This is our life with bees, and this is our life without bees.
有蜜蜂，我们的生活是这样的，没有蜜蜂，我们的生活会变成这样。
Bees are the most important pollinators of our fruits and vegetables and flowers and crops like alfalfa hay that feed our farm animals.
蜜蜂是水果，蔬菜，花朵的最重要的传粉者，我们喂给农场动物的苜蓿草，也是由蜜蜂授粉的。
More than one third of the world's crop production is dependent on bee pollination.
世界上超过三分之一的农产品都是依靠蜜蜂来传授花粉。
But the ironic thing is that bees are not out there pollinating our food intentionally.
但是讽刺的是，蜜蜂并不是有意地为我们的食物传授花粉的。
They're out there because they need to eat.
他们在那里是因为它们需要进食。
Bees get all of the protein they need in their diet from pollen and all of the carbohydrates they need from nectar.
蜜蜂从花粉中获得每日所需的蛋白质，并从花蜜中获得所需的碳水化合物。
They're flower-feeders, and as they move from flower to flower, basically on a shopping trip at the local floral mart,
它们依靠花朵生存，当它们从一朵花移到另一朵花的时候，就像在逛当地的鲜花市场，
they end up providing this valuable pollination service.
它们不经意间也传授了花粉。
In parts of the world where there are no bees, or where they plant varieties that are not attractive to bees,
在世界上没有蜜蜂的地区，或者某些地区所种植的树木花草对蜜蜂不具吸引力，
people are paid to do the business of pollination by hand.
必须雇佣工人进行人工授粉。
These people are moving pollen from flower to flower with a paintbrush.
这些人用刷子将花粉从一朵花转移到另一朵花上。
Now this business of hand pollination is actually not that uncommon.
如今，手工传授花粉这一工作其实并不少见。
Tomato growers often pollinate their tomato flowers with a hand-held vibrator. Now this one's the tomato tickler.
西红柿种植者通常用手持振动仪帮助西红柿花传授花粉。这是一张西红柿花粉振动器的照片。
Now this is because the pollen within a tomato flower is held very securely within the male part of the flower, the anther,
这是因为西红柿花的花粉被紧紧锁在花的雄性部分，即花药之中，
and the only way to release this pollen is to vibrate it.
释放花粉的唯一方法是震动花药。
So bumblebees are one of the few kinds of bees in the world that are able to hold onto the flower and vibrate it,
大黄蜂是世界上少数蜜蜂中可以握住花朵并将其震动的，
and they do this by shaking their flight muscles at a frequency similar to the musical note C.
他们通过抖动飞行肌来震动花朵，震动的频率类似于音乐的C大调。
So they vibrate the flower, they sonicate it, and that releases the pollen in this efficient swoosh,
它们震动花朵，用近声波的频率震动花朵，在高效的振动中，释放花粉，
and the pollen gathers all over the fuzzy bee's body, and she takes it home as food.
花粉因而聚集到毛茸茸的蜜蜂身上，她把花粉作为食物带回家。
Tomato growers now put bumblebee colonies inside the greenhouse to pollinate the tomatoes
现在，西红柿种植者为了授粉西红柿，把大黄蜂的蜂巢放在温室里
because they get much more efficient pollination when it's done naturally and they get better quality tomatoes.
因为它们在自然授粉时更有成效，他们从而得到更好的西红柿。
So there's other, maybe more personal reasons, to care about bees.
然而还有其他更个人的理由去关心蜂。
There's over 20,000 species of bees in the world, and they're absolutely gorgeous.
全世界拥有超过20000个品种的蜂，它们非常让人赞叹。
These bees spend the majority of their life cycle hidden in the ground
这些蜂度过其生命周期的大部分，隐藏在地下或在一个空心茎内，
or within a hollow stem and very few of these beautiful species have evolved highly social behavior like honeybees.
而且很少数这些美丽的品种已经像蜜蜂一样有高度进化的社会行为。
Now honeybees tend to be the charismatic representative for the other 19,900-plus species
相对于其他19900多的蜂种，蜜蜂是超凡魅力的代表，
because there's something about honeybees that draws people into their world.
因为有一些关于蜜蜂的事情吸引人们进入他们的世界。
Humans have been drawn to honeybees since early recorded history, mostly to harvest their honey, which is an amazing natural sweetener.
人类自早期有记录的历史开始就被蜜蜂所吸引，主要是为了收获他们的蜜，蜜是很棒的的天然甜味剂。
I got drawn into the honeybee world completely by a fluke.
我被吸引到蜜蜂世界完全源于偶然。
I was 18 years old and bored, and I picked up a book in the library on bees and I spent the night reading it.
我那时18岁，很无聊，我在图书馆随便拿起一本关于蜂的书，当晚阅读了这本书。
I had never thought about insects living in complex societies.
我从没想过昆虫生活在复杂的社会。
It was like the best of science fiction come true.
简直就像畅销科幻小说的翻版。
And even stranger, there were these people, these beekeepers, that loved their bees like they were family,
更奇怪的是，有一群人，一群爱蜂如亲的养蜂人，
and when I put down the book, I knew I had to see this for myself.
当我读完那本书，我觉得非得亲眼看看不可。
So I went to work for a commercial beekeeper, a family that owned 2,000 hives of bees in New Mexico. And I was permanently hooked.
所以我到一家专业蜂场工作，业主一家在新墨西哥州有2千个蜂箱。我从此无法自拔。
Honeybees can be considered a super-organism,
蜜蜂群可说是一种超级社会组织，
where the colony is the organism and it's comprised of 40,000 to 50,000 individual bee organisms.
群体本身就是这个组织，由4到5万只单独个体组成。
Now this society has no central authority. Nobody's in charge.
蜜蜂的社会组织没有最高权威。个体间都是平等的。
So how they come to collective decisions, and how they allocate their tasks and divide their labor,
它们是怎么达成集体决策？怎么分配任务和分工？
how they communicate where the flowers are, all of their collective social behaviors are mindblowing.
还有它们如何传达花的位置，它们的种种集体社会行为都令人惊叹。
My personal favorite, and one that I've studied for many years, is their system of healthcare.
我个人的最爱，也是我研究多年的部分，是他们的医疗保健系统。
So bees have social healthcare. So in my lab, we study how bees keep themselves healthy.
没错，蜜蜂有社会保健制度。我的实验室研究蜜蜂怎么保持健康。
For example, we study hygiene, where some bees are able to locate
例如我们研究卫生，有些蜜蜂能够找出病号，
and weed out sick individuals from the nest, from the colony, and it keeps the colony healthy.
把它们赶出蜂巢和蜂群，借此维持群体健康。
And more recently, we've been studying resins that bees collect from plants.
最近我们研究树脂，蜜蜂从植物采集树脂。
So bees fly to some plants and they scrape these very, very sticky resins off the leaves,
它们飞到某些植物上，把树叶上粘稠的树脂刮下来，
and they take them back to the nest where they cement them into the nest architecture where we call it propolis.
然后带回蜂巢，用来构筑蜂巢结构，就是我们所谓的蜂胶。
We've found that propolis is a natural disinfectant. It's a natural antibiotic.
蜂胶已证实是天然的杀菌剂。是天然的抗生素。
It kills off bacteria and molds and other germs within the colony, and so it bolsters the colony health and their social immunity.
能杀死细菌、霉菌以及蜂群里的其他病菌，所以蜂胶改善了群体健康和免疫力。
Humans have known about the power of propolis since biblical times.
人类从圣经时代就已知个中奥妙。
We've been harvesting propolis out of bee colonies for human medicine, but we didn't know how good it was for the bees.
为了医药用途，我们从蜂窝采集蜂胶，这由来已久，但过去我们不知道它对蜜蜂有多大好处。
So honeybees have these remarkable natural defenses that have kept them healthy and thriving for over 50 million years.
蜜蜂以这些非凡的天然防御机制，保持族群健康兴旺，已有五千多万年的时间。
So seven years ago, when honeybee colonies were reported to be dying en masse, first in the United States,
所以七年前，美国开始传出有关蜂群大量死亡的报道，
it was clear that there was something really, really wrong.
很明显，情况可谓大大的不妙。
In our collective conscience, in a really primal way, we know we can't afford to lose bees.
若本能地以人类的共同文化来看，就会知道失去蜜蜂的后果不堪设想。
So what's going on? Bees are dying from multiple and interacting causes, and I'll go through each of these.
到底发生什么事了？其实蜂群死亡缘于很多交互的因素，我会逐一说明。
The bottom line is, bees dying reflects a flowerless landscape and a dysfunctional food system.
但根本的问题是，蜜蜂的死亡反映了环境中缺乏花朵还有失能的粮食系统。
Now we have the best data on honeybees, so I'll use them as an example.
至于蜜蜂，则有最可靠的数据，我会以这些数据为例。
In the United States, bees in fact have been in decline since World War II.
以美国来看，蜜蜂数量自二战后持续减少。
We have half the number of managed hives in the United States now compared to 1945.
目前美国养蜂场的蜂箱数是1945年的一半。
We're down to about two million hives of bees, we think.
我们估计总数已减少到约2百万箱。
And the reason is, after World War II, we changed our farming practices.
原因是二战后我们改变了耕作方式。
We stopped planting cover crops. We stopped planting clover and alfalfa,
我们不再种像三叶草和苜蓿这样的覆土作物，
which are natural fertilizers that fix nitrogen in the soil, and instead we started using synthetic fertilizers.
它们是能把土壤中的氮素锁住的天然肥料，而我们却以化肥取代。
Clover and alfalfa are highly nutritious food plants for bees.
但对蜜蜂而言，三叶草和苜蓿的营养价值很高。
And after World War II, we started using herbicides to kill off the weeds in our farms.
另外，二战后除草剂的施用，除去了农场上的杂草。
Many of these weeds are flowering plants that bees require for their survival.
但其中很多是开花植物，也是蜜蜂生存命脉。
And we started growing larger and larger crop monocultures.
另外，我们开始种植面积越来越大的单一作物。
Now we talk about food deserts, places in our cities, neighborhoods that have no grocery stores.
我们现在讨论的是食物沙漠，在我们城市的很多地方，附近没有杂货店。

The very farms that used to sustain bees are now agricultural food deserts, dominated by one or two plant species like corn and soybeans.
那曾经维持蜜蜂生计的农田，现在成了农作物荒漠，只有一两种植物，例如玉米和大豆。
Since World War II, we have been systematically eliminating many of the flowering plants that bees need for their survival.
从二战开始，我们一直在系统地消除很多开花植物，蜜蜂赖以生存的植物。
And these monocultures extend even to crops that are good for bees, like almonds.
这种单一栽培甚至延伸到对蜜蜂有益的作物，像杏树。
Fifty years ago, beekeepers would take a few colonies, hives of bees into the almond orchards, for pollination,
五十年前，为了授粉，养蜂人会放几箱蜂箱在杏树中间，
and also because the pollen in an almond blossom is really high in protein. It's really good for bees.
同时也因为杏树开花期的花粉富含蛋白质营养。这对蜜蜂来说很有益。
Now, the scale of almond monoculture demands that most of our nation's bees,
现在，杏树单一耕作的规模，要求我们全国大多数的蜜蜂，
over 1.5 million hives of bees, be transported across the nation to pollinate this one crop.
超过150万蜂箱的蜜蜂，由全国运送到这里，为这单一作物授粉。
And they're trucked in in semi-loads, and they must be trucked out,
它们被装入大货柜车运来，它们还必须被运走，
because after bloom, the almond orchards are a vast and flowerless landscape.
因为开花期后，杏树果园会是很大的一片无花地景。
Bees have been dying over the last 50 years, and we're planting more crops that need them.
过去的50年间，蜜蜂一直在消亡，而我们种植了更多需要它们的植物。
There has been a 300 percent increase in crop production that requires bee pollination.
需要蜜蜂的植物已经增长了超过300%。
And then there's pesticides. After World War II, we started using pesticides on a large scale,
接下来是杀虫剂。二战后，我们开始大规模使用杀虫剂，
and this became necessary because of the monocultures that put out a feast for crop pests.
这变成必要的，因为单一耕作模式为害虫提供了一顿盛宴。
Recently, researchers from Penn State University have started looking at the pesticide residue in the loads of pollen that bees carry home as food,
最近，来自宾夕法尼亚州立大学的研究人员开始研究花粉上的杀虫剂残留物，这些蜜蜂将当做食物带回家的花粉，
and they've found that every batch of pollen that a honeybee collects has at least six detectable pesticides in it,
他们发现，蜜蜂收集的每批花粉都至少含有六种可测的杀虫剂，
and this includes every class of insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and even inert
覆盖了各类杀虫剂，除草剂，除菌剂甚至杀虫剂中，
and unlabeled ingredients that are part of the pesticide formulation that can be more toxic than the active ingredient.
惰性的和未标示的成分，都可能比活性成份更有毒性。
This small bee is holding up a large mirror. How much is it going to take to contaminate humans?
小小的蜜蜂正举着一面巨大的镜子。要危害到人类，这个量需要多少呢？
One of these class of insecticides, the neonicontinoids, is making headlines around the world right now.
其中的一类杀虫剂，新类烟碱化合物，正在全世界各大头条中出现。
You've probably heard about it. This is a new class of insecticides.
你可能听说过。这是一类新的杀虫剂。
It moves through the plant so that a crop pest, a leaf-eating insect, would take a bite of the plant and get a lethal dose and die.
它包含在植物中，所以害虫，食叶害虫，只要吃一口植物就会得到致命剂量的毒素并死去。
If one of these neonics, we call them, is applied in a high concentration,
如果其中之一的neonics，被高浓度的应用，
such as in this ground application, enough of the compound moves through the plant and gets into the pollen and the nectar,
比如在这耕地应用，足够的化合物会通过植物到达花粉和花蜜中，
where a bee can consume, in this case, a high dose of this neurotoxin that makes the bee twitch and die.
蜜蜂会在那里进食，在本例中，高剂量的这类神经毒素会使得蜜蜂抽搐并死去。
In most agricultural settings, on most of our farms, it's only the seed that's coated with the insecticide,
在大多数农业状况下，在我们的多数农场中，只有种子会被涂上杀虫剂，
and so a smaller concentration moves through the plant and gets into the pollen and nectar, and if a bee consumes this lower dose,
所以只有较小浓度通过植物到达花粉和花蜜中，如果蜜蜂摄入较少剂量，可能什么都不发生，
either nothing happens or the bee becomes intoxicated and disoriented and she may not find her way home.
或是让蜜蜂中毒并失去方向，它可能找不到回家的路。
And on top of everything else, bees have their own set of diseases and parasites.
在所有这些原因之外，蜜蜂有它们自己的疾病和寄生虫。
Public enemy number one for bees is this thing. It's called varroa destructor. It's aptly named.
蜜蜂的头号公敌是这个。它叫做瓦螨。它被很巧妙的命名。
It's this big, blood-sucking parasite that compromises the bee's immune system and circulates viruses.
它是大型吸血寄生虫，损害蜜蜂的免疫系统，并传播病毒。
Let me put this all together for you. I don't know what it feels like to a bee to have a big, bloodsucking parasite running around on it,
我想为各位整理一下。我无法与蜜蜂感同身受，体会大型吸血寄生虫在身上乱窜的感觉，
and I don't know what it feels like to a bee to have a virus, but I do know what it feels like when I have a virus, the flu,
我也不知道蜜蜂染上病毒的感受，但我有感染病毒和流感的切身经验，
and I know how difficult it is for me to get to the grocery store to get good nutrition.
我也知道奔波赶赴杂货店购买营养品的辛苦。
But what if I lived in a food desert? And what if I had to travel a long distance to get to the grocery store,
但是如果我住在食品沙漠呢？我必须长途跋涉才能抵达杂货店，
and I finally got my weak body out there and I consumed, in my food, enough of a pesticide, a neurotoxin, that I couldn't find my way home?
而当我最终拖着疲惫身躯进门，找到食物吃，但食物中的杀虫剂神经毒却足以让我返家时迷路。
And this is what we mean by multiple and interacting causes of death.
这就是所谓多重因素交互作用致死。
And it's not just our honeybees. All of our beautiful wild species of bees are at risk, including those tomato-pollinating bumblebees.
而且不只蜜蜂。所有美丽的野生蜂种都身陷危机，包括替西红柿授粉的熊蜂。
These bees are providing backup for our honeybees.
它们是蜜蜂的后援。
They're providing the pollination insurance alongside our honeybees. We need all of our bees.
和蜜蜂一样，它们提供授粉保障，因此所有蜂种缺一不可。
So what are we going to do? What are we going to do about this big bee bummer that we've created?
那我们该怎么办？我们给蜜蜂制造的大麻烦该如何收拾？
It turns out, it's hopeful. It's hopeful. Every one of you out there can help bees in two very direct and easy ways.
事实上没那么糟，还是有希望的！你们每一个人都可以帮上忙，有两种非常直接容易的方法。
Plant bee-friendly flowers, and don't contaminate these flowers, this bee food, with pesticides.
种植对蜜蜂无害的花，不要对花施用杀虫剂，因为它们是蜜蜂的食物。
So go online and search for flowers that are native to your area and plant them.
上网搜寻数据，种植本土原生的花种。
Plant them in a pot on your doorstep. Plant them in your front yard, in your lawns, in your boulevards.
可以种在门阶上的花盆里，或前院和草坪上，也可以种在林荫大道上。
Campaign to have them planted in public gardens, community spaces, meadows. Set aside farmland.
鼓吹在公共绿地上种植这些花，小区空间及野地也行，还要留出农地种花。
We need a beautiful diversity of flowers that blooms over the entire growing season, from spring to fall.
因为我们需要多样花种，从春到秋接续绽放，横亘整个生长季。
We need roadsides seeded in flowers for our bees, but also for migrating butterflies and birds and other wildlife.
为了蜜蜂，迁徙的候鸟和蝴蝶，及其他野生物种，路旁也需要种花。
And we need to think carefully about putting back in cover crops to nourish our soil and nourish our bees.
我们同时需要慎重考虑复植覆土作物来涵养土壤并滋补蜜蜂。
And we need to diversify our farms.
我们还需要多元化的农场。
We need to plant flowering crop borders and hedge rows to disrupt the agricultural food desert
还有，把开花作物当农场边界及围篱，阻断农业上的食品沙漠蔓延，
and begin to correct the dysfunctional food system that we've created.
着手修正我们一手创造却失能的粮食系统。
So maybe it seems like a really small countermeasure to a big, huge problem -- just go plant flowers
只以种花面对如此庞然的问题看似螳臂挡车，
but when bees have access to good nutrition, we have access to good nutrition through their pollination services.
但蜜蜂吃得好，人类才有营养来源，因为蜜蜂会传粉。
And when bees have access to good nutrition,
蜜蜂有营养可摄取，
they're better able to engage their own natural defenses, their healthcare, that they have relied on for millions of years.
就能强化自身抵抗力还有它们仰赖数百万年之久的医疗保健。
So the beauty of helping bees this way, for me, is that every one of us needs to behave a little bit more like a bee society, an insect society,
对我来说，这种复育方式的精髓是人人都需多投入一些，如同蜜蜂和昆虫的社会，
where each of our individual actions can contribute to a grand solution, an emergent property,
我们每个人的行动可以成就一个巨大的解决办法，一个新兴的财富，
that's much greater than the mere sum of our individual actions.
它比我们每个人的小小行动的总和要大得多。
So let the small act of planting flowers and keeping them free of pesticides be the driver of large-scale change.
所以让我们这微小的种花行动及保持它们无杀虫剂，成为大规模改变的动力。
On behalf of the bees, thank you.
我替蜜蜂谢谢你们。
Thank you. Just a quick question. The latest numbers on the die-off of bees, is there any sign of things bottoming out?
谢谢。几个小问题。最近的关于消亡蜂类的数据，有没有任何迹象显示会走出低谷？
What's your hope/depression level on this?
你对这件事情的希望或者绝望程度是多少？
Yeah. At least in the United States, an average of 30 percent of all bee hives are lost every winter.
是。至少在美国，平均30%的蜂巢在每年冬天消失。
About 20 years ago, we were at a 15-percent loss. So it's getting precarious.
大约20年前，这个数据是15%。所以越来越危险。
That's not 30 percent a year, that's... Yes, thirty percent a year. Thirty percent a year.
不会是每年30%。那是...是的，每年30%。每年30%。
But then beekeepers are able to divide their colonies and so they can maintain the same number, they can recuperate some of their loss.
但是那时养蜂人会把他们的蜂巢分出来。这样他们可以维持同样的数量，他们可以弥补一些损失。
We're kind of at a tipping point. We can't really afford to lose that many more.
我们近乎在临界点。我们其实不能承担失去更多了。
We need to be really appreciative of all the beekeepers out there. Plant flowers. Thank you.
我们真的需要感谢所有的养蜂人。种花者。谢谢。