Why I still have hope for coral reefs | Kristen Marhaver

Prevodilac: Mirjana Čutura Lektor: Ivana Krivokuća

The first time I cried underwater

Prvi put sam plakala pod vodom

was in 2008,

2008. godine,

the island of Curaçao,

kod ostrva Kurasao,

way down in the southern Caribbean.

duboko u južnim Karibima.

It's beautiful there.

Lepo je tamo.

I was studying these corals for my PhD,

Proučavala sam ove korale za svoj doktorat,

and after days and days of diving on the same reef,

i nakon mnogo dana ronjenja na istom grebenu,

I had gotten to know them as individuals.

upoznala sam ih pojedinačno.

I had made friends with coral colonies --

Sprijateljila sam se sa kolonijama korala -

totally a normal thing to do.

sasvim normalna stvar.

Then, Hurricane Omar smashed them apart and ripped off their skin,

Onda ih je uragan Omar rasturio i pokidao im kožu,

leaving little bits of wounded tissue that would have a hard time healing,

ostavljajući male komade oštećenog tkiva koji će se teško zaceliti

and big patches of dead skeleton that would get overgrown by algae.

i velike delove mrtvog skeleta koje će alge obrasti.

When I saw this damage for the first time,

Kada sam prvi put videla ovu štetu koja se protezala celom dužinom grebena,

stretching all the way down the reef,

potonula sam na pesak u svojoj ronilačkoj opremi

I sunk onto the sand in my scuba gear

and I cried.

i plakala sam.

If a coral could die that fast,

Ako koral može da umre tako brzo,

how could a reef ever survive?

kako greben može uopšte da preživi?

And why was I making it my job to try to fight for them?

I zašto sam ja preuzimala na sebe da pokušavam da se borim za njih?

I never heard another scientist tell that kind of story

Nikada nisam čula da je neki drugi naučnik ispričao takvu priču -

until last year.

do prošle godine.

A scientist in Guam wrote,

Naučnik u Gvamu je napisao:

"I cried right into my mask,"

„Plakala sam pravo u masku,"

seeing the damage on the reefs.

videvši štetu na grebenima.

Then a scientist in Australia wrote,

Potom je naučnik u Australiji napisao:

"I showed my students the results of our coral surveys,

„Pokazao sam svojim studentima rezultate naših analiza korala

and we wept."

i plakali smo."

Crying about corals is having a moment, guys.

Plakanje zbog korala je u modi.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

And that's because reefs in the Pacific

I to je zato što grebeni u Pacifiku

are losing corals faster than we've ever seen before.

gube korale brže nego što smo ikada ranije videli.

Because of climate change,

Zbog klimatskih promena,

the water is so hot for so long in the summers,

voda je letima toliko topla, toliko dugo

that these animals can't function normally.

da ove životinje ne mogu normalno da funkcionišu.

They're spitting out the colored algae that lives in their skin,

One ispljuvavaju šarene alge koje žive u njihovoj koži

and the clear bleached tissue that's left usually starves to death

i bezbojno izbeljeno tkivo koje ostaje obično umre od gladi

and then rots away.

i onda istruli.

Then the skeletons are overgrown by algae.

Onda alge obrastu skelete.

This is happening over an unbelievable scale.

Ovo se dešava u neverovatnom obimu.

The Northern Great Barrier Reef lost two-thirds of its corals last year

Severni Veliki koralni greben je izgubio dve trećine svojih korala prošle godine

over a distance of hundreds of miles,

u dužini od stotina kilometara,

then bleached again this year,

onda je ponovo izbeleo ove godine

and the bleaching stretched further south.

i izbeljivanje se proširilo dalje na jug.

Reefs in the Pacific are in a nosedive right now,

Grebeni u Pacifiku su sada u sunovratu

i niko ne zna koliko će loše postati,

and no one knows how bad it's going to get,

except ...

osim...

over in the Caribbean where I work,

U Karibima, gde radim,

we've already been through the nosedive.

već smo prošli kroz taj sunovrat.

Reefs there have suffered through centuries of intense human abuse.

Tamošnji grebeni trpe vekove intenzivnog ljudskog zlostavljanja.

We kind of already know how the story goes.

Otprilike već znamo tu priču.

And we might be able to help predict what happens next.

I možda ćemo moći da pomognemo da predvidimo šta se sledeće dešava.

Let's consult a graph.

Konsultujmo grafikon.

Since the invention of scuba,

Otkada je ronilačka oprema izumljena,

scientists have measured the amount of coral on the seafloor,

naučnici mere količinu korala na morskom dnu

and how it's changed through time.

i kako se ona menja kroz vreme.

And after centuries of ratcheting human pressure,

I nakon vekova rastućeg ljudskog uticaja,

Caribbean reefs met one of three fates.

karipske grebene je zadesila jedna od tri sudbine.

Some reefs lost their corals very quickly.

Neki grebeni su izgubili svoje korale veoma brzo.

Some reefs lost their corals more slowly,

Neki grebeni su izgubili svoje korale sporije,

but kind of ended up in the same place.

ali su na kraju završili na istom mestu.

OK, so far this is not going very well.

Okej, do sada ovo nije veoma dobro.

But some reefs in the Caribbean --

Ali neki grebeni u Karibima -

the ones best protected

oni najbolje zaštićeni

and the ones a little further from humans --

i oni malo udaljeniji od ljudi -

they managed to hold onto their corals.

su uspeli da zadrže svoje korale.

Give us a challenge.

Dajte nam izazov.

And, we almost never saw a reef hit zero.

I skoro nikada nismo videli da greben skroz propadne.

The second time I cried underwater

Drugi put sam plakala pod vodom

was on the north shore of Curaçao, 2011.

na severnoj obali Kurasaa 2011. godine.

Bio je najmirniji dan u godini,

It was the calmest day of the year,

but it's always pretty sketchy diving there.

ali tamo je uvek prilično nezgodno roniti.

My boyfriend and I swam against the waves.

Moj momak i ja smo plivali uz talase.

I watched my compass so we could find our way back out,

Gledala sam svoj kompas da bismo mogli da nađemo put nazad,

and he watched for sharks,

a on je pazio na ajkule

and after 20 minutes of swimming that felt like an hour,

i nakon 20 minuta plivanja koji su izgledali kao jedan sat,

we finally dropped down to the reef,

konačno smo se spustili do grebena,

and I was so shocked,

i bila sam toliko iznenađena

and I was so happy

i bila sam toliko srećna

that my eyes filled with tears.

da su mi se oči ispunile suzama.

There were corals 1,000 years old lined up one after another.

Korali stari hiljadu godina su se nizali jedan za drugim.

They had survived the entire history of European colonialism in the Caribbean,

Preživeli su čitavu istoriju evropske kolonizacije Kariba

and for centuries before that.

i vekove pre toga.

I never knew what a coral could do when it was given a chance to thrive.

Nisam znala šta koral može da uradi ako mu se da prilika da napreduje.

The truth is that even as we lose so many corals,

Istina je da, iako gubimo toliko puno korala,

iako prolazimo kroz masovno izumiranje korala,

even as we go through this massive coral die-off,

some reefs will survive.

neki grebeni će preživeti.

Some will be ragged on the edge,

Neki će biti na ivici nestanka,

some will be beautiful.

neki će biti lepi.

And by protecting shorelines and giving us food to eat

Štiteći obale, dajući nam hranu

and supporting tourism,

i podržavajući turizam,

they will still be worth billions and billions of dollars a year.

i dalje će vredeti milijarde dolara godišnje.

The best time to protect a reef was 50 years ago,

Najbolje vreme za zaštitu grebena je bilo pre 50 godina,

but the second-best time is right now.

ali drugo najbolje vreme je upravo sada.

Even as we go through bleaching events,

Iako prolazimo kroz slučajeve izbeljivanja

more frequent and in more places,

sve češće i na više mesta,

some corals will be able to recover.

neki korali će moći da se oporave.

We had a bleaching event in 2010 in the Caribbean

Imali smo slučaj izbeljivanja 2010. u Karibima

that took off big patches of skin on boulder corals like these.

koji je skinuo velike delove kože sa kamenih korala sličnim ovima.

This coral lost half of its skin.

Ovaj koral je izgubio pola svoje kože.

But if you look at the side of this coral a few years later,

Ali ako pogledate stranu ovog korala nekoliko godina kasnije,

this coral is actually healthy again.

ovaj koral je u stvari opet zdrav.

It's doing what a healthy coral does.

Radi ono što zdrav koral radi.

It's making copies of its polyps,

Pravi kopije svojih polipa,

it's fighting back the algae

bori se protiv algi

i ponovo zauzima svoju teritoriju.

and it's reclaiming its territory.

If a few polyps survive,

Ako nekoliko polipa preživi, koral može ponovo izrasti;

a coral can regrow;

it just needs time and protection and a reasonable temperature.

samo mu je potrebno vreme, zaštita i pogodna temperatura.

Neki korali mogu ponovo izrasti za 10 godina -

Some corals can regrow in 10 years --

others take a lot longer.

drugima treba mnogo više.

But the more stresses we take off them locally --

Ali što više stresova ih oslobodimo na lokalnom nivou -

things like overfishing, sewage pollution, fertilizer pollution,

stvari kao što su prekomerni ribolov, zagađenje kanalizacijom i đubrivima,

dredging, coastal construction --

iskopavanje morskog dna i izgradnja duž obale -

the better they can hang on as we stabilize the climate,

utoliko bolje mogu da izdrže ako stabilizujemo klimu

and the faster they can regrow.

i mogu da brže ponovo izrastu.

And as we go through the long, tough and necessary process

I dok prolazimo kroz dug, težak i neophodan proces

of stabilizing the climate of planet Earth,

stabilizacije klime na planeti Zemlji,

some new corals will still be born.

neki novi korali će se ipak roditi.

This is what I study in my research.

Ovo ja proučavam u svom istraživanju.

We try to understand how corals make babies,

Pokušavamo da razumemo kako korali prave bebe

and how those babies find their way to the reef,

i kako te bebe pronalaze put do grebena

and we invent new methods to help them survive

i pronalazimo nove načine da im pomognemo da prežive

those early, fragile life stages.

te rane, krhke faze života.

One of my favorite coral babies of all time

Jedna od mojih omiljenih koralnih beba svih vremena

showed up right after Hurricane Omar.

se pojavila odmah nakon uragana Omar.

It's the same species I was studying before the storm,

Iste je vrste kao ona koju sam proučavala pre oluje,

but you almost never see babies of this species --

ali skoro nikada ne vidite bebe ove vrste -

to je veoma retko.

it's really rare.

This is actually an endangered species.

Ovo je u stvari ugrožena vrsta.

In this photo, this little baby coral, this little circle of polyps,

Na ovoj fotografiji, ova mala beba koral, ovaj mali krug polipa,

is a few years old.

je nekoliko godina star.

Like its cousins that bleach,

Kao njeni rođaci koji se izbeljuju, bori se protiv algi.

it's fighting back the algae.

And like its cousins on the north shore,

I kao njeni rođaci na severnoj obali,

it's aiming to live for 1,000 years.

planira da živi hiljadu godina.

What's happening in the world and in the ocean

Dešavanja u svetu i okeanu

has changed our time horizon.

su promenila naš vremenski horizont.

We can be incredibly pessimistic on the short term,

Kratkoročno možemo biti neverovatno pesimistični

and mourn what we lost

i oplakivati šta smo izgubili

and what we really took for granted.

i šta smo zaista uzimali zdravo za gotovo.

But we can still be optimistic on the long term,

Ali još uvek možemo biti optimistični na duge staze

and we can still be ambitious about what we fight for

i još uvek možemo biti ambiciozni oko onoga za šta se borimo

and what we expect from our governments,

i šta očekujemo od svojih vlada,

from our planet.

od naše planete.

Corals have been living on planet Earth for hundreds of millions of years.

Korali žive na planeti Zemlji stotinama miliona godina.

They survived the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Preživeli su istrebljenje dinosaurusa.

They're badasses.

Opasni su momci.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

An individual coral can go through tremendous trauma and fully recover

Pojedinačni koral može da prođe kroz ogromnu traumu

i da se u potpunosti oporavi

if it's given a chance and it's given protection.

ako mu se da šansa i ako mu se da zaštita.

Corals have always been playing the long game,

Korali su uvek strpljivo čekali,

and now so are we.

kao i mi sada.

Thanks very much.

Hvala puno.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)