The world is on pace to set another high temperature benchmark, with 2016 becoming the third year in a row of record heat.

全世界即将创下又一个高温基准，而2016年是气温连续创纪录的第三年。

NASA scientists announced Tuesday that global temperatures so far this year were much higher than in the first half of 2015.

美国航空航天局(NASA)科学家在周二宣布，今年截至目前，全球气温远高于2015年上半年。

Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that while the first six months of 2015 made it the hottest half-year ever recorded, “2016 really has blown that out of the water.” He said calculations showed there was a 99 percent probability that the full year would be hotter than 2015.

NASA戈达德太空研究所(Goddard Institute for Space Studies)所长加文·施密特(Gavin Schmidt)表示，尽管去年上半年是有记录以来最热的半年，但“2016真的把它打得落花流水”。他说，计算显示，今年全年有99%的可能比2015年更热。

Schmidt said the world was now “dancing” with the temperature targets set last year in the Paris climate treaty for nations to limit climate change.

施密特表示，全世界正在与去年巴黎气候条约为控制气候变化而给各国制定的温度目标“共舞”。

He attributed part of the rise in temperatures this year to El Niño, in which warming waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean pump a lot of heat into the atmosphere. El Niño is now ending and water temperatures in the Pacific are dropping, which should lead in 2017 to lower but still historically high temperatures.

他将今年的升温部分归咎于厄尔尼诺现象。发生厄尔尼诺现象时，赤道太平洋地区的海水不断升温，将大量热量输送至大气层。这种现象现在正在结束，太平洋的水温正在下降。在此作用下，2017年的气温应该会有所下降，但从历史角度来看依然属于高温。

Average temperatures for the first six months of this year were about 1.3 degrees Celsius¹, or 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit², above the average in 1880, when global record-keeping began, and “quite close” to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, Schmidt said in a conference call with other NASA scientists.

施密特在与NASA其他科学家召开的电话会议上说，今年上半年的平均气温，比开始记录全球气温情况的1880年的平均气温高出了1.3摄氏度，即2.3华氏度，“相当接近”比工业化前的水平高1.5摄氏度的情况。

The warming in the first half of this year extended across all parts of the planet except for most of Antarctica, Schmidt said. Warming was especially strong in the Arctic, where it had an impact on sea ice coverage³.

施密特说，今年上半年的升温延伸到了世界各个角落，只有南极洲的大部分地区除外。北极的升温特别明显，影响了海冰的覆盖范围。

Walt Meier, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the geographical⁴ extent of the Arctic ice so far this year was the lowest for any half-year since satellite record-keeping began in 1979, largely because warm temperatures caused melting to begin as much as two months earlier than usual.

NASA戈达德太空飞行中心(Goddard Space Flight Center)科学家沃尔特·迈耶(Walt Meier)表示，自1979年开始用卫星记录相关数据以来，今年截至目前是北极冰层覆盖范围最小的半年，主要是因为天气温暖导致冰层比平常提前两个月开始融化。

Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius has special significance because at the Paris climate treaty in December the world agreed to aim to limit the increase in average global temperatures to that amount above preindustrial levels.

升温1.5摄氏度有着特别的意义，因为在去年12月的巴黎气候条约中，世界各国同意把全球平均气温的升高控制在比工业化前的水平高1.5摄氏度以内，并以此为目标。

Schmidt said that although El Niño contributed to some of the increase in temperatures from last year, almost all of the increase since the 1960s was because of human-caused emissions⁵ of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

施密特称，尽管厄尔尼诺现象是造成气温从去年开始上升的原因之一，但自上世纪60年代以来的几乎所有升温都是人类排放的二氧化碳和其他温室气体造成的。