有些地方已经变得太热太潮湿，人类无法生存

A combination of heat and humidity so extreme that it’s unendurable isn’t just a problem for the future — those conditions are already here, a new study finds. Off-the-chart readings that were previously thought to be nearly nonexistent on the planet today have popped up around the globe, and unyielding temperatures are becoming more common.

一项新的研究发现，高温和湿度如此极端的结合，以至让人无法忍受，这不仅是未来的问题——这些条件已经存在。以前认为地球上几乎不存在的星表外读数，如今已经在全球范围内出现，不稳定的温度正变得越来越普遍。

Extreme conditions reaching roughly 115 degrees Fahrenheit on the heat-index scale — a measurement of both heat and humidity that’s often referred to as what the temperature “feels like” — doubled between 1979 and 2017, the study found. Humidity and heat are a particularly deadly combination, since humidity messes with the body’s ability to cool itself off by sweating. The findings imply that harsh conditions that scientists foresaw as an impending result of climate change are becoming reality sooner than expected.

研究发现，在1979年至2017年间，极端温度在热指数尺度上达到约115华氏度(通常被称为温度“感觉”的热量和湿度测量值)翻了一番。湿度和热量是一种特别致命的结合，因为湿度会干扰人体通过出汗来降温的能力。这一发现意味着，科学家们预见到的气候变化即将导致的恶劣环境正在比预期的要早得多。

“We may be closer to a real tipping point on this than we think,” Radley Horton, co-author of the new study published today in the journal Science Advances, said in a statement. His previous research had projected that the world wouldn’t experience heat and humidity beyond human tolerance for decades.

今天发表在《科学进展》杂志上的这项新研究的共同作者雷德利·霍顿在一份声明中说：“我们可能比想象中更接近一个真正的临界点。”。他之前的研究预测，几十年内，世界不会经历人类无法忍受的高温和潮湿。