(单词翻译:单击)
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef: 133,000 square miles! Nearly 400 different types of coral!
澳大利亚的大堡礁:13.3万平方英里!近400种不同类型的珊瑚!
And it’s all dead. Wait, no it’s not. Yea, it is. Well maybe a little.
问题是它们都已经死了 。等等,没死,它们没死 。死了,死了 。嗯,可能死了一点点吧 。
Depending on who’s posting on your Facebook feed,
你在Facebook上提这个问题的话,不同的人会给你不同的答案,
the Great Barrier Reef is either doing just fine or it’s teetering on the brink of destruction.
有人会说大堡礁活得好好的,有人则会说它们已经到了毁灭的边缘 。
So should you cancel those tickets to Australia?
那,订的去澳大利亚的票,你要不要取消呢?
Is there even anything left to see?
那里还有珊瑚可看吗?
A coral reef is an underwater structure made of, you guessed it, corals.
珊瑚礁是一种水底结构,其成分是,你猜对了,珊瑚 。
And while those corals might look like a collection of snazzy-looking rocks,
虽然这些珊瑚看起来像一堆外表华丽的岩石,
they’re actually the exoskeletons of living invertebrates.
实际上它们是活生生的无脊椎动物的外骨骼 。
They eat, reproduce, grow, all the stuff anything else living in the water does.
他们会进食,会繁殖,也会生长,总而言之就是生活在水里的生物有的活动它们都有 。
They also drop dead if the conditions they’re living in aren’t quite right.
而且,如果生活的环境不是很适宜的话,它们也会死亡 。
Conveniently, corals have a pretty clear way of showing their health.
珊瑚显示它们健康状况的方式非常地一目了然 。
If everything is A-OK, the corals will all be colored earth-tones, like 1970s living room furniture.
如果一切正常,珊瑚就都会是大地色,70年代客厅家具那种颜色 。
When they get sick, they can become fluorescent.
生病的时候,珊瑚就会变成荧光色 。
And when the coral turns white or becomes “bleached,”
当珊瑚变白或变成“漂白过”的颜色时,
well, then that means it’s dying and that its recovery is in question.
那就意味着它正在消亡,能不能恢复还是个问题 。
So, is The Great Barrier Reef dead or not?
所以,大堡礁真的死了吗?
Well, it suffered a massive bleaching event in each of the past two years
嗯,在过去的两年里,它确实遭受了很大程度的漂白,
as a result of rising ocean temperatures due to global warming.
究其原因,是全球变暖,海洋温度上升引起的 。
The extreme nature of 2016’s bleaching led to this:
2016年那次严重的漂白导致有人发了这样的信息:
a slightly satirical obituary for the reef that wound up going viral.
一份带点儿讽刺意味的讣告,内容是珊瑚礁最终变成了病毒 。
That caused environmental reporters to try and stop the spread of any misinformation,
环境报告员们连忙阻止错误消息的传播,
clarifying that while the reef was in poor health, it wasn’t actually dead.
他们澄清到,虽然珊瑚礁的健康状况的确不佳,但它们其实并没有死亡 。
So, then it’s fine, right? I mean, you also might have seen this in your Facebook feed,
所以意思就是,它们没事喽?对吧?毕竟,大家可能都在Facebook上看到了这条推文,
a report that UNESCO, the United Nation's body that lists the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage Site,
这篇报道称,联合国教科文组织,也就是曾经把大堡礁列入世界文化遗产名录的联合国机构,
did not put the reef on its “List of World Heritage Sites in Danger”.
并未将大堡礁列入“濒危世界遗产名录” 。
Well, that decision was actually criticised on social media,
然而,这一决定在社交媒体上引发了网友们的批判,
pointing out that the reef is absolutely in great danger,
他们认为大堡礁的珊瑚绝对是危在旦夕了,
something UNESCO itself has even previously suggested.
就连联合国教科文组织自己之前也表达过这个意思 。
So who’s right? Scientists? UNESCO? Outside Magazine?
那么,到底谁才是对的呢?是科学家吗?是教科文组织吗?还是局外的杂志呢?
Well, the bleaching events are not normal,
事实上,一次次的漂白时间并非寻常,
before 2016 there were only two bleaching events in the previous 17 years.
2016年之前的17年里仅仅发生过两次漂白事件 。
And while a reef can recover from bleaching, that can take up to a decade,
而且,虽然珊瑚漂白之后还能恢复,但这个过程需要长达十年的时间,
making the back to back events that much more concerning.
这就使得接二连三的漂白时间变得更加令人担忧 。
Fortunately, Australia is trying to do its part,
幸运的是,澳大利亚正努力发挥自己的作用,
allocating over a billion dollars over the next five years to help repair the reef as part of its Reef 2050 plan.
在未来五年内,将拨出10亿美元的资金用来修复珊瑚礁,作为其“珊瑚 2050计划”的一部分 。
And that’s no surprise, given the tourism it attracts and its estimated financial value.
这也不足为奇,毕竟大堡礁给他们带来了那么多的游客和收入 。
So, no, the Great Barrier Reef is not dead.
换句话说,没死,大堡礁还没死 。
But ⅔ of it is damaged with its recovery in question.
但是,其中有三分之二的地方都已经损坏了,而且能不能恢复还是个问题 。
Now if someone just shared this video instead of those other articles, we could maybe all get on the same page.
现在,如果有人只是分享了这个视频而不是分享那些文章,我们或许还能追上他们 。
Please share the video.
摆脱大家把这个视频分享出去嘛 。
The ocean’s full of cool stuff like coral reefs,
海洋里充满了像珊瑚礁这种酷酷的东西,
find out about its mysterious Twilight Zone in our new series, Science in the Extremes.
我们最近出的“科学之最”中介绍了深海神秘的朦胧地带,大家快去看吧 。
Don’t forget to subscribe, and keep coming back to Seeker for more videos.
还有,别忘了订阅我们的频道,回来看更多视频喔 。