧化碳水平作出反。它大吸收了，工排放到大中之所有外二氧化碳的半。不，那是它所能吸收的。因此，大中的量逐增多。
This intensification of the carbon cycle has side-effects. Plants fed with extra carbon dioxide tend to grow more, if circumstances allow. Current estimates suggest the global rate of photosynthesis is 3-7% higher than it was 30 years ago; satellite images show the Earth is getting greener.
上述碳循的增，具有多副作用。因遭提供外二氧化碳的植物，倘若境可，向得更多。目前的估暗示，全球光合作用速率，比30 年前高3-7%；星像示，地球越越。
Such “carbon-dioxide fertilisation” has improved the yields of some crops, and the growth of some forests and other ecosystems. This is not enough to compensate for the damage climate change does to agriculture by higher temperatures and altered rainfall. But, on balance, it is hard to see it as much of a problem.
“二氧化碳的施肥”已改善了一些作物的生量，及一些森林及其他生系的成。不足以，候致高及改降雨量，造成的害。不，的，很其一了不起的。
The same cannot be said of the increased flow into the ocean sink. More dissolved carbon dioxide makes seawater more acidic. How bad this acidification will prove is open to debate. But the process will probably be very damaging to some ecosystems, including reefs already stressed by rising temperatures.
增多之入海洋的流量，情非如此。愈多溶解的二氧化碳，使得海水愈酸。酸化有多糟糕，有待商榷。不，此程一些生系，可能是非常具破性，包括已受到度上升力的珊瑚礁。
Even if fossil-fuel use were not warming the climate, this acidification would in itself count as a frightening global change.
即使化石燃料的使用有使候暖化，酸化本身也被，一人的全球化。
The growth of the two carbon sinks is also, left to itself, unsustainable. Warm water absorbs less carbon dioxide than cold water. So as the oceans warm their ability to offset emissions weakens. As to the land sink, higher temperatures speed up microbial respiration, especially in soils, more reliably than higher carbon-dioxide levels speed up photosynthesis.
任其自生自，碳的成，也是不可持的。水比冷水吸收少的二氧化碳。因此，著海洋暖化，它抵消排放的能力弱。至於地，高的度加速微生物的呼吸作用，特是在土壤中。比高的二氧化碳水平，加速光合作用更可靠。
The Paris agreement of 2015 calls for increases to the atmosphere’s carbon-dioxide level caused by fossil fuels to end by the second half of this century. Even if that deadline is not met, some mixture of policy, catastrophe and/or resource depletion will eventually bring the rise to an end. The flows of carbon between the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere will then come back into balance.
2015年的巴黎要求，在本世下半，束由化石燃料引起之大二氧化碳水平的升高。即使最後期限有到，政策、及/或源枯竭的某混合，最也致束上升。在那情下，大、海洋生物圈之的碳流，恢平衡。
But the equilibrium thus restored will not be the pre-industrial one. The carbon-dioxide level will settle down not far short of whatever the 21st century’s peak level turns out to be. Which means that temperatures will stay high, too—with all that entails for crops, ice caps and the like.
不，如上所述恢的平衡，不是工化前的平衡。二氧化碳的水平定下，不然是，不低於21世的峰值水平。意味著，度也持於高。管，那是作物、冰等等，以承受的度。
This plateau will eventually subside. The erosion of the Earth’s crust exposes silicate minerals that react with carbon dioxide, eventually producing solid carbonate minerals from which the carbon cannot readily escape. But this “chemical weathering” works on a much longer timescale than the sinks.
最，此定消失。地的侵曝露了，二氧化碳反的矽酸物。最，生碳法易漏出的固碳酸物。不，“化化”以比上述更的起作用。
Geochemists think it would take 1,000 years for a post-fossil-fuel carbon-dioxide level of around 550 parts per million to be brought back below today’s 415ppm towards a mid-20th century level of 315ppm.
地球化家，化石燃料後大百分之550的二氧化碳水平，花1千年，才能恢到低於今天的415 ppm水平，及朝向20世中期的315 ppm水平。
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What, though, if the Anthropocene transitioned from a past dominated by anthropogenic carbon sources to a future characterised by anthropogenic sinks? There are two reasons why this might be appealing. One is that some fossil-fuel emissions may be very hard to eliminate from the economy.
不，倘若人世，以人之碳源主的去，到以人之碳特色的未，怎呢？有，是有吸引力的原因。一是，一些化石燃料的排放，可能很此系消除。
If they could be counterbalanced by “negative emissions” that take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere at a similar rate, the Paris goal of stopping any further increase to the carbon-dioxide level would be far easier to meet.
倘若它能藉由，以相似的速度，二氧化碳大中取出的“排放”被抵消，那停止二氧化碳水平任何一步增加之巴黎的目，是更容易。
The second attraction of the idea stems from the other Paris goal, that of keeping the global temperature increase, compared to pre-industrial times, well below 2°C. Doing this simply by reducing emissions would require much steeper cuts than any seen to date, and they would have to continue for decades.
此想法的第二吸引力，源自巴黎的另一目，即工化前期相下，保持全球的度上升，低於2°C。藉由少排放做到一，需要比迄今止任何被思考之更高很多的削，而且它必持十年。
If the world developed negative-emission technologies, more gentle emissions cuts in the near future could be made up for by negative emissions later on, which would bring the carbon-dioxide level back down from its excessive peak.
倘若世界出排放的技，那在不久的未，和的排可能被以後的排放上。使二氧化碳水平，其高的峰值回落。
Some forms of negative emission look fairly benign: farming in ways that make the soil richer in organic carbon; restoring degraded forests and planting new ones.
某些形式的排放看相良性：以使土壤更富含有碳的方式耕作；恢遭害的森林植新的森林。
More ambitious is the idea of harnessing photosynthesis to industry; growing plantation crops, burning them to generate electricity and sequestering the carbon dioxide given off underground, rather than letting it out into the atmosphere, an approach called bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, or beccs.
更雄心勃勃的是，光合作用利用到工的想。植植()作物、燃它及隔地下出的二氧化碳，而不是任由其入大中。是一具有碳捕及存，被生物能源的方法，也就是beccs。
Then there is the idea of stripping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere with renewably powered open-air chemical engineering: “direct air capture”, or dac. And there is also the possibility of helping along the chemical weathering proces by grinding up silicate rocks into fine dusts, thus speeding up the reactions that store carbon dioxide away in stable minerals.
在此情下，有使用可再生力的露天化工程，大中除去二氧化碳的想：“直接空捕”，也就是dac。因此，也有藉由矽酸岩石磨成粉，促使化化程展的可能性。而加速，二氧化碳存於定物中的反。
There are two big problems with these ideas. One is the scale at which they need to operate to make a difference. Imagine that in 2060 the world had, through a vast effort, renounced 90% of its fossil-fuel use. To offset the remaining recalcitrant 10% would still require a sink capable of soaking up about 1bn tonnes of carbon a year.
使用些想有大。一是它起作用所需作的模。想像一下，世界透巨大的努力，在2060年，已放90%化石燃料的使用。了抵消剩之理的10%，仍然需要一，每年能吸收大10碳的。
The industrial systems for taking carbon dioxide from the air currently on the drawing board operate at barely a thousandth of that scale. Creating such a flow through photosynthesis would require a plantation about the size of Mexico.
目前板上，空中提取二氧化碳的工系，能以上述模的千分之一作。透光合作用生的流，需要大墨西哥大小的植。
This leads to the second problem. Imaginary backstops are dangerous. If countries build negative emissions into their thinking, they will cut emissions more slowly on the basis that any overshoot can be mopped up later.
致了第二。想像中的後盾是危的。倘若各排放入其想中，他更慢地削排放。因，基於任何超越期望高的目，後都被抹掉。
But they will not necessarily undertake the huge efforts required to make those negative emissions a reality. The Anthropocene fact that humans are now integral to the processes of the planet does not mean that they can change those processes without great effort—let alone just through wishful thinking.
不，他未必著手行，使那些排放成一事，所需的巨大努力。目前，人是地球程不可或缺之一部分的人世事。不意味著，有巨大的努力，他就能改那些程。遑，只是透一情的想法。
址：https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2020/05/09/humanitys-immense-impact-on-earths-climate-and-carbon-cycle
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