美国国家公共电台 NPR--Shallow Rhine River has a devastating effect on commercial traffic

Shallow Rhine River has a devastating¹ effect on commercial traffic

Transcript²

A hot, dry summer has made parts of one of Europe's most important waterways, the Rhine River, too shallow for fully³ laden⁴ ships to pass.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A hot, dry summer in Europe has made parts of the Rhine River too shallow for many cargo⁵ ships. The Rhine is the most important river in Western Europe. It runs through a German industrial region, among other places, and more than 300 million tons of goods are supposed to move on its waters each year. NPR's Rob Schmitz has been walking the banks of the Rhine. Hey there, Rob.

ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE⁶: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: How's it look?

SCHMITZ: Well, yesterday I visited the city of Koblenz, which is located around the midpoint on the Rhine. And normally at this time of year, the river there is between 10 and 20 feet deep at its deepest point. Today, at its deepest point, it's only around five feet deep.

INSKEEP: Wow.

SCHMITZ: So if you're taller than maybe 5-7 or so, you can wade⁷ to the middle of one of Europe's biggest rivers, and it's shallow enough for you to stand up at its deepest point. I stood at the bank of the river with a scientist for the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine, Adrian Schmid-Breton, and he said in a normal year, we'd see all sorts of goods being carried along the river.

ADRIAN SCHMID-BRETON: Minerals and steel and oil and gas. And here they are, carrying so many containers from the sea, from Rotterdam. So it's the most important shipping⁸ navigation lane in Europe. Eight hundred kilometers, from Switzerland to the North Sea in the Netherlands, is navigable - normally navigable. But nowadays, this is not the case.

INSKEEP: Rob, I just have to ask. You're a pretty tall guy. Did you try to wade to the middle of the river to test the depth?

SCHMITZ: (Laughter) I didn't.

INSKEEP: OK, that's fine. That's fine. You don't have to do participatory journalism⁹. But it's only five feet deep. I'm guessing that shipping must be close to a standstill.

SCHMITZ: Yeah, one would think. But in fact, Steve, boat traffic was busier than ever yesterday. And that's because all of the companies that need to transport their goods - whether it's coal, gas, oil or grain - they've been forced to fill more ships with less product in order to give the ships enough clearance¹⁰ so that they don't run aground in places like Koblenz. So that means that incredibly, there is now more ship traffic, but each ship has around a fifth of the goods that they typically carry.

INSKEEP: Oh, one-fifth. Does that mean there is a limit to how far people can stretch things?

SCHMITZ: Yeah, there definitely is. Ships can only carry so much when the river is this low. So the goods that don't fit on a ship are now being carried over land by truck or by train. Neither of those modes of transport can carry what a barge¹¹ can though. So for example, it takes 40 trucks to carry one bargeful (ph) of grain. So that means that the cost of all these goods, Steve, is rising very fast. And in this era of rapid inflation, it's going to be worse for this part of Europe. A British economic firm estimates the low water level on the Rhine will equal 0.2 percentage points of reduced economic growth for Germany for the rest of the year.

INSKEEP: Wow. What does the low water mean for the ecology?

SCHMITZ: Yeah, biologists have been trying to reintroduce Atlantic salmon¹² to the Rhine River. So this situation is terrible for them, as they swim upriver to spawn¹³. They have to do so in less water, in warmer water, and there's less space for them as they contend with big ships. Scientists say that this year's water levels happen, on average, once every 20 years. The problem is the last time this happened was 2018, just four years ago. So that's another problem. The scientists I spoke¹⁴ to told me that they are reassessing how they measure this because it's becoming clear that these climate extremes - whether it's flooding or droughts - are happening more often.

INSKEEP: Any chance of rain?

SCHMITZ: Yeah, rain is actually in the forecast this week, and that will certainly help. But scientists I've spoken to say the region would need around three weeks of steady, heavy rain within the next two months for the Rhine to return to a normal level. And unfortunately, that is not in the cards. The long-term forecast for the region is pretty dry as it heads into what is typically the driest season for the river.

INSKEEP: NPR's Rob Schmitz is in Cologne, Germany. Thanks so much.

SCHMITZ: Thank you.

1 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

5 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

8 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

9 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

10 clearance   

n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理

参考例句：

• There was a clearance of only ten centimetres between the two walls.两堵墙之间只有十厘米的空隙。
• The ship sailed as soon as it got clearance. 那艘船一办好离港手续立刻启航了。

11 barge   

n.平底载货船，驳船

参考例句：

• The barge was loaded up with coal.那艘驳船装上了煤。
• Carrying goods by train costs nearly three times more than carrying them by barge.通过铁路运货的成本比驳船运货成本高出近3倍。

12 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

13 spawn   

n.卵，产物，后代，结果；vt.产卵，种菌丝于，产生，造成；vi.产卵，大量生产

参考例句：

• The fish were madly pushing their way upstream to spawn.鱼群为产卵而疯狂地向上游挤进。
• These fish will lay spawn in about one month from now.这些鱼大约一个月内会产卵。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。