Why I still have hope for coral reefs | Kristen Marhaver

翻译人员: Wei Wu 校对人员: Lipeng Chen

The first time I cried underwater

我第一次在海底哭泣

was in 2008,

是在2008年，

the island of Curaçao,

在库拉索岛，

way down in the southern Caribbean.

加勒比海南边。

It's beautiful there.

那里很美。

I was studying these corals for my PhD,

我当时念博士，研究珊瑚礁，

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

日复一日地从同一处 珊瑚礁潜水下去，

I had gotten to know them as individuals.

我看它们就像一个个人一样。

I had made friends with coral colonies --

我跟珊瑚礁群做了朋友——

totally a normal thing to do.

完全正常的事情。

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

后来，Omar飓风把它们撕得 四分五裂，脱了层皮，

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

只留下一点点残缺的珊瑚组织 需要漫长的时间休养生息，

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

而死亡的珊瑚礁的骨骼 大片大片的被海藻覆盖。

When I saw this damage for the first time,

当我第一次看到这样的惨状，

stretching all the way down the reef,

一直蔓延到珊瑚礁底部，

潜水服里的我坐在泥沙里

I sunk onto the sand in my scuba gear

and I cried.

哭了起来。

If a coral could die that fast,

如果珊瑚死的这么突然，

how could a reef ever survive?

这座珊瑚礁何以存活？

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

那么，为什么我要以此为 工作目标，为它们努力？

I never heard another scientist tell that kind of story

我从未听到另一个科学家 讲述类似的故事

until last year.

直到去年。

A scientist in Guam wrote,

一位关岛的科学家写到，

"I cried right into my mask,"

“我在我的防护罩里哭了起来，”

seeing the damage on the reefs.

当他看到珊瑚礁遭受的破坏时。

Then a scientist in Australia wrote,

接着一位澳大利亚的科学家写到，

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

“我向我的学生展示了 我们珊瑚调查的结果，

and we wept."

我们都哭泣了。”

Crying about corals is having a moment, guys.

伙计们，为珊瑚哭泣 正是时候。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And that's because reefs in the Pacific

这是因为太平洋的珊瑚礁

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

覆盖表面的珊瑚正在以我们 从未见过的速度消失。

Because of climate change,

因为气候变化，

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

夏季的水温持续了 太长时间的高温，

that these animals can't function normally.

导致这些动物（珊瑚） 无法正常工作。

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

它们吐出位于它们皮肤 表面的有色藻类，

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

留下来的白化后的组织 往往会饥饿而死

and then rots away.

然后被海水冲走。

Then the skeletons are overgrown by algae.

然后珊瑚骨架会被藻类占据。

This is happening over an unbelievable scale.

这一切正在以令人 无法相信的速度发生着。

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

北方的大堡礁去年有 三分之二的珊瑚死去，

over a distance of hundreds of miles,

蔓延数百英里，

then bleached again this year,

今年又一次出现了白化，

and the bleaching stretched further south.

并且白化现象向更南方延续。

Reefs in the Pacific are in a nosedive right now,

太平洋的珊瑚礁的死亡速度 正在加快，

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

现在没有人知道到底 会发展到多坏的程度。

except ...

除了…

over in the Caribbean where I work,

在我工作的加勒比海区域，

we've already been through the nosedive.

我们已经经历了这种加速。

Reefs there have suffered through centuries of intense human abuse.

珊瑚礁已经忍受了数百年 人类的各种蹂躏。

We kind of already know how the story goes.

我们差不多已经知道 事态会如何发展。

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

并且我们大概能够预测 下一步会发生什么。

Let's consult a graph.

让我们画一张图。

Since the invention of scuba,

自从潜水器发明，

scientists have measured the amount of coral on the seafloor,

科学家就已经成功的 描绘了海床上的珊瑚礁分布，

and how it's changed through time.

以及它们随时间的变化趋势。

And after centuries of ratcheting human pressure,

在经历了几个世纪人类 破坏的棘轮效应后，

Caribbean reefs met one of three fates.

加勒比珊瑚礁面临了三种命运。

Some reefs lost their corals very quickly.

有的珊瑚礁上的珊瑚很快就没了。

Some reefs lost their corals more slowly,

有些珊瑚礁上珊瑚的死亡速度慢一点，

but kind of ended up in the same place.

但是基本上也消失殆尽。

OK, so far this is not going very well.

好吧，目前为止事情都不算好。

But some reefs in the Caribbean --

但是加勒比的有些珊瑚礁——

the ones best protected

受到良好保护

and the ones a little further from humans --

受到人类的 多一点的保护——

they managed to hold onto their corals.

它们成功的留住了珊瑚。

Give us a challenge.

给了我们一个挑战。

And, we almost never saw a reef hit zero.

而且，我们很少看到珊瑚礁上珊瑚一点不剩。

The second time I cried underwater

我第二次在水下哭泣

was on the north shore of Curaçao, 2011.

是2011年在库拉索岛的北岸。

It was the calmest day of the year,

在一个风平浪静的日子，

but it's always pretty sketchy diving there.

不过在那里潜水 一直是非常草率的。

My boyfriend and I swam against the waves.

我和男友逆着海浪游着。

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

我负责看着罗盘 以确保我们能回来，

and he watched for sharks,

他负责看有没有鲨鱼，

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

经过了20分钟的游泳， 感觉像游了一个小时，

we finally dropped down to the reef,

我们终于下潜到了珊瑚礁，

and I was so shocked,

我被震惊了，

and I was so happy

我高兴到

that my eyes filled with tears.

泪水在我的眼睛里打转。

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

那些活了一千年之久的珊瑚， 一个一个连成一片。

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

它们在加勒比海经历了欧洲 大殖民时期并活了下来，

and for centuries before that.

在那之前已经活了几个世纪。

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

我永远不知道珊瑚生命力多旺盛 直到它们有了一个繁荣的机会。

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

真相是即使我们 损失如此多的珊瑚，

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

甚至像我们正在经历的 如此大面积的珊瑚死亡，

some reefs will survive.

会有一些珊瑚重新繁荣起来。

Some will be ragged on the edge,

有些残喘的活在边边角角，

some will be beautiful.

有些会非常美丽。

And by protecting shorelines and giving us food to eat

并且保护海岸线还能够 增加渔业资源，

and supporting tourism,

促进旅游业发展，

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

依然能够带来每年 数十亿的财富。

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

保护珊瑚礁最好的时间 是在50年前，

but the second-best time is right now.

而第二个最佳时刻就是现在。

Even as we go through bleaching events,

即使我们已经经历了白化事件，

more frequent and in more places,

即使面积更广，更加频繁，

some corals will be able to recover.

有些珊瑚是可以恢复的。

We had a bleaching event in 2010 in the Caribbean

加勒比海在2010年 也经历了白化事件，

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

当时就像这样大片大片的 珊瑚礁表面被剥离了。

This coral lost half of its skin.

一般的珊瑚表面没有了。

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

但是如果你在几年之后 观察同一处珊瑚，

this coral is actually healthy again.

珊瑚实际上重新恢复了健康。

It's doing what a healthy coral does.

它像正常的珊瑚礁一样。

It's making copies of its polyps,

它复制自己的息肉，

it's fighting back the algae

它向藻类回击，

and it's reclaiming its territory.

重新夺回自己的领地。

If a few polyps survive,

如果有少量息肉存活，

a coral can regrow;

一片珊瑚就可以再生；

it just needs time and protection and a reasonable temperature.

它仅仅需要时间、适当的保护 以及合理的海水温度。

Some corals can regrow in 10 years --

有些珊瑚可以在10年内再生——

others take a lot longer.

其它的会稍微长一点。

But the more stresses we take off them locally --

但是我们在珊瑚礁周边 给珊瑚礁的压力——

things like overfishing, sewage pollution, fertilizer pollution,

像是过度捕捞、生活污水 农业肥料污染等，

dredging, coastal construction --

清淤工程、海岸建设——

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

当我们将气候稳定后 这些问题处理的愈好，

and the faster they can regrow.

珊瑚的恢复速度就越快。

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

在我们完成这个漫长、 艰难而又必需的目标时

of stabilizing the climate of planet Earth,

也就是让地球的 气候恢复稳定，

some new corals will still be born.

一些新的珊瑚会继续诞生。

This is what I study in my research.

这是我的研究内容。

We try to understand how corals make babies,

我们尝试理解珊瑚 如何产生小珊瑚，

and how those babies find their way to the reef,

以及这些小宝宝如何能够 寻找到珊瑚礁，

and we invent new methods to help them survive

然后我们发明新的方法 帮助他们存活，

those early, fragile life stages.

挺过生命初期的脆弱阶段。

One of my favorite coral babies of all time

我最喜欢的 珊瑚宝宝

showed up right after Hurricane Omar.

是Omar飓风之后出现的一个。

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

它跟我在飓风之前研究的 珊瑚是同一种类，

but you almost never see babies of this species --

但是你可能从来不会 看到这种品种的珊瑚宝宝——

it's really rare.

非常罕见。

This is actually an endangered species.

实际上这是个濒危物种了。

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

照片里这个珊瑚小宝宝， 这小小的圆形触手，

is a few years old.

只有几岁大。

Like its cousins that bleach,

像它已经白化的兄弟一样，

it's fighting back the algae.

它正在回击藻类。

And like its cousins on the north shore,

同时也跟它在北岸的表亲类似，

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

它能够活一千年以上。

What's happening in the world and in the ocean

这个世界上，这片海洋里 发生的事情

has changed our time horizon.

改变了我们的时间观念。

We can be incredibly pessimistic on the short term,

我们可能在短期内 极端悲观，

and mourn what we lost

为失去的悲痛，

and what we really took for granted.

而事实也正是如此。

But we can still be optimistic on the long term,

但是我们始终哦可以在 长远上保持乐观，

and we can still be ambitious about what we fight for

而我们始终可以保持雄心壮志 努力去拼搏，

and what we expect from our governments,

去要求我们的政府，

from our planet.

去信任这个星球。

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

珊瑚已经在这个地球上 生活了上亿年。

They survived the extinction of the dinosaurs.

它们从恐龙大灭绝时代 存活了下来。

They're badasses.

它们都不是善茬儿。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

An individual coral can go through tremendous trauma and fully recover

一片珊瑚可以经历巨大的创伤 然后完全的恢复，

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

只要给它一个休养生息的机会 和足够的保护措施。

Corals have always been playing the long game,

珊瑚从来都是善于 打持久战的。

and now so are we.

现在我们也需要。

Thanks very much.

非常感谢

(Applause)

（掌声）