Already, winter pack ice that covers the fjords is no longer stable enough for dog sledding and snowmobile traffic in many areas. Winter fishing, essential to feeding families, is becoming hazardous or impossible.
在很多地区，冬季覆盖在峡湾里的浮冰已经不够稳固，狗拉雪橇和摩托雪橇都无法通行了。冬季捕鱼是为很多家庭提供食物的重要手段，但现在却变得很危险，甚至不可能了。
It has long been known that Greenland sat upon vast mineral lodes, and the Danish government has mapped them intermittently for decades. Niels Bohr, Denmark’s Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist and a member of the Manhattan Project, visited Narsaq in 1957 because of its uranium deposits.
格陵兰岛地下蕴藏着巨大的矿藏这一点久为人知。几十年来，丹麦政府已经断断续续地绘制了这些矿藏的分布图。参与过曼哈顿计划(Manhattan Project)的丹麦核物理学家、诺贝尔奖得主尼尔斯?玻尔(Niels Bohr)曾在1957年造访纳萨克，原因是这里有铀矿藏。
But previous attempts at mining mostly failed, proving too expensive in the inclement conditions. Now, warming has altered the equation.
然而，之前的开采尝试几乎都失败了，事实证明在严酷的环境下采矿，成本过于高昂。如今，气候变暖让这个等式发生了变化。
Greenland’s Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum, charged with managing the boom, currently has 150 active licenses for mineral exploration, up from 20 a decade ago. Altogether, companies spent $100 million exploring Greenland’s deposits last year, and several are applying for licenses to begin construction on new mines, bearing gold, iron and zinc and rare earths. There are also foreign companies exploring for offshore oil.
负责对开发热潮进行管理的格陵兰矿产与石油管理局(Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum)目前发放的有效的矿产勘探许可证有150份，而十年前仅为20份。去年，各企业总计投入了1亿美元用于勘探格陵兰岛的矿藏。有几家公司正在申请在新矿藏进行建设的许可证。这些新矿蕴藏着金、铁、锌和稀土。也有一些外国公司在勘探近海石油。
“For me, I wouldn’t mind if the whole ice cap disappears,” said Ole Christiansen, the chief executive of NunamMinerals, Greenland’s largest homegrown mining company, as he picked his way along a proposed gold mining site up the fjord from Nuuk, Greenland’s capital. “As it melts, we’re seeing new places with very attractive geology.”
“就我而言，我不介意整个冰盖都消失。”格陵兰岛最大的本土矿业公司NunamMinerals首席执行官奥勒?克里斯蒂安森(Ole Christiansen)说。他正从格陵兰岛首都努克沿着峡湾前往一处提议的金矿开采地。“随着冰盖的融化，我们看到了地貌特征更引人入胜的新地方。”
The Black Angel lead and zinc mine, which closed in 1990, is applying to reopen this year, said Jorgen T. Hammeken-Holm, who oversees licensing at the country’s mining bureau, “because the ice is in retreat and you’re getting much more to explore.”
在格陵兰矿务局负责许可证发放的官员约尔延?T?哈梅肯-霍尔姆(Jorgen T. Hammeken-Holm)表示，1990年关停的黑天使(Black Angel)铅锌矿，正在申请今年重新开矿。她说，“因为冰川正在消退，可供勘探的地方越来越多了。”
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