anthropogenic
北極での気温の上昇が止まらないようです。今年の北極での気温が例年のこの時期と比べて20℃近く高くなる可能性があります。専門家によるとこのような気温変化は人間の営みが原因となっている可能性があると主張しました。
記事の中で気になった単語は"anthropogenic"です。Oxford Dictionaries.comには"(chiefly of environmental pollution and pollutants) originating in human activity"と定義されております。人間の活動に起因する環境汚染を表現するときに用いる用語のようです。(Ume)
Arctic heatwave could break records
Dr Friederike Otto, a senior researcher at Oxford's Environmental Change Institute told BBC News that in pre-industrial times "a heatwave like this would have been extremely rare - we would expect it to occur about every 1,000 years".
Dr Otto added that scientists are "very confident" that the weather patterns were linked to anthropogenic climate change.
"We have used several different climate modelling approaches and observations," she told BBC News.
"And in all our methods, we find the same thing; we cannot model a heatwave like this without the anthropogenic signal."
Temperatures are forecast to peak on Christmas Eve around the North Pole - at near-freezing.
The warm air from the North Atlantic is forecast to flow all the way to the North Pole via Spitsbergen, giving rise to clouds that prevent heat from escaping.
