拯救珊瑚礁【经济学人精讲】第437期

文章导读

本文选自《经济学人》10月26日文章。是成千上万的由碳酸钙组成的珊瑚虫的骨骼在数百年至数千年的生长过程中形成的，为许多动植物提供了生活环境，地球上约1/8的生物生活在距珊瑚礁100公里的范围内，珊瑚礁对地球的重要性不言而喻。但随着全球气候变暖，全球气温与工业化前相比上升1.5摄氏度，这可能导致珊瑚礁面积减少70-90%，而随着海水变暖，原本五颜六色的珊瑚礁像“漂白”了一样，呈现幽灵般的白色，所以拯救珊瑚礁迫在眉睫。本文提出几点拯救珊瑚礁的建议，例如加强对沿海工厂的管理，控制污水排放；颁布法律抑制过度捕捞；建立海洋保护区；甚至是用一种聚合物薄膜给珊瑚礁遮阳。

珊瑚礁一直是托福雅思考试阅读部分的常客，参加考试的同学需要多关注这类文章。

选文精讲

How to save the world’s coral reefs

如何拯救世界的珊瑚礁

People are going to start to have to think radically

人们将不得不开始激进的思考

CORALS ARE comeback creatures. As the world froze and melted and sea levels rose and fell over 30,000 years, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which is roughly the size of Italy, died and revived five times. But now, thanks to human activity, corals face the most complex concoction of conditions they have yet had to deal with. Even these hardy invertebrates may struggle to come through their latest challenge without a bit of help.

• concoction: 混合
• invertebrate: 无脊椎动物
• come through: 克服、安然度过

珊瑚是可以卷土重来的生物。随着世界冰冻、融化，海平面在3万多年间起起落落，澳大利亚的大堡礁，这个和意大利差不多大的地方，经历了五次生死交替。但现在由于人类的活动，珊瑚面临着迄今为止他们必须要应对的最复杂的环境。即使是这些顽强的无脊椎生物，在没有一点帮助的情况下，可能也很难度过这个最新挑战。

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a rise in global temperatures of 1.5°C relative to pre-industrial times could cause coral reefs to decline by 70-90%. The planet is about 1°C hotter than in the 19th century and its seas are becoming warmer, stormier and more acidic. This is already affecting relations between corals and the single-celled algae with which they live symbiotically, and which give them their colour. When waters become unusually warm, corals eject the algae, leaving reefs a ghostly white. This “bleaching” is happening five times as often as it did in the 1970s. The most recent such event, between 2014 and 2017, affected about three-quarters of the world’s reefs. Meanwhile the changing chemistry of the oceans lowers the abundance of carbonate ions, making it harder for corals to form their skeletons.

• algae: 藻类
• skeleton: 骨骼、骨架

根据联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会的数据，全球气温与工业化前相比上升1.5摄氏度，这可能会导致珊瑚礁面积减少70-90%。地球的温度比19世纪高了1摄氏度，海洋变得越来越温暖，风暴越来越多，酸性也越来越强。这已经影响到珊瑚和与它们共生的单细胞藻类之间的关系，这是单细胞藻类给了珊瑚颜色。当海水变得异常温暖时，珊瑚会排出藻类，使珊瑚礁呈现出幽灵般的白色。这种“漂白”现象发生的频率是上世纪70年代的5倍。最近一次这样的事件发生在2014年至2017年之间，影响了全球约四分之三的珊瑚礁。与此同时，不断变化的海洋化学物质降低了碳酸盐离子的丰度，使得珊瑚更难形成骨骼。