(单词翻译:单击)
An Arctic storm tore a drilling rig loose from its tow ship and forced it aground near Alaska's Kodiak Island this week. Just a few months ago, the rig and another began preliminary drilling of the first offshore oil wells in the Arctic.
本周一场北极风暴致使钻机脱离拖船，迫使它在阿拉斯加的科迪亚克岛附近搁浅。就在几个月前，这个钻井和另一个钻井开始在北极第一海上井田上进行初步钻探。
Shell's efforts to drill in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas have been plagued by problems. But that's just part of the cost of doing energy business in this new era. Consider drilling rig operator Transocean, which agreed to pay the U.S. government $1.4 billion this week for its part in the disastrous three-month long blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
石油巨头壳牌公司在波弗特海和楚科奇海的钻井活动出现了问题。然而这只是新时代能源行业的部分代价而已。由于2010年灾难性的墨西哥湾井喷事件，钻井运营商 Transocean 公司于本周同意支付美国政府14亿美元罚金。
Meanwhile, the thirst for oil drives the mining of tar sands in Alberta and the flooding of old wells with steam or CO2 in California and Texas. And, of course, there's the accelerating accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from all that fossil fuel burning.
与此同时，对石油的渴求驱使着对亚伯达的沥青的开采。在加利福利亚和德州，充满了蒸汽或二氧化碳的老井泛滥。当然，这些化石燃料的燃烧造成大气中温室气体快速积累。
The resulting climate change is part of what makes drilling for oil offshore in the unfreezing Arctic possible, just as it has opened once mythical shipping routes such as the Northwest and Northeast Passages. That’s a positive feedback loop with negative consequences.
由此产生的气候变化使在北极圈海上钻探石油成为可能，就好像它已经打开了神秘的航线，例如，西北和东北通道。然而，积极的回馈和消极的后果会循环出现。
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