Tom Traeger, High School Earth Science Teacher Hi! My name is Tom Traeger and I am a high school Earth sciences teacher. We're currently learning about climate change in my class. Climate change is part of a complex process. We learn that carbon is naturally released into the atmosphere then absorbed over again and again. And we also learn how human activity can upset this balance. I'm finding that the more I teach my students about climate change the more questions they have.
嗨！我的名字是Tom Traeger，我是一位高中地球科學老師。在我的班上，最近我們正在學氣候變化。氣候變化是一個複雜過程的一環。我們學到碳是被自然地釋放在大氣中然後不斷的被吸收。我們也學到人類活動如何打亂了這樣的平衡。我發現到我愈教學生氣候變化、他們的問題愈多。
Tyler Stenzel, Student Why is carbon dioxide so important?
為什麼二氧化碳這麼地重要？
Ralph Basilio, OCO Deputy Project Manager： Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas and is argued to be a leading contributor to global climate change.
二氧化碳是一個能引起溫室效應的主要氣體，而且被爭議是全球氣候暖化的一項主要促成因素。
Dave Crisp, OCO Principal Investigator …and it's primarily coming from human activities. Some of those human activities that are emitting carbon dioxide in our atmosphere include the burning of fossil fuels. Because of this, we've been building up the concentrations of this gas in our atmosphere very, very rapidly over the last 50 or so years.
…而且它主要來自人類的活動。一些散發二氧化碳到大氣的人類活動包括石化燃料的燃燒。源由於此，在過去50年，我們已經在我們的大氣中非常快速地密集了這種氣體。
Rebecca Abrams, Student How much carbon dioxide are we actually putting into the atmosphere?
有多少二氧化碳我們實際正在注入到大氣中呢？
Charles Miller, OCO Deputy Principal Investigator Every year human activity is responsible for approximately 8 billion metric tons of carbon being released into the atmosphere.
歸因於人類活動而被釋發到大氣中的碳、每年約有80億公噸。
Thomas Mills, Student Just what is a metric ton of carbon?
一公噸的碳是什麼？
Charles Miller, OCO Deputy Principal Investigator One ton of carbon would be the equivalent of say a small convertible sports car. OK? Now, 8 billion of those are put into the atmosphere every year. That's more than one sports car or one ton of carbon being put into the atmosphere for every man, woman and child living on the Earth today.
一噸的碳相當於一輛小型跑車。懂了吧？現在每年有80億那樣的小車被放入大氣中。這比我們現在居住在地球上所有的男人、女人、小孩都在大氣中放入一輛車或一噸碳還要多。
Forrest Bouke, Student So where is all that carbon going?
那麼所有那些碳到哪裡去了呢？
Charles Miller, OCO Deputy Principal Investigator Approximately half of the carbon dioxide that's emitted by human activities remains in the atmosphere. The other half of that carbon dioxide is disappearing. It's being absorbed by the oceans and by the terrestrial biosphere, but we don't know where it's being absorbed.
人類活動散發的二氧化碳大約有一半是留在大氣中。另一半的二氧化碳消失了。它被海洋和陸地生物吸收，但我們不知道它是在什麼地方被吸收。
Tyler Stenzel, Student How are you going to figure out where all that carbon dioxide is going?
你想的出來、所有那些二氧化碳到哪去了嗎？
Ralph Basilio, OCO Deputy Project Manager The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is really NASA's first truly dedicated mission for measuring CO2 in the atmosphere.
二氧化碳太空觀測衛星(OCO)是美國太空總署(NASA)第一個真正用於測量大氣中二氧化碳的任務。
Dave Crisp, OCO Principal Investigator This satellite then will allow us to then find out where the carbon dioxide is coming from where it’s being produced and where it's being emitted into the atmosphere, and where it's being reabsorbed into land plants and into the oceans.
這顆衛星會讓我們因此而找出二氧化碳是從哪裡來的、哪裡被製造出來的、哪裡被散放進大氣中的、和被哪裡的陸地植物和海洋再吸收的。
Charle as Miller, OCO Deputy Principal Investigator The satellite brings back hundreds of thousands of measurements per day and so by making so many more measurements over much more of the surface of the Earth, we can increase our understanding just by overwhelming the problem with more data. 衛星每天傳回來許多的測量數據，而且經由這麼多對地球表面的測量，有了更多的資料，我們就能夠更加瞭解困難的克服。
Rob Deans, Student Well, why is it so important that we know exactly where all the carbon dioxide is going?
為什麼知道二氧化碳去了哪裡是如此的重要？
Ralph Basilio, OCO Deputy Project Manager One of the fundamental goals of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory is to obtain the necessary information and data so that policymakers not only here in the United States, but throughout the world, can make better informed decisions.
觀測衛星(OCO)最主要的目標之一就是要獲得必要的資料，不但是讓美國也是全世界的政策製訂者，能夠做出較好的決策。
Dave Crisp, OCO Principal Investigator OCO measurements could give us an indication of how much longer we can burn fossil fuels at the rate that we're burning them now. How much more CO2 we can add to our atmosphere before it does produce climate changes that are unacceptable. But we need the measurements that spacecraft like OCO will make in order to understand the processes controlling the rate of buildup of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, so that we can understand how it will change in the future.
觀測衛星(OCO) 的測量數據可以給我們一個指標，以現在我們燃燒石化燃料的速度還能有多久。在它產生我們不能承受的氣候變化之前，我們還有多少二氧化碳能夠散放到大氣中。我們需要像OCO太空站所作出的數據，來瞭解控制大氣中二氧化碳累積速度的過程，以致能讓我們瞭解未來它將會如何的變化。
